Move up to the Next Level for Under $50

It’s funny how you can’t predict which tools will improve your life the most.

I remember getting my first cordless impact driver. What a revelation. It did everything a basic hand drill would do. It also ran longer, because impact drivers use less energy. It broke stubborn fasteners loose better than a drill. It tightened fasteners much better, with less danger of stripping the heads. It gave me much more control. It put more torque on fasteners yet somehow didn’t twist my wrist like a drill.

I love impact drivers now. Wonderful tools.

I didn’t expect that.

Similarly, I am learning what a splendid tool a cart is.

I bought myself a $49 Harbor Freight 3-tier tool cart a couple of days back, so I would have something to hold tools and other things while I worked on jobs. I coated the bottoms of the insides of the trays with clear Flex Seal, to keep things from scraping the paint off. I stuck a couple of magnetic parts dishes in it. I put the cart together (using an impact driver), and then I tried it out while working on my leaky portable generator.

It was nothing short of amazing. I didn’t have to look around for tools or bend over to pick them up off the ground any more. You wouldn’t believe how much time it saved me or how much easier it made things.

I found out just how much easier it made things, and I don’t mean I found out by using it. I found out how great the cart was when I no longer had it to use.

The cart has 64 bolts in it, and you have to install every one. Naturally, I failed to tighten a few. Twice, I found loose parts lying on the driveway or inside the cart. I had to empty the cart and fix it.

I had to use a box wrench and the impact driver. While I was putting bolts back into the cart and getting them ready to be tightened, I had no place to put the tools. The cart was on its side or upside-down. I couldn’t put anything in it. Guess what I did? I did exactly what I used to do. I put a socket extension in my pocket. I put the impact driver on the grass. It drove me crazy.

As soon as I was deprived of the use of the cart, I understood what a blessing it was.

I used it to move my Kubota’s old battery a hundred feet to my car. That was really nice. Carrying car batteries is an unpleasant job. Mine was caked with crud because it had leaked. The cart made moving it a breeze.

You need a tool cart, believe me. You probably don’t need a fancy one with drawers. They’re inconvenient to load and unload, and you have to move out of the way to open drawers. You probably need a $49 Harbor Freight cart with two magnetic parts dishes.

People complain that the wheels are too far inboard, making the cart tippy. I guess they’re right, although it isn’t a problem unless you load it heavily. Harbor Freight stiffened the bottom tray with two flimsy strips of steel, and in order to work, they had to be away from the cart’s sides. The caster plate bolts have to go through these strips of steel, and that’s why the wheels are so far inboard.

So what? The cart only costs $49. Spend another 15 bucks, put a sheet of 1/4″ plywood on the bottom, and drill new bolt holes farther outboard. Buy 16 longer bolts for 8 dollars. Wow. Was that hard?

You could also put different metal strips on the bottom, for an investment of two dollars. Weld or bolt them on. Yes, welding would mess up the paint. This is why they make Krylon.

It’s worth the investment. It’s the perfect size for what it is, and it has the correct number of trays. It works great.

I’ve picked up some more items that ought to be helpful. I finally bought pry bars. I mean the ones that look like bent screwdrivers yet which are not expensive German screwdrivers (like mine) prying will ruin. Good pry bars have shanks that run all the way through the handles, and they have steel striking caps on the ends so you can beat them between things like chisels. They’re neat tools, because they’re designed to be used in a way that constitutes abuse when you do it to other tools.

I looked around to see who made a decent pry bar, and it looks like Mayhew takes the prize. Snap-On, of course, makes pry bars. Guess what one bar costs? Wrong. It costs $300. You can get them cheaper in sets, but they’re still outrageous. People rave about Mayhew, so I took a chance on a set. You can’t work on things like tractors without pry bars.

I also got a real pedal for my TIG welder. Oops…my AC TIG welder. I have two TIG’s now. My first TIG, an AHP AlphaTIG something or other, is a very nice Chinese machine, but the pedal, while sturdy, is very hard to use. The design is ridiculous. It slides around when you use it, and it’s not that easy to control the amperage.

A company called Nova makes an aftermarket pedal which is very good, so I ordered one. Maybe it will be helpful in my continuing quest to produce one decent TIG bead.

Of course, a guy with machine tools, a belt grinder, a drill press, and welders ought to be able to take the guts of the AHP pedal and build a better pedal around them, but my machine tools still aren’t here, and I am only now getting 250V power to run the other things.

Since I brought up 250V power, I might as well say how my efforts to put sockets in my workshop are going.

I went to Home Depot and stared at electrical parts for maybe 90 minutes. It was very confusing. I thought there were only two kinds of breaker box, and it turns out there are a bunch. Siemens, Cutler-Hammer, Square D QO, Square D Homeline, and God knows what else. I wanted one small box so I could branch my 250V line out to 50A and 30A sockets. I wanted the box to take the same breakers as my other panels, for obvious reasons. I still have no idea whether I got the right product. I bought a Square D QO box, and I’m going to see if it works.

I was going to run conduit in the workshop, but it’s hot, and hanging conduit is a lot of work. I decided to wimp out and go with romex, which is wires wrapped in a rubber sheath. It’s not as classy, but as far as I know, it’s safe and good enough to make code. I got myself a long piece of 6/2 romex, along with a short piece of 10/2 for the 30A branch. We’ll see if it works.

I was originally going to put the sockets on truss chords so power cords would be out of my way, but I decided not to do it. I figure I can put the sockets up high, and after that, if I want, I can hang the machine cords from the trusses. I have to think about it, though. I haven’t gotten very far, so I have time to change my mind.

Right now, I’m being held up by a lack of #6 screws with wide heads. I forgot to buy straps to hold the romex, so I’m stuck with straps I already had, and the screw holes are pretty big.

I also ordered new shelves for my woodworking cabinet. Back in May, I got a steel Husky cabinet from Home Depot, and I put wheels on it so moving it would be easier. It’s bolted to the wall, so the wheels don’t make it dangerous. They’re there to allow me to reposition the cabinet later if I want to. The cabinet is very nice, but they only give you three shelves. That means you’re dividing 72 vertical inches into only four areas. Obviously, that will not work. How many tools do you own that need 18″ of headroom?

Home Depot’s strategy is to sell you a cabinet with three shelves, rated at 150 pounds per shelf, and then leave you to figure out that you need 4 or 5 shelves. Guess what extra shelves cost? About $80 a pair. Okay, Home Depot, you got me. Just for that, I’m going to buy something really expensive and then return it with the box all messed up.

Not really.

I did go to Lowe’s today, however. My, what a nice store that is. And it’s closer to my house.

Of course, your new shelves won’t necessarily hold 150 pounds each, because the 150-pound rating is for a three-shelf cabinet. So 450 pounds divided by 5…let’s call it 88 pounds per shelf, taking the weight of the additional shelves into account. I plan to max out at maybe 50 pounds per shelf, so I can’t say I really care.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the shelf load isn’t closely related to the total capacity. Let’s see…the manual says the box holds 622 pounds. Subtract 10 pounds for the weight of the new shelves, and you get 612 pounds, which, excitingly, is a multiple of 9.

Divide by 6 shelves, including the bottom, and you get 102 pounds per shelf. That will be ample.

Just don’t put 102 pounds on every shelf plus the bottom and then rest your beer on top of the cabinet. You could void your warranty.

The cabinet has pegboard on the insides of the doors, so you would have to subtract the weight of whatever you hang there.

Anyway, it’s a good cabinet, but now that I know it really costs $430 with wheels and 5 shelves, I wonder what else I could have bought for the same price.

I would like to get another cabinet to match it eventually, so I assume Husky will discontinue it right before I decide to do that.

I’m planning to throw out my Rockstar beverage fridge. I keep it in the garage. It’s a counter-height fridge with Rockstar logos all over it. The door lights up so you can see “ROCKSTAR” in the dark. I got it from a tenant who ran off. I thought it was a commercial refrigerator that had been abandoned, but then I found out it was a cheap novelty item. The refrigeration system is built so it freezes over very fast. You can’t really use the fridge, because you have to turn it off every couple of days to defrost it. I think I should go get a real beverage fridge from Home Depot…I mean LOWE’S…and put it on a wheeled base with shelves or something.

The weather should start cooling down in two weeks, so I guess I’ll be getting things done just in time to miss the comfortable working weather. Good planning there.

Hope to get back to my wiring tomorrow.