Major tool choices

[True2Blue]

Ill be installing a lift in the garage as soon as i can find a local company that delivers and installs (warranty) anyone know of a company in wa?

 

If you were to pick a nice mig welder say for lots of tube and frame work up to .25 what would you choose? ive had my eye on a hobart 190.

 

Lastly i dont think im going to find a good non "manual" bender (3") under $1500 so those of you that make roll cages and whatnot what do you recommend? It WILL get used more then once or twice

[Scott in Bellingham]

I went with a pro tools just because afreind has all ther dies and Ive used it and liked it, spendy, , you cant go wrong with a miller, I would get a 220volt with gas MIG

 

[czny]

I've been thinking about an upgrade to this MIG:

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/mig/product.php?model=M00245

 

Not that my 220V Challenger I've had since '93 can't do whatever I need of it, just a little more flexability would be nice.

[True2Blue]

I've been thinking about an upgrade to this MIG:

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/mig/product.php?model=M00245

 

Not that my 220V Challenger I've had since '93 can't do whatever I need of it, just a little more flexability would be nice.

 

i just added the same one to my amazon cart. i feel it would be a good setup for my garage.

 

i think for now im going to go with a 4 post "storage" lift then later ill find someone to come out and hook up a 2 post (i just want a warranty to fall back on, i work to damn much these days)

[davebugs]

I have a 4 post.

 

Great for some things., not so great for others. Don't forget to get an "axle jack" or two. To be able to do things like rotate tires. I have one "axle jack" and a sliding tray that will hold a regular floor jack. Rotating tires easily is the biggest annoyance.

 

And when you pull an engine the car "raises" when the suspension has less weight on it.

 

For oil changes, exhaust work, most things it's great. And for me I like not having to get on the floor 4 times to set where the arms are gonna hit the car.

 

Mine has wheels. So I can push it around empty or loaded (the ramps are only a couple inches off the floor when the wheels are on). This is handy. For instance my garage is unheated. I built almost a paint booth with tarps and put a 30k propane heater in there. In the winter I used to pull in an Outback, yank the engine, then call my dad and we'd push the car out into the cold part of the garage. I'd put the engine on a stand in the "warm part" of the garage and tear it down and do the HG's. When engine is ready we'd push the lift(with the car on it) back to the "warm" section.

 

I lucked out. Where I originally wanted to put the lift I forgot about the garage door tracks - it wouldn't have worked. Also it's always tough to figure out how far from the 2 walls you want the lift to allow for tool boxes, shelving, whatever. This way you can simply move the lift.

 

A 2 post you can't move around at all.

 

I got a generic one from gregsmithequipment.com years ago. Best 2k I've spent. I recommend the aluminum ramps(that I didn't get) and the nylon wheels (which I didn't get) if you buy one. Those ramps really stick out and they get heavy removing and installing them a lot. They hurt when you walk into them.

[True2Blue]

I have 2 shops so theres plenty of room for tools and bigger items, the one ill be using as my "garage" is 40x30 it was built for an RV and such so clearance is no issue. its not knowing who and where.

 

im still looking into everything i listed i havent made up my mind just yet.

 

might be a long shot but has anyone ever had the used oil heaters?

[davebugs]

 

might be a long shot but has anyone ever had the used oil heaters?

 

I looked into them in the past.

 

Still seems no matter which brand there are clogging issues.

 

Also when I researched you could just get the waste oil burner part and put in a normal oil furnace. Atleast one manufacturer offered this.

 

I would only be using my own oil so I wasn't worried about contaminants like anti-freeze and such. It seems if you talked to owners no matter how filtered they would get clogging.

 

It's been a few years, perhaps progress has been made.

[GeneralDisorder]

Install your own lift. It's easy. I have a mid-rise "pit" lift in my garage at home and it was ~$2500 to the fed-ex dock. My two-post asymmetric at my shop was $1800 to the dock. Took me and couple friends half a day to install. Rent or borrow a roto-hammer and 3/4" bit. That's all you need.

 

Don't buy a bender. It costs very little to have tubing mandrel bent and for cages you want as few bends as possible and as little crush as possible. For *REAL* cages that will be inspected and raced anything less than a true mandrel bender will not bend with sufficiently high crush ratio. The cage I'm working on now has 6 bends total. I have the tubing bent by the same guy I buy it from and it runs me about $25 per bend. Not worth the investment in a mid-range machine that's going to take up a ton of space and do a crappy job.

 

For welders - you can't have a large enough unit. A Miller or Thermal-Arc in the 250 range is a perfect all-around size for a shop large enough for a lift. Any smaller and they are cheaply made and don't come as their own rolling cabinets. Consider what you are buying carefully - things with wheels are a tremendous bonus.

 

GD