Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

G'day Peoples. You blokes probably already know this, but until recently, I didn't.
Ole Mate gave me a LED Light Bar for me Holden Rodeo cos one of the brackets holding it onto his bumper had snapped. He just went and bought another one, cos he's rich.
So I asked my father in law to fabricate me a couple of Aluminium brackets for said Light Bar.
He come's down from his mountain with a piece of square 4 by 4 aluminium square tubing, a 3 inch diameter red candle, and one cutting disc for me 3 inch grinder. Mark's out the shape of what he want's, arc's up the grinder, run's the disc through the candle, and proceed's to show off.
I've lost count of how many discs I've thrown away because of one run through Aluminium clogging up my discs.
Now, I respect Him.

 

Can't say I've heard that one before. It would probably work with bench grinder as well. I'm always gumming up the grinding wheel with aluminium.

 

I swear , spanners, went through like a butter knife.\
Not sure it would work on a bench grinder, but on a hand held skinny disc, Yowza

 

Wax on grinding discs is a great trick! I use a lot of Norton Roloc discs for sanding aluminum welds (50 grit). Adding a bit of candle wax to the disc before using it makes the same disc last forever. Or at least it seems that way. I learned that trick from an old friend.

 

I found the hard way to coil extension cords that you need to unplug it first and start coiling or whatever you doing to pick it up.Also use the right size/gauge cord for the job.

 

Penalty Flag! You'll get yer Man Card suspended for using (or even knowing) what color that is!

 

If you know the words to 'Convoy', you'll know about the "Chartreuse coloured micro-bus".

 

Not to mention spell it...

 

After cleaning pitted chrome you can hit it with a spray can of chrome paint and quickly wipe it off. The chrome paint will stay in the pits preventing the re-rusting that would occur almost instantly but the paint will wipe off the good chrome and not look cheezy.

 

Instead of plastering your walk-in garage door with useless stickers, mask a nice border and spray with chalkboard paint. Now you have a chalkboard to write down all the shit your old ass would otherwise forget.

 

Lol. You guys crack me up


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I actually thought about doing exactly that. I even bought the chrome paint. I just never got a chance to try it but I bet it works great.

 

I used to consume a drink called a starbord light, (after mess dinners, and/or late on Friday night), that contained green chartreuse.
It was a pilot thing, and didn't make me any smarter.
Bob

 

When revving an engine don't stand in line with the engine driven fan. If a blade lets go it could cut you in half. The same applies to hand held air driven cut off tools. Don't have your head in line with the wheel. Should the wheel explode you don't want to catch it with your face.

 

Bomb making was "hobby" of the neighborhood kids for a few years there LOL

 

I wonder whatever happened to the 11 long-haired friends of Jesus that were in it...

 

Praise the lord, and Mr. Ford, and follow that microbus.


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You can buy Beeswax blocks for using on cut off discs with Aluminium.
Now a word of caution........Never use the same disc or grinding wheel on Steel after using it on Aluminium
You can end up with a Thermite reaction between aluminium and iron oxide and combine that with centrifugal force [Kaboom!]

 

^^Now that sounds worth a try!

 

When trying to bolt two heavy objects together, like an engine and transmission or bell housing, make two pilot studs first. Cut the heads off of some long bolts that will thread into one of the parts and using a hack saw cut a screwdriver slot in one end of each stud. Screw into the part with the threads. This will align the parts when assembling them. Works especially good if a gasket is involved. Put in the other bolts and using a screwdriver remove the pilot studs and replace with the correct bolts.

 

Smacking a whole roll of caps with a hammer on the sidewalk don't count, does it?

 

You don't want to be anywhere close when a grinding wheel explodes from using on aluminum and steel!

 

My dad drilled that into my head way back in the early 50's. He'd worked in the test house at Continental Motors testing tank engines during WWII and saw a guy killed that way

 

For the lazy guys like me........
I went over to Harbor Freight the other day and bought me some more of the cheap air tools. I hate working on a project and having to change back and forth with little burrs,grinding wheels, wire brushes, whatever. PTA ! So I keep buying the little cheap rotary tools (appx $10) and putting whatever I need to use in them. Then I can just grab one of them with the right attachment and switch the whole tool. Works for me.

I also have a problem with mud daubers that want to build a nest in anything with a round opening. They have built nests in several of my air tool fittings, so I built me a couple of tool racks and put a small metal strip over the tip end of the fittings. Seems to work well at keeping the little pests out of them, as well as dust and dirt.









The "precision" 12/16 wrench that came with the HF air tool. I also made a little rack that holds the different size wrenches for the air tools. Hate trying to find something that fits so I put them all on a little rack where they hang by a hole drilled in them. Don't use the flat wrenches like the one in the picture very often. I took some old combination wrenches and cut the box end off. Then drilled a hole to hang em up. Made some of them "thinner" so they fit the slots on the air tools. Its really handy when I do have to change something. Forgot to take a picture of it though. So if you hate trying to find a wrench to fit your air tools............

 

Whoa.
Old Buzzard didn't tell me That.

 

For you guys with cars that have convertible tops made of canvas or cloth, you know how hard it is keeping it clean...use your wifes lint roller...works great.

 

Thanks. My OT DD Vette is horrible for lint on the black convertible top, I’ll try that.


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If a lint roller isn't handy grab a wide roll of masking, duct, or painters tape and use the sticky side to lift the crud off. Been using the trick since learning it using masking tape on my dress blue sailor suit.

Ed

 

Keep your trash cans outside, I know it sounds stupid but it just dawned on me a couple months back but having 2-3 large cans inside eats up a lot of space!