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Dr. Despair
Nov 4, 2009


39 perfect posts with each roll.

Uthor posted:

I have this set of precision screw drivers and I hate it.

I can never get a good grip and use enough torque (why are all the tiny screw I encounter stuck?). I find the handles both too small to hold comfortable and too slick to grip. Does anyone (HF, Sears, or Lowes? I'll be near those tomorrow.) make a decent set with bigger handles?

Not sure how easy these are to find in stores, but I got a set like this a few months ago after getting tired of those cheaper sets breaking and stripping poo poo, and it's great. I've seen sets with handles sort of like these at Menards, so you can probably find something cheaper if you want, but the higher quality bits are worth it.

http://www.amazon.com/Wiha-75991-27-Piece-Phillips-Interchangeable/dp/B000NZ7ITI/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1325910696&sr=8-18

I bought these specifically because my set of cheaper screwdrivers stripped the head off the screw on a macbook right before the bit snapped. These bits are much more durable than the average precision set I've seen (and my set has some handles that are ESD protected for working on computers, but I couldn't find those being carried by amazon anymore).

Dr. Despair fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Jan 7, 2012

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PeaceFrog
Jul 27, 2004
you'll shoot your eye out.
Only Snap On tools I own They are expensive, but I use them constantly. From computers to carbs. Wiha also makes some nice little drivers, but they're more pencil type. Good screwdrivers are worth the money if you can resist the urge to use them as chisels.

Uthor
Jul 9, 2006

Gummy Bear Heaven ... It's where I go when the world is too mean.

Molten Llama posted:

My only real beef is that they aren't magnetic (and don't magnetize particularly well).

That's not an issue. Chances are, I'm using them on something computer related, anyway.

I try the pliers thing when I get frustrated, but it's kinda hard to hold a component, a screw driver, and pliers at the same time.

The Sears ones seem exactly like what I was thinking of, but I might check out HF first because those are 1/10th the price :D.

R-Type
Oct 10, 2005

by FactsAreUseless

Rhyno posted:

I'm not restricting anything other than the price. Three people have looked at the truck, said something along the lines of "it's no good for winter" and then low balled me.

The market for them is still kind of crappy. I'm in the process of rebuilding mine now, I'm planning to sell next year and start working on building a Factory Five GTM MK II myself.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.

grover posted:

I cut about 3/4" off the end of an 8mm allen wrench today so I could use it in an 8mm socket with my torque wrench. Was a simple thing, but very effective.

Funny, I did exactly the same thing with a 1/4" allen wrench the other day at work. The idiots who put our pick-n-place SMT PCB assembly machine together didn't tighten all the bolts before shipment and 4 that are almost inaccessible (on the bottom of the X-dim gantry, holding the linear bearing assembly on) managed to work themselves so loose that we couldn't even hold 50 thou tolerance on part location. That's incredibly lovely when you're working with 0402 SMT parts and therefore need ~5-10 thou accuracy for the drat thing to end up mostly centered on the pads.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

R-Type posted:

The market for them is still kind of crappy. I'm in the process of rebuilding mine now, I'm planning to sell next year and start working on building a Factory Five GTM MK II myself.

A wrecked '95 sold for $4K on ebay a few months back. There's demand but you have to be in the right region. Mine even has the super rare jump seat and I can't find a serious buyer.

Sockington
Jul 26, 2003

Uthor posted:

I have this set of precision screw drivers and I hate it.

I can never get a good grip and use enough torque (why are all the tiny screw I encounter stuck?). I find the handles both too small to hold comfortable and too slick to grip. Does anyone (HF, Sears, or Lowes? I'll be near those tomorrow.) make a decent set with bigger handles?

Have you tried the rusty fastener trick? Give it a tiny bit of tighten first before trying to loosen it.

Sometimes it works wonders.

Mercury Ballistic
Nov 14, 2005

not gun related
I have some small screw drivers from Compcenter. They are made in Germany and the brand is Filo. They are fantastic quality and very precise. Maybe $20 for a set of 5.

angryhampster
Oct 21, 2005

My stepfather gave me a Kobalt 1/2" 18v cordless impact wrench for Christmas, and I tried it out this morning rotating the tires on MY WIFE'S Focus.





On the wrench:
Kobalt is Lowe's house brand, and most of their products seem pretty high-quality. This is definitely a top-notch piece of equipment. The body of the wrench is very heavy plastic, and I have no doubt it will take a hell of a beating. Kobalt says it has 300ft/lbs of torque, and I absolutely believe it. Had zero problem with lugnuts that haven't been touched in a year. The grip is comfortable and easy to hold. Nice touch -- the wrench has an LED light that points ahead of the socket.


On the batteries and charger:
First off, note that I said batteries -- the package comes with a pair of them. They are lithium ion and add a nice weight to the bottom of the wrench. On the front, they each have a test light. Simply press the button and 1-4 green LEDs will light up to indicate remaining battery life. The batteries are very well-made and solid like the driver. The charger is pretty large, and has a HUGE LCD screen indicating battery status (charge level, dangerous temp, health, time till charged, etc) and charges a battery completely in about 30-40 minutes. I like these batteries and the charger MUCH better than my Craftsman drill's.


Lowe's website shows it at $269, which is frankly a great deal considering what you're getting. I'm definitely impressed by this bit of equipment and will probably be buying more Kobalt power tools in the future.

revmoo
May 25, 2006

#basta
drat that thing is nice. Good price too for what you get.

Splizwarf
Jun 15, 2007
It's like there's a soup can in front of me!

Uthor posted:

I have this set of precision screw drivers and I hate it.

I can never get a good grip and use enough torque (why are all the tiny screw I encounter stuck?). I find the handles both too small to hold comfortable and too slick to grip. Does anyone (HF, Sears, or Lowes? I'll be near those tomorrow.) make a decent set with bigger handles?

I know I'm a little late since you're shopping today, but Lowes has a Kobalt-branded pair of bits-in-the-base fat-handled drives that replaced exactly that lovely set for me. One of them is various Flat and Philips sizes and the other is various Torx (which came in a lot handier than I expected). I hated my set for the same reasons you do and these were perfect.

Uthor
Jul 9, 2006

Gummy Bear Heaven ... It's where I go when the world is too mean.

Splizwarf posted:

I know I'm a little late since you're shopping today, but Lowes has a Kobalt-branded pair of bits-in-the-base fat-handled drives that replaced exactly that lovely set for me. One of them is various Flat and Philips sizes and the other is various Torx (which came in a lot handier than I expected). I hated my set for the same reasons you do and these were perfect.

I've been lazy watching 70's sci-fi movies, so I haven't gone out yet. I'll give Lowes a look, but for some reason, I'm not a fan of using bits vs. individual drivers.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
Bits take less space in the toolbox, so I like em for various ones I rarely use (most tamperproofs fit this bill), but if you're trying to get at a screw 4" up a tiny access tube through the bottom of a steering column, they suck unbelievable amounts of rear end, and you really need a screwdriver with that tip instead.

god drat 95-96 XJs with T20 screws that meet the above description :argh:

Uthor
Jul 9, 2006

Gummy Bear Heaven ... It's where I go when the world is too mean.
Well, I found these at HF for $2.50 (they had orange ones linked earlier in the ad, but these in the store):


While there:


My friend has a folding utility knife that I've been jealous of and I don't own any locking pliers (not that I can remember ever needing some).

All for less than a precision screwdriver set from Craftsman.

Uthor fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Jan 8, 2012

Splizwarf
Jun 15, 2007
It's like there's a soup can in front of me!
You forgot the other half of the Vice-Grip.

Splizwarf fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Jan 8, 2012

jammyozzy
Dec 7, 2006

Is that a challenge?
My neighbour's wife just lent me a mystery tool that saved my rear end, and now I want one for my very own but don't know what it's called. It looked like a crows foot, but one jaw was hinged so it tightened itself onto the bolt head as you turned it. It also had a fixed vertical post about 1 foot long with a T-bar on the top to turn it. Any permutation of "x crows foot" I can think of doesn't find it.

I asked to borrow a 13mm spanner and she came back with that and a 13/16" spanner. :3:

Dielectric
May 3, 2010

jammyozzy posted:

My neighbour's wife just lent me a mystery tool that saved my rear end, and now I want one for my very own but don't know what it's called. It looked like a crows foot, but one jaw was hinged so it tightened itself onto the bolt head as you turned it. It also had a fixed vertical post about 1 foot long with a T-bar on the top to turn it. Any permutation of "x crows foot" I can think of doesn't find it.

Basin Wrench.

Yerok
Jan 11, 2009
My apologies if this came up halfway through the thread somewhere, but does anyone have a recommendation for a sub $1000 welder? I'm pretty new to welding, but I have free classes on MIG and TIG available to me through the engineering shop at my school. I'd like to get a TIG welder, but it seems like most of budget TIG offerings are no-name foreign brands. I like the precision offered by TIG machines, and I don't really plan on doing a lot of heavy-duty welding. It'll mostly be used for motorcycle frame repair/modification and hopefully a homemade shifter kart.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
I rented a house with a garage, made an offer on a new Jeep (accepted!) and have a handshake deal to sell the truck.


Tool buying is back on bitches.

CornHolio
May 20, 2001

Toilet Rascal
I went to Harbor Freight over the weekend, and naturally spent more money than I had expected to.

The main thing I wanted was the electric impact which I had a coupon for $47.99 from their mail ad. I also had some gift cards from Christmas.

To go with this, I picked up some cheap hearing protection, a small tool bag and some metric sockets.

Then I picked up some shiny things that caught my eye: A 100-piece security bit set that they had on clearance for five dollars, a two-pack of LED lights and a snazzy portable LED light that has a hook that doubles as a stand.

All in all a pretty nice haul.

revmoo
May 25, 2006

#basta
That security bit set is awesome. I was just there today and I would have bought it if I'd seen it. I had that impact and returned it because it was kind of weak. I will say though, after I decided to return it, it seemed to break in a bit more and work a little better.

Lord Gaga
May 9, 2010
Anyone have a speed guide for cutting with a recip saw for various materials, speeds and teeth?

EDIT: Doesnt say speeds which I was really looking for but:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ContentView?pn=Recip_Saw_Blades&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Lord Gaga fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Jan 18, 2012

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





The Harbor Freight impact sockets are actually pretty nice, but holy gently caress is it hard to get them off of that plastic sprue setup they come on.

Brigdh
Nov 23, 2007

That's not an oil leak. That's the automatic oil change and chassis protection feature.

Lord Gaga posted:

Anyone have a speed guide for cutting with a recip saw for various materials, speeds and teeth?

EDIT: Doesnt say speeds which I was really looking for but:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ContentView?pn=Recip_Saw_Blades&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

There is a nice formula in the machinist handbook. I don't have one handy, or I'd look it up.

mod sassinator
Dec 13, 2006
I came here to Kick Ass and Chew Bubblegum,
and I'm All out of Ass

IOwnCalculus posted:

The Harbor Freight impact sockets are actually pretty nice, but holy gently caress is it hard to get them off of that plastic sprue setup they come on.

Glad I'm not the only one annoyed by that. Do that cast the drat thing around the sprue?

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





mod sassinator posted:

Glad I'm not the only one annoyed by that. Do that cast the drat thing around the sprue?

Sure feels like it. I had almost as much "fun" getting them off as I did actually replacing the LF strut on my MS3, and that was nine hours down the drain.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
I just heat the socket up and let the plastic soften, then push/pull/pick it out.

CornHolio
May 20, 2001

Toilet Rascal

IOwnCalculus posted:

The Harbor Freight impact sockets are actually pretty nice, but holy gently caress is it hard to get them off of that plastic sprue setup they come on.

I punched myself in the face getting the first one off. :(

Brigdh posted:

There is a nice formula in the machinist handbook. I don't have one handy, or I'd look it up.

I have one at work and can look it up tomorrow.

Sockington
Jul 26, 2003
Does the screw driver trick not work with them? Find a #3 Robertson, slide it inside the socket until it bottoms out on the plastic stub, then slam it down on the work bench.

Unless these aren't what I'm thinking of.


Edit: This is also the go-to method for rusted off heads.

Sockington fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Jan 19, 2012

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





That's what I finally ended up doing. Still took a lot more force than it should.

daslog
Dec 10, 2008

#essereFerrari
I just used my mapp gas torch on them

Dielectric
May 3, 2010

IOwnCalculus posted:

The Harbor Freight impact sockets are actually pretty nice, but holy gently caress is it hard to get them off of that plastic sprue setup they come on.

Have they improved? I've got a set of deep wells from about 6 years ago, and the 15mm split while using their electric impact on it.

I threw that impact wrench out, BTW. It just didn't put out much power, I could bang on a bolt all day and it wouldn't budge, but throw a breaker on it and out she comes. Doesn't speak well for their cruddy socket, either.

sharkytm
Oct 9, 2003

Ba

By

Sharkytm doot doo do doot do doo


Fallen Rib

Dielectric posted:

Have they improved? I've got a set of deep wells from about 6 years ago, and the 15mm split while using their electric impact on it.

I threw that impact wrench out, BTW. It just didn't put out much power, I could bang on a bolt all day and it wouldn't budge, but throw a breaker on it and out she comes. Doesn't speak well for their cruddy socket, either.

I have two sets of their impact sockets, and I've put them on my Earthquake 1/2" and wailed on them. Never had an issue. Its one of the things HF makes that I actually like.

CornHolio
May 20, 2001

Toilet Rascal

Brigdh posted:

There is a nice formula in the machinist handbook. I don't have one handy, or I'd look it up.

As a follow up to this, is this what you're looking for?

Lord Gaga
May 9, 2010
No. I am looking for approx speeds based on blade material, material being cut and material thickness for a reciprocating saw to give me an idea of where to look for a sweet spot for a reciprocating saw that will be cutting a fair amount of car frame.

kmcormick9
Feb 2, 2004
Magenta Alert
How trustworthy is the air rating on older craftsman compressors?
There are several older "5hp" 120v models on CL that are advertised as 5scfm @ 90psi, which is more than enough for 90% of what I would use it for, and more than the new "1.5hp" models claim to put out.

Brigdh
Nov 23, 2007

That's not an oil leak. That's the automatic oil change and chassis protection feature.

Lord Gaga posted:

No. I am looking for approx speeds based on blade material, material being cut and material thickness for a reciprocating saw to give me an idea of where to look for a sweet spot for a reciprocating saw that will be cutting a fair amount of car frame.

Thats exactly what I was looking for.

Blade material just affect longevity. Stock material and thickness factors into its cutting speed in feet per minute. Car frames are usually high grade steel up to 0.5 inches thick (at the overlap where sections are welded together). A little bit of googling and the basics behind that formula should net you your answer. I doubt you are going to find some page on the internet that did all the research for you.

Or you can do the good enough approach by taking it as slow as possible and making sure nothing starts turning red.

Lyesh
Apr 9, 2003

kmcormick9 posted:

How trustworthy is the air rating on older craftsman compressors?
There are several older "5hp" 120v models on CL that are advertised as 5scfm @ 90psi, which is more than enough for 90% of what I would use it for, and more than the new "1.5hp" models claim to put out.

The HP ratings are grossly inflated, but the CFM ratings are accurate.

Lord Gaga
May 9, 2010
Yea that is pretty much where I am at now. I am a machinist so I understand cutting speed well. Problem is it doesnt translate well into saw blades and when you compare a saw blade to an end mill, saw blades are basically poorly manufactured garbage metal.

I wish I had a gas powered 10+" angle grinder so I could just go at it Jeremy Clarkson style

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Splizwarf
Jun 15, 2007
It's like there's a soup can in front of me!
Junkyards usually use Snap-On Sawzalls as far as I know. Or a torch.

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