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| Here's a picture of the box that my jack and jack stands
from Sears came from. This thing was heavy! I'm so out of shape that
I worried that I wouldn't be able to carry it all the way to my car! |
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| Here's a picture of the jack. It comes with a removable
handle that you pump to raise it up. It's a pretty hefty jack and
I can't imagine carrying around one much larger. This one only holds
2.5 tons, but they make manual jacks that can hold 5, 10 or even 15
tons! |
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| Here's a picture of it raised up. Next to the pumpt
is a small little nut that you can turn to release the pressure and
lower the valve. I carried this from my car to the apartment after
it had been sitting in my trunk at 10 degrees for a week. Needless
to say that when I got to my apartment, I couldn't fell my hands b/c
they'd been holding 10 degree steel for so long! It's like ice that
won't melt and warm up! |
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| Here's a picture of one of the jack stands. Once you've
raised up your car, you can put these stands under it to hold it up.
This stand can hold 2.25 tons. The silver lever is to release the
teeth and is surprisingly easy to work which makes me thing that these
stands aren't particularly safe, so be careful when using them! |
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| Here's my dremel tool! This is what I used to etch
glasses and what i used to cut the bolts off my catalytic converter. |
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| This is a torque wrench. What it does is measure the
amount of torque (force around a circular point) that you're putting
on a nut when you tighten it. You can set it so it knows the desired
torque for tightening a nut, so when you reach that torque, it will
click and stop tightening. This way you don't over tighten important
nuts. |
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| Here you can see the torque setting on the wrench.
It is currently set to 40 foot-pounds (the equivalent of exerting
40 pounds of force on nut with a 1 foot wrench, or 80 pounds with
a 6 inch wrench or 20 pounds with a 2 foot wrench) which was the torque
setting for the nuts on my header. You can change the setting by loosening
the lock screw on the end and rotating the end of the handle (the
part with the numbers around it). |
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Is that a wrench in your pocket or are you just happy
to see me?
Yes, I admit that the orange bandanna and green shirt don't really
match my blue jeans, but these are my work clothes!!! |
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| This is one of my favorite tools. It's called a Vise-Grip.
The wonderful thing about this tool is that when you close it, it
holds itself closed! Here you can see that I've hung it from a piece
of cloth and it holds itself up. |
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| The other great thing about the Vise-Grip is that it's
adjustable! Not only can it hold itself up on a piece of cloth, it
can also by adjusted to clamp onto a 2x4! Extremely handy, you can
adjust it, set it, and forget it! This makes removing bolts much easier
b/c you can clamp it on one end and not have to worry about it falling
off if you need to move around to get a better angle on a nut. |
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| Ok, I didn't really use this tool on my car. I tried
using it to drill out the catalytic converter bolts, but it wasn't
doing a good job, but I have no other tool page, so it's going on
here. This was the first serious tool that I bought. It's a nice DeWalt
3/8" keyless chuck electric drill. I was very pleased by it's
quality, despite the fact that it was the cheapest model ($70). It
feels like it's built well and even includes a bubble level on it
so you know you're drilling straight! |
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| I didn't use this on my car, but again, I don't have
anywhere else to put it right now. This is a nice forward action staple
gun that I got for my birthday one year. It's very nice and comfortable
and easier to push than some of the older all steel models. This one
also can handle certain sizes of nails (brads). It's nice and powerful
too. Once to test it, I put a nice thick copy of PC Magazine on my
rug and shot a staple to see if it would shoot through the magazine.
Well, it not only shot through the magazine, but it also shot through
the rug and I quickly realized that I had successfully stapled the
magazine (surpringly firmly) to the hard wood floor! |
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| One of the reasons I like DeWalt is that they come
with nice carrying cases. Here's the box for my circular saw. |
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| This is a pretty nice circular saw and is quite hefty.
It's got a 10" blade, a depth of cut adjustment and a pivoting
shoe (the metal base) so you can cut thicker wood and cut at angles. |
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| Here's a pic from a better angle. |
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| Here's a close-up of the blade... |
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| Here's my new heavy duty jig saw. |
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| Here's my family of DeWalt hand tools |
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| My first router bit set. |
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| My second router bit set. |
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| Dewalt DW618B3 12 Amp 2-1/4 Horsepower Plunge Base and Fixed Base and D-Handle Base Variable Speed Router Kit |
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| All the bases, parts and the motor for my router. |
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| The flagship of my tool collection: DeWalt DW715 Heavy-Duty 10 Amp 12-Inch Compound Miter Saw |
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| Thanks to a combination of AmEx points, sales and coupons, I got this saw ($329) along with the laser guide ($69) and a clamp ($35) for FREE. Sweet. |
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I generally prefer DeWalt tools, but I just couldn't justify paying $190 for the DeWalt miter saw stand when Ryobi makes a good one for just $99. Plus, I got mine on sale and with a coupon for $77.
One noticeable difference in these two companies products: even though DeWalt makes excellent products, they seem to promote their high quality but over-priced accessories. The Ryobi, on the other hand, came with instructions to build your own accessories instead of pushing you to spend more. I respect that. |
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| Tools | Tool Shed |
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