Tool Time

[g_man80]

Amazing setup Gunder. Dare is ask what your automobile storage and tools look like?!!

I’m totally agree with buying good tools and do house projects yourself. My problem is finding available time. I’m most jealous of your free time to tackle all these projects. Maybe when I’m older and there’s less family/work stuff going on.

[climberevan]

That's great. I was debating running wood the length of the table as a fence, or just using the Bosch miter fence and routing in length-wise T-Track stop. Maybe I'll go with your system instead, I can pick some up tomorrow at Woodcraft and give it a whirl - thanks Gunder!

I'd counsel against running the fence the full length. A couple of feet on either side of the saw is plenty, and allows more flexibility both in how you use the tables and in dealing with less than perfectly straight material.

[Gunder]

Amazing setup Gunder. Dare is ask what your automobile storage and tools look like?!!

I’m totally agree with buying good tools and do house projects yourself. My problem is finding available time. I’m most jealous of your free time to tackle all these projects. Maybe when I’m older and there’s less family/work stuff going on.

We park the vehicles out side. Its a pretty mild climate here, so that works pretty well.

This is what it looked like when we purchased the house.


I really wanted a 3 bay garage with a seperate shop building. My wife insisted on being in town with my work having me on the road 4~6 months a year. Problem is that anything in town with 3 bays and a shop was 2 Mill plus. Heck, I dont think you can find a true 3 bay garage in town these days for less than 1.5Mill. Its stupid.

So I basically have a 2 bay garage, with one of the bays being deep enough to technically hold a third vehicle.

This is what it looked like just prior to moving the March 10ee lathe in that I am rebuilding.


If I push the cabinet saw to one side, My wife can easily park her Rav4 in there.... not that she gets to. If I ever need to work on my F250, I can squeeze it in, but I only have a few inches of space or it will hit the Bridgeport.

This is looking from the back of the garage


My ski tuning / mounting set up takes up an entire side of the extra deep stall.

Thats the side that pays for the rest of the toys.

The upside of me working non-stop all winter, is that I typically have all summer off to be with the family and doing "projects". I basically grew up with my dad working on things in his home shop... learned way more from that, than I ever did in 7 years of Engineering classes.


So, I try to go out of my way to make the shop feel fun, and inviting for my son. I also try to make it educational. Here I was teaching him about the power of levers, and he gets to smash stuff (dad's got a really fun beer can crusher)

Lowes sells these wooden toy kits for kids. Ever since my son found out about them, he always wants to go with me when I go to that hardware store. He loves putting them together.

Personally I prefer the local hardware store in town. Its Called Hardware Sales and takes up 2x2 city blocks.... I've never seen another hardware store like it, that is as well stocked with just about everything. Its a bit like walking though a McMaster-Carr catalog.

[Gunder]

I'd counsel against running the fence the full length. A couple of feet on either side of the saw is plenty, and allows more flexibility both in how you use the tables and in dealing with less than perfectly straight material.

I'd agree with this. My fence extends 4 feet to either side. Its more than wants needed to set work stops 99% of the time. I dont see a need for it being any longer.

[rideit]

There is not enough money in the world to get me to shoot a wedding. I’ll bought all of my festool stuff when we had some major home projects going on. After buying the tools and doing the work in my free time I saved over $30k off of the cheapest quote we got from the local contrators and ended up with better quality. At the end of the day I have nice tools because I don’t pay someone else to by themselves nice tools to do what I am capable of doing myself.

I kind of figured with the excellence of your action sports photography, you wouldn’t be eating cold catered chicken in a tent in a field!

[Eluder]

Personally I prefer the local hardware store in town. Its Called Hardware Sales and takes up 2x2 city blocks.... I've never seen another hardware store like it, that is as well stocked with just about everything. Its a bit like walking though a McMaster-Carr catalog.

I really miss that place, hard to explain its awesomeness.

[muted reborn]

Newest acquisition for precise measurements in the shop. Most numbers on the american side are worn down and hard to see. And the ruler measurements start 3/16 from the end of the ruler, so if you are on drugs this thing can really mess you up. Most drugs are better than this ruler IMO

[muted reborn]

I'd agree with this. My fence extends 4 feet to either side. Its more than wants needed to set work stops 99% of the time. I dont see a need for it being any longer.

Thanks Gunder and Evan. The longer extension would be for quick measurements and cuts, but it also seemed overkill for me and my smaller space. Anyways I kept the Bosch left side miter fence for now and added your reco of an Inca fence only to the right, thanks Gunder. It also has a pretty long extension I can slide into the main fence to save space.

How did you attach your Inca fence directly to the saw? I added angle aluminum to the back of mine, bolted to the plywood table, to make it work, it's not directly attached to the saw. I know it's a completely different saw, but I also know my Bosch is a rip off of your Festool in some ways so I'm curious if it's possible and easy to do for future upgrades. For now I'm fine though.

[bagtagley]

You all have a lot of free time for people with kids. I'm not sure if I should be jealous or judgy.

[muted reborn]

I built the plywood table for the saw while the kids/wife were out of town. If they were in town, it would take months of slowly chipping away at it. But yes, I'm not doing much parenting while in the shop besides a few kid projects here and there.

[ADKmike]

I basically grew up with my dad working on things in his home shop... learned way more from that, than I ever did in 7 years of Engineering classes.

Nice garage man! I like the setup, reminds me of my one-side-is-deeper bay at my place where I have a Rotary lift.

Your comment about your dad really resonates with me - learned pretty much everything I know mechanically and more from him as a kid working on stuff with him, versus anything I took away from school to become an engineer...good stuff...

[EWG]

Nice garage man! I like the setup, reminds me of my one-side-is-deeper bay at my place where I have a Rotary lift.

Your comment about your dad really resonates with me - learned pretty much everything I know mechanically and more from him as a kid working on stuff with him, versus anything I took away from school to become an engineer...good stuff...

I'll triple down on this with a twist - my grandfather's job was inventing industrial machinery, including stuff like assembly lines. Full shop in his garage, my dad had been taught well by him, etc. It was expected that if you ran into a mechanical problem you just solved it. I love the process to this day.

My kids are the same way now. My 18 year old daughter loves this stuff, always helped me with projects, was quite picky about the pliers she took to college as a freshman last week, and my knipex's were presents from her. Super cool.

Allow me a proud dad moment: girl ended up being a super smart, all state athlete who rips harder than 99% of the skiers and bikers out there male or female, who got her good looks from her mom (thank god not from me) and knows more about tools than most guys. My work here is done, man. She makes me look like I knew what I was doing. I did not.

[Gunder]

Thanks Gunder and Evan. The longer extension would be for quick measurements and cuts, but it also seemed overkill for me and my smaller space. Anyways I kept the Bosch left side miter fence for now and added your reco of an Inca fence only to the right, thanks Gunder. It also has a pretty long extension I can slide into the main fence to save space.

How did you attach your Inca fence directly to the saw? I added angle aluminum to the back of mine, bolted to the plywood table, to make it work, it's not directly attached to the saw. I know it's a completely different saw, but I also know my Bosch is a rip off of your Festool in some ways so I'm curious if it's possible and easy to do for future upgrades. For now I'm fine though.

Nice job on the fence. To attache mine, I used the Bridgeport to mill some slots in it, so I could use 6mm bolts to attach it to the same spot the factory fence was. You want to be able to slide the fence to the sides when doing miter cuts.

You all have a lot of free time for people with kids. I'm not sure if I should be jealous or judgy.

It's all about working hard at hardly working.

Nice garage man! I like the setup, reminds me of my one-side-is-deeper bay at my place where I have a Rotary lift.

Your comment about your dad really resonates with me - learned pretty much everything I know mechanically and more from him as a kid working on stuff with him, versus anything I took away from school to become an engineer...good stuff...

I'll triple down on this with a twist - my grandfather's job was inventing industrial machinery, including stuff like assembly lines. Full shop in his garage, my dad had been taught well by him, etc. It was expected that if you ran into a mechanical problem you just solved it. I love the process to this day.

My kids are the same way now. My 18 year old daughter loves this stuff, always helped me with projects, was quite picky about the pliers she took to college as a freshman last week, and my knipex's were presents from her. Super cool.

Allow me a proud dad moment: girl ended up being a super smart, all state athlete who rips harder than 99% of the skiers and bikers out there male or female, who got her good looks from her mom (thank god not from me) and knows more about tools than most guys. My work here is done, man. She makes me look like I knew what I was doing. I did not.

Thanks guys, their is a lot of joy to be had passing down knowledge and the love of working with our hands to the next generation.

[muted reborn]

Ah, much different than mine which are factory bolted horizontal and lower than the table.

all this dad talk makes me tear up. My dad also passed down everything he knows about fixing things to me - which was complete incompetence and very little patience. I can’t think of one project or household fix he did while I was growing up.

[Gunder]

Picked up a few new tools today.

I've had the Snapon utility life for years, and its been my go to knife for most things. A few months ago I picked up the Knipex Olfa style knife and it soon became my new favorite, well made (magnesium body) and takes standard Olfa blades. Its not too light and not too heavy, it also has a blade guide to support the blade for deeper cuts. Today when I was at the local HW store, I grabbed the Toughbuilt utility knife. It does double duty as a scrapper. It seems to be really well made, but its HEAVY, so not sure if I'll be reaching for it over the Knipex. It also requires you to use their blades. Those blades will fit the Snapon but the standard blades wont work in it. The hook on the end and the end shape make me want to hold it the wrong way too. So we will see if I get used to it.

I also picked up this $5 3d printed through axle holder for the bike stand. we will see how it holds up, but if it works and lasts it will be really convent to store axles in when working on the bike.

Finally I picked up some Nepro's stuff to test out, before I commit to ordering sets of sockets from them.

L to R PBSwiss 3mm short, Nepros 2.5mm, Snapon 2.5mm, Snapon 2mm, Nepros 2mm, Snapon T25 short, Nepros T25 short.
I have a few of their 90 tooth compact head ratchets and I always grab those over my Snapon ones. When it comes to hex and Torx sockets, I use the crap out of them. My PBswiss set is hands down my favorite for hex sockets. However they dont make them in the smaller sizes and the only Torx sockets they make are ⅜ drive. So I have rounded the PBswiss set out with Snapon, and have a full set of Snapon in inch sizes. However I have been less than thrilled with the Snapon hex and Torx sockets. The Snapon hex shafts dont stay in the sockets very well. Plus they tend to bend on the smaller sizes and I have deformed the T25 one quite a few times.

The Nepros seem to be way better made, are more compact and the chrome is way nicer than the Snapon. I am a bit concerned that the business ends are not ground far enough down... Time will tell.

The broaching and the socket retention on the Nepros is way nicer too. Snapon on Left Nepros on Right.
I've swapped the Nepros into the rotation and we will see how the hold up for a few months. If I like them, I think
I am going to buy a set of the long and short ¼ Torx as well as some of their Hex to fill out what PBSwiss doesn't make in ¼ Drive.

I also picked up the ¼ and ⅜ compact spinners for the ratchets.

They add a bit of length, but they do fill nice.

They also dont add too much bulk either.

Time will tell if I find them useful or annoying. We will see if they stay on.

[Pinned]

The nepros stuff looks really nice, but I'd also be worried about the actual tool part being pretty short - no opportunity to grind them down if you need to due to wear.

Wera also offers their Hex Plus sockets in 1/4" drive. Worth checking out - super nice.

[plugboots]

Every time you buy something it comes with a wrench. I just bought a new TV & it came with an Allen wrench to put on the legs that I’ll never use so they’re on a shelf in the garage until I figure out which of the 5 bins they’re supposed to go into for trash/recycling. Since forever i’ve just been tossing them in my junk drawer.

Maybe gunder could use these.

[XXX-er]

you realize the reason you got all them free tools is they are all very low quality ?

[plugboots]

you realize the reason you got all them free tools is they are all very low quality ?

Yer kidding. Huh.

[nickwm21]

Every time you buy something it comes with a wrench. I just bought a new TV & it came with an Allen wrench to put on the legs that I’ll never use so they’re on a shelf in the garage until I figure out which of the 5 bins they’re supposed to go into for trash/recycling. Since forever i’ve just been tossing them in my junk drawer.

Maybe gunder could use these.

The Z / offset shaped IKEA allen’s you have there are actually pretty workwise…. You can use a circular whip motion and quickly thread. Their T handle socket is a good design as well. I’d pay money for a quality brand to make nice versions of those…


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[plugboots]

You know that’s true, I agree, but I also have the IKEA $9.99 rechargeable electric drill with Allen sockets that works even better.

[nickwm21]

Cheap electric screwdrivers are awesome for assembly (bikes, furniture, etc). Save some time vs doing everything by hand, but not powerful enough to strip or cross-thread anything….


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[bonewrenched]

Nvm

[NuMexJoe]

Alright, so I'm ready to replace my lousy 1/2" Craftsman ratchet with something better. When I'm removing something like a threaded receiver hitch pin where there's not much swing room, the slop (it won't hold onto a socket anymore) and high degree of rotation between clicks on the ratchet means I may as well use a box end wrench for the job. I don't need top shelf, but I'd like something I'll be pleased with (and that has fewer degrees of rotation between engagement points on the ratchet) the few times I need the 1/2" drive ratchet. Bonus if I can use the handle as a makeshift hammer, e.g. to tap in a control arm bolt, so I don't' have to crawl out from under the vehicle to go get the right tool for the job. I'd be grateful for any suggestions.

[waveshello]

^ Timely! I just broke my 1/2" ratchet and need to find a replacement as well.

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