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Cool New Tool Thread

Finished organizing hardware that I started while I had covid, The left box is parts for the lamps I been making, the right boxes are for nuts, washers, bolts and screws. Only kept the stainless steel or grade 8 stuff.

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I don't know if I ever showed how I keep from getting door dings- a trip to Home Depot for a couple of 1 x 4s, insulating foam, a few drywall screws, and you're all set:
 

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Or do what I do and don't allow anyone but yourself in the garage! I've commandeered mine at this point. My understanding wife doesn't even think of parking inside anymore. It took decades but she finally gets it.
 
Or do what I do and don't allow anyone but yourself in the garage! I've commandeered mine at this point. My understanding wife doesn't even think of parking inside anymore. It took decades but she finally gets it.
sounds like you need a bigger garage! Can't imagine making the wife park outside during inclement weather.
 
sounds like you need a bigger garage! Can't imagine making the wife park outside during inclement weather.
I need a SHOP. And she's fine. I kept her car clear of snow all winter. Had it warmed up every day for her use. I even keep it filled with gas. It's a fair trade-off.
 
I am so far behind here. Lots of new tools (toys) I need to share to get up to date. Looking back, I never posted the finished head mount for the shrinker/stretcher. Nothing too complex. Instead of a full, solid piece I used a short piece of 1/2" thick plate with two threaded and a couple clearance holes along with two individual sleeves through which the mounting studs passed. This allows easy removal of the two bolts that hold the actual head to the stand. It takes less than a couple minutes to switch heads this way.

It works great. Height is "just right" to see what you're doing and be comfortable doing it. The leverage of the foot pedal is leaps and bounds above trying to clamp the thing in a vice and use a handle sticking off the back. I've been using it and all the other metal working tools making some pretty complex panels and filler pieces and am very happy with how it works.
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New, not sure about cool. In fact I think I've lost my mind. What in God's name do I need these for? Over the years I've found enough need for both six and twelve point sockets and wrenches to oufit myself with a good selection of both.
These little buggers adapt a larger twelve point wrench or socket down to a six point. In 2mm increments. So to use the 15mm one, you would put it into the closed end of a 17mm wrench.
I cannot yet for the life of me imagine a scenario where I will actually use one of these. But anyway, here they are.
adapters.jpg
 
New, not sure about cool. In fact I think I've lost my mind. What in God's name do I need these for? Over the years I've found enough need for both six and twelve point sockets and wrenches to oufit myself with a good selection of both.
These little buggers adapt a larger twelve point wrench or socket down to a six point. In 2mm increments. So to use the 15mm one, you would put it into the closed end of a 17mm wrench.
I cannot yet for the life of me imagine a scenario where I will actually use one of these. But anyway, here they are.
adapters.jpg
I thought I was stupid when I bought a set of flexible ratchet wrenches. Or a set of open center hole sockets and socket wrenches (so I can use a socket to run a nut down a piece of threaded rod, for example). You may have just topped me!
 
Ha, well. I actually use my flex ratcheting wrenches enough that they have supplanted the regular ratcheting ones and I've even worn a couple to the point they needed to be replaced. I've seen the open hole socket set and managed to resist those. Seems like they would indeed be useful, at least once every couple of years or so. These things? Ehh.
 
Ha, well. I actually use my flex ratcheting wrenches enough that they have supplanted the regular ratcheting ones and I've even worn a couple to the point they needed to be replaced. I've seen the open hole socket set and managed to resist those. Seems like they would indeed be useful, at least once every couple of years or so. These things? Ehh.
ditto!
 
Added some tool storage to the garage.

I picked up a used filling cabinet for $40 to store my power tools and larger tools and misc stuff.

I gave it a quick red (not great) paint job with some farm and implement paint to make it look more like a tool box.

It's not staying on the wheels, that's just a furniture mover so I could paint it off the ground and move it around.




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In my career I have access to that stuff all the time. Filing cabinets are an excellent way to store larger tools and such. Great idea with the painting to match. I have started a small collection of cabinets and tabletops from old cubicles for future garage design. Now I'm thinking about the paint idea........
 
New battery checker. Downside to having too many vehicles is too many batteries. And I've lost a couple to being ignored/forgotten a little too long. I bought a basic old school amp-checker battery tester at Harbor Freight but it never really suited me.
This is an off-brand capacitive tester really but it shows end result in percentage. It also rates state of charge. So something like "low state of charge currently but 90% state of health". Exactly what I want to know. IE, good shape but put the trickle charger on it for a few days. Also displays a waveform so you can watch the voltage drop when cranking the engine. It occurs to me that feature might also be used for a cranking compression test. Might be neat for folks who don't have a scope available to do that with. I'll have to check that out. Long term reliability? Who knows. All in with shipping is was right about $50 off eBay. Equivalent functionality in such a tool off a tool truck is in the hundreds of dollars.
IMG-20220622-134331132.jpg
 
New battery checker. Downside to having too many vehicles is too many batteries. And I've lost a couple to being ignored/forgotten a little too long. I bought a basic old school amp-checker battery tester at Harbor Freight but it never really suited me.
This is an off-brand capacitive tester really but it shows end result in percentage. It also rates state of charge. So something like "low state of charge currently but 90% state of health". Exactly what I want to know. IE, good shape but put the trickle charger on it for a few days. Also displays a waveform so you can watch the voltage drop when cranking the engine. It occurs to me that feature might also be used for a cranking compression test. Might be neat for folks who don't have a scope available to do that with. I'll have to check that out. Long term reliability? Who knows. All in with shipping is was right about $50 off eBay. Equivalent functionality in such a tool off a tool truck is in the hundreds of dollars.
IMG-20220622-134331132.jpg
Looks like a nice tool for the price. Can it truly load test the batteries? Seems like it is a bit small to handle that.
 
It is not a "load tester" like the one I got from Harbor Freight. It's tests via conductance. While some folks down such electronic testers to real solution is to have one of each. Or overkill, depending on how you look at it.

Oops, my bad. I bought the other tester at Northern Tool. Mainly because it had a monster Black Friday type discount on it. I think I gave $20. I see here and now it's LOT higher. About double what I feel it to be worth really.
 
Not sure when I'll get around to trying these out but they're pretty neat. The PWM tool is the cheapest I've seen for the purpose. THe idea is that it fits on your Powerprobe tool and you can activate 12 volt components with the pulsed levels of power they expect rather than straight DC voltage. Modern fuel pumps and many transmission solenoids are what I had in mind using it for right off. Bought the amp meter....well, because it was there.
Powerprobes-2.jpg
 
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