Garage Shop: Tools

Bought myself a little press a few days ago, which arrived yesterday.



I opted for the 'deluxe' package as it not only saves you money for their 4-way die, but the package itself was on sale making the die a lot less expensive.



Now, just wanted to give an example of a few bends as this is the main reason for investing in it.

The swag kit I own, even with stacked angle iron or an improvised die setup, creates too large of a bend radius on thinner material (even 3/16").



That just made me look into doing relief cuts and creating a tighter bend radius myself using a vice.

Worked out, made a lot of brackets and even bed stiffeners that I sold on here.

To keep it comparable to the above item, here's 16 gauge bent with a large relief cut.



Much tighter than the swag kit and this was just using the edge of my welding table.



However, the bend press uses not only 4140 tooling for the punch and bottom die, it also uses a much more angled punch to better utilize the 4 way die for whatever thickness you need.

Here's 16 gauge.





Easily a big difference.



Since I've got some parts I'll be making in the near future, I also wanted to incorporate my own backstop.















Came out square like it's supposed to.



Really want to get those locking pins but they're like $60 for just 4 of them. Either need to find a cheap set of 2 or just use bolts but she's done.



I'll get an air over hydraulic setup eventually (like I ran on the swag kit). Just happen to have this jack lying around new and never used.

 

Very interesting work and tooling.

 

Poor man's setup

 

i was going to ask when you were going to make that change. it doesn't make sense not to considering the other air you need in the shop.


but if we're comparing 'poor man's setups' it'll be a really bad race to the bottom.

i have this
https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-6-inch-vise-press-brake.html


never actually used it yet. i needed it for a few different projects before i had it, and completed all those with a hammer and bending around a piece of angle iron... now i haven't needed it since...

 

I have that same brake setup! I actually bought it for making L shaped tabs for mounting stuff on a wall and never actually used it (still has oil on the dies)

The new brake setup wasn't cheap....but it was kind of a sudden purchase so I didn't want to go spending another $150 on an air jack right away when I had this one just sitting there

Call it poor man's setup cause it's tiny, and some people have these badass 50 ton+ presses in their own home

 

I wish "The Want Ad" came back. I don't know if it was in everyone's area, but it was a cool thing out here in New England. Like Craigslist before Craigslist was a thing.

 

i've got one local paper like that. the classified/want-ad section is almost entirely old hoarders looking to buy other old hoarders collections. every once in a while there's a listing for something, but most of the audience has transitioned to online.

used to also have auto trader catalogs at the grocery checkout that did the same thing. i picked up one of those recently, and it's entirely dealer listings, with most pushing newer vehicles and financing options.

 

I have had an electric garage heater in my Amazon cart since last winter. It went on sale for prime days for 55% off, so I pulled the trigger and bought it. The day after I recieved it it went down to 70% off. So I got ahold of an Amazon customer service representative which was not easy, and they gave me another $28 back as an Amazon credit, perfect. So I got this thing for a little over $110 ish.
I also got a wall mount thermostat for it instead of the built in one. It runs off a 40amp 220v circuit, 7,000 watts. I'm not trying to heat the whole garage just the area in front of the workbench. No kerosene or propane, just turn it on. It'll work well for me since I'm not out in the garage much in the winter except for occasional projects. Wintertime I'm in the basement woodshop.
it has good reviews on YouTube.







I hope to get some of the installation done today. Gotta run some 8 gage romex to it after I hang it.

 

7000A, that'll heat the sun...

Love my unit, old and ghetto, but heats the ever living shit outta the shop.

 

Oops, I meant 7000 watts, lol.

 

Got the heater installed yesterday. Ran 8 gage romex and a 40 amp breaker. 16 gage wire for the thermostat.
I had to make a bracket to mount the heater to the rafters.

Just a cut 2x6 and some scrap plywood. Plenty strong for the heater to hang from

Bracket and hanger mounted.

And the heater hung in place.

And the thermostat will make it convienient.

I tested it briefly and it does blow some serious heat, was kind of surprising really. But I quickly shut it off as it was already 84 degrees in the garage. Fall and winter will be the real test. I think it will do just fine heating the area in front of the workbench.

 

What is this?

Cleaning out my grandfather's old tool chest- probably hasn't been sorted through since the 1980's; found this:





it has a notch at the end, to fit into some kind of chuck?

 

It is the center flow control "valve" in a single-lever kitchen faucet.

 

Thank You!

 

Gotta love guys that don't throw a f'n thing away, and I'm guilty as hell!

 

I'm a little surprised to see you not out camping/exploring...

 

What's your ceiling height? I've thought of putting one in my garage but I don't think I'd gain much over a tall set of jackbstands

 

I loaded my 72" in a u haul. Some beer for my friends was what I used to get it up the ramp.

 

I ended up emptying it out completely and three friends came over and push it up the ramp.
This move has been very complicated by my getting an really bad open fractor in my lower leg and ankle on 7/1, uhaul canceling our reservation the day before we were gonna pick it up so had to get a commercial penske(damn the deck is high) and the starter in my civic gave out day the truck got loaded. Friend of mine came and installed the new starter in the driveway which only took about an hour. Starting to think this move is cursed but luckily my wife is a real trooper and her parents came down to help drive.

 

I’m just over 10ft. I worked in a friends garage with a similar setup and it worked well. We used his to do a frame swap on an 01 Tacoma, I’ll be using mine for similar.

Made more progress over the last few weeks, close to getting up and runningAs I discussed, cut 4’ x 4’ x 8” deep squares, epoxied steel stubs and tied in bars around perimeter Came out pretty clean
I recessed the tunnel that covers the hydraulic lines and cable and mounted 3/4 ply to it- my friend’s has the tunnel on top of the slab, really frustrating not being able to roll a creeper all the way front to back.Got the electrical run, 10-2 off a dual pole 30amp breaker- still need to hook up in the panelBoth towers pretty dead on plumb in all directions, close enough for me.

Building a shed outside for this guy- older Champion VR5-8 compressor, got it for $750 (new is over $4000) from an old timer who is retired and rebuilds big compressors as a hobby.

I’ll be happy when the lift is done and the compressor is hooked up outside, I’m sick of not having a functioning garage.