August 28, 20187 yr Build a twisting bench with the pipe vise? JT glad you have an appropriate outboard for your "new" boat!
August 28, 20187 yr Pipe vises make excellent twisting vises you can make shields to keep the teeth from biting the bar with angle iron. It needs to be well anchored of course and NO HITTING IT WITH HAMMERS!!! Frosty The Lucky.
August 29, 20187 yr Didn't think of a twisting vise, thanks for the suggestion. I'll name it Chubby Checkers.
August 29, 20187 yr Well, I’ll tell you what DIDN’T follow me home: four sacks of coal that I’d planned to pick up on the way back from dropping my daughter at college. I forgot that the Amish farrier supply only takes cash.
August 30, 20187 yr Atms are scarce in amish areas but Man! Stop and get cash out before you get there!
August 30, 20187 yr The clerk told me where the nearest ATM was, but I knew I couldn’t get there and back and still have time to get to my son’s school to pick him up in time.
August 30, 20187 yr Did you learn your lesson John? Sign the boy up for extra curricular activities! Some people, sheesh! Frosty The Lucky.
August 31, 20187 yr So, picked up a nice 4-1/2” DeWalt angle grinder (used) for $30. I’d just gotten a warranty replacement on a mid-range (for them) HF model, so I’ll see if I can sell that one as new-in-the-box to cover part of the cost. Even if I can’t, decent deal.
August 31, 20187 yr Some fabricator buddies use HF grinders over name brands,, they claim HF holds up just as good and cheaper
August 31, 20187 yr Having burned through three or four HF grinders over the last few years, I have my reservations about that. One of the best things I did, though, was to get the extended warranty and to renew it each time I got a warranty replacement. Still would have been better and cheaper to invest in a good one up front, but at least that meant that I wasn't paying full price each time I needed a new one.
August 31, 20187 yr Good deal on the grinder John. All I use anymore are a couple dewalt grinders with the paddle triggers. They have survived much use and some abuse and still going strong. eh, keep the HF grinder set up for lighter work. Or not...
August 31, 20187 yr Wow, they actually kept the guard in the box! First time for everything. (Same guy usually wears his safety glasses on top of his head.) That usually goes in the garbage with the packing materials. People keep trying to sell me used grinders, but we keep an OSHA compliant shop at school, and so do I at home. No guard, no handle, no deal. I did trade a clueless student a new grinder for one he had bought at a pawn shop with no guard. I only use it for cup brushes, where a guard would be useless. Cheap-o HF and other underpowered brands are OK with brushes, but tend to bog down and burn up with stones.
August 31, 20187 yr I'll hang onto it either until someone answers the classified ad or I need it for something else. I might contact HF to see if I could exchange it for grinding discs or something. I just realized that the diamond blade that's in it now is not without value itself. I guess I really lucked out.
August 31, 20187 yr Awesome grinder! HF is hit and miss. Sometimes you get great things that hold up for a long time and then you buy a drill and it catches fire 15 minutes into the project you're doing(literally). I think that they have spotty quality procedures in whatever factory there stuff is built in, that's why its hit and miss.
August 31, 20187 yr I've never been a believer in HF electric stuff (for good reason). But i have become a fan for their sockets, ratchets, and breaker bars. We abuse the crap of of them at the saw mill I work at (I'm a millwright there) and they always take the abuse and come back for more.
August 31, 20187 yr 27 minutes ago, Cannon Cocker said: I've never been a believer in HF electric stuff (for good reason). I will say that for dirt-cheap, entry-level-on-a-tight-budget, they're hard to beat. A used 4½" HF angle grinder was my very first power tool purchase after I started smithing again (I was a total Luddite previously), and I was blow away by how useful those things are. If I'd waited until I'd saved enough to get a new one or had done enough looking around to get a good deal on a quality used grinder, I would never have known to save or look.
August 31, 20187 yr I use one of the HF 301 piece tools sets at work. $159 on special or with a coupon, and have had no problems with it at all. Worked good enough I got one for taking on road trips. With HF you have to be selective in what you buy. I would haven no reservations recommending this tool set to friends.
August 31, 20187 yr I thought about putting this in the swage block forum for a joke but decided against it. I got a free 5’ x5’ x 5 1/2” acorn style table! My comment would have been along the lines of: How come the holes in this swage block are all the same size? Why are there no shapes along the edge? How am I supposed to turn this up on edge, I can’t lift it. Happy, happy, happy, all in good fun.
August 31, 20187 yr Author Quickest way to get started is to find some pipe that fits into the holes and add a coupling so they do not fall through the holes. Makes great dogs. Acorn tooling can be made as needed. It is a wonderful tool for the shop.
September 1, 20187 yr Heck Glenn an Acorn table IS a shop! That is one SWEET score Duckcreek! Did you buy a lottery ticket on the way home? Frosty The Lucky.
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