Garage hacks, adjustments and annoyances.........

[mrmikey]

.....but refused to buy their power tools after owning one with a plastic cord.

Plastic cords are the devils spawn.
I bought a portable Ridgid table saw, nice saw other than the fact the cord was garbage. I ended up cutting it off, wiring the motor directly into a permanently mounted receptacle box on the saw and running a 12 ft rubber cord from that. Now I can roll the cord up easily and I have a receptacle on my saw that I can plug my router into as I made a router table that fits on the saw table extension. I don't need an extension cord for the saw or other tools I'm using near the saw.

 

[BravoXray]

Ok, that is just ocd but I like it , I wish I was that organized. Must have cost a small fortune in containers

The containers are about $9 now, but were about $6 when I bought most of them. I probably have over 70 of them now. I have a bunch in the basement in that workshop too.
The plywood cases are all glued together, no screws except to fasten them to the walls.

Yeah, I might have a problem.

 

[jjeff]

Easy portable drill press hack. (This one's more of a field hack) So working in a several boat yards a few yrs back I built semi custom truss framed floating docks and wharfs, some sections I had to drill dozens of new holes in 3/16 steel. I'd run through drill bits like crazy. Needing portability, and having a need it to fit in tighter spots, didn't own or have access to a mag drill press I started using clamps especially when the bits started getting dull. I was able to use it both horizontal and vertical, it applied even pressure was somewhat accurate and perfect for what I needed it to do. Also works good for right angle drills using much smaller clamps

 

[deezler]

The containers are about $9 now, but were about $6 when I bought most of them. I probably have over 70 of them now. I have a bunch in the basement in that workshop too.
The plywood cases are all glued together, no screws except to fasten them to the walls.

Yeah, I might have a problem.

Found the electronics nerd! J/K, that is some terrific organization. Do you make a lot of custom controllers with arduino and raspberry pi stuff?

 

[jjeff]

Repurpose hack, these are relatively cheap or free depending what you do, who you know, or where you work. Repurpose old tackle boxes, used to get for free, when we would take possession of a junk unpaid abandoned boat, at the yard, for scrapping, on wall is pretty nice storage used for crafts originally, seems to me if its not marketed for something shop or trade related it's relatively inexpensive or free especially used.
Anyways stores all my small heat shrink electrical crimp type connectors nicely and easy to see so no need to label.

 

[BravoXray]

Found the electronics nerd! J/K, that is some terrific organization. Do you make a lot of custom controllers with arduino and raspberry pi stuff?

I have made a few, I like to set up breadboard circuits and see how they work. I have a few in mind for the future. I have a fair collection of discrete components that come in handy for new circuits, repairs and modifications. I have built a lot of computers for a couple of customers and have a bunch of cases, PSUs, mobos, CPUs, RAM, cables and expansion cards. I even did a couple of MSDOS programming jobs a long time ago. Haven't kept up with the language transition though, other than a little C for the Arduino and Python for the Pi.
In another thread on this site I posted a picture of a Knight Kit oscilloscope I built back in the mid-60s. That was a really fun project, and it even worked when I finished it.

 

[jjeff]

Cheap easy to build wood storage hack for a polebarn if you have the room. All they are is scraps of plywood, and a few 2xs to mount my homemade ply brackets closer than 8' on the gable wall.

 

[jjeff]

Easy cheap paint stirrer. Used the steel rod holding up a roadside advertisement littering the shoulder, and any variable speed powered drill.

 

[jjeff]

wood stove hack I use an old repurposed concrete finish trowel to clean ash out of wood stove. Easily gets into all the books and crannies to get all the ash into pan.

 

[jjeff]

Not really a hack but a glowing review of my king size "kindling cracker" really like this thing, it actually splits smaller rounds bark and all not just push apart halfway. Next to it is my yooper rigged beater, fiberglass handle broke over 10 yrs ago so I welded a bent radius rod from a snowmobile mishap for a replacement handle, temporarily, lol, it's been 10 yrs.