What did you do today?

[LCHIEN]

Sounds like the demise of that jackstand was caused by tilting the car to one side with the engine lift which probably put a unexpected side load component on the stand instead of all vertical load as designed for!

[capncarl]

The backstory on this fiasco. #1, I was young and stupid and there were a lot of thing that I didn’t know I shouldn’t do. #2, I was an active member of the SCCA (sports car club of America) and thought like many young men that I could simply build my own race car out of some old under powered cheap sports car. 3, I worked in Maintenance in a young growing factory and trained in welding, rigging, electrical and machining, so there was no reason to build my own race car.
This upside down car was a mix of Austin Healey Sprite, MG Midget and a Mazda RX 3 drivetrain. I was lifting the car up on its side with an engine crane to facilitate work on the bottom side of the car. My plan was to jack it up hig( enough to support the car on a couple of jack stands and have the crane hold up the weight and not damage the side of the car. That didn’t go well as the jack stand collapsed, causing the engine stand to tilt forward and follow the car as it fell over. I was in more danger from the engine crane than the car. Since the car was leaning against all of my shop clutter I as able to finish my bottom work. After completing the Mazda Healey in Solo II, finished 3rd overall in A Modified class in the South East division, and 2nd overall the next year.
I still have the remaining 3 jack stands from that set, and use them prudently.

[LCHIEN]

Hey, there are people with drivers licenses that don't know oil needs changing from time to time. That's even more frightening.

[dbhost]

Went to the grocery after church this morning. Got some cube stew meat, beat the snot out of it and sauteed it up for a makeshift philly sort of thing. It didn't work as well as I had hoped. Too much gristle...

Tried debarking still quite green ash limbs to help them dry up so I can make some walking sticks / canes... Easy, simple, brain dead projects that are therapuetic..., and my sciatica is killing me so there is function as well...

FWIW, I have watched the various jack stand reviews and tests, as many as I could find. From what I have seen of the options available the best / safest on the market now are the Harbor Freight Daytona 3 and 6 ton, very little deflection and nicely fitting ratchets, as long as you find ones that are made level, There are some with one long leg / foot due to a flub, those were pulled to my knowledge, and Eastwood 3 and 6 ton. Which I don't know of a local vendor...

And no, the aluminum jack stands weren't even something I would give 1/4 of a look at. That is just scary...

Shot footage for some basic maintenance skills videos I am doing in an effort to share knowledge we may take for granted, but a widow suddenly needing to do thigs for herself, or a widower that relied on his wife to do traditionally masculine things, no longer has that help, First up on the list by a LARGE margin of request, checking fluids on a car.

There are people with drivers licenses that do not know how to check their own oil.. We have an issue with our education system...

capncarl I would LOVE to know why you had a car shell on its side being supported by a jack stand and were lifting it with an engine hoist. Nothing about that order of operations sounds like it was planned for the longevity of that car, or you... Definately an underwear fillilng moment.

[capncarl]

On my last visit to HF I looked at their jack stands. One model in particular was the Daytona aluminum 3 ton. If that one doesn’t scare you nothing will! The ash tray size base plate was so small it would barely stand up on the display table. I can’t imagine it holding up a car while I was working on it.
Many years ago I had a jack stand fail while I had a car standing up on its side while I was lifting it with an engine hoist. The car flopped and rolled around and finally landed upside down while I danced and jumped around trying to avoid getting mashed.

[dbhost]

Sloped the noses of the pinewood derby cars, and managed to get my finger caught up in the oscillating sander... Ugh...

Pulled the top 2 drawers of my old tool chest, took out the lock and compared it to the new one. A key matched lock from a new one will fit the cabinet and lock rods. The old lock assembly itself is where the failure is, it is simply falling apart after all these years. Tried calling the actual MFG, Waterloo to get a replacement, but they are closed today. Will have to try Monday or Tuesday.

Went to Harbor Freight and swapped out my recalled jack stands as they scare the snot out of me...

Got a US General wrench holder. My old Craftsman had too few slots for my metric wrenches... Their sizing on the holder is wierd, but I am not going to pay any attention to that, and just jammed them in, working well now... More organized.

[dbhost]

The US General ARE great boxes, but didn't suit my needs is all. Honestly if I had money, and space, and they had soft close slides, I would LOVE a US General 72" cabinet and chest combo...Nowhere near Snap On money, definately high quality. On the 56", I didn't like the wide drawer / narrow drawer layout and the shallow top shelf is the main thing... The 52" Craftsman top box is about 1" shy of being full depth, an odd quirk I know, but it is WAY better than the old 12" deep boxes like my old Proto.... The way the handles on that go I couldn't put 2 side by side on a 56" cabinet if I tried! I know what you mean about the clutter catcher in front of the top box. I always hated that.. Not going to lie, It was a tough call on the US General, VERY nice box, VERY well made, but effectively 50% higher cost with a layout I wasn't super in love with, and missing 2 features I REALLY liked about the Craftsman. That being the top shelf height / layout and the soft close slides... Honestly if the price had stayed the way it was, and the top shelf was laid out like the Craftsman and the drawer slides were soft close, I probably would have paid the extra for the build quality, but I don;t regret it, or do I expect to... Not going to lie though, I do plan at some point on adding a side cabinet / shelf unit to hold tall items, notably jack stands and the AC vacuum pump. https://www.harborfreight.com/16-in-...q=side+cabinet Not sure if this will fit, but something like this mounted to the left since the handle is on the right...

[capncarl]

I really do like the HF US General tool chests. Last year I replaced my old Kennedy chest with the 56” US General. The Kennedy was a good box but the drawer arrangement wasn’t great and it had a side cabinet on each end . Way too many 10” wide drawers. It had 2 Craftsman top boxes on top and another row on top of that consisting of a Craftsman box and a Snap On box. Plenty of tool storage but the new US General box is about 8” deeper than the boxes on top. That provided a great place to pile all manner of clutter and that irritated me to no end. Last week I went to HF and noticed a US General 56” top box in the reduced price area. It was marked down to $475 from $699 because of a dent on the back. The manager accepted my offer of $450 and we loaded it up. I put the Snap On and the Craftsman box on top so I now have get a ladder to access the 2 top boxes, but I no longer have the clutter catcher. These 56” HF tool boxes are seriously heavy. (250 lbs.) I had to use the shop crane to lift it out of the truck and onto the bottom box.

[dbhost]

capncarl and anyone else interested in the current Craftsman tool chest / cabinet.

I compared features, prices, and build quality looking at Craftsman, Husky, and US General and probably some others I am forgetting...

The Craftsman S2000 Series, and there are higher and lower series that vary in quality, features and price, this is their middle of the road box set, 52" was $958.00 before tax. Cabinet has 10 drawers, chest has 8 drawers, integrated power strip with 2 USB charging ports. Metal is thinner than the competition, not up to the same gauge and the 90s Craftsman, but still more than good enough for what I expect it to endure. I have seen demos where someone loads weight into the deeper drawers and they flex and scrape. I have loaded mine up and tried the test, no issues. Of the competitors this is the only one with soft close drawer slides which is oddly enough important to me as it keeps tools from smashing around in drawers when I close the drawer a little too hard. The drawers on this seem to be just drawers from a standard 27" tool cart / chest. Just put into a bigger box. Not a bad idea, but there are no extra wide drawers, so for example My inner tie rod tool HAS to live in the top shelf area just because it is so wide.

The US General 56" Double bank roller cabinet and chest pair are $1499.98 before tax. Caibinet has 11 drawers of wildly varying sizes. Chest has 8 drawers, wide, and narrow. Top shelf area is short and would not allow storage of say cordless batteries and chargers, or even deep sockets in trays. The overall build quality of the US General is honestly amazing, on par with what I remember Snap On toolboxes back in the day, but this thing also is loaded with back in the day features or lack thereof. IF I were a working full time mechanic, I probably would have paid the extra and gone with this one, but again, higher cost, less features, and odd, but probably very useful drawer arrangement. No drawer liners included, but are minimal cost items.

The Husky 52 in. W x 21.5 in. D Heavy Duty 15-Drawer Combination Rolling Tool Chest Top Tool Cabinet, was somewhere between the Craftsman and the US General, and priced at $1198.00. The metal seemed about the same gauge as the Craftsman, with some flex but not bad to the drawers. Soft close drawer slides. Wide and narrow drawer, and included drawer liners. The outlet strip is mounted to the inside right side of chest, making it less convenient of a location at least in my usage than the Craftsman.

The question about comparing really has me scratching my dome. There are a LOT of good things to say (and bad) about all of the options, and the US General IS a good option. I will not say the Craftsman is poorly made, because it isn't, I keep thinking back to when i spun wrenches professionally in my 20s. I had a Snap on cabinet and my existing Stanley Proto top box / chest. I had more problems with that "overbuilt" Snap On cabinet and up until recently I have NEVER had a problem with my old Craftsman 9 drawer. And honestly I think my issue has to do with 30 years of abuse and next to no maintenance. The snap on had literally a caster punch through the bottom of the box with about 1/3 of the load the Craftsman carried, my Snap On dealer replaced it under warranty but still... The locking rod mechanism kept jamming, drawer slides didn't stop and overextended letting the drawer slide all the way out and nearly hit the floor if I hadn't caught it...

Yes some MFGs, even high dollar high end MFGs make duds...

I know Craftsman of 2023 is not Crafstman of 1993, or was it 92? And in some ways that is a good thing. The basic construction appears more or less the same with some upgrades. better locks, better drawer slides, integrated pegboard IF you want that sort of thing...

All in all, I fully expect this tool cabinet / chest combo to outlive me consideing my original Craftsman seems to be more or less the same quality and it is already 30 years old and aside from cosmetic issues and some lock rework that I need to do, I don't see why I can't get another 30 years out of it... And so let's say 60 year lifespan and honestly I don't expect to make it to my one hundred and teens...

[dbhost]

Yes I did. In many ways better, in some not so much. Thicker metal and higher load capacity well beyond what I would ever do, closest size they had is the 56", great box, no liners, no soft close slides,, and $500.00 more for the combo. I know this Craftsman isn't what my early 90s box is... but it was ideal for my setup and will likely outlive me.

[capncarl]

Did you compare the Harbor Freight US General tool chests to the Craftsman?

[dbhost]

Spent some quality time working on the pinewood Derby cars almost there.

I Swapped out the lock for the toolbox not the cabinet but the upper chest with a key to match lock from the manufacturer so that both the cabinet and the tool chest match.

The old 1990es I still know where the key is it fits in somewhat turns I don't know if it's a problem with the latch assembly at the back of the Box or a problem with the lock itself but is loose as lock feels I think the Tumbler is falling apart. 30 plus years of relatively hard use will do that I guess.

Since I'm going to be in this thing cleaning and painting I'm going to take the lock assembly apart and possibly see if I can't get a matching keyed to match lock assembly so that all of my tool boxes match with one key.

Craftsman paint close match for refinishing,
RustOleum Gloss Colonial Red.
Krypton Metallic Black Stainless

[LCHIEN]

those look like perfectly good dog ramps.

[twistsol]

Today after work I spent two hours trying to get the Zwift app to get heart rate data from my phone, power and cadence data from my bike, screencast that through an old AppleTV box to an LG TV and then have everything upload to both Strava and Apple Health when done.

About 25 miles of bike riding stats evaporated into the bit bucket, tut the last 13 miles were recorded everywhere they were supposed to be recorded.

I guess I'll paint the dog wash ramp tomorrow.

[dbhost]

Work for pay, took the bus home, found the Amazon package with the msising size wrenches at my stoop, finished reloading the wrenches in the toolbox, took the mismatched badly sets of SAE and Metric and put them in a wrench roll up to stow in the truck for roadside repairs as part of the emergency kit. The full sets (except extended sizes which are a different brand) were kept in the shop cabinet. About to do dinner