LocostUSA.com

Huh...Can you forward me one of the emails?

-dave

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...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

You can view them online right here.

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Doh! Sorry Dave. I was going to forward it to you after reading your post, but got distracted by other crap in my inbox & forgot about it. The link that Chet just posted appears to have the same thing that I just got in my email. Let me know if you still need me to forward one to you.

--JOsh

A big "A" for the el-cheapo pneumatic rivet gun!
$29.99 on sale, regularly $39.99 I believe.

I just put in 800+ rivets over the weekend and it was SO easy.

I bought the riveter over a year ago but my build got put on the back burner so I never even took the tool out of the box it came in. But now I had a use for it, two boxes of 500 5/32" rivets to put in and the thought of doing them with my nice hand tool was not pleasant. And my good hand riveter cost about the same amount.

I got the box, pulled the gun out and read the manual. Good thing since you have to take it apart to add oil (not included of course) to prime it. The tool comes with a wrench to remove the bottom. Ok, bent that worthless tool the first time I tried to open the bottom. I tried my impact gun with no luck. Finally with a 3' cheater bar and my 6 point socket and hitting it with a rubber mallet as I applied pressure it finally came loose. I think the aluminum threads just froze up as it was fine once I broke it loose. Added the oil as best I could figure they meant from the directions and gave it a whirl. Whoopee! So nice!

It would occasionally get a mandrel caught in the jaws after setting the rivet and cutting the mandrel but each time I tried a different way to get it out until I found the easy way was just to hold the trigger in (when one was stuck) which pulls the mandrel inside the gun, and then put another rivet in and hold it in place as I released the trigger which pushed the used mandrel out. Very simple and quick.

How long will it last? Who knows, but it worked great on a BIG job and I love for that. After more than 800 rivets my trigger finger wasn't even tired. I may get another one just to have handy since HF only ships Parcel Post to Alaska and that means 3 weeks minimum.

James

This is really ironic, but I will only get my 4 1/2 inch cutoff wheels from HF. I had used their angle grinders for years with variable success. Then I splurged and got a Dewalt model. I bought some cutoff wheels with it at Home Depot and had several explode on me. I have a scar on my belly to prove it. The ones from Harbor Freight ironically have never given me any trouble at all. I love the really cheap 6 inch chop saw. The thin blade makes it a lot easier to cut through 16 g tubing than using my Dewalt 14 inch model or my Ryobi 10 inch compound saw. Their hydraulic press stuff is not bad, not great except for the price. I have never tried their welding equipment. I use Miller and Lincoln without complaint. The sand blasting cabinets are fairly good.

Now I have my eye on the vertical/horizontal bandsaw. they also now have an english wheel for a really good price as well as other metal working tools...hard to go wrong there i think.

OK, I went over the weekend to get some more of those cutoff wheels and noticed that the red vertical/horizontal metal bandsaw was on sale for $159. I went for it and I have to say that I enjoy the lack of noise as compared to the chopsaw. I would give it an A-. The sheet metal stand sucks, but I welded in a couple of reinforcements and now it's solid.

Need tools to do your brakes? Explires 4/26/08

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/html/em ... ges/4a.jpg

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

I have one of the vertizontal band saws that I bought a while ago and have been very happy with it.

HOWEVER, we did buy one recently for our warehouse and after the PITA of assembling it we found out that there's an angle between the main hinge and the bed rather than then being perfectly parallel.
This, of course, will not produce a straight cut no matter how much you mess around with bearing guides and what not.
The saw was returned and we got a new one that works fine.

Also, I got the $7.99 heat gun recently and it works great!

Moti

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Moti

My R1 powered Locost build log

Visit the Blackbird Fabworx Facebook Page!

The heat gun works great but is very fragile. I got it's cord tangled with another tool and when I walked away it drug the heat gun off of my workbench. It hit the floor after it's short fall and never ran again.

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Darn, good for in store only (my nearest HF is like 200 miles away!).

My HF chop saw finally gave up the ghost last night. It just wouldn't fire back up after a cut. It wasn't a terribly difficult cut, just some 2" squre 14Ga. Sigh.

I knew I would be lucky if it lasted the duration of the build, but I did hope it would make it up to the last few cuts. I still have the rear structure behind the aft firewall, the roll bar, and numereous brackets and mounts.

I do have to admit I surely did get at least $50 worth of cuts out of it.

My backup is my trusty Dewalt 4.5" angle grinder. This is it's 5th vehicle worth of service. Amazing.


RIP HF chop saw.

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In God We Trust... All Others, Bring Data.

Miata based, custom chassis build in progress. First Drive!!! http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=2269&start=375

I picked up one of the 4x8 folding trailers with the 12" wheels a few weeks back while it was on sale. So far I've logged about 450 miles with it and I'm pretty pleased.

I give it an A- up to this point. I'd give it a higher grade if it wasn't for the regular nuts with cotter pins holding the tongue and springs on and the shackless spring mounting; I upgraded to nylocks and castle nuts in some strategic locations but I'm still figuring out what to do about frame being a bearing surface for one end of the spring.

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-Andrew
Build Log
Youtube

Anyone try either of these? Look pretty useful!
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=96874

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=95998

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

I got two sears digital levels for that purpose. Around xmas they generaly go on a major sale.

Yeah you showed me that one. If these cheapos work anywhere near as good as the one you have I'd like to have one.

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.