Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ engine mounts

What did you do to / in your garage / shop today?

Hauled in a full pallet of hardwood stove fuel, 1400+ lbs. Mill is about 5 miles down the road. Drive in, pay, go to loading spot and the guy is already on the move with the forklift.

Drive on home, there and back in about 15 minutes. Park, get in the Bobcat with the pallet fork, unload it and stuff it in right next to the woodstove. Put stuff away and light a fire.

I truly hate working in the cold. Aaaaah, radiant heat on the old bones!
 
You made me exhausted reading the intro to your post...


Then I saw you mention the Bobcat. I'm still recovering, can't imagine how you feel.

I forgot to mention the part about stripping off the waterproof plastic cover. A giant gnarly stiff condom that has to be stuffed into a trash bag and hauled out to the cart and stuffed in!

Ahahaha, it's a hard grind at times, but there's a payoff!
 
All this garage heater talk. I have a built in unit heater hanging from the ceiling in our garage installed by a PO sometime between 1960 and 1985. Lit the pilot this fall and found the main valve was leaking a bit. Not enough to light off the pilot, but you could smell gas in the garage.

Had to figure out a suitable replacement and a name we know well is the only choice at this small size Robert Shaw. Of course the layout was a little different so a new pilot tube and thermostat/transformer wires had to be put in also.

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Not exactly in the shop. Geothermal heat pump quit on me when we had the cold snap last week. Unit is 13 years old. Locked out with a high pressure warning.

Put the gauges on, pushed the contacts manually and compressor works and the pressures were good. Water circulator pumps both working.

Fuzzy memory came back and I remembered I had bought another circuit board for it to have on hand.

A little history: I bought the board when the geo failed at about 3 years old. The installer didn’t put the grommets around the line set. Mice got in and had a field day. Repaired the rodent damaged wiring and didn’t need the board.

Swapped out the boards and it’s working again!

Service people are about 1.5 hours away and you always break down on a weekend so I keep a few parts around.

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A few weeks back, I drove my tractor with my second-hand, re-purposed, home-made, three-point log splitter on the Kubota's three-point hitch down to my elderly neighbor's place to split some wood for him for the winter. I split enough for the season, but I planned to split everything he had bucked. However, I was stopped by the clevis on the end of the ram splitting (it wasn't very dramatic, so I suspect it was slowly cracking with each log split):
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I ordered a new clevis and got a new pin from Tractor Supply, and then I discovered that the threads on the end of the ram had been seriously compromised by running the splitter for too long with that clevis loose, which is probably what caused it to eventually split. So I ordered a big thread chaser, and it's sat for weeks awaiting a fix because I've been too obsessed with my 3D printing activities to do anything else lately.

Fast-forward to this morning. I'm in the middle of a long 3d print currently, so I decided to get some homestead projects done while it does its thing. In order to chase the threads, I had to figure out how to keep the ram shaft from spinning when turning the chaser. When I work on hydraulics or shocks, I've always had good luck using soft jaws in a vice to serve that purpose. However, I really didn't want to make a mess disconnecting the ram from the hoses and carrying that beast over to a vice. So, I got an idea - bring a vice to the splitter:
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That made the job easy! The ram is now ready, but I had to paint the clevis because it was in the white. Later this weekend, I'll assemble it, and be ready for the next round of splittin'!
 
Did a thing in the indoor mancave today...

The second bedroom in my rental is essentially an indoor shop for me. I service firearms and guitars in this room, it's also where my 3D printer is setup and where the bulk of the design work happens. I've got a large 24" x 72" main table and two 24" x 32" Kreg block top tables, one of which is home for the printing gear. The other is home for my soldering kit, bench power unit, measuring tools and a rotary tool. Today's episode deals with the last thing.

Been trying to find a decent rotary tool stand for months now and they mostly seem to be shit, and in many cases the exact same shit with a different brand name on it. For $20-$50, I'd expect something somewhat substantial, but reviews all seem to be mixed and the stuff just looks cheap. Anyway, this particular work table just so happens to have a block top with a grid of 3/4" holes bored for bench dogs. I had a eureka moment over the weekend while visiting a Home Depot to pick up a sheet of 3/4" ply for another project, I found a 36" length of 3/4" x 0.16" pipe in the miscellaneous metals bins and grabbed one of these to kick things off...

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Once home, I put the pegboard hook in my bench vice, grabbed a cold chisel and drilling hammer and proceeded to break the resistance weld, separating the board fork from the peg, fortunately without deforming the peg. Not the highest grade of material, I'm afraid, but should suffice for my use.

I then fired up the CAD workstation and proceeded to design a cap to receive the pegboard peg and support it, as well as interface solidly with the 3/4" length of pipe. I added four index points for the peg so the hanging tool can be stashed out of the way when not in use. The cap could be rotated as well, but the fit is quite snug and I'm thinking I'd like to keep it that way.

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And thanks to the marvel that is modern consumer 3D printing, for few grams of ASA-CF filament and less than two hours of time, I had this:

IMG_20251229_174847584.jpg IMG_20251229_174859164.jpg

The top on the table is 1 1/2" thick, I decided I wanted a bit more of the pipe in the wood for stability, so basically doubled that with an 8" long scrap of 2x4 from the garage. Bored a 3/4" hole 1.25" deep from one side, then drilled and countersunk two holes on either side of the bored hole from the other side. These are to affix the block to the bottom of the table top. Bonus, I also got to use two big fecking brass wood screws I've had for years in the fastener stash on this one. Even busted out the paraffin to run them in! :D

I ended up trimming the pipe down to 31" OAL to get the desired tool height. The printed cap fits snugly as does the peg in the cap. The pipe is raw steel and will need some primer and paint (tomorrow).

IMG_20251229_174605912.jpg IMG_20251229_193148771.jpg

I think I'm calling this a win. (y)
 
Did a thing in the indoor mancave today...

The second bedroom in my rental is essentially an indoor shop for me. I service firearms and guitars in this room, it's also where my 3D printer is setup and where the bulk of the design work happens. I've got a large 24" x 72" main table and two 24" x 32" Kreg block top tables, one of which is home for the printing gear. The other is home for my soldering kit, bench power unit, measuring tools and a rotary tool. Today's episode deals with the last thing.

Been trying to find a decent rotary tool stand for months now and they mostly seem to be shit, and in many cases the exact same shit with a different brand name on it. For $20-$50, I'd expect something somewhat substantial, but reviews all seem to be mixed and the stuff just looks cheap. Anyway, this particular work table just so happens to have a block top with a grid of 3/4" holes bored for bench dogs. I had a eureka moment over the weekend while visiting a Home Depot to pick up a sheet of 3/4" ply for another project, I found a 36" length of 3/4" x 0.16" pipe in the miscellaneous metals bins and grabbed one of these to kick things off...

View attachment 663219

Once home, I put the pegboard hook in my bench vice, grabbed a cold chisel and drilling hammer and proceeded to break the resistance weld, separating the board fork from the peg, fortunately without deforming the peg. Not the highest grade of material, I'm afraid, but should suffice for my use.

I then fired up the CAD workstation and proceeded to design a cap to receive the pegboard peg and support it, as well as interface solidly with the 3/4" length of pipe. I added four index points for the peg so the hanging tool can be stashed out of the way when not in use. The cap could be rotated as well, but the fit is quite snug and I'm thinking I'd like to keep it that way.

View attachment 663218

And thanks to the marvel that is modern consumer 3D printing, for few grams of ASA-CF filament and less than two hours of time, I had this:

View attachment 663220 View attachment 663221

The top on the table is 1 1/2" thick, I decided I wanted a bit more of the pipe in the wood for stability, so basically doubled that with an 8" long scrap of 2x4 from the garage. Bored a 3/4" hole 1.25" deep from one side, then drilled and countersunk two holes on either side of the bored hole from the other side. These are to affix the block to the bottom of the table top. Bonus, I also got to use two big fecking brass wood screws I've had for years in the fastener stash on this one. Even busted out the paraffin to run them in! :D

I ended up trimming the pipe down to 31" OAL to get the desired tool height. The printed cap fits snugly as does the peg in the cap. The pipe is raw steel and will need some primer and paint (tomorrow).

View attachment 663223 View attachment 663224

I think I'm calling this a win. (y)

I don't understand this. Rotary tool stand, like for a Dremel? Are you going to dangle it by the wire off this hook or something? Need pics in action
 
I don't understand this. Rotary tool stand, like for a Dremel? Are you going to dangle it by the wire off this hook or something? Need pics in action

Comprende, amigo?

IMG_20251231_130340478.jpg IMG_20251231_130447190.jpg

This is with the peg at 90 degrees to the rear of the table with the tool body thrown on to get it out of the way for the minute...but I'll be honest with you, that position actually works really well for use AND stowage, and the peg length is perfect for it as well. Might just make a tool holder to sit just below the cap I printed previously to finish it off. Have yet to paint the pipe, the temps dropped significantly so postponed for the moment.

Happy birthday (tomorrow) me and trying to get the new garage organized.


View attachment 663583

@Apparition, need a change of shorts after seeing this? :D
 
Comprende, amigo?

View attachment 663592 View attachment 663593

This is with the peg at 90 degrees to the rear of the table with the tool body thrown on to get it out of the way for the minute...but I'll be honest with you, that position actually works really well for use AND stowage, and the peg length is perfect for it as well. Might just make a tool holder to sit just below the cap I printed previously to finish it off. Have yet to paint the pipe, the temps dropped significantly so postponed for the moment.



@Apparition, need a change of shorts after seeing this? :D

I've never seen one with a donger like that before. Makes more sense now
 
Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ engine mounts