2015 POTD Thread Archive

[uncle harry]

I like the project. How did you get the split ring open wide enough? Those rings can be a bear.

Try an office staple remover.

 

[Firestopper]

Thanks for the encouraging words gentleman. I was too tired to post yesterdays progress. I moved in the WB and located, leveled and started loading toolboxes,plywood steel top and tools. Today will be more of the same cleaning tools prior to loading.

I need some ideas on toolbox organizers from you all, so please share what you use to keep the tools in their place. I will not use foam shadow as this is not practical for me.
Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[Charles Spencer]

Yesterday wasn't much of a shop day. We had a cookout with our daughter, son-in-law, and grand kids.

I did show the son-in-law that I had gotten my Garvin horizontal mill running. Looking around my tiny shop he made some joking reference to decor. Now my shop is very small and barely fits my machines, tool boxes, etc. The only thought I had given to decor was when I rejected the clock that the wife offered to give me and bought a more institutional looking one. But when I heard his remark it came to me. I knew the thing my shop was missing:

A pinup girl tool calendar!

Later I went on ebay and ordered this one:



I know that it's out of date, but I'm retired so it really doesn't matter. Besides, it's from the year I retired.

And in the words of John Keats, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

 

[zmotorsports]

Here's a photo of the workbench prior to disassembly for paint.

Workbench turned out great Paco. The center appears to have a removable adapter in it. Is that for working on a differential 3rd member or what is it you bolt to it. I ask because I have a transmission mount that I made that bolts to my workbench and then I have several different adapters depending on which transmission I am working on, I also have one for Toyota and Ford 9" center sections. It is a nice way of making the workbench more universal.

Thanks for the encouraging words gentleman. I was too tired to post yesterdays progress. I moved in the WB and located, leveled and started loading toolboxes,plywood steel top and tools. Today will be more of the same cleaning tools prior to loading.

I need some ideas on toolbox organizers from you all, so please share what you use to keep the tools in their place. I will not use foam shadow as this is not practical for me.
Thanks in advance for your input.

I am not a fan of shadow marking tools. There is too much wasted space. My drawers are jam-packed so I need every square inch of tool storage I can get. My wrench, socket and plier drawer I have especially had to pack things together in.

Mike.

 

[Charles Spencer]

I need some ideas on toolbox organizers from you all, so please share what you use to keep the tools in their place. I will not use foam shadow as this is not practical for me.
Thanks in advance for your input.

I use a lot of dollar store items. They have wooden shadow boxes that you can reconfigure. I use these for lathe bits and mills in my wooden tool boxes. I use silverware trays for my chisels. I removed the lids from some square food storage containers and use the containers for small items.

I'll bet that if you go there you'll find something useful.

 

[petcnc]

Yesterday wasn't much of a shop day. We had a cookout with our daughter, son-in-law, and grand kids.

I did show the son-in-law that I had gotten my Garvin horizontal mill running. Looking around my tiny shop he made some joking reference to decor. Now my shop is very small and barely fits my machines, tool boxes, etc. The only thought I had given to decor was when I rejected the clock that the wife offered to give me and bought a more institutional looking one. But when I heard his remark it came to me. I knew the thing my shop was missing:

A pinup girl tool calendar!

Later I went on ebay and ordered this one:

View attachment 110110

I know that it's out of date, but I'm retired so it really doesn't matter. Besides, it's from the year I retired.

And in the words of John Keats, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

Hey!

This girl hides the details of the beautiful wrench!

I cannot see all details of the tool!!!!

 

[kvt]

For storing little items, I use old pill bottles, (I get enough of all different sizes) then just mark what is in them on the outside. Pliers I like Mike, I have to many wrenches, pliers etc to try and reserve spots for them. But good stuff like MIc, and special gages etc, Those have reserved spots and orders. If it will not hurt it to get banged together, it is packed in as tight as it will go. (if someone gives me tools, who am I to turn them down, I will make room) plus they follow me home all the time. Thus only special tools get reserved spots, Just clean before storing all the rest so they do not make a mess of the others.

 

[extropic]

I need some ideas on toolbox organizers from you all, so please share what you use to keep the tools in their place. I will not use foam shadow as this is not practical for me.
Thanks in advance for your input.

I use a lot of plastic trays to organize tools. I'll add a link to Schaller Corp. who makes the widest variety of sizes that I know of. They are similar to Lista plastic boxes but more sizes and much less $$ without sacrificing quality.

http://www.schallercorporation.com/products/

To keep files organized, and off of each other, I use pieces of aluminum heat sink extrusion. Many sizes easily available on eBay. Most sellers are in the Orient but I've had very reasonable delivery times and product as expected. Link to example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/200800824597?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649

 

[Round in circles]

Thanks for the encouraging words gentleman. I was too tired to post yesterdays progress. I moved in the WB and located, leveled and started loading toolboxes,plywood steel top and tools. Today will be more of the same cleaning tools prior to loading.

I need some ideas on toolbox organizers from you all, so please share what you use to keep the tools in their place. I will not use foam shadow as this is not practical for me.
Thanks in advance for your input.

For my spanners ( aka wrenches in the USA| ) I simply cut a lot of 1/2 " wide planed board into strips slightly shallower than the drawer is deep and so they are a precise fit across the drawer . I then screwed them in across the drawers putting screws in the ends and in three places on the drawer underside, having made all the holes in the right place first off ( ), though this is only for sockets , small spanners ,medium and big spanners . Having access like this suits me as I used to be an engineer who's tools were usually lugged around over hill and dale in two self made light steel hinged lid cases . To keep the weight down to less than 80 pounds for each tool box I used as little metal as possible but enough to get some sort of separation order to things .


In my current man cupboard , for small items I used a decent commercial contractors saw and using a fine toothed TCT blade that gives a planed finish cut up a lot of new timber to give me 15 mm thick strips . 35 mm wide and obviously as long as the wood .

I then set about cutting them to two different precise sizes in two batches ( half & half ) make slightly rectangular frames . Simply gluing & pinning them as every thing on the saw bench was set up to be square & true . Once all the glued frames were set , I used 3/16 ply balanced ( uneven layers as it does not tend to warp ) larch to make over sized rough bottoms , again I pinned and glued them on .

A few days later I set the fence of the saw so I could just skim a smidgen off all the sides to give me a series of open trays that had brilliant sides and floor joint where nothing can get stuck between the side and the floor . Everything was sanded off once the stack of trays was finished , I had thought of varnishing them but it never happened .

In these trays I have all manner of small things , I also made half a dozen larger trays for bigger things.
I realised there was not much sense in making the trays too deep that way I can stack many shallow trays five or six deep in a filing cabinet drawer to fill the drawers as effectively as possible , often leaving space at the front of the deep filing cabinet drawers for frequently used bigger items /tools or stuff that won't fit in the trays .

For the smaller things it's so easy to lift a tray of things out whilst working on the bench top . With bigger /heavier things the tray tends to remain in the drawers and I lift the equipment or some off the contents out instead .

 

[markknx]

Today I pulled in my 2008 Craftsman lawn tractor to re-weld the left rear mounting bracket on the mower deck. Or should I say weld it. two of the three welds (using weld loosely) were only tied into the bracket and just laid on top of the deck. Not one piece of the weld stuck to the deck and no metal pulled out of the deck. (sad) the one weld that was holding it till of late was tied in to both the bracket and the deck but had very poor penetration. I with the help of my now 14 year old got it lined back up and welded.

I was putting so much effort into explaining what was wrong and how we were fixing it that I didn't think to get any photos. I love when I can get him in the shop with me. He agreed the welds never fused to the deck.
Mark