Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

The Dewalt 20 volt cordless impact drivers are the greatest tool ever.

 

No i wasnt. Damn. These are expensive as they are. Fraid to know how much those would be. Lol


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Dewalt seems to have a couple 20 volt impact drivers, which one are you guys talking about?

 

i live in the woods we get a ton of leaves in the fall rake rake rake unless you fire up the pressure washer and blow them into the woods and lets not forget the wonderful upside down oil filters on the slant sixes

 

One of my drills is brushless. Great power and physically smaller. Its the one i reach for most the time


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Like most, I started out years and years ago with the Craftsman's and other brands cordless drill, something like 9.6 volts, was nice, but... Then the 12 volts things showed up and as soon as I bought one of those the 14 volts Dewalt showed.... yep, had to gave one of those..... used the crap out of it, had a few batteries, could work most of the day with it! But was pricey and BIG. Then you couldn’t get batteries for them. So it’s on the shelf.

Then the 19.6 Craftsman showed up, I’ve got tons of tools and batteries and chargers for it, so I’m sticking with it......untill I can’t!
But my leaf blower and chain saw..... they are 56 volt! !! Ah,ah, agh!
What ever you buy today....... will be obsolete tomorrow.......so enjoy them while you can! Lol

Mine still work for me.






Bones

 

I had a 18v Milwaukee but my wife took it.

 

The Dewalt brushless impact drivers are the best, but I have both and they both work great.

 

X2, I wash our cars in the garage and blow water of with a cordless leaf blower.

 

Here's a 9hr https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Dewalt...830099?hash=item3d9c275b93:g:ulEAAOSwvRJeLjye

I just found there's now a 12hr https://www.ebay.com/itm/DEWALT-FLE...903889&hash=item42114d5ae3:g:jswAAOSwJBdeLlPv

I have a number of different sizes of these 2,5,6 and 9hr. I have a reciprocal saw, impact wrench, drill, impact driver and a weed wacker that are all Dewalt 20v.

 

Nothing Makita, When I get to it I'll post a list here.
One of the problems here is that we are off the grid and having chargers always plugged in isn't possible. My whole house and shop run off of batteries. We are a 24v DC power plant. Using batteries to charge batteries is an unnecessary step and you loose power at every conversion. I'm usually better off plugging in the tool and just letting the big batteries do it. I do have enough extra equipment now that I could put together a smaller solar changing station. Or figure out how to charge from DC right to the tool batteries.

 

Tip: live in the 60's...but not shop-wise. There are now cheap nitrile gloves and safety glasses out there. Plus LED cordless lights and cheap magnetic bowls and trays to hold loose screws and washers. And camera phones. Make your garage work as easy for yourself as you can!

 

How about the remote cameras that will fit into a spark plug hole. and drain or filler hole or down a carb throat. See under the dash or inside the trans.

 

^ Been thinking I'd like one of those. Bet they would come in very handy.

 

And don't forget those cheap thermal hand held thermometers with the laser sight. Perfect for working out which cylinder is misbehaving, seeing what your cooling system is doing, etc.

 

Which wheel bearing is going out. Tire pressure. Lots of things!






Bones

 

Found a neat video on alternative approach to fabbing 90 degree angle on square tubing.
May not be the quickest and not to everyones liking but I was impressed.

 

When enlarging holes in wire terminals, clamp the terminal between 2 pieces of scrap lexan. Holds the terminal still and allows you to see what you're doing. Use a uni-bit.

 

A quick and sure way to determine the outside diameter of tubing or anything round is to use open end wrenches as measuring tools. Last week I used a few different open end wrenches to determine whether the rear sway bar on a '65 Corvette was 9/16, 5/8 or 3/4. A 5/16 or 3/8 open end wrench will quickly determine what size steel fuel line a car has.

 

I always cut and save the cords from dead electric tools etc.. A drill needed a new cord the other day so I grabbed a leftover cord and tried to strip off the thick outer sheath with a razor blade to get to the wires. Kept cutting into the wire insulation. My wire strippers don't go big enough for outer sheathing.

Then I tried cutting a small slice in the sheathing between the two wires at the end, grabbed both sides with pliers and pulled. Sheath ripped apart without damaging the wires. Maybe there is a better way but that worked.

 

dont have a tip...gotta a question...has anyone figured out a way to store a half used tube of silicone without it developing a plug so thick you cant get to the rest of the silicone inside....i bet i've thrown away more silicone in plugged tubes than i've used.

 

I don't know if it will work everytime, but I used a wine cork in a tube of silicone and 2 or 3 months later I opened it and it was usable.

 

They make a little plastic deal that you push down the neck of the the tube to keep the silicone or whatever product from drying out in between uses. I see them at HD right there in the isle w the caulk.

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Here it is, looks like HF sells em cheap.

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Depending on how big of a hole you made when you cut the end off a big nail or screw works pretty well. Or wipe the end off well and wrap tape around the outside.

 

The best way to keep silicone from hardening is keep it in the refrigerator. RTV stands for 'Room Temperature Vulcanizing'.
Besides, this gives you a good reason to have a fridge in shop. As if you needed another one.

This has been posted here before but I didn't start doing it until about a year ago. Haven't wasted a drop since.

 

Long nail with an OD to closely match the ID of the cut off tip has always worked well for me. There, probably just jinxed myself

Ed

 

I use wire nuts on the ends of silicon tubes to keep it from drying out.

 

I also use them sparingly black ones about 3/16 wide. I do my very best to hide them also.

 

Apparently suspending the tube upside down is supposed to keep the stuff from hardening so you can use it later but I haven't tried it yet. And thanks for the RTV deciphering!