Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

This trick works great. I Give the wife $50 and tell her to take my favorite mother-in-law to lunch.

As soon as she’s gone I put a batch of parts in the dishwasher and hit the Turbo wash cycle. Worth $50 to me anyway.


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That's exactly why I wanted to keep our old dishwasher and put it in the shop when we replaced it a couple of years ago. Unfortunately the real estate (footprint) in the shop was more valuable to me than having the DW there. Maybe someday I'll have the shop reorganized enough that I'll have room for one.

 

I kept the dishwasher and got rid of the cheating wife.

 

Use a wire to pour fluid into a small hole or tube - works GOOD to refill a dry carb through the vent tube or topping-off the oil in my old floor jack. Old trick my dad learned working on the farm as a kid!

Man, I LOVE this thread... keep 'em coming!

 

A couple more...

Peanutbutter jars are AWESOME for storing hardware, mark the lids with a sharpie. Works good for storing paint for a day or two!

Mustard n catsup squirt bottles are too cheap to NOT have a couple sets around the shop. One always has cleaning solvent for quick clean-up jobs.

The rubber-bands girls use for their hair work BITCHIN for keeping the straws with the can of brake or carb spray, toothbrush and applicator with your bottle of wax or protectant...

Use a dab of valve lapping compound on a old Phillips screw, then tap on the end of the screwdriver as you turn, with a hammer. Use a GOOD screwdriver, the CORRECT size!

I trust NOTHING to memory - post-it notes, index cards, and wire-on tags are staples in my shop... nothin' goes back together as fast as I think it will!

 

Foam on handle of floor jack, no matter how careful you are they can get away from you on occasion and bump a fender, door, etc.
No need to buy those dedicated ones, just get a foam tube from Home Depot, Lowes, etc, that is for insulating water pipe.

 

I highly recommend the Rat Master 2000. You can build a new one for about $4, or free if you scrounge. Take about 5 minutes to do it right And zip tie the ramp on. Buy some type of scoop at the dollar store, because you will need it. I used a new bucket $1.98 and a piece of lath .39, a coat hanger and a sturdy bottle. Cheap peanut butter is their siren song, they will die for it. Also pour something in the bucket to drown the furry bastards. I’ve gotten 13 critters since it got cold out.
If you use antifreeze PLEASE BE CAREFUL with other critters like your dog or the wife’s kitty.

 

I've used those a lot. My dogs eat the peanut butter if they can get to it. You'll go through a lot of peanut butter that way. There is a product called Plant Skid, don't know why. It is mostly blood meal and expensive, about $100 for 20 lbs but rodents REALLY don't like being near it. I put it in small cloth bags and put it everywhere I don't want rodents, tool boxes, cars, loft, all over the shop, tack room, even the garden. Other than cost the only problem is that the dogs like it better than peanut butter. It last for years

 

I am really enjoying all the tips. Thank you to all.

 

Just spotted on the Rods'n'Sods forum over here for sortting out rats. Be carful if you have other animals around.

2 bits of flat bar on a piece of wood set 1/2 apart (on top of the bench away from the dogs) 1 decent welding set on max power and the earth on one flat bar and electrode on the other and scatter all kinds of food around the flat bars (chocolate nutella is one of their favourites) the amps kill them humanely and instantly and the set up just lies in wait (they usually jerk and land a good distance from the flat bars)
Used this method for years in fabshops and my own place.

 

The Desiccant Packet you find in pill/vitamin bottles or beef jerky packages is good to toss in your tool box drawers to absorb moisture.

 

I throw those in my own drawers but because I wear boxers the end up in my boots. They still work though.

 

I never throw those things away; they all end up in a tool box drawer. Wish I had a couple hundred more. Good tip swade.

 

I toss them into the project car sitting next to the toolbox.

 

you can buy them in large quantities for pretty cheap

 

That goes double for us lefties. The trigger lock is on the wrong side.

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If you need to sand/polish inside a bore or hole. Take a long cotter pin and cut a piece of ebony paper and slide it in the pin all the way up to the eye. Chuck it a drill and give it a rip.

I normally use a longer pin but it was all I had for the posting




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Take a long jumper wire and put a big clip on one end and a 15/20 amp circuit breaker wired in the middle and a smaller alligator clip on the other end. Use it to power a circuit your not sure of, if it has a short it will start clicking, just find the problem . Used this method for years.






Bones

 

store your mounted fish hook colletion right under the window they may climb through

 

When dialing in TDC on my 283 I am blocked from getting at the front of the balancer due to the fan and shroud clearance so I find it much easier to slip a bolt into a threaded hole from the back and use a large screwdriver to turn the crank.

 

Oh man did this work great today...

So last week our 55" flat screen TV fell on my wife's head. Turned out to be a good thing for two reasons. For one thing I found a great deal on a 60 inch replacement.

Fast forward to today. Had to R&R the transfer case in my daily, in the driveway. Too big to fit in the garage and too much shit in there anyway. The concrete is too course for my creeper. Fortunately I still had the cardboard from the new TV. Working on cardboard is nothing new but this had an added twist. The outside surface is non-porous printed. Slick as snot, really easy to slide around on, no crab walking on the shoulder blades. Second, the ATF and dirt that spilled wiped right up like it was a kitchen counter. After a day of oil, dirt and sliding around on it, I wiped it off and stored it away, it's ready to use again.

 

I did the same thing last year. Darn thing lasted until I left it in the rain several days. Snagged two from the alley today.

Ben

 

Photo of her head???

 

You got a 60" replacement for your wife?

 

Maybe if you straighten your hooks a bit.
A friend had a lot of kids jumping his privacy fence. He put 2 finish nails in the top of each picket, then used side cutters to chop the heads off. So small you dont see them. Just sharp enough that they hurt like a bitch!

 

Cardboard, the handiest thing since....well, when cardboard was invented!
I bought a Craftsman creeper over 40 years ago, haven't used it in nearly 40 years.
Cardboard on the other hand, I really like the ones for large appliances, reefers, freezers, etc. perfect full length working surface for under a car.
You need to be friends with an appliance salesman though, the big boxes get recycled quick because they take up so much room.

 

Some great ideas in this thread.
A lot of posts in here on gloves and hand cleaning. Thought I would add one I didn't see. A little hand lotion before you start makes clean up much easier later.

 

Never had much luck with my old wood/steel wheeled creeper either, even on smooth floors. Seems like there's always a tool, bolt, rag or something it the way of getting around. I know there are fancy new creepers with better wheels, tool bins and what not but you still lose a couple inches of overhead work area.

 

I did not read all 22 pages, my tips would be, Whatever you think it will cost, figure at least 2X, time factor also 2/3X. Tricks, have many learned from experience, but at my age I can't think of any to share this AM, one last tip, don't believe everything you read here or anywhere, do your research.

 

Mounting your fish hook collection inside your garage under a window, would probably be no problem. But putting sharpen nails on your fence with the intention to injure someone , would not go over good in most courts. Just a warning! I don’t agree with it, it’s just the way things are. Any time you put something like that up it has to be very visible. Razor wire on some impounds lots comes to mind. Anyone can see it and it is then their choice to attempt to climb it. If you put sharpen nails on a fence kids are known to climb on , they better be bright red with large red arrows pointing to them..... or you could lose your home, tools, hot rod, etc in a court of law. Just saying.








Bones