What Did You Buy Today?

Out of my craftsman Kennedy and other boxes the harbor freight one I got is much better so far. For all the hype Kennedy boxes get I hate it the most. Terrible pulls and drawers can’t take much weight.
 
Ianagos said:
Out of my craftsman Kennedy and other boxes the harbor freight one I got is much better so far. For all the hype Kennedy boxes get I hate it the most. Terrible pulls and drawers can’t take much weight.
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I have a Craftsman box from my parents for a Christmas present. It was something like a "Home Shop Edition" or something like that which was the cheaper version. I started filling it with hand tools; primarily a $350 set of Craftsman combo wrenches and sockets. It started rolling around like crap, the casters were bending the sheet metal on the bottom. Threw bigger casters on a piece of 3/4" ply which fixed that, but the drawer glides are garbage. Sheet metal "C" bent into the cabinet and edge of drawers with an "I" in between. Continually had the drawers skip the track.

One thing I can say about the Chinese is they know how to make drawer glides. I built our kitchen cabinetry and used 3/4 extension Amerock 22" glides that were around $7 per drawer. These have a caster wheel on each half of the track, were rated at around 75 lbs. I bought a couple of full-extension glides for an entertainment center at something like $25 each (early 1990's).

Couple of years ago I built cabinets in the shop and picked up ball bearing, full extension 22" drawer glides for $5 each. They are good for 150 lbs. each. They are the same 1/2" width of the 3/4 extension glides so have been replacing them in the kitchen. They work great, though I understand the economics of supporting the Chinese economy instead of ours. Maybe we should send China a $14,000,000,000,000 bill for the Corona mess. . .

Bruce
 
Today I received some tooling from All Industrial and Shars. 3-25mm 5C collet set, 5C collet blocks, some junk end mills, and a set of V-blocks. I don't know why, but I was surprised at how much room it all took up. Going to have to get creative storing it all. Not deluding myself into thinking it's top shelf, but it all looks serviceable. That's good enough for me.
 
I've been watching Ebay and picking up used and NOS endmills. Picked up 5 roughers 1/2", 2 3/4" and 2 1-1/4" for less than $20. They are all USA made and have no wear on them that I can see. The 1/2" is unique. It is a 3 flute and each of the flutes on the end are different lengths.

Got 4 Woodruff cutters and some taps for $25. The cutters are unused the taps a little rusty but otherwise brand new. There were also 2 seized up mini drill chicks in the box. A tiny Jacobs and a Pratt keyless. I got them both freed up and made an arbor for the Pratt. Am working on getting it to close fully but if I can't I will likely use it as a pin vise for grinding screws.

To go with that I got a lot of 80 tiny drills. Waiting for those to arrive as well.

Also waiting for 10 various HSS mills to arrive that cost $2.50 each. Most look pristine so I will find out when they get here.

Hard part is putting in a bid I think is fair and then walking away until it is over so I don't get sucked into a bidding war. I've won a few, lost a few but am so far happy with what I have gotten.
 
Ebay is a great resource for sure. I've gotten great deals on lots of stuff.
 
I just stimulated the hell out of the economy!

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Wooooo!

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I've been wanting a better way to cut metal for a while now. All I have is a 4.5" grinder and a hacksaw. The size of this little saw is definitely limiting but for most of the stuff I cut it's gonna be great, plus it takes up very little room in a cramped workspace. I picked this up from Trick-Tools.com.

The manual it came with is so-so. It's mostly pictograms like IKEA stuff, not super clear. But it did come with a wiring diagram and full exploded view. I appreciate that.

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And take it with a grain of salt I guess, but I also like stuff like this...

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It gives me confidence that the people who built the tool care about their job and the parts they produce.

Looking forward to cutting some metal!
 
I have a HE&M NG160 saw, I love it. Mine does not like the 10-14 blades, but works great with the 14 tooth blades.
 
Buffalo21 said:
I have a HE&M NG160 saw, I love it. Mine does not like the 10-14 blades, but works great with the 14 tooth blades.
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Right on. Ultimately I like the smallest one because of the price. After the 782 they get expensive fast. It would have been nice to get one that's a little bigger but a big selling point for me was the possibility of using it as horizontal or vertical. The NG saws run the blade in the opposite direction making use in a vertical orientation impossible.

I also like the HE&M company. My very first real job in metalworking was running a big saw like this:

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It took a 14'6" blade and had automatic feeding. I ran the saw on night shift, supplying a few dozen CNC mills and lathes. It was actually a very enjoyable gig! And the saw was awesome! I remember cutting chunks of 6" round aluminum. The guy on day shift had a pretty fine tooth blade installed, I forget, might've been variable pitch 4-6. I found a blade in the tool room that was 2-3 and it swapped it in. It really made a difference! Cutting time was almost cut in half, no pun intended.

Another time we were cutting 6" rounds of 17-4PH stainless. Each cut took about an hour! I requested we buy a carbide tooth blade specifically for that material but it never got ordered...

Good times.
 
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