Shop tips?

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
The best lighting I've seen yet is LED, also the cheapest to run. Pure white light of LED brings out details you didn't know were there.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
When I got lights for the garage to put above the lathe I wanted LED but they weren't in stock yet. I got some high output fluorescent lights and it is a nice, white light. Way better than what I had.
Once LED tubes are in stock I will be getting some, can never have too much light.
 

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
Just replaced the stock T-8 4 ft. tubes over the kitchen sink with the LED tubes from Costco. WOW! "Let there be light"; about 30% more light at about 30% the cost on the Edison bill.
Unfortunately, 2 of my fixtures in the shop are 2 and 4 tube 8 footers. I do have a 4 foot fixture over the mill and one over the lathe. I'll probably wait until we move to replace those tubes.

Nice collection of tips Bret.

I like using Kroil to loosen seized screws, but remember that Kroil dissolves rust, which is a form of oxidation. Bluing is also a form of oxidation and may be negatively affected if exposed to Kroil for extended periods.

smokeywolf
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
I had a two tube four foot fixture in my laundry room and when one of the bulbs started going I replaced it with a four foot LED fixture. There are 160 LED bulbs in it in 6 strips, it looks much like and is the same size & shape as the old fixture but lordy I need sun glasses in the laundry room now. It uses the same power as 1 60 watt incandescent bulb. The only reason the same fixture isn't in my shop is that the ceiling is too low. A couple at a time I have replaced every bulb in my house inside and out with LED. Without exaggerating I can now turn on every light in my house inside and out for less power than the Kitchen alone used to cost. In addition I have far more light plus white light which is much easier on the eyes. I had a 100 watt bulb at the back door that lit up the porch, I replaced it with 13 watts of LED that lights up the back yard.

LED is the future in lighting, certainly not those curly Q things with mercury the gubment is pushing.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
We have a very high ceiling in the living room with 2 can lights. We grew tired of replacing bulbs with a pole every 6 months. We used compact fluorescents for a few years but they were dim and slow to come to full power. Put in LED bulbs and it is now instant, bright light. We won't need to replace them for years.
 

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
One other feature that LEDs have over fluorescents is, they produce a cleaner light less prone to flicker. I also prefer the higher Kelvin temperatures (whiter light) as it seems to penetrate the darkness better than a "soft white" or yellower light.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Please realize those tips all date from 6-7 years back at the start. I'm not sure we even had LED back then, but I sure appreciate the updates! I have to replace a mess of bad fluorescent fixtures in my garage and will surely look into LED!
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
LED is more expensive up front but they use less energy and last damn near forever. They also produce that nice white light we all love.

Thanks for the tips Bret. Even if some are a bit dated it lets us stop and look at things differently. Sometimes repurposing an item makes sense, we just need to see how it can be used.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Tips for removing rusted, buggared fasteners will likely never be out of date, I've read all that before but it never hurts to read it again.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I'm n the "rough draft in my head" stage of a series of articles for an agricultural magazine I subscribe to that will be along the same lines. I love buying fancy new toys as much as anyone but I also love being able to rethink and repair stuff. The magazine doesn't pay squat to writers, but I'm hoping I can get free subscriptions out of it.
 

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
Great deal of admiration for folks like Bret.
I've been very fortunate to have been able to accumulate enough tools to outfit a fairly comprehensive machine shop. In addition to those, gunsmithing tools, leather working tools and quite a bit more beyond that. However, none of those tools equal the value of a creative and resourceful mind.
 

Elric

Well-Known Member
Removing frozen screws-

2. Left hand drill bits (yeah, they're real) may work here and bring the screw right out, or they may not.

I had the doleful task of removing the shank of a HP retaining screw on the bottom of a Lyman mould. Without it, there was nothing for the HP pin collar to turn and catch under...

Got me a left hand "stub" or "screw machine" drill. More rigid and do not require center punches or center drills. I bought cobalt because I can. My Sieg X3 is not a Bridgeport (either rigidity OR horsepower) so carbide is not on my list.... Set up the block half, then on slow speed I ran the drill down (using left hand rotation!). To my pleasant surprise, the remnants of the screw backed out. In this cas, there was no significant rust or thread damadge. Those things may require heat/kroil/retapping or whatever...

You will see the spiral screw removal tools on the displays in every Menards and Ace Hardware (and others!). I use square easy-outs as they do not force the remaining shell of the screw into the threads... YMMD. I do know from experience that tapered easy outs will force a spark plug shell into the head threads... makes things MUCH harder...
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Left handed drills are THE solution to broken off bolts. I have done a bunch of
different things over the years, will NOT use an "Easy-out" ever again. Recently
did one and it worked perfectly, as usual. I bought a whole drill index of left
handed fractional drills a while back, relatively rarely used, but 100% success
when needed.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Harbor Freight, or Horrible Fright as some call it, sells hemostats (roach clips) about 12" long in curved and straight designs. Get at least 2 of each. You will never know how you got along without them.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I had intentions of being more active here, but between the farm, my political position, kids, homeschooling, SWMBO, renovations on the house, a local sort of FB newspaper I run, church, 4H, etc, there just isn't much time.