Garage Shop: Tools

Been working on my wood shop. Decided to go full tools-on-the-wall in here… despite my Dads strong dislike of such schemes. lol. So these are the first of the French cleats to go up.

Why all the breaks? The ply comes off to get access to run wires… so I can’t cover the screw heads.

Totally unintentional but from this angle looks very much like flags!

 

And just got one of these… it is awesome! Best little level I’ve ever used. Seems dead on and the app is great. No more craning my head to read the display!!! Might be the best $40 I’ve ever spent.

 

Guess this is kinda of garage related lol. Converted my kids power wheels to run off my 18v makita batteries. Last longer, more power, and charge way faster than the 12v power wheels battery. Not to mention it's way lighter and easier to swap out when it runs out of juice. Plus already have a bunch of batteries on hand. All around way better imo!

 

Did that to my friends kid has with a m18, its way faster now, I think future next step is adding a second m18 battery in parallel for the drive motor but isolating the non drive electronics to only one m18. Should be crazy, maybe it can pull wheelies then.

 

Putting a 2 post lift in Winch came in handy, the posts are heavy

 

i feel like that's far too small of an area of concrete for loading a 2-post lift...

most times i've seen a pad re-poured for a lift, it's a solid pad the width of the lift +2ft, and about 3-4ft in each direction off the legs as well.

 

I’ll edit my response-

The piers I poured are are 2 ft+ deep, dug to hard pan, mushroomed at the base with rebar L verts at the corners, grids every 12”, and undermining the slab several inches in all directions, then a 6” x 12” rebar reinforced grade beam connecting them.

I’ve been reading and should’ve done more research. I think I’ll cut 4’ x 4’ around each post, dig down 8”, drill and epoxy #4 to the piers and tie a grid. I did add a scoop of cement to every 2 bags to up the strength and let them mix thoroughly. I did not plan to put any weight on it for at least a few weeks while the concrete cures

I will say, some of the info is all over, some people cut 3ft x 3ft squares, dug down 6in, put some rebar in it and called it a day. Others cut a 4ft rectangle a foot longer than the posts, dug down maybe 4”, did their rebar and that was it.

I think I’ll be good once I do the 4ft squares, I’d think for settling it’s got nowhere to g ok being at bearing soil, and I think it’d be near impossible for it to displace the soil front to back in terms of front of garage to back, biggest concern might be side to side, but I don’t see it happening especially with the larger base at slab height

 

100% my daughter had one of the powerwheels 12v quads, for fun wired it to a 18v Milwaukee, that thing will absolutely spin the plastic wheels. but my current projects per my kids are to get their powerwheels jeeps back running, I'm not sure what they did but I've 3 jeeps all converted and not a single one runs at the moment, so time to check fuses or see if they melted the wiring.

 

Well not just tools but spent my weekend moving all sorts of junk around in the shop and getting it ready for new projects, put up new shelves, and work spaces, its not been cleaned completely since last June. wish id have taken a before. threw so much scrap in the bin, and was sorting fluids, and realized that I have way to much old oil. maybe i need to build an oil burner.

also despite the angle of this all its a 40x40 shop. I'm standing in the middle of the front bay doors and did a panoramic shot.

 

Yeah my kids are having a blast on the quads. My 3 year old daughter is still getting used to it and can be a bit fast for her at times lol. But my 7 year old son rips on em haha. Luckily the converters I bought came with an inline fuse and on/off switch on the wires. Hopefully they don't burn anything up.

 

Do you need to do anything to step down the voltage, or do they just run fine on 18v? I'm making an assumption they are 12v motors.

 

I use these powerwheel motors/gearboxes to turn my brewing grain mills. The motors might endure 18-20V for a while, but they don't like it.

 

i have on all of them a speed controller, that has a fuse that is under the metal cage found that the last time my kids "broke one" after opening up the controller to see if they cooked off the board or something, and then I always wire in a 30 amp fuse. but somehow it only seems to happen when I've nieces and nephews over they always seem to be able to brick one when they are there, actually now that i think about it. all 3 of them were drug back to my shop by my daughter and son so maybe its all just fuses

 

depends on what one you have the quads can be 6 volt, and 12 volt, depends on what one you have a 18v battery is 3x as much literal power as the 6v system and likely will cook wiring at some point. my 12v jeeps i just use the 18v battery and haven't had much issue but I use an inline fuse. though I may switch to a breaker style next so I can just reset it when it goes out.

$19 H Battery Adapter for Milwaukee 18V M18 XC18 Dock Power Connector 12 Gauge Robot

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TYGLSPZ?ie=UTF8 (use this for my battery, they also make them for dewalt, and makita, and ryobi)

$15 RioRand 7-70V PWM DC Motor Speed Controller Switch 30A

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071NQ5G71?ie=UTF8 ( an this is the speed controller, thought these were mostly for when my kids were smaller)

 

I know a few Facebook groups I'm in who swap over to RC car brushless motors they say can endure way more and often have metal gears to drive the wheels so that may be an option for you too

 

The problem is that the 12v motor will spin ~25% faster on 18-20V. That's not insignificant. They're cooled by a small fan in the end. If it gets hotter faster, that may cause the fuse to blow.

 

the 6v one's run quite a long time off 18v. if it's any indication, the 12v should last a very long time due to how much closer the voltage is.

i had pulled a 6v single-seater batman car out of the garbage a while back, and let the nephews at it with a fresh m18 6.0. it only had one powered rear wheel, so they took turns doing burnouts in the driveway, and then started spinning out..

it lasted about 2 hours until one of them tried going offroading through the grass all the way around the house. it made it one full time around, the second time the grass was too much and the motor let out the magic smoke. that was 1 bar on the battery gauge.

i was surprised at how long it went. had they kept it to the pavement, it likely would've gone a whole lot longer.

i've also got my 'covid project jeep'/'mobile phone charger' that was fully updated to a 24v power system, with a 12v converter for lights, usb charger, and horn. the switches are all waterproof, so i can even leave it outside on camping trips without much concern.

 

Apparently harbor freight makes lots of people angry. Now they copied Leatherman, and made even more people angry. I bought one because my curiosity got the best of me. I'm also not rich, nor has anyone contributed to my completey-snapon GoFundMe. So the buzzers can buzz all they want until they decide to buy tools for me.

Comparing it side by side with a Leatherman wave, there's really very little difference. There's some small differences in internal finishes, but it's functionally identical.

 

Between that and their newish ceramic bearing icon knife, I'm guessing they'll be continuing to put out more knives. Kind of excited to see where it goes.