Cheap Tricks.

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Jul 26, 2003
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Feel free to put your own cheap tricks here.

I'm what we call a tightarse here, I'd rather fix something than buy a new one. I've used this floorjack at work for many years, and serviced it every 6 months. To me a floorjack should just glide over floor, and be put into position with a flick of the wrist...it really winds me up when I have to drag them around. I was away for a couple of years, and came back to find my jack in a bit of a state...easy fixed, but the caster wheels were a real mess. The edges were nearly all chipped off, out of round and worn at an angle. I hated using it. The boss would probably say just buy a new one, but the rest is still pretty good.

I found some thick wall pipe the size I wanted and sliced off a couple of short lengths. I put the cast iron wheels in the lathe and trued them up a bit, so they were a tap fit into the pipe, then welded them in. Mild steel to cast iron with Co2, not what anyone choose to do, but sometimes needs must.





Now my floor jack slides along better than new, the original wheels were real sloppy.
 
The workshop ute has been setting a cat converter code lately. The cat is part part of the exhaust manifold, not available here, but no problem to get one from Japan, just time and money. We have no emission testing here, so time for a bit of deception, what the O2 sensor doesn't see, it doesn't see. I moved the lower O2 sensor out of the gas flow - when the lower sensor mirrors the upper, it considers the cat is not working.

A wheel nut, a gearbox level plug, and we are done.



The lower sensor is now flat lineing and seeing nothing wrong. I'll sort this later, but for now it stops people saying the ute has set a CEL and me having to clear it.

 
welded my chinesium bench vice to my steel bench with a CIG 2 speed stick welder and GP rods, just had to get the melt and heat right, and 20 years later still does the job.

Told my wife that I was going to save the family a heap of effort and cut a slot in the bin cupboard so taht we can slide $20 bills straight from the ATM, home, and into the bin. Saved double handling in buying food and crumpets "on special, 2 for 1", having it lie around untouched and then throw it out....that didn't go down too well.
 
1) In "olden days" the metal surround on a wagon's wheel was called a tyre / tire. They're seen frequently today in front of firehouses with a big hammer beside them to be used as an alarm.

2) Neighbor's rolling glass door rolled on a track / threshold made of thin, embossed aluminum.
It wore and the track (again, raised long humps of aluminum) was becoming mere wisps of aluminum.
A few had caught on shoes etc. but the neighbor was astute enough to not break any off so I was able to fold 'em back into place.

I fashioned wood strips which filled the track's inner dimension and slathered them with J-B Weld epoxy. The reinforced, thin aluminum is doing the job to this day.
 
I will often re-engineer such things.
My wife will say "why don't you just buy a new one" But the issue is, Often I know that I can spend an hour in the workshop and rebuild something 'at least as good' as it was new, but I have no idea how long, and how many busness I would have to call on to buy the new replacment part.

It's not just being cheap, It's being efficient!
 
You should take up farming! My buddy has an old haybine and round baler and its quite amazing what "creative" fixes have been done to them over the years. So far we've only had to replace bushings and bearings for the most part, but there's usually something interesting to see on the way in.
 
I like to smack a bit of steel into a shape I need it to be sometimes. I used to have a full set of panel hammers and dollys, but I don't seem to have them anymore.

They cut a tree down in the park opposite, so I took my handtruck over and got a slice. Cut a depression into it, could be a bit bigger, but does the job. Looks like it gets used for a bit of spray painting too.



This is my dolly stand, made from an old wheel rim and an axle. I weld whatever I want for a dolly onto a piece of water pipe, the dolly on the end of the axle, the pipe just firm on the taper so the whole thing is solid. On there now is an old barbell weight, so that's the one that gets the most use. I've also got a towball, and a bit of pipe. I'd like a horn like on an anvil, and have just found a bit of solid 65mm bar tapered to a point in the scrap bin. And I also have a bit of 1'' bar, curved and straight for another dolly. I think a knife edge is something else I could use. The wooden mallet is normally used on the wooden block. Cost $0, and very useful to me. Just a work in progress...finding something I can turn into something useful...and making it so.

 
Silk,
looks like fun...

A couple of weeks I went to my local rural dump on the way home from work (more withdrawals than deposits at that one unfortunately, and there were a couple of gas cylinders sitting there beckoning to me...couldn't work out what I could do with a couple of out of date cylinders and left them.

Then found this...



Alas the bottles are gone.
 
Franken(stein)boots.
crazy2.gif
My Redwings refused to give up the ghost.......

The urethane toe protector was applied to repair chainsaw damage to the steel toe leather: https://tufftoe.com/

The tiny bolts were to keep the sole attached after the Goodyear welt stitching failed. The shoe repair shop was too much $$$ to resole. This pic is one year after the bolt install and the leather is getting quite cracked in spite of Obenauf's.

 
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