Daniel's ramblings
I have decided that my next toolbox will be a Lista TSMW750-0721-M. It is 47″ wide, 28.5″ deep and 41″ tall (including the casters). It has 7 drawers, all full-width with a load rating of 440 lbs. each.
I really don’t have a need for a toolbox longer than 47″. 47″ of width is enough to keep various things together, especially when I have a full 24″ of drawer depth.
I recently purchased three Stoko Vario SVP hand cleaner dispensers from JD Industrial Supply. I mounted two black ones in the basement bathroom, which is an unfinished bathroom that’s really only used as a washroom. One has a 2-liter bottle of Kresto in it, the other has a 2-liter bottle of Cupran in it. Kresto is good for general grime, Cupran is good for paints, tar, etc.
I mounted a white one in the kitchen, holding a 2-liter bottle of Kresto.
For the price, I really like these dispensers. They’re not pretty, but they’re very functional. We have them in the restrooms at work, which see a lot of traffic (hundreds of people are using the one nearest my area). We haven’t had any problems with them.
I recently received a Toptul GPAW2601 26-piece metric SuperTorque combination wrench set from thetoolchest.ca. It was on sale for $140, normally $170. It’s worth it at either price.
Here’s a picture of the 13mm wrench. Sorry for the lighting, I didn’t have time to take pictures during daylight.
These wrenches are similar to Facom 440 wrenches in some ways: the 15-degree offset of the open end, the beam shape (minus the widened center of the Facom) and the finish. They’re relatively light in weight due to the beam design, and claim to be very strong. They’re shorter than my Wright and Snap-On, which equates to the usual pluses and minuses (good in cramped quarters, a hindrance when you need a lot of leverage).
The more I receive from Toptul, the more impressed I am at their quality control at this price point. The satin finish on these wrenches is flawless, as are the open and box ends. If they had more of a presence here in the U.S., and more offerings in their hard line, I think they’d move a lot of product. I have other Toptul pieces that are equally impressive for the price: sockets (both satin and mirror finish), offset double-box wrenches and stubby rotohead ratchets. I have more of their tools on my wish list.
This week I received my Wright D980 full-polish metric combination wrench set from JD Industrial Supply. Prior to this, I did not have a high-quality set of 12-point metric combination wrenches. In fact, since I’ve destroyed some over the years, I didn’t have a complete set of ANY quality.
The Wright D980 set is a thing of beauty. The set comes with a 3/4″ MDF merchandiser board to hang on the wall. The wrenches are very comfortable and very strong, and have a flawless chrome finish. The open ends have WrightGrip on the 7mm to 24mm sizes, and the box ends have WrightDrive. They’re what I’d call mid-length: longer than a Toptul SuperTorque or a Craftsman raised-panel, but shorter than a Snap-On or a Craftsman Professional. The set contains 24 wrenches: 6mm-27mm, 30mm, 32mm. The set is significantly less expensive than an equivalent Snap-On Flank Drive set, while including the very nice merchandiser board.
I’d put these up against my few Snap-On wrenches for quality and strength any day of the week. But they’re thicker, which is a disadvantage when reaching into a very confined space but an advantage in terms of strength and comfort.
I haven’t posted here in a long time. So here’s a post on something I’ve been working on for several weeks: restoring a Lista SC cabinet (an SC0900-0501F).
I bought the cabinet locally from a craigslist ad quite some time ago. It came with some drawer layouts. I paid $300. List price for a new one is over $1300. Lista cabinets are nice, industrial strength units (each drawer can hold 440 lbs. of stuff).
The numerous problems with the one I bought:
I stripped the whole cabinet and the drawer fronts to bare metal, then repainted. I used black appliance epoxy, and am in the process of applying lacquer, wetsanding and polishing.
I have ordered locking hinge bars so I’ll have a means of moving the cabinet to my next residence without worrying about it coming open. I won’t be moving this thing around in the basement since I intend to put my fasteners and the like in it (it will be heavy). I also got the information on ordering the hardware to have PrevenTip again, and a new key for the lock. I ordered a butcher block maple top for it, but not from Lista; it was significantly cheaper to just order from McMaster-Carr and I’ll cut it to size (or leave it oversized). I will order a caster kit for it in November or so, or just cut and drill the forklift base and use some of the shock-absorbing casters I have on hand.
I didn’t snap any pictures before starting the restoration. But I’ll post some when I’m done. I should have about $700 total into the cabinet when it’s completed.
This cabinet will last me a lifetime, and I’ve decided that all of my future cabinets will likely be Lista. They’re not cheap, but they’re nearly indestructible, can be configured any way I’d like, come in a large variety of sizes, and hold good resale value if not intentionally thrashed.
The last 2 weeks, I’ve spent my spare time continuing to clean the floor. Last Sunday I decided to stop fussing over it. I’ve managed to remove all the glaring nasty stuff… SO much spilled paint, primer, roof tar I don’t know what else! But to get all of it would require several more weeks working on my hands and knees, or renting a decent-sized concrete grinder. Not worth it. I washed it the last time in preparation for a BLT G-Floor mat (gray coin pattern). I put my dehumidifier in the bay and ran it all week.
Tonight the bay was very dry, with a relative humidity of 35 percent. I rolled out the G-Floor mat. It’s 10′ wide and 24′ long, which leaves 6′ at the end uncovered, and roughly 18″ uncovered along one side. On the 6′ end that’s uncovered, I will either leave it bare or put down a BLT motorcycle mat. I don’t really have the option of leaving the 18″ side bare, since it will be damaged when I try to roll my jack over it to jack up the passenger side of my cars. I’m looking at getting something like McMaster-Carr 6821T714 to cover the edge there.
Last night I mounted the 5th fluorescent light. I think I’m done for now, and will utilize the 6th light elsewhere or just keep it as a spare. 300W of fluorescent light seems like enough for my purposes in this single garage bay. It’s definitely better than I had before, and the installation is MUCH cleaner than what was there previously.
Tonight I replaced the worn-out outlet that was used for the old rickety fluorescent lights. One of the problems with this outlet is that the box is mounted too deep, and some erosion of the surrounding plaster (it’s actually stucco). The outlet itself wasn’t snugged up against anything. I shimmed the new outlet with washers to make it snug against the box.
I am going to look at getting rid of the long extension cord used to power the central vacuum; it’s awkward and in the way. That would simply mean installing an outlet and running wire to it. Maybe a new breaker so it has its own circuit. Relatively easy to do since the basement ceiling is unfinished. I don’t use the central vacuum since it’s weak and a power hog compared to my uprights, but I didn’t take down the extension cord for it since the owners used it.
Tonight I finished the wiring for the lights.
First I finished the conduit work, including a solid EMT elbow to bring the wiring into the wall. I reinforced the entry with a piece of 3/4″ plywood that I drilled a hole in and then hammered a straight set-screw coupler into the plywood. It’s not going anywhere, I think I could hang my weight on it without it moving.
I then finished wiring all of the outlets.
I removed the existing single-gang switch box and enlarged the hole to fit a double-gang switch box. I then pulled the wire to it from the junction box, installed the switch box, wired the switches, and buttoned things up.
It’s so nice to be able to flip a switch to get bright light instead of messing with an awful plug on the end of solid wire and worrying about a very heavy 8′ fluorescent light falling on me or my car! The 4′ shop lights I installed are lightweight and attached very firmly to the ceiling.
I have one light left to hang, and a spare that I may or may not hang. I also need a cover for the junction box.
I’m still working on cleaning up the floor. There is SO much paint that has been spilled on it over the years (previous residents), along with roof tar and I don’t know what else (some of it hasn’t been identified). I was thinking about putting epoxy on the floor, but the floor is below grade and I’m 99% sure that epoxy will delaminate from moisture seeping through the concrete. However, I’ve been looking at moisture-cured urethanes as an alternative or as a primer for a solvent-based epoxy. In particular, Aluthane. I’m not thrilled with the color (silver), but it looks like it has tenacious bonding properties and does well in moist environments. I’m still planning a BLT mat, but the Aluthane would cover areas not covered by the mat and probably reduce humidity.
This weekend I started replacing the fluorescent lighting. Previous residents had hung 8′ long dual T12 lights from the ceiling. Unfortunately, they were not done well. One of them fell recently, thank goodness my car wasn’t in the bay! The wiring was nowhere close to code; solid wire with no wire nuts, wrapped in electrical tape, run to a wall outlet with a hand-assembled plug. To turn the lights on, the plug had to be inserted into the outlet (no switch was wired). That outlet is trashed from the gazillion insertions/removals of the plug, I bought a replacement. Worst of all, the 8′ lights were FULL of rust and very heavy. When I took them down and tipped them, many pounds of rust went from one end to the other inside the lights, and poured out of the holes. They’re ancient, and have noisy magnetic ballasts.
My replacements are 4′ dual T8 shop lights with all-weather electronic ballasts (good down to 0 degrees Fahrenheit). They have 5′ cords with molded plugs. On the wall near the ceiling, I’m installing outlets and running all of the wire (14 gauge) inside flexible conduit. Having outlets makes it fairly easy to add more lights if desired, or replace the lights.
I intend to replace the single-gang switch for the incandescent lighting with a double-gang box. This will make for a nice clean installation and I’ll be able to turn the fluorescent lights on/off with the flip off a switch instead of messing with a difficult plug that is wired to solid wire.
Yesterday I spent much of the day cleaning paint off the floor of the single attached garage bay. It was a mess, with some spots having 1/8″ of spilled paint (brick red color… brush-on primer?). Roofing tar was spilled on the floor too. I used paint stripper and a scraper with lots of elbow grease to remove the paint, and mineral spirits to dissolve the roofing tar. I’d estimate I scraped nearly 1/2 gallon of paint off of the floor. Some remains, but I’m not ambitious enough to remove all of it. The idea was to get rid of all of the thick stuff that had been soaked with motor oil, dirt, etc. I didn’t make this mess, it was from a previous resident. But I had grown tired of destroying clothes every time I had to be on the floor for any reason (usually car work).
Whoever made this mess got paint everywhere. The brick red paint is splashed on the door to the foyer, up to a height of 30″. There is black paint splashed on the garage door.
Today I powerwashed the floor. Just lightly, using some Simple Green in one of the mix bottles. I then squeegeed the water out and set up my fans to dry the floor.
The main point of this cleanup: I want to put a BLT garage floor mat on the floor, just like I did at my home in Dexter. I want to be able to take it with me when I leave, which means I don’t want it to be a mess on the back side.