Garage Shop: Tools

I have 4 8-foot 2-bulb fluorescent fixtures in my garage, and I upgraded the bulbs to LED bulbs from superbriteleds.com.

IIRC, they cost about $250. Totally worth it. Significantly brighter, no flicker, no buzzing in the winter. And, I should never have to mess with the bulbs again.

I pulled the ballasts out, as these bulbs wired direct to AC.

I appreciate the upgrade every time I go in the garage and turn on the lights.

 

Not tools specifically, but got a bunch of cabinets. Wal-Mart had these one sale/clearance awhile ago so I decided to pick some up. have to say...its been an adventure. I ended up placing two orders..one for 5 and the next for 6.



Wal-Mart themselves have been awesome to deal with. The shipping company they use for freight (Pilot) sucks. The shipping company pretty much just stacked the boxes on a pallet and didnt bother to secure them to said pallet. My first order of five.....well I got three of them. Two of them were beat to crap box wise. One was missing the hardware and had some good dents/bent pieces. The other just had some cosmetic damage. They were all supposed to be 36" wide ones but i ended up with a 48" wide one out of the three i did get. So cant complain there. The end point freight company (Pilot picks up from Wal-Mart and delivers to a freight company close ot you to finish the delivery apparently) was awesome and had documented the damage, filled out some paperwork for me, and had taken pictures in case I needed them.

With all that....I had to call up Wal-Mart. Took a bit as the lady apparently had to get help. But ended up refunding the two missing ones and then gave an additional 50% off the two damaged ones which more than covers me having to pick up some hardware.

The second order of six was in worse shape. Same shipping method of just tossing them on a pallet and not securing them. So four out of the six had beat up boxes. The two I pulled out at home seemed to be in good shape though. We will see what Wal-Mart does for these four when I give them a call.


But all that aside....the build quality is decent. I've got some interesting plans for one or two of them so Ill post when I modify them a bit. Adding casters to them was also a nice move on my part. makes them easy to move around the shop...which Im sure I will be doing plenty of as I finish the interior.

 

those are great! i have something similar i acquired from work. Nice with the wheels also. great find.

 

The wheels are nice that's for! Least for now since I'll be moving them around to work on the interior. Definitely don't want to move them to much as the mount for them is a bit flimsy and could bend /break if it hit something. It's just a riv nut in a 3/16 thick piece of sheet metal

 

I was wondering about that. I've considered putting some metal cabinets on casters for my garage but assumed I'd need to build a wood or steel base for them to ensure they're rigid enough.

 

I'd say some of it depends on how the base of the cabinet is. For example these are two different types that Im adding casters to. The first you can see doesnt really sit flush and ends up with a lot of "stick out". Its also just a rivnut. So its fine for moving it around to clean under it or just moving from point a to point b every so often but i wouldnt want to be moving it daily.



The second is flush with the bottom so it doesnt have as much play to it. Its a lot sturdier feeling. This is the type I would want if moving it around often.



Course building a base is the best route for these "cheaper" type cabinets. O and dont mind how loose things seem in the pictures. Nothing was actually tightened down

 

Very cool. I have added nice casters to my grinder stand, my smoker, table thingie, I even redid an HD dolly with large softer wheel casters. It usually involves drilling and nutting.

 

Recently did a bit of reorganizing in my main tool box, in an effort to avoid getting a bigger one. I'll still probably end up with a bigger box to try and combine my two boxes into one. Also, if you use your box professionally, and open the drawers a hundred times a day, don't get the Milwaukee branded boxes. The drawer slides are garbage. The drawers are also just generally too small.

Happy with the cheap magnetic holders off Amazon I cut to size for the screw drivers.

 

Sometimes the smallest tools lead to the biggest victories..

 

Ooh... that scratches an itch like no other!

 

TFW you successfully back out a busted bolt.

 

Fukr gonna snap in two just looking at it!!

 

Had a sprayer that stopped working. Opened her up found a broken spring. Went to home cheapo and got a spring set. Better than factory!!

 

Picked up this big girl. M18 Fuel 1/2" impact. Would still like to get a 3/8" stubby impact but need to wait for a deal.

 

is that the mid-torque, or high torque?

 

Thinking of adding a die grinder to the mix, pneumatic.

Recommendations for something inexpensive, but also not cheap chinesium crap that'll fail after 2-3 uses?

 

High torque. Had a chance to borrow one when I was changing my truck diff out. Those ring gear bolts are tight as hell if you don't have a jig to stop it from turning! This gun didn't even have to try. The mid torque may have done the job but I don't know, so I didn't want to buy one to find out.