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I actually love my harbor freight 3 ton hydro jack... http://www.harborfreight.com/automotive-motorcycle/floor-jacks/rapid-pump-3-ton-heavy-duty-floor-jack-68048.html I usually shy away from HF tools, but it was well worth it, I've dragged that sucker through junkyards, left it bouncing around in the back of a pickup for an entire winter, and generally treated it like poo poo and it just keeps trucking. It even lifted one end of the front axle of my 5-ton military surplus cargo truck to change a tire - though it did make some unpleasant sounds. My rule on HF: if it's a precision tool (sockets, wrenches) no way. If it's electronic, no way. If it's a brute force type of tool (big hammers for bashing poo poo with, jackstands, engine hoists, maybe a really big impact gun, etc) I'll get it with the extra warranty. My HF engine hoist has put up with my stupidity for several years now too, and I have done some really stupid stuff to it, like hanging about a thousand pounds of drivetrain off the end of it fully extended (1/4 ton rating) and swinging it around / bouncing up and down trying to get something lined up. It didn't even come close to breaking.
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Sep 21, 2011 00:03
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8th-samurai posted:I have only owned them for a year but my Harborfreight sockets and box wrenches have been great. Not a single broken one even using 3/8 sockets with an adapter on their big rear end 1/2 inch breaker bar. I have enough problems rounding off bolts (especially with smaller sizes <9/16" or so) without using cheap sockets and wrenches... so I went for good quality on those. A friend of mine broke his HF breaker bar, I told him it'd happen... even a Husky from HD is better than those, I've abused the poo poo out of mine and never once broken it.
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Sep 21, 2011 18:00
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8th-samurai posted:All of my HF sockets are six points and fit just fine. I recommend you start using penetrating oil. Spray those bolts with PB blaster like they owe you money. oh, I do... the problem is when the heads are rusty and easy to round off because of it. A socket that's even slightly off size makes it worse. I usually hammer on the next size down (or the next size down in the other set if it falls between sizes.) I've put five foot cheater pipes on my 1/2" Husky breaker bar and it didn't break. The 1/2" drive extension did though.
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Sep 22, 2011 13:24
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whoa whoa whoa. 80 DOLLARS? I know where I am going tomorrow after I get back from wheeling.
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Sep 24, 2011 06:18
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Carta posted:I'm looking for recommendations for a ball joint press, and also a tool to help separate the ball joint from the steering knuckle. Last time I used a 3-jaw puller I had laying around and it didn't quite work out. Should I just get a pickle fork, or is there some other tool I don't know about? what kind of vehicle? For my jeeps I've had decent luck with a horrible freight balljoint tool, just make sure you get the cup adapter set that fits your balljoints. It won't handle you just going full retard on it with an impact or cranking on it with a breaker bar, but if you just ease down on the press with a box wrench till it's as tight as you can get it by hand and then whack the side of the steering knuckle with a mini sledge the balljoint should pop out little by little. It's nice to be able to do a balljoint removal without any power tools or ever putting your beer down.
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Sep 28, 2011 22:25
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Skyssx posted:I have had really good luck with pickle forks and PB blaster. Very satisfying to beat the fork as hard as I possibly can. To press in ball joints, the kit AZ rents is pretty nice. I hate using pickle forks because it tears up the boot and can mar the stud/ball, but they are good for stress relief. If I want to reuse the part, like I said before, mini sledge to the side of the knuckle right where the taper goes through it. It will pop right out after a few whacks with zero damage to anything. If I can't get a mini sledge in the right spot (for example, the tie rod end that goes through the drag link on an XJ/MJ/TJ/ZJ) I'll use either a TRE puller or a pitman arm puller and put as much pressure as I can on it via the stud end, then whack the head of the puller shaft with something. Acts just like the mini sledge but you start with a couple hundred pounds force from the screw pressure so it requires a lot less of a swing to get the same kind of peak force applied. kastein fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Sep 29, 2011 |
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Sep 29, 2011 05:23
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grover posted:And the voltage and current waveform of my house (B-phase). You can tell there are a lot of switch-mode power supplies: specifically, old ones without power factor correction. Active power factor correction is some pretty awesome stuff, and ON Semiconductor (among other companies) makes a single-chip APFC controller, you just add a couple MOSFETs and passives and you're done.
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Sep 30, 2011 15:11
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grover posted:Servers and other high-end equipment are often pretty good, but I've never seen anything like that in consumer-grade equipment. Shoot, I took a reading of my PC at work yesterday (standard HP power supply) and it was just a textbook switch-mode power supply current waveform- a flat line with short little arches up and down at the max and min of each half wave, more like an ECG than a sine wave. I've seen other high-end pro equipment with a double-peaked stetson-hat waveform from all the harmonics. yep... gotta love it. Power companies hate this poo poo. It's mostly due to the way a full wave voltage doubling rectifier works, the diodes only conduct when Vinput >= Vpeak - Vripplepkpk + Vforward. I *think* most consumer grade supplies built to comply with modern euro specs have APFC good enough to give <5% THD, but I'm not sure. EE nerds who want to read more about this can read: * NCP1650 datasheet (covers the part I mentioned, other manufacturers have equivalents) http://www.onsemi.com/pub_link/Collateral/NCP1650-D.PDF * whitepaper on APFC http://www.onsemi.com/pub_link/Collateral/HBD853-D.PDF (I don't work for onsemi, I just learned what I know from these docs back when I was in college) kastein fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Sep 30, 2011 |
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Sep 30, 2011 15:56
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metallicaeg posted:Before I buy http://www.harborfreight.com/rapid-pump-3-ton-heavy-duty-floor-jack-68048.html and a set of stands there tomorrow, for what is pictured to be and reviewed as a solid floor jack for $80 I shouldn't be too concerned about it being useless in six months should I? It'll last at least a year and a half, that's how long I've had mine and it's still going strong. I've dragged it through rocky muddy junkyards, left it in the bed of my pickup for an entire winter just kinda sliding/rolling/bouncing around, and it is still strong enough to get the front axle of my 5-ton military cargo truck off the ground to change a tire. I don't think I've EVER stored it inside...  (that's a 225/75r15 tire in front of the brake drum for scale... and the floor jack under the axle)
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Oct 7, 2011 21:02
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Agreed. How much more is it going to cost to go bigger? Are you building it yourself or not? It's really pretty easy to build one aside from the foundation, I'd have that poured by the pros. Then buy a framing nailgun, compressor, a case of nails, all the lumber you need, and rope a couple of friends into helping you stand the walls up and frame the roof. Sheathing, roofing, siding etc can all be done alone or with one person to make it go a little faster. You'll probably save more than enough to pay for all the tools. If you were within ~100 miles I'd help out, it took me and one of my friends about a day to put up his shed and neither of us had done it before, just watched the pros.
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Oct 22, 2011 08:23
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BrokenKnucklez posted:Yeah the price of the concrete work jumps up a little plus the costs so to make it a little bigger would put me out of a comfortable budget. I plan to build it myself though to save cash. It will be more built like a pole barn than a standard garage for cost savings and I plan to have the spay foam insulation done and most likely will not drywall... maybe do plywood walls.. because there is a 1 car attached garage so that is where the daily driver will be parked. Now that I just bought this truck I am going to have to look at making sure I get taller doors. drywall is ~$7/sheet (1/2"), plywood is ~$16 (same thickness.) I'd probably go with plywood for strength/durability, but it is more expensive... If I build a garage it's staying unfinished past the 8 foot mark (MIGHT finish it up to that point) on the walls, and any money I save not completely finishing it will go into 2x4s and plywood to build a bunch of deep heavy duty shelves and racks along the walls for motors, transmissions, transfer cases, axles, toolboxes, power tools, etc. I hate piling that stuff up, and I hate losing floor space because I have everything spread out along the walls.
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Oct 24, 2011 04:03
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Sockington posted:You should also budget for a decent amount of insulation. Nothing's better than a shop that gets warmed up from only the overhead lights. yup! And fiberglass is pretty cheap.
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Oct 25, 2011 01:55
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Why I love Husky? Do the same thing and it doesn't snap! I've had a four foot cheater pipe on my Husky breaker bar, giving it every bit of force I can (so probably around 1000-1200 foot pounds.) The 1/2" drive extension torqued off, the breaker bar was unharmed. It's twice the price of the HF one, but when that means $20 instead of $10 I'm willing to spring the extra cash... especially when a friend of mine who is not known for his strength managed to break his 1/2" HF breaker bar the first time he used it, while I'm generally the guy people ask to move heavy things and have failed to break my Husky one for two years running. Some things HF is good for, high torque / quality electronics / precision tools / metallurgical products such as welding wire are certainly not among them. Things for lifting heavy poo poo and keeping things off the ground? Sure. e: oh, and Husky has a similar warranty... and there are more Home Depot stores to get it replaced at than Harbor Freight!
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Oct 26, 2011 05:59
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warcake posted:No i mean 3/4, sometimes inch. i work for volvo trucks i should have mentioned that. We use a lot of acetylene as you can probably imagine. goddamn  (1000nm = over 700 foot pounds. Not loving around at all.)
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Oct 29, 2011 01:57
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Terminus Est posted:You can do that without a hytorc. On a certain wind turbine's hub to nacelle, 2800nm is the goal. I think that ends up being around 480 bar of pressure from the hydraulic pump to hit that torque. If you really arent loving around, look up tensioning bolted joints. Imagine using 1500 bar to employ 725kn of force on a bolt to stretch it a mil. Now imagine component failure. You get death or awesome story, pick one. gently caress everything about that! I can do 175nm easily with my hands and a regular breaker bar, why would I buy a 3-digit priced tool that runs out of batteries?
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Oct 31, 2011 01:23
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what I'm always afraid of is doing something that will result in bubbling/cracking/crazing. I've seen some pretty horrible results when a car that was spraybombed previously gets painted with proper 2-stage paint and the chemicals react poorly with each other.
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Nov 6, 2011 21:13
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agreed, if I wanted to chew up the head on every bolt I had to put some torque into, I'd have one tool in my toolbox... a set of vise grips.
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Nov 23, 2011 02:58
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I've never had a titanium nitride set last for poo poo, no matter where I bought it or what brand name was attached. The black oxide coated Milwaukee HSS drills I've bought recently have put up to my abuse quite nicely though, I stuffed a 3/4" one through a 1" piece of steel plate at something like 500rpm with no lube and it didn't even blink. The cryo-treated bits I've tried are pretty OK, but I prefer the black oxide ones.
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Nov 24, 2011 07:53
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Lord Gaga posted:That's a pretty good speed for mild steel. I typically run HSS drills of unknown quality at 100SFM in mild steel and 250SFM in aluminum and turn it up from there although I always run coolant as this is in a CNC mill. That'd be about 500 RPM for a 3/4 drill. huh, good to know! I have no idea why mine haven't rusted yet - I left the 3/4 one and I think the 9/16 sitting on my porch accidentally after drilling some parts for my jeep and it rained while I was away. Still no rust, except for residue from the drill shavings. Most of the TiN ones I got were from Home Depot - I've broken or dulled Ryobi, DeWalt, and most other major brand's TiN bits while treating them more carefully than I treat my black oxide ones.
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Nov 25, 2011 16:05
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14 INCH DICK TURBO posted:I just found this hammer and I don't care that it appears to be more for home demo and not automotive, nor do I care enough to decide if it's gimmicky or not because loving look at it. That's more for home construction and demo, yeah. The gripping section in the middle is for grabbing lumber and twisting it into position while nailing with another tool, it's great when you can't get straight lumber and want both ends of a joist to be vertical or similar. I have a similar tool - the stanley fubar.  It is GREAT when dealing with warped lumber but I can't think of any use when working on cars, aside from being the 'god dammit' tool. Also, I'm not really happy with the only Dead On product I have... I have their framing hammer. The head isn't ground completely flat and perpendicular with the handle shank, and the handle shank bends a little bit if you drop it off a roof. This makes it very easy to hit nails wrong and bend them over till you realize what's going on and hit something with the side of the head to straighten it back out a bit.
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Nov 25, 2011 22:27
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Bogatyr posted:Can't speak to the HF version but I had a Craftsman about 10-12 years ago when these first made the rounds. If you are cutting metal it spews big screaming hot chips everywhere. Mine poo poo the bed when I was cutting holes in computer floor tiles. Kinda heavy sheetmetal, spotwelds an multiple layers of steel in spots so I don't blame the saw so much. But cut like buttah until the gearbox seized. aren't those usually cement-filled? I'm extremely impressed by any saw that can cut cement-filled steel stuff like raised floor tiles and lally columns it's a job I generally leave for an angle grinder with disposable cutting wheels.
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Nov 25, 2011 23:56
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yeah, I really wish I got to play with 1" thick plate and I-beam structural steel with one of those massive jobsite/pipeliner welding rigs that is about the size of a small SUV and comes with its own generator and crane lifting hooks. Man, I'd kill for that. I think the slag they leave behind is thicker than the frame on my car. As for bottle openers... I usually use a utility knife. Put the blade under the edge of the cap and forcefully cut up and away from the bottle. If I don't have one handy I'll use one of the ridges on the folding end of my leatherman.
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Nov 26, 2011 17:32
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Always drain compressors when you're done, if only to make sure you get the moisture out of the tank. I set my torque wrench to whatever setting means it fits in the blow molded case. It won't fit if it's set to 175 ft-lbs, which is where I usually use it (wheel bearing/axle nut torque on a jeep.)
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Dec 11, 2011 09:35
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if I have any suspicion that something stolen I don't buy it. buyers of stolen goods are the only reason thieves exist. And I hate thieves.
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Dec 16, 2011 16:33
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Sockington posted:Better not buy any used parts from an Integra Type R or Civic SiR.  just big banged up rusty trucks.You could encode a serial number or VIN in an OEM stereo easily. Hell, there are premade chips for it - Dallas Semiconductors makes ICs with a 48 bit unique ID number lasered into the die at the factory for this sort of thing, and they're pulled from their MAC address block allocation so you can even use them as MAC addresses if you need to. The only problems: 1. car manufacturers are stupid and will probably use an I2C EEPROM that any retard can read, hex edit, and rewrite with about 5 minutes spent on the reverse engineering and decoding 2. if not, they will use some laser-burned part that has the same footprint and interface as a common I2C EEPROM that any retard can read, decode, write a replacement, and solder in with about 10 minutes spent on reverse engineering, decoding, and soldering large corporation's concept of hardware security is laughable at best. e: oh, I have one flex head gear wrench for a specific purpose - a 15mm for removing torque converter bolts from 4.0L/AW4 equipped Jeeps. Makes the job so easy. I have a stubby 9/16" one as well for removing NP231 transfer cases from the same vehicles, makes it so you don't have to drop the trans down as far before you can get to the bolts at the top.
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Dec 18, 2011 06:23
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Home Depot has Brinkman LED headlights that run on AAAs in 2-packs for like 8 bucks. I think I own around 6 of them now... 1 in each jeep, 1 in my suitcase, 1 in the house, etc. Between that and my Commercial Electric work lights (LED, 12 volt wall and car chargers included, 25 bucks at home depot) I have done more auto repairs in the dark than in the light.
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Dec 30, 2011 22:57
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I have a massive boner for these. Much cheaper and I've gotten over 6 hours out of a single charge. http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202532404/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
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Dec 31, 2011 01:00
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I don't mind working after dark, in fact I tend to do most of my work then no matter what time of year it is. I DO mind heat, humidity, mosquitos, and freezing cold or rain. If it's between 40 and 70 with low humidity and no bugs I am in wrenching heaven.
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Dec 31, 2011 23:03
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I like to use the "preload and then shock it" method too. Balljoint press, crank it down till it's about as tight as I can get it with one arm, then whack it with a BFH. The preload pressure of probably a few hundred to a thousand pounds of force from the press plus the few thousand in sudden shock loading from the BFH usually pops them loose, and the best part is that it only takes one hand, so you never have to put down your beer. pullin' balljoints like a boss 
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Jan 1, 2012 06:31
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Vork!Vork!Vork! posted:very rarely would this method work here in the rust belt (wisconsin). Pickle forks, larger hammers, and heat are often required. this is how I do it up in Mass, also in the rust belt. I have *never* had one not come out, including some with over 200 thousand miles on them, split between Alaska and Massachusetts. The axle housing was so rusted that the lower control arm mounts (1/8 plate steel) had corroded completely in half and I was still able to remove them with a harbor freight balljoint press, 7/8 box wrench, and 3lb hand sledge. I never even used both hands on the wrench when tightening the press. I don't even own a functional pickle fork and I've never had to use heat.
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Jan 1, 2012 23:44
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I don't know what you take lug nuts off of... but I've visibly twisted 4-way lug wrenches with a 3 foot cheater pipe on one side and my entire weight on the other trying to break them loose. Dissimilar metals in contact corrode in a really horrible way. And then there is the big truck... I think it honestly specs more torque on the lugnuts than most Hondas put out. e: uh. yikes. quote:1. Using wheel stud nut wrench, tighten 10 wheel stud nuts (1) in the order shown. As I guess I better put a cheater pipe in the toolbox
kastein fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Jan 4, 2012 |
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Jan 4, 2012 00:58
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InitialDave posted:I've visibly twisted a 4-way by hand. haven't managed to do that. I was afraid I was going to twist the lug stud off, it ended up popping loose and putting me on my rear end.
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Jan 4, 2012 02:59
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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.
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Jan 7, 2012 07:07
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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 
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Jan 8, 2012 00:05
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I just heat the socket up and let the plastic soften, then push/pull/pick it out.
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Jan 19, 2012 02:46
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sharkytm posted: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. I think it's because impact sockets are one of those things that actually REQUIRE a soft, flexible alloy, so they don't shatter. The chinese are pretty drat good at making that kind of alloy  Lyesh posted:The HP ratings are grossly inflated, but the CFM ratings are accurate. Forget where I read it, but basically, ignore any "peak HP" or amp based motor rating on a power tool. They measure the motor starting inrush current and either list it (amp based) or convert amps*volts to HP via the appropriate factor and list that. None of those numbers have anything to do with the actual strength of the motor, if you want a good number to base your decisions on you need the actual motor current draw during operation and the motor efficiency. I have a Milwaukee sawzall, it has done drat near anything I have asked it to no complaints so far, and I've beat the hell out of it.
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Jan 19, 2012 23:43
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gold plated socket set? WTF for? That's just retarded.
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Jan 26, 2012 07:17
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agreed. ball-ends are great for stupid places where stupid car manufacturers shouldn't have ever put fasteners, but for high torque you want the L-shaped ones or (even better) allen bits that fit a 1/4, 3/8, or 1/2 square drive for ratchets.
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Jan 31, 2012 22:45
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worst case they can torch out the lug and nut, punch what's left of the lug out of the wheel bearing, and press a new one in. At least on a jeep, swapping a lug stud requires a hammer, a stack of 1/2" washers, and about 45 seconds.
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Feb 16, 2012 20:52
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 09:17 |
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My spare kit grows every time I break something, or see someone break something. I carry spare rubber brake hoses and lug studs + lug nuts, brake caliper bolts, axleshafts (all four), wheel bearings, set of control arms, set of balljoints, full steering setup, spare tire, valvestems, hose clamp kit, some brake line, a flaring tool, some flare nuts and unions, assorted suspension bolts, driveshafts (when I have spares), fuel hose, a crankshaft position sensor, an O2 sensor, fuses, ujoint straps and CV joint bolts, a radiator soldering kit (aluminum and copper), a water pump, thermostat, WP+thermostat gaskets, spare radiator hoses, RTV, a serpentine belt, sometimes an alternator, usually a starter, plus a full toolkit. A while ago I was carrying an entire spare front axle. I ended up needing it  The number of times I've broken something on the trail is pretty low, but I have seen enough breaks that I ended up collecting quite a pile of poo poo. Only stuff I've broken on the trail... axle housing (ripped CA mounts off), axleshaft (took out balljoints with it), brake lines, trans cooler lines (swapped in a 5 speed a year later and don't need spares for those anymore), blew a few tires up (turns out it's super easy to puncture an 11.00x20 NDT, who knew!), tore a valvestem off, destroyed a set of control arms (had spares installed 20min later), blew up a radiator hose, fried an alternator, and torn a few exhaust systems off. This is why I wheel an MJ, I can fit all that crap without really cluttering up the interior. (this should really be in the get out and get dirty thread, I guess.)
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Feb 17, 2012 03:13
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