Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

If you want a short socket extension, shorter than your shortest one, use two adaptors and adapt up to the next size then back down to the size you are using. I used this the other day when torqueing my heads due to a clearance issue.

 

The fellow shortening the bolt and tidying up the threads lost a bit of meat off his knuckle,
I too have done this too many times with my record (brand) vice so I polished off the pro-
trustion and save on bandages.

 

^^ That fellow was me!

 

This is an old trick that a lot of you older guys probably already know but;
when cutting thin sheet metal and you do not have the proper tools to do the job, you can use a skill saw with the blade put on backwards so that it doesn't grab the metal, just kinda grinds it away.

 

^^ Have done that on roof steel many years ago.

 

I did something today that worked well.
I needed to hold a bolt by the thread in the lathe chuck. I used a split die as an improvised collet and was able to grip the bolt. The action of the chuck tightened the die/"collet" onto the thread.
"It worked for me"

Mart.

 

I had never heard of a "split die" so looked it up. Interesting...

 

following for more

 

I seen this posted elsewhere but thought it was a good idea

 

Cool idea. With some "S" hooks you can hang stuff off the front of those too.

 

I got tired of my shop vacuum exhaust blowing on everything and creating more dust.
Found a plastic cup with a taper to the sides (old Tupperware), and cut the bottom out.
Wedged it into the exhaust outlet port and tied an old sock to it.

Works like a champ!

 

You have old panties?

You're not wearing them in place of socks....are you?

 

I use wife old hose. I think sock would be better.

 

So....when your wife asks about the panties in your glove box, she actually believes it when you tell her they are 'auxiliary shop vac filters' ? What a silver tongued devil you are!

 

Mart held a bolt by the thread with a split die in his lathe got me thinking a fellow
could cut half way through a nut, screw it on the thread and tighten that in the lathe.
You would have to try it to see if everything ran true.

 

I accidently found a way of getting holes drilled through my boxed frame, IN LINE WITH EACH OTER, when mounting my spreader bar, I always get them slightly off when doing so requires they be inline and end up having to drill lager holes than needed to get the bolts in.
It started with making a template where the hole would be on the outside rail and match marking it so it was in the correct place when applied to the inside rail. Using a six inch "C" clamp to hold and position the templet to the inside, the screw portion of the clamp on the outside, gave me the correct side to side and up/down angle for the drill to make the hole in the inside rail perfectly in line. Not much of tip, but it helped me.

 

And here I was only using my old socks on my jack stands, I'm going to have to buy more new socks so I can have more old socks for all these tips.

 

Picked these up yesterday at Dollar Tree in the kitchen section. The silicone hand puppet thing is great for grabbing hot, greasy or slippery parts without putting a glove on. Or practicing ventriloquism. Got the ceramic plate just because it had the truck on it, and a deep philosophical message. Or some bad Chinese translating.

 

^^^ Looks like just the thing for harassing the Beagle...

 

I'm just impressed that your old socks don't have holes in them like mine do.

 

ShopTip: choose a sock style (and color!) you like early in life, and stick with it. Then, you just grab any two at random, and good to go.

 

Used that method the other day and it got me out of the shit. Thanks Mart

 

Always start nuts and bolts by hand first, then use the impact gun. Keeps you from cross threading them.

 

The best thing to clean your greasy hands with is baby oil. It brakes the grease down and softens your hands...

I've been noticing that the companies that machine bolts start the threads too soon, this makes them so hard to start. They used to leave a 1/8" or so, this way the the treads could connect easier..
Those old body bolts were so nice to work with..

 

When I have a bolt that doesn't want to start easily or is slightly misaligned with what I'm trying to screw it into, I just use my belt sander to taper the end of the bolt for a thread or three.........works great.

Mart mentioned using a split die to hold a threaded part (bolt) in a lathe. You can take a couple of nuts with the correct thread and slit them with a bandsaw. May need to widen the slot a little.....may not. Put the slotted nuts on the bolt a little ways apart and clamp them in the lathe chuck. If you aren't tight enough, widen the slots and try again.

 

I am currently wiring my 32 sedan. I have a very simple tip for you. If you lay one wire along what you intend to be the routing for more wires, it is useful to have an easily undone method of holding the wires together. Easily undone so you can keep laying extra wires in.
I just cut numerous pieces of insulating tape (electrical tape) about 5" long. I turn the first half inch over on each end and use these strips to hold the wires together, wrapping them around and sticking sticky side to sticky side to hold it together. It can easily be undone by holding the tabs and pulling apart and can be reused numerous times if kept clean.
I got the idea after seeing a similar method used on the bags containing loaves of bread.
Mart.

 

Yeah....I use velcro strips for the same, until I get all the wires in place then zip tie and remove velcro...

 

^^^ This I use the twisty ties that come on bread etc for temp holding and grouping of wires.

 

I have a question,,,,,
A number of pages back someone wrote about a 'rain barrel'
Now, what is a rain barrel?
Here in SoCal I have a barrel and no rain comes out of it and we could use some right about now,,,
Then I thought it didn't have enough holes, I drilled a ton and still no rain.
You guys are smart here on the HAMB, so could you 'esplain 'rain barrel' to me???

 

A "rain barrel" is the barrel you put on your rifle when you go hunting in the rain. It has a little umbrella attached to it to keep the water out.