Tool Review Time

[Adieu]

Bosch Daredevil 12 in. QC Spade Drill Bit Extension DQCE1012 - The Home Depot

The Bosch 12 in. Daredevil QC Space Bit Ext is convenient to use and available in black color. It comes with assembled dimensions of 0.5 in. d x 1.75 in. w x 15.5 in. h. It is specially designed for professional

www.homedepot.com

If you ever needed to get a bit to a screw in a hard-to-reach place that's really deep... you need this.

BMW has a recall for the heated crankcase vent valve on one of their inline-6 engines. Getting to said crankcase vent valve on the inner curve of a C-shaped intake manifold is a pain in the ass, and involves removing the alternator... unless you have one of these extensions and one of these 90-degree adapters:

Milwaukee 1/4 in. Hex Offset Drive Adapter-48-32-2100 - The Home Depot

Fasten or remove screws in light applications up to 400 RPM with the Milwaukee 1/4 in. Hex Offset Drive Adapter and your 2.4-Volt cordless screwdriver. This adapter achieves a maximum of 100 in. lbs. of torque and features durable die cast construction and accepts 1/4 in. magnetic bits. The...

www.homedepot.com

A co-worked loaned me those two tools, and through working like a surgeon through the gaps between the intake runners, I had that vent valve done in 1/3 the time, without even touching the serpentine belt, much less removing the alternator.

Needless to say, I ordered my own of each on the spot. I already picked up the Bosch extension from Home Depot (by the way, their buy online-curbside pickup service is fantastic, and a huge time-saver right now!), and I'm waiting on my 90-degree adapter I ordered online (I ordered a Titan adapter from Northern, we'll see how it compares to the Milwaukee when it gets here, it may get returned in favor of waiting on the actual Milwaukee version).

 

[Noobz347]

Anyone have recommendations for an El-cheapo, hobby, stick welder?

 

[Adieu]

Anyone have recommendations for an El-cheapo, hobby, stick welder?

Pawn shops, Craigslist, garage/estate sales.

I mean, you can go the Harbor Freight, Amazon, or big-box retailer route, but you can frequently find deals on good, older welders that weren't made in China on the used market.

 

[Noobz347]

Pawn shops, Craigslist, garage/estate sales.

I mean, you can go the Harbor Freight, Amazon, or big-box retailer route, but you can frequently find deals on good, older welders that weren't made in China on the used market.

Yeah... I'm not looking to go to any garage sales over the next couple weeks and I want to be welding on my lawn tractor before Friday.

I have a mask and gloves, and a basic concept of welding.

I need a portable machine for dragging around my 80 acres and welding tractors and hitches and hobby welding and stuff. I'll get a Mig once the house is done and I know where I'm going to put it.

 

[Noobz347]

This is the one I ended up ordering:

Amazon product ASIN B07W637CFWView: https://smile.amazon.com/Professional-Welding-Machine-100-250V-Voltage/dp/B07W637CFW/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=stick+welder&qid=1588285660&sr=8-5


I had to dig my welding mask out of mothballs and make sure it still works. I also got some gloves, the slag multi-tool, 10lbs of 6010 sticks and... I think that was it.

More to come after I've had a chance to play with it a bit. It should be here this week.

 

[Ronin38]

Have fun with it!

And don't burn the house down...

 

[Noobz347]

Have fun with it!

And don't burn the house down...

Oh yes. It arrived. I plugged it directly into my 220V outlet that I wired in for the air compressor and viola! It worked just fine, I fixed my tractor and all is well.

The unit is super light weight and I can toss it on the trailer with my portable generator to weld anywhere not he property.

The only I forgot to order initially was a welding shirt. I picked up a cheapy green one for $15 on Amazon and good to go.



In other news!


I must haz


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khz3Plb5nPk

 

[Noobz347]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCtAolWk9ak

 

[Adieu]

Harbor Freight Jack Stands:

Apparently, they suck!

Customer Service at Harbor Freight Tools - Product Support

Harbor Freight buys their top quality tools from the same factories that supply our competitors. We cut out the middleman and pass the savings to you!

www.harborfreight.com

Harbor Freight has recalled several models of their 3 and 6 ton jack stands. Click the link above for detailed information.

I have two sets of these, and while I've used mine for years without issue, you better believe I'm going to go turn mine in for the refund and find something better. I also have a pair of Torin jack stands that are 14 years old, and a pair Blackhawk of truck jack stands that's probably 40 years old, but sometimes I'm working on more than one car at a time. I'm looking into Sunex or Esco for my replacements for the defective Harbor Freight stands.

I know I've made several posts on the subject of the recall, but that's because I'm trying to make sure as many SN members as possible get the information. @90sickfox also created a thread on it in the fox-body section.

SPREAD THE WORD!

 

[Ronin38]

Make as many posts as you want to on this. A couple of the car forums I've been on have lost a member or two to a car falling on them.

 

[Adieu]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I love your drawers.

You'll love what I did to the socket drawer this week.

I hate the "built-in" Lista toolbox I'm stuck with at work. I especially hate that I'm still making payments on a far superior Matco 4S triple-bay with add-ons that's currently sitting mostly empty in a rented storage unit. I can't bring the Matco box to work, and I knew I'd be stuck with the Lista going in, and while I may be stuck putting up with it's clunkiness, lack of depth, and other inadequacies, I don't have to put up with Lista's ty drawer liners.

A $5.00 yoga mat from FiveBelow works PERFECTLY. It's thicker, softer, has more grip, looks better, and is super easy to cut to shape/size with a razor blade. I'm doing other drawers in other colors and tracing some of them out like my wrench drawer and ratchet/pry-bar drawer from earlier. The little change made such a huge difference, and made the box much easier to live with.

 

[Ryuk]

You'll love what I did to the socket drawer this week.

I hate the "built-in" Lista toolbox I'm stuck with at work. I especially hate that I'm still making payments on a far superior Matco 4S triple-bay with add-ons that's currently sitting mostly empty in a rented storage unit. I can't bring the Matco box to work, and I knew I'd be stuck with the Lista going in, and while I may be stuck putting up with it's clunkiness, lack of depth, and other inadequacies, I don't have to put up with Lista's ty drawer liners.

A $5.00 yoga mat from FiveBelow works PERFECTLY. It's thicker, softer, has more grip, looks better, and is super easy to cut to shape/size with a razor blade. I'm doing other drawers in other colors and tracing some of them out like my wrench drawer and ratchet/pry-bar drawer from earlier. The little change made such a huge difference, and made the box much easier to live with.

I have those sockets holders and LOVE them! I also discovered there are a lot of gaps in my socket collection and the OCD in me is fighting with the thrifty Scotsman in me to figure out the best way to fill them out.

 

[Adieu]

I have those sockets holders and LOVE them! I also discovered there are a lot of gaps in my socket collection and the OCD in me is fighting with the thrifty Scotsman in me to figure out the best way to fill them out.

My 1/2" drive six-point set had a lot of gaps because Harbor Freight. It's been filled out with individual sockets from Kobalt, Sunex, Gearwrench, and Klutch. My chrome 3/8" drive sets were missing a couple to fill the pegs, and while the deeps on both sets are SnapOn, I wasn't spending SnapOn money to fill those slots. Those are Klutch, Duralast, Kobalt, Gearwrench, and Williams.

The 1/4" Matco set had a couple of skips I filled with Duralast at each end, and the long-missing 10mm was replaced with a Husky from the Home Depot next door to the VW/Hyundai dealership I worked for at the time. Some of the Husky tool lineup is pure garbage, but I've found their sockets and wrenches to not just be good for cheap tools, they're good... period.


For filling the gaps, shop around. Most skips are of less-commonly used sizes anyway, and that 1/2 set is still skipping 26mm because there is simply no pegs on the rack for it. Some of the mismatched fill-ins have yet to be used, which makes me glad I shopped around and bought what was cheap.

The rest of the sets are complete and matched:
SnapOn mid-deeps.

Astro Pnuematic stubbies.

Sunex impact deeps, shallows, and wobbles.

Matco Torx, stubby torx, and stubby triple-squares.

Pittsburgh E-torx with a few Snap-on, Matco, Hazet, and Grey Pneumatic added in for specific applications.

Harbor Freight 1/2-drive torx and deep e-torx.

Lisle Motorq.

Cal-Hawk 1/4" wobbles.

Harbor Freight deep 1/2" drive 12-points (tons of skips, haven't bothered to fill, or buy shallow, set is augmented by two OEM Tools sockets for larger sizes)

Gearwrench wobble E-torx.

Neiko standard and deep triple-squares.

Mac 1/2-drive allens.

Sunex stubby allens.

SnapOn stubby pass-throughs.

Matco stubby Phillips.

And various other pieces. All but one extension in the trays in the middle is SnapOn (the oddball is a Thorsen).

Some people look at all the tools I own and see a wise investment. I see the money I should've spent on a college education instead.

I don't even like working on cars anymore... but for some reason, I still love tools.

 

[Ryuk]

My 1/2" drive six-point set had a lot of gaps because Harbor Freight. It's been filled out with individual sockets from Kobalt, Sunex, Gearwrench, and Klutch. My chrome 3/8" drive sets were missing a couple to fill the pegs, and while the deeps on both sets are SnapOn, I wasn't spending SnapOn money to fill those slots. Those are Klutch, Duralast, Kobalt, Gearwrench, and Williams.

The 1/4" Matco set had a couple of skips I filled with Duralast at each end, and the long-missing 10mm was replaced with a Husky from the Home Depot next door to the VW/Hyundai dealership I worked for at the time. Some of the Husky tool lineup is pure garbage, but I've found their sockets and wrenches to not just be good for cheap tools, they're good... period.


For filling the gaps, shop around. Most skips are of less-commonly used sizes anyway, and that 1/2 set is still skipping 26mm because there is simply no pegs on the rack for it. Some of the mismatched fill-ins have yet to be used, which makes me glad I shopped around and bought what was cheap.

The rest of the sets are complete and matched:
SnapOn mid-deeps.

Astro Pnuematic stubbies.

Sunex impact deeps, shallows, and wobbles.

Matco Torx, stubby torx, and stubby triple-squares.

Pittsburgh E-torx with a few Snap-on, Matco, Hazet, and Grey Pneumatic added in for specific applications.

Harbor Freight 1/2-drive torx and deep e-torx.

Lisle Motorq.

Cal-Hawk 1/4" wobbles.

Harbor Freight deep 1/2" drive 12-points (tons of skips, haven't bothered to fill, or buy shallow, set is augmented by two OEM Tools sockets for larger sizes)

Gearwrench wobble E-torx.

Neiko standard and deep triple-squares.

Mac 1/2-drive allens.

Sunex stubby allens.

SnapOn stubby pass-throughs.

Matco stubby Phillips.

And various other pieces. All but one extension in the trays in the middle is SnapOn (the oddball is a Thorsen).

Some people look at all the tools I own and see a wise investment. I see the money I should've spent on a college education instead.

I don't even like working on cars anymore... but for some reason, I still love tools.

I've reached that point myself. I still like having the 90 and enjoy a little project here and there, but if it comes down to major work like I had to do with the 70, it's probably going away.

 

[Adieu]

js-details

Harbor Freight buys their top quality tools from the same factories that supply our competitors. We cut out the middleman and pass the savings to you!

www.harborfreight.com

They have expanded the recall to include more model numbers.

 

[Olivethefet]

Good to know. I'll check mine tonight

 

[Olivethefet]

Turns out I have jack stands that like to crush you...

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Noobz347]

My dream toolbox



That is all.

 

[Adieu]

My dream toolbox



That is all.

Meh, that Paccar maintenance would get old quick. Find me one with a Cummins and we're talking.

 

[Adieu]

How to get SnapOn sockets for less:

Below, you'll see my Williams 12-point 6mm 3/8-drive socket, and my SnapOn 12-point 9mm 3/8-drive socket.

As you go through the pictures, note all of the similarities, and how the only real differences (other than the size), are cosmetic.




They're even both made in the USA, and both use SnapOn's date coding system (in fact, these were made in the same year).

Now, let's look at the price:

Snap-on Store

shop.snapon.com

Amazon product ASIN B00A1BMGP0View: https://www.amazon.com/Williams-31609-8-Inch-Shallow-Socket/dp/B00A1BMGP0/ref=sr_1_22?dchild=1&keywords=williams+9mm+12+point+socket&qid=1594261783&sr=8-22



That's right, in the same 9mm size, the Williams is $10 cheaper.

The big difference in Williams and SnapOn tools, other than price, is that Williams is marketed towards industrial customers, while SnapOn is marketed towards automotive customers. They both have lifetime warranties, both are made here, and both are of exceptional quality.

Want a catch? Here's the catch: SnapOn owns Williams.

Just some food for thought.