Just Sharing This Something useful for the garage/workshop

[jeallen01]

Ref the cordless soldering irons as I've now had a bit of a play around with both the LIDL and the Duratool ones, and my impressions are:

LIDL
- Comes with a half-decent instruction sheet.
- Quite comfortable to hold use, but relatively large and with quite a "large" bit - not so suitable for use on densely populated boards &/or in confined spaces as the Duratool
- I haven't yet tracked down any alternative/finer bits - but direct replacements do seem to be available (at about the same price as the iron itself!)
- Has a pretty bight 3x LED light pointed at the tip bit, helpful if you need to illuminate the "target"
- Charges up pretty quickly - certainly by comparison with the Duratool
- Accessing/changing the battery would be time-consuming because the body is held together by 5x screws
- Very cheap (£10) for what it is, but only if you get it on one of Lidl's special deals
- It's a Grizzly Tools branded product, so service/spares support should be available from NOVO in Bilston.

Duratool
- Comes with a reasonably good instruction sheet
- Small and "neat" with a finer-tipped bit, and certainly easier to use on densely populated boards
- Not definitively tracked down any alternative/finer bits, but the ones that come with this "Fenway" iron might fit
- No LED light to illuminate the "target"
- Charging dock has a wiremesh tip-cleaning ball
- Battery runs down quickly and then takes at least 2-3x longer to charge wirelessly than the LIDL does in its direct charging dock
- Accessing/changing the battery is easy because the battery-compartment bayonets onto the front part of the body - the battery is an "`18650 2200mAH, 3.6V" - BUT the instruction leaflet quotes a 2600mAH one as the minimum, which could be the reason it runs down so quickly!
Replacements/higher capacity versions are available for about £7 delivered from Eire, as are suitable direct charging docks for around £4-5 delivered (ebay etc - but buy the USB version and NOT the one that is supposed to have a UK mains plug because that's one of the really dangerous types!). Therefore it would be easy to get a spare battery & a charging dock so as to use one battery whilst charging the other - but I'm not sure for how long the bayonet fitting compartment would then be a secure fit on the front part.
- Costs about £25 from CPC - or up to twice that from Amazon/ebay etc.
- Not sure whether Duratool does actually provide much in the way of product support and spares

Conclusion: I'm keeping both of them as they will probably both be useful, but for slightly different jobs

 

[2cvbloke]

Here's another useful thing for a garage, workshop, dark attic or dank cellar, indoor sunlight, which just so happens to use a satellite dish:

Assuming you could bring yourself to actually use a dish to turn into such a thing of course...

 

[jeallen01]

A few more small tools, meters and so on in LIDL from Sunday DIY Tools from Sunday, 21.03. at Lidl UK

 

[jeallen01]

PS:
- The DMM is an autoranging version of the one I got from LIDL a couple of years ago, and it's "interesting" because it is incorporates a 1kHz squarewave generator for circuit tracing/testing, as does my older one and "good value" at 10 quid (but I'm not buying any more DMMs - I already have too many!!)

 

[jeallen01]

I've got mains-powered glue guns for 7mm & 11mm glue sticks, but one of the recurrent issues is that the mains cable is very large compared with the size/weight of the guns themselves (especially the 7mm version - which is otherwise extremely good) and so this rechargeable battery version from LIDL from next Sunday looks interesting and might be a decent solution to that problem

 

[jeallen01]

Several years ago, I bought 4x "workshop" racks - you know, the sort that are boldly promoted as being great because they are "boltless" - from MachineMart for the garage.

Well, I don't know about anyone else who has assembled those "boltless" racks, but, to me, assembling them on your own is a bit like trying to set up a TD110 - you need "3+" arms and a lot of patience as the process is very much "two steps forward, then one step back" because once you get one end of a frame bar slotted in, you generally then find that the other end has become dislodged (and impossible to refit because the soft steel "lugs" in one bar have deformed and won't fit the slots in the mating one)!

But, OK, I finally got all 4 racks assembled and in place, but it now seems that I'll likely have to move them around the garage in the near future - so how do I then make sure that they don't damned well fall apart in the process?

Thus I think I came up, and have nearly finished "implementing", a pretty workable solution - I drilled the vertical and horizontal bars and fitted BOLTS and NUTS (so they'r not "boltless" any longer")!"

I used a 3.5mm pilot drill bit, and then a 6.5mm clearance hole bit, through the vertical & horizontal bars at the junction points, and then bolted them together with M6x12mm roofing bolts and serrated-flange nuts (like those here), and the pics below show what the "finished job" looks like.

The racks, at least when fairly empty, are now pretty easy to "shove around" without them falling over or totally apart, and that should make any future re-arrangements much easier.

On reflection, I should have done pretty much the same thing when I first assembled those racks as that would have made the job much less time-consuming, sweaty and flustrating

 

[jeallen01]

I have an old glue gun for 11mm glue diameter sticks but it takes an awful long time to heat up - which was a pity because I have a lot of those 11mm sticks that I couldn't really use, and I didn't want to spend a lot of cash to get another gun for those sticks.

Then came across this "new" Parkside PHP 500 E3 gun which is currently available from LIDL at £7.99, so have just bought one - appears to have a real advantage over my old gun because it draws 500W during heatup and thus should heat up pretty quickly, AND, apparently, it can run for a short time without the mains lead being attached and thus be easier to use away from the nearest socket.

This one is going down the garage when I have checked it out because that's where it'll likely be of most use.

 

[jeallen01]

I have an old glue gun for 11mm glue diameter sticks but it takes an awful long time to heat up - which was a pity because I have a lot of those 11mm sticks that I couldn't really use, and I didn't want to spend a lot of cash to get another gun for those sticks.

Then came across this "new" Parkside PHP 500 E3 gun which is currently available from LIDL at £7.99, so have just bought one - appears to have a real advantage over my old gun because it draws 500W during heatup and thus should heat up pretty quickly, AND, apparently, it can run for a short time without the mains lead being attached and thus be easier to use away from the nearest socket.

This one is going down the garage when I have checked it out because that's where it'll likely be of most use.

Update: I did get one of those PHP 500 E3 guns and (having used it to repair a broken tablet holder for the car) it's actually very good - and it does keep "glueing" for a time after the power cord is disconnected because there is a large amount of metal in the nozzle assembly which stores the heat (also means you don't touch that for sometime after disconnection = OUCH )

 

[RimaNTSS]

I used 2 LED screens (they were going to scrap) to make the lights for the garage. Not a big deal, just needed to remove black LCD panels and apply proper power to the original LEDs inside the screens. Now I have 2 light sources ~60 and ~100 cm in diagonal, and they are almost free.

 

[Captain Jack]

Hah! Ingenious!

 

[RimaNTSS]

Have bought a set of screwdrivers from Amazon. Man, they coast, but I think they are good quality ones.

 

[RimaNTSS]

The better half said she needs distilled water for the iron. I think she could believe this is purely for distillation of water... when she sees it. Anyway, this could be very useful for the garage, just in case.

 

[Terryl]

Looks like an experimental/prototype Daleks from Dr. Who...

And be careful if distilling potato mash, you could get fusel alcohol (very bad stuff) if the temps are not right, you could wind up using a white cane and Dog.

 

[RimaNTSS]

Decided to get a new toy for the garage.... the welder, especially for cold-welding possibility. Can not wait when it is delivered.

 

[jeallen01]

LIDL and garage tools time again - it's another Plasma Cutter but this time it has a built-in compressor so one wouldn't already need to have a separate one to use this Parkside Plasma Cutter with Compressor - at Lidl UK.

Might have been interested if I didn't already have both sorts of units..

OTOH, they are also getting another small arc welder PIFDS 120 A1 Parkside Flux Cored Wire Welder - at Lidl UK but this one doesn't have a wire speed feed control like the older, larger(and a lot heavier!) PFDS 120 A2 (I picked up one of those a couple of months ago from ebay with a "firey" self-dimining mask & 4 extra spools of welding wire for £110 delivered)

Now "all" I (STILL!!) have to do is to learn how to use the existing cutter and welder without killing myself or burning the garage down.

BTW: am in the process of fitting the above, and other stuff, to the trolley base of the Clarke Parts Washer I won last year in a magazine competition so I can move the kit around and use it where wanted!

 

[jeallen01]

Something entirely different that I came across and bought before Xmas = "Car jack Rubber Frame Protectors" to make it easier to use a trolley jack to lift the "average" car at the normal points along the lower edges of the cills (instead of having to use wooden blocks etc., under the body or suspension mountings, etc.)

Came across them by accident in an Aliexpress promo email, and they are advertised on ebay (as above) but never seen them sold through actual UK outlets.

 

[purplemarina]

some of the professional garage jacks and garage lifts (3/4 post ramps) come with variations on these, i know some bmw's and mercedes require specialist blocks to go into jacking points other wise a standard jack saddle causes damage.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Something entirely different that I came across and bought before Xmas = "Car jack Rubber Frame Protectors" to make it easier to use a trolley jack to lift the "average" car at the normal points along the lower edges of the cills (instead of having to use wooden blocks etc., under the body or suspension mountings, etc.)

Came across them by accident in an Aliexpress promo email, and they are advertised on ebay (as above) but never seen them sold through actual UK outlets.

For delicate cars, the cup of a standard trolley jack can be filled with just a tabloid folded into quarters, or eights. If really fussy about the paintwork just cut a tennis ball in half.

 

[jeallen01]

For delicate cars, the cup of a standard trolley jack can be filled with just a tabloid folded into quarters, or eights. If really fussy about the paintwork just cut a tennis ball in half.

Probably works OK with a fairly light vehicle - but wouldn't want to try that with my Skoda (or your Honda for that matter, given the amount of stuff you habitually seem to carry in the back of it!)

 

[Manikm909]

Something entirely different that I came across and bought before Xmas = "Car jack Rubber Frame Protectors" to make it easier to use a trolley jack to lift the "average" car at the normal points along the lower edges of the cills (instead of having to use wooden blocks etc., under the body or suspension mountings, etc.)

Came across them by accident in an Aliexpress promo email, and they are advertised on ebay (as above) but never seen them sold through actual UK outlets.

ice hockey pucks with a slot cut into them