Sooo… What do you do if you need fancy custom fit plastic parts but don’t have a 3D printer?
You dig out a glue gun and some dusty Lego plates!
Needed a hinged lid to close in one half of a Kobalt bit driver case. Voila;
Used a hinged bit holder insert that I didn’t need as the hinge, built up a riser and door, and a stop/latch block. Hot glued the riser/door to the hinge and the stop in the other end. Magnet and a stacked nut/washer for right height glued in for safety latch.
brown stripe because I couldn’t find another black 2×16.
Where it opens to/sits on its own.
where I can hold it open to;
This little recess here;
Fits this little latching nub on the other half off the case;
Now I have closed in socket storage;
Clears everything on the opposite side
Magnetic latch;
Latch might get a re-design.. Will see how it holds up.
More on the kit itself later. Its a companion setup for a specific power tool in a specific application. Need to finish figuring out what sockets I want in it, and collect them, along with a couple other drivers.
This kinda rough, and a bit of a redneck hack. But it works! And thats what counts to me. 🙂
Been about a month ago, I’m trying to get caught up on stuff I haven’t had time or energy to post.
Got an adaptor to run my lithium 20v max Porter Cable batteries on my 18v (lithium, not the older NiCad ) PC tools.
All assembled with a 2Ah battery and its not any(or much) bulkier than the original 18v 6 Ah.
This was my test to see if it works, and how the quality was…
The tools work flawlessly, no issues I could see in a 10 minute test anyway.
I do actually still have 4 working 18v batteries for these tools, 2 in 6Ah and 2 in 2Ah. Not bad after a decade of use.. But they’re getting tired, don’t hold up as long anymore. I could have them rebuilt rather cheaply, but I wanted to try this, its simpler and easier(probably still cheaper). This thing was $21. Its nice cast/molded plastic, well made.(I expected 3D printed to be honest… surprised me its not!) This one is actually a 3 in one, takes Stanley, Black+Decker, and Porter Cable 20v batteries. (all of which interchange on PC 20v tools anyway, or nearly so with small mods IIRC.)
Works so well, I’m going to go ahead, as I can, and get the ones needed to cross all, or almost all my tools. I’m running Kobalt and PC 20v for work, Kobalt and PC 18v in my garage, and Craftsman in my home wood shop… And they get interchanged a bit too. I have more Craftsman 20V batteries than any other, but Kobalt batteries are the cheapest to buy, so I’ll get those crossed to my PC and Craftstman tools.. Or maybe just get what I need to use Kobalt batteries on everything if needed, then only buy the Kobalt batteries unless the Craftsman are on sale(both Porter Cable lines are no longer made/available anywhere). Ill figure it out.. lol.
put a scope on my Remington 700 again, something I swore I’d never do. Last time it wore glass was fall of ’15. I’d put a scope my buddy Swany gave me, on it just the fall before… Great gift, great scope, fit the gun well, worked fine etc. Theres a post on that Somewhere on this blog.. I just discovered that I Hate the feel of a rifle with a scope, and the added hassle of taking care of it.. Not that I throw a rifle around anyway, but can be Much less careful without a scope on them, and the balance and weight and area to grab it is so much better!
Back story being the rifle always had a 3-9×32(Navajo Rhino, yes thats a scope brand/model! that was put on it when it was new in ’67) on it as long as Dad had it, but the adjustments broke on me in ’13 and I ran it in just its iron sights that year and loved it. Went back to a scope basically out of assumed habit that time. It took exactly 2 hunting trips, 1 year for me to decide No, and I went to a peep sight and fiber optic front, since all my hunting was moose, low land, and sub 100 yards.
But at this point for the hunting I’m really enjoying, high country alpine tundra, and caribou, its harder without a scope, its simply long range hunting at probably moving targets.. Too steep of a curve with even a good peep sight, for me anyway. At this point.
SO, once again, scope is a gift from a hunting buddy, its been on his 30-06(a sporterized vintage 100 year old Enfield!) for at least 20 years.. He retired the rifle last fall and offered me the scope knowing I wanted to try one again for our high country hunts.
The one Swany gave me was a 3-9×40, older production Tasco World Class. Great scope, but bulky, and it now lives on my Marlin model 60 .22 This one is a Simmons, 3-9×32, much less bulky, still old enough to be well built, and been surviving on an ’06 in Alaska for decades, I (should) will know not to worry about it.
Putting it on now since I have to go do a range trip to check sight in anyway before the bear trip, and figure what the hell, can’t hurt. Ironically the longest ranges for bear this trip will probable be 100 or 150 yards at the extreme max. Even with the scope on and max point blank of my load being around 320 yards, I probably wont let myself shoot past 150 to 200 extreme max anyway… But we’ll see.
I have a terrible feeling I’m going to hate it again, but trying to give it a fair chance.
Thankfully rings and bases I had for the Tasco work for this. Want to say its Leupold rings on,,, Can[t remenber the bases. Been a while… lol. Had to steal the screws from a new set of Weaver rails, couldn’t find the ones for these bases, must have stole them for something else.
Yes it seems to sit well back… SO did the Tasco. I actually need it back a touch more for perfect eye relief, with the recoil pad I have on… But its good enough. If I REALLY like this, I’ll cut the stock and re-mount the recoil pad at a good LOP for me and fix it… Should probably do that anyway its a touch long regaurdless of the sights, but not as a problem.
One nice thing, the peep sight base is fully side mounted, so I’m leaving it. Its also index marked, and the rest of it as an insert is locked, and marked, as is the front sight… IE it can drop in and I’ll know if anything is off. I think the allen wrench for the rings and a screwdriver are going Everywhere with the gun, with the rest of the peep sight, if I ever need to swap back.
In other news, we’re finally far enough into trim and finish work at work that the table saw he bought isn’t needed.
And since he has a big cabinet saw in his shop, he asked if I wanted the job saw, unless he gets another flip house, he won’t need it.
My cabinet saw is in my basement, and too hard to get sheet goods to, so I’ve thought of a jobsite saw in the garage before. I said yes fast!
(ironically since I’ve given away 3 free found or scrounged jobsite or small bench saws in the last 15 years… all too big or too heavy for my uses. Last one this size was solid cast iron.. great tool but I couldn’t more it around. )
This is the cheapest saw he could get 3 years ago. Ryobi tools are definitely low end entry level these days. But this sucker has been an amazingly precise saw, very little run out, and a surprisingly precise fence. I’m not sure I’d want to do fine cabinetry or exotic trim work with it, but it’s a great all around saw, especially for it’s class/price.
Picked this up last weekend on sale, I was curious, and for $35, figured it was a small risk.
It’s the old concept of a power screwdriver, remember those from the 90s? Even in the early 2000s when cordless tools were gaining ground and power those things were still basically useless.
Somewhere I have one thats about 9v, that came with my big 18v Dewalt drill, circa 2006. That drill was a power house, a monster at driving screws for construction… The screwdriver, not so much. Not exactly useless… But then the tool itself was too big to really be handy.
Batteries and motors sure have come a long ways!
This thing is only 4V, but it has a surprising amount of torque, and so far great run time IMO for its size.
Built in battery, an oddity these days, came with a wall wart w/cord that charges it.
My main idea was for automotive work, where you can have lots of little screws, a slow pain by hand, but an impact driver is overkill, or won’t fit.
So far I’ve had great fun with it installing a bunch of door knobs and latch plates at work, removing and installing cabinet hinges, and even driving some small 1.25″ construction screws(amazingly well even without pilot holes!) .
Finally a compact power screwdriver that works as needed! Its a keeper!
One nifty feature, is the onboard rotating bit storage. Has a little door that covers it. Came with bits in it! Little magnet on top next to it to hold screws or bits is actually kinda handy too.
Wish my big 20v impact drivers had that bit storage magazine! Thinking they could do it in brushless tools and still be pretty compact.
Included a very nice, long USB-C cable. So many lights and things come with a 3″ cable anymore, this was a nice surprise. You can actually get it onto a table or the floor to charge it, instead of dangling it from the outlet.
Fresh from the box;
For scale;
First thoughts; heavy!
Second; well, it should be durable…
I’d swear the thing is solid metal cased, but it says ABS. It’s built like a tank! I’m sure it weighs twice what my Spirit does, heavier than any other light I have. Big 2600mAh battery has to be heavy too.
Its Big enough I’d bet its two 18650s in there.
Definitely Not a pocket carry light!
Flashlight modes are 200 and 50 lumens.
Flood light is 400, 160, 12.
The outputs all look right to me, except I’d swear the flood low is 30 or 40… but its a soft flood, wide area, guess it could look brighter than I’m used to 12 being.
The flashlight is one big smooth spot… no real discernible hotspot, bug I wouldn’t call it a flood beam… in between concepts.
Its a rather easy interface, although I find the button a little hard to “read”. Easy to press, but its… odd. Its a soft click button under a hard rubber cover. Hard start to the press then the switch clicks fast… hard to describe. Works fine just feels different than the average flashlight switch.
Single click on/off, click to cycle modes(only within 3sec of on, after that clicks off or swap between emitters) Long press to change between emitters.
Little odd that the flashlight starts in high then low. But on the work light/COB it goes medium, high, low. No memory, always starts the same.
Does memory the emiter your on though… so if you turn it off in flashlight mode it comes back on in that.
Charging is done by the verry handy built in USB plug, and thankfully in the new C standard, matching my phone and another light; less cords to keep track of!
Came charged to 3/4 charge indictors. Took 20 mintues to go to 4/4. Like the indicator, nice feature, always on with either emitter on. Odd break down of percentages per the manual(4 lights actually means 95%+ not 100%), but honestly who cares that much, its a good rule of thumb for not running it dead, better as you use a light more, learn how long you have left once it hits 1 or 2 indicators.
Magnets aren’t as strong as I expected. Small and wide spread on the loop, its going to need a large area to stick to, to be stable. I stuck it up to the door pilar in my truck and its rock solid, not going to move.
Stuck to flats on a 1″ steel bar with just two magnets in line, and it would shift depending on what angle you had it open; weight distribution. And I’m not 100% sure it’d stay there fully upside down..
Can see that being an issue in more creative spaces where you might not have a place to get the balance right for where you need light… time will tell I guess.
On the flip side, smaller and weaker they’re not going to collect near as much metal dust/debris in a tool bag.
The carabiner clip is… not bad, but different; the gate opens outwards. Works fine, just not what you expect.
Nifty bonus, the halo ring around the COB is GITD.
Only thing I would really like to have seen is a rotating joint where the light body meets that hinge. So many more options for aiming it then. Again, time will tell if its really an issue or not.
Overall, so far, I’m very happy with it! Light function is fine, and the build seems great!
For the $28 I paid shipped, I think its a good value. Wish it was a bit less, @ around $25 point I’d get a couple more of them. $35 is the standard price online for this color, $40 for other colors. That much each is a bit much for multiples, but that’s me being picky about $10 lol… I think its definitely worth the ~$30.
They do a few colors, green, blue, orange, yellow, and I think black. Looks like the green is the standard/basic, as I said it costs a little less everywhere, so thats what I got.
Pulled and repaired the carburetor on my truck last night.
Some yutz at Carter/Webber decided that these single barrel carbs should be made in three pieces(which, I’m told was/is common!) Having an extra layer for the bottom flange/main butterflies as compared to Any 2 or 4 barrel I’ve ever seen, where the flange and mains are integral to the bowl..
Anyway, as odd as a 3rd layer is, the assinine part is having all 4 screws go UP through the flange into the body… All the spaces but one are exposed flange on the body section, NO reason they couldn’t thread down into the lower piece. But No!
SO, it the ever vibrate loose, you not only can’t get at them to tighten them with the carb installed, they can fall the frack out!
Thankfully none of these came all the way out, but 3/4 were backed out a long ways.
Ran interesting with the carb loose above the mains! Way too lean, but not consistently.
Couldn’t get at more than one to tighten it, so I pulled the whole carb. Easiest carb removal and replacement I’ve ever done. Including the drive to warm it up first(no heat in the shop) for working on it, and the test drive after, this took 1.5 hours flat! Found the main mounting stud nuts loose as well. (and two different sizes of nut lol) But side intake on a straight 6 sure makes it easy to get at!
I checked the threads, they all went in fine, seated good. I fully removed all 4 and put them back with blue Loctite! Not usually advisable on such small screws, or on carbs, its just asking for broken or stripped screws… But I didn’t want to have to deal with this again anytime soon, and since I did it, I’ll know its there, shouldn’t get into trouble. AND the blue is designed to be removable… using Red loctite would be suicidal here..
Fixed a lot of issues I’d had since mid summer, and a few that were new.. Got rid of the hard miss it’d developed in Aug. Hopefully it fixes the tank my milage developed then too! Recent rough idle/dieing/lope smoothed out, and having to pump the hell out of it to get it to start was new, that went away too! More power than its had in months, and none of the recent dieseling on shut down.
Looks like this is a remanufactured carb in recent history, or else I’d have done a rebuild… Its actually a made in USA Carter made for Motorcraft, so a stock Ford part… With a rebuilt by Holley sticker on it.. Stock carb that was sent in as a core and came back somewhere in its life. Up until mid summer it really did run great. Assuming the carb itself is fine. It did leak a little at air horn to bowl/body, but I tightened those screws too. If it continues to leak noticably, I’ll put main body gaskets in it this summer, won’t touch the rest..
This months OKC22 challenge is collecting and lighting 5 natural tinders with ferro rod. I cant stand ferro rods, and dont use them. I find real flint and steel faster and easier!
As far as I knew, I didn’t own one, other than the blast match style ine a friend gave me, thats in my ATV hunting gear… cant strike that with the knife.
Then I remembered this little guy I made, a 3/16″ rod set in a muley deer tine with a scraper years ago..
Figured I’d try that, but its a short shower of sparks, and hard to use with a bigger knife..
Then, I happened onto pics I had of a bigger ferro rod I’d forgotten. If I still had it. Found it quite by accident after giving up, looking for something else lol. Was getting ready to remove the handle and replace with something better, when I got deja vu…
Went and dug around and found the one I started to do that to like 4 years ago… Went ahead and did that one instead.
One of my peeves with these things is the ever epic short grip. So I grabbed a block of curly maple(close enough to the curly oak on the knife) , drew out a design and put a nice sized grip on it.
Wanted as much rod length exposed as possible, found it a super tight fit in 9/32″ brass tube(hammered in, it is NOT coming out). Fit 1/4″ into the tube, then 2″ of the tube set in the wood handle. Extended the rod reach, and in theory when its used up(if ever) I can remove the stub, add a new rod to the handle.
Could have cut/carved/sanded, but I went and put it in the metal lathe.
Siting here with a first coat of wipe on poly drying. 🙂
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Alaskan, Adventurer, Engineer. 