Yesterday was my birthday, and my wife gave me a cheap little import drone for my Birthday. More on Drones later. I had a nice leisurely breakfast, and probably one to many cups of coffee. Then I maneuvered trailers around in the yard to make more room for my son’s BAJA SAE race team to…
The cast aluminum (or maybe zamak) handle on the Y-axis gib lock busted and fell off on the South Bend SB1028F mill a while ago. I can get by without it most of the time, and if had to I could grab the head of the screw with a pair of water pump pliers or…
I bought this for a difficult job. Some old hard offroad tires. Eventually it did “help” with it, but it certainly wasn’t a magic answer. The feet on it do not line up. This makes it impossible to push in between the rim and the bead. I pulled the two fixed feet off and milled…
This is the 5th company I’ve checked out and the 4th one I actually tried. I think this 4 color embroidered logo is the best one I have received. Get It Now: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/UH2UMJ95HNC9E
I’ve always struggled as a welder, but eventually I get it most times. One thing I do when it has to work the first time is cut some stock piece the same size and make a few practices welds before welding the work piece. I did this a lot learning to MIG weld aluminum. It…
There will be plenty of people come along hoping for that big sponsor money trying to tell you how wonderful it is and everything it will do. They are welcome to see how much sell out money they can get, but I’m not into that. I paid full price for my X5 from Amazon. No…
This is a place to park my tractor out of the sun, and do maintenance on a hot summer day. Might also get some work done on Whisker Seeker under there since shop spaces is at a premium these days. Part #1 – Is really just an unboxing with a few clips deleted at the…
Quick Easy Vise Hold Down Clamps
Some of you might recall I bought a Bridgeport CNC Mill (project) a while back. The plan is to update it to a modern control like I did with the Hurco KMB1 many years ago. What you might not know is its still on the trailer. I pulled the Procraft out of the shop and…
A buddy of mine (Mike Meza) has a side hustle, hauling containers from the coast and selling them locally. He recently had a customer order three containers, but after two were delivered, they decided they didn’t need the third one, so he called me. I didn’t steal it, but it was a couple hundred dollars…
I didn’t buy all the shelving I wanted for 40ft High Cube, but I did figure out if I buy three sets of this 90x24x90 shelving I could crass link the to get five spans of storage in the container. It doesn’t look like it, but I have already started making room in the shop….
AFTER ALL THESE YEARS – I finally found a use for the Harbor Freight pipe kinker. The pipe die was a perfect guide for the chain.
Retrofit Vevor 12000lb Jack on Gooseneck Trailer – Part 1
I wanted something for hauling a canoe or sometimes a ladder that didn’t need to stay on the truck. Its “okay” for the price. I think they say it’s good for 800 lbs. I’m skeptical, but it should be okay for the canoe I plan to carry on it. In retrospect I think I would…
Merry Christmas to me. – TOOL SCORE!!! I bought a second machine that uses the Kwik 200 tool holders. I didn’t really want to split up tool holders between the two machines. Not for stuff I would routinely use. I ran across a discount listed in the title that wasn’t shown in the actual price…
A NEW (to me) MACHINE IN THE SHOP For Making Soft Plastic Baits. I bought a used mini shooting star injection machine to play with in the shop. Follow my adventures using this new toy for making worms, swimbaits, creatures grubs & more. https://rumble.com/v5zmy1n-a-new-to-me-machine-in-the-shop-for-making-soft-plastic-baits.html
Making a Fixture Plate to Cut Four Parts at Once Instead of Just One If I throw a piece of material in the vise I can make one part. If I throw a fixture plate in the vise I can make as many parts as will fit in the work envelope of the machine with…
From Making Stuff For The Shop https://www.tacklemaker.info/index.php?topic=102.0
Where to find WHOLESALE Struck Coin Blanks ??? Discussion: Struck Coins
Yes, it is another CNC machine, but I probably will not be making molds with it. Its a gantry style CNC machine sometimes called a bridge mill. Its less about the rigidity required for efficiently machining metal, and more about the larger foot print for machining sheet goods. This one has a working envelope of…
My son replaced leaking hydraulic seals for me on my little tractor loader a couple years ago. He seemed to do a good job, but after a year they started to leak again. Pretty badly. As you may have noticed I do a lot of work myself, because a fair number of local shops and…
Its going to get used for roughing blanks, but its going to take a lot of work to retrofit it to a modern control before I can use it. Probably the first chore will be getting it off the trailer, and onto a pallet to move it around the shop. VIDEO:
Bob Rants – If You Call Me Early in The Morning It Better Be An Emergency or You Better be Parked in My Driveway With Your Boat Ready to Take Me Fishing I’ve been supportive of another proprietor. I’ve sent business their way for years. When they went through a transition in their life recently…
Geometric Self Opening Die Heads I’ve made simple die heads. Some driven by a tommy bar, others by a pin in the mandrel that can be set up come out of the groove and free spin when it reaches the stopping distance. recently I started researching my $350 Lin Huan TL-25 lathe score in the…
Converted an R8 tool rack into a 4MT tool rack. First ten seconds and last minute is probably all you need to see to get it. Preferred Video Link
Before Father’s Day I had been looking at a couple Yukon (Harbor Freight) toolbox benches to replace the pair of to small US General tool carts I’ve been using as tool carts at the South Bend (Grizzly) knee mill and Precision Mathews (14×40) lathe in the back shop. I added them to the shopping cart…
As I’ve posted before my dad had a lot of stuff which I am tasked with using, repurposing, or getting rid of. Things like a couple similar size generators side by side that both started on the first or second pull and ran appropriately with a load. (No, I didn’t scope them.) I have just…
Okay… maybe that’s a bit of an over statement, but it needs to be repaired! Please follow along as I figure this out.
I’ve got a pretty good travel tool kit my wife gave me for Christmas several years ago. It’s got enough tools it might qualify as a starter mechanics set. It’s one of the more complete all in one mechanics sets I’ve seen for a travel set. It’s also pretty heavy as you might imagine. For…
I had asked about the Weldmark 187 a while back. It says Weldmark on the front, Hobart Bros on the side, and Miller on the gun. Yesterday I needed to weld some spring centers on some new axles… long story. It would have been more work than it was worth to make space to drag…
Well… nothing much to get excited about. I got the old axles off. Okay they are heavy. Maybe solid. Never expected that. The old spring stacks are also much taller than the new spring stacks. I’m going to see if I can use the old springs and hardware, but the tires and wheels are slightly…
For the last tournament we fished I towed the ProCraft out to the lake with my Jeep. Its within the tow capacity (just barely), but I would rather use my truck. The AC wasn’t working in the truck, and its warming up here in Arizona. Anyway, the Jeep towed it just fine, except the hitch…
If you have followed me for very long you know I can do a lot of things and take on a lot of projects and repairs myself. Its not because I’m cheap or because I don’t have any money… Okay sometimes it is. Often however if I just worked at MY JOB I’d be money…
Master Mechanic used to be Made in USA and had a great warranty. I seem to recall it was supposedly lifetime. I know in our little country store we replaced Master Mechanic tools on the spot and Cotter & Co (True Value Hardware and V&S Variety) reimbursed us periodically. Then they changed to made in…
I may be pulling a 351W engine out of an 82 Bronco soon. It was parked back in the late 90s or early 2000s with low oil pressure. This will make the 4th or 5th time that engine was out. First time it jumped time at just over the 26K warranty. Dealer pulled it and…
No affiliate links here. These companies barely answer “some” customer service emails. Neither has ever given me a free product much less any money.
I had been begrudging the cost of the motor for the Twister surface drive I bought for Bar Hopper. Initially I had planned on a Predator 670 V-twin from Harbor Freight. Its about a thousand dollars at this time, but its a 22hp motor. That’s 22 crankshaft horsepower. There is really no other way to…
Its Thanksgiving day and I’m out in the shop. No its not a bad thing… not exactly. I spent some time yesterday getting ready for the holiday, and the day before I spent probably 3 hours on the phone with a customer that will probably never spend a dime. I had hope to spend that…
SLJ #1 – Busted Laundry Hamper – Video Yep, its just like it sounds. Guy hacks his way through a “simple” repair of a laundry hamper.
A couple years ago I needed a rack on the Jeep to haul my Uncle Paul’s Canoe back from Ohio. It worked okay. You can read about it here: Trail FX Rack Installation The Trail FX Rack did the job like I said. It was okay, but I had to cut the stock plastic bumper…
Ha! Thanks for the mention Joe. Thanks for being a good sport about the cardboard tube Joe. I usually use a little larger tube, but that’s the one that was laying on the lathe tools cart when I thought to send it to you. So much stock comes in cardboard tubes I always have some…
I’ve been busy with other projects. Work of course. Due to a variety of higher priority demands on my time I just haven’t hade much time for things like fishing or working on boats. I still haven’t even installed the winch on the Jeep yet. I installed an EV charging station in my garage for…
One of the things I did the other day making room to work on Whisker Seeker out of the sun was make some big hooks for things for extension cords, flex conduit, extra stock air, wire, cable, liquid, and oil lines, etc. It took up more space on the floor than you might think. The…
VIDEO: Replacing the 2017 Jeep JK Bumper – New Winch Bumper
Originally Posted on July 30th 2021 Installed the TrailFX rack on the ’17 Jeep JK with the help of my son. We were not aware that it requires the removal of the bumper to install or do a sheet metal installation through the tail light hole. We pulled the bumper and bolted it to the…
