Shop Tricks

[Sprocket1]

Did you know that a 2750 psi power washer with a 0 degree tip will very effectively remove slag from a weld? No ding marks from the chipping hammer either. Also, a 2750 psi power washer with a 40 degree tip will blow those pesky leaves in the yard from here to next Sunday.
Removing slag with a power washer is incredibly easy and fast. Just remember to wear goggles and keep your mouth closed.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Great thread!!

For those looking for even more tips and tricks there was a similar thread a few years back...

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/parts-repairs/88697-repair-mechanic-tricks-tips.html

Most of the tips in this current thread are new, though. Thanks for posting.

 

[BearKiller]

>> 12-VOLT BENCH POWER <<

Some years ago, I had a Group-31s battery to become just a little un-trustworthy; it was getting draggy on cold mornings and just not as dependable as I like.

Instead of swapping it in as a core, I put it in the shop and hooked one of those little HF float/trickle chargers on it.

I routed a pair of wires from the battery over-head to a pig-tail that hangs close to the work-bench.

I have made up various handy mating pig-tails, some with alligator clips---both large and small, etc.

When I need to test anything 12-volt, such as various lights/bulbs, blowers, buzzers, horns, motors, etc., a 12-VOLT power source is as close as the pig-tail.

Since then, I have acquired a bank of three of these batteries.

I routed wires to various points in both the shop and house, connecting them to 12-volt marker-lights and adding a few pig-tails here and there.

Now, when the 120/220 power goes out, as it does about weekly, I can plug in the pig-tail to my 12-VOLT lights and at least be able to navigate around the house and shop without having to use up flash-light batteries.

If I need more light, I can plug a spot-light or dome-light into one of the pig-tails.

 

[mbohuntr]

If you don't have the puller and need to remove a pilot bearing, fill the inside with grease and place a bolt or dowel that is just a bit smaller in the hole and hit it with a hammer.

 

[BearKiller]

>> BOLT SCAVENGING <<

When you go to a junk-yard, take a pocket-ful of wrenches and a big can/bucket/sack.

When you are removing whatever it is you are after, scavenge as many easy-to-get bolts as you see, especially if you are parting out a foreign/metric vehicle.

Plain old low-grade Metric bolts are exhorbitantly expensive when you have to buy them at the hardware store; you can get plenty of good-grade ones free for the taking from a junk car.

If you don't get them, they usually end up gravelling the ground at the junk-yard and flattening fork-loader tires anyway; if it makes you feel better, you can offer to pay for them.

 

[BearKiller]

>> FEED SACK HOLDER-OPENERS <<

I accumulate a lot of those white woven plastic feed sacks; they are pretty tough, so I use them for all sorts of things where a tough sack is handy.

I keep one hanging on the shop wall as a super-duty garbage sack.

I suspend seasonal and seldom used stuff from the rafters in them; their being white makes it easy to identify what is in them with a marker.

The one aggravation of these sacks is the difficulty of keeping the top open so you can dump stuff in.

For a different project, I needed the bottom 2/3s of some five-gallon buckets, easily cut off with the jigsaw.

This left me with some bottomless bucket tops, complete with bail.

A fifty-pound feed sack fits over these bucket tops like it was purpose-built for it.

I modified eight links from some of that chain like you see on suspended shop-lights, making little fish-hooks on one end and using the other end/loop as a screw-hole; I spaced these eight hooks evenly around the bucket top's perimeter and screwed them on about two-inches up from the bottom.

I can slide a sack onto the open-ended bucket and it will hook itself.

I did this fix to my garbage sack that hangs on the wall and now I can toss stuff into it from plumb across the shop.

 

[Mattlt]

"
A large amount of heat is released when strong acids are mixed with water. Adding more acid releases more heat. If you add water to acid, you form an extremely concentrated solution of acid initially. So much heat is released that the solution may boil very violently, splashing concentrated acid out of the container! If you add acid to water, the solution that forms is very dilute and the small amount of heat released is not enough to vaporize and spatter it. So Always Add Acid to water, and never the reverse. "

This goes for other chemicals (pesticides, insecticides, caustics, etc.) as well. Good advice: Always add the chemical to water.

 

[whitedogone]

One of the very best penetrants is wintergreen oil....a little goes a long way

 

[BearKiller]

>> NO MORE STUCK RECEIVERS <<

Not wanting to get into some of the sledge-hammer episodes that I have witnessed others who are less quick in their thinking partaking in, I like to coat the shanks of hitch receiver tongues with a generous layer of anti-sieze.

Though, at about seven bucks for a little skinny bottle, that soon quits being so much fun.

There is a better way and I stumbled on it; Alemites in the receiver.

Lacking a welder, you can simply drill/tap the receiver in several spots to accomodate the thread size of the Alemites you intend to use.

If you can weld, then drill the holes and tap them for threads, then thread a nut of the same caliber onto a bolt and screw the bolt into the tapped hole, until the nut is against the receiver.

Weld the nut to the receiver.

Lubricate and remove the bolt, and install the Alemite into the welded-on nut.

Doing thus prevents any possibility of the Alemite bottoming against the hitch tongue and gives the grease a little driving room to better spread in all directions.

Seeing as how one entire side of the receiver is usually inaccessible, I would install SIX Alemites, one each side, centered between the pin-hole and end of the receiver, both fore and aft.

Now, every time you are greasing anything else, be sure and give all of your receivers a squirt also.

If you live in salt or sand country, the grease will help to purge any grit that may try and migrate into the receiver.


Follow these instructions and you will never be the one swinging that nine-pound hammer and singing the Spike Driver Blues, trying to get the tongue out of the receiver.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

>> NO MORE STUCK RECEIVERS <<

Not wanting to get into some of the sledge-hammer episodes that I have witnessed others who are less quick in their thinking partaking in, I like to coat the shanks of hitch receiver tongues with a generous layer of anti-sieze.

Though, at about seven bucks for a little skinny bottle, that soon quits being so much fun.

There is a better way and I stumbled on it; Alemites in the receiver.

Lacking a welder, you can simply drill/tap the receiver in several spots to accomadate the thread size of the Alemites you intend to use.

If you can weld, then drill the holes and tap them for threads, then thread a nut of the same caliber onto a bolt and screw the bolt into the tapped hole, until the nut is against the receiver.

Weld the nut to the receiver.

Lubricate and remove the bolt, and install the Alemite into the welded-on nut.

Doing thus prevents any possibility of the Alemite bottoming against the hitch tongue and gives the grease a little driving room to better spread in all directions.

Seeing as how one entire side of the receiver is usually inaccessible, I would install SIX Alemites, one each side, centered between the pin-hole and end of the receiver, both fore and aft.

Now, every time you are greasing anything else, be sure and give all of your receivers a squirt also.

If you live in salt or sand country, the grease will help to purge any grit that may try and migrate into the receiver.


Follow these instructions and you will never be the one swinging that nine-pound hammer and singing the Spike Driver Blues, trying to get the tongue out of the receiver.

I just keep my stingers in the cab of my truck under the back seat.

I will occasionally put a little grease around the outside of the portion of the stinger that slides into the receiver, but that's more to keep rust and corrosion down than to ease removal.

If it's not in the receiver to get stuck, it can't get stuck in the receiver.