Spudz

Hey All,
I am in the big winter slump right now
A few more months until we can get out and really do stuff outside other the move snow around

What do you guys do when your projects come to a halt either due to lack of funds , or not being sure of what way to go with it ??

I have tons of ideas , but not enough money to do them right in one Summer. You all probably have been there at one time or another .

First thing I need to due is get rid of whats left of a Datsun Roadster thats taken up one side of the garage . I did buy a propane heater to warm the garage up to work in there now. The electric heaters took way to long to make it comfortable in there .

Mike

91zxtt

Usually when I run out of $ I get focused again on my job so I can make more $. One of the upsides to commissioned employment

jburge01

Hey, I'm there all the time. It's always not enough resources, both time and money. But on my car at least, there is always something to do, the least of them are the big buck items.

Making the garage a comfortable, organized, well lighted and roomy place to work helps a lot.
As for being comfortable in the garage, event though I'm down in South Texas, it does get chilly at night, even freezing some times. I have a propane and an kerosene heater in the garage because after all day in an office, it helps me get started when it's chilly out there. I've grown fond of full body coveralls too. They keep stuff from going up your shirt and down your pants. A full face sheild and respirator were also recent acquisitions as they keep you from getting metal from going up my nose and sparks from smacking your face.

A radio and some liquor helps too. When I lived in the north country, I had a garage with a fireplace and a wood stove. It was awsome to work out there in the winter.

Also, I'm sure you've watched those hot rod build shows on TV. Saw one on the learning channel last night about an Ebay Mustang. They can help motivate because they really turn out some nice projects, but they can bum you too because they have every possible open checkbook machine tool and part you could ever want. All that stuff is great to have, and it really helps do some quality work fast and easy. But it is not always necessary to have all those tools and high dollar parts get the job done. You might be suprised what you can do with some hammers, a cutoff wheel, grinder, drill and a welder. And most really good projects take more than a couple of years, even when the pros do them.

When you aren't sure what to do, give it some time and thought. I have some guitars and stuff out in the shop that I can pick up when it looks like I might be at a dead end. It helps to change activities to get things into perspective sometimes. Things will probably come into focus at some point. If you are still not sure what to do, just pitch in and start working. And if you found out you went the wrong way, you can always change it.

I just get burned out and don't feel like doing what needs to be done sometimes too. Things just sit for a few months waiting for me to get motivated. I think that is natural with everybody. While that time seems to be unproductive, for me it is a chance for ideas to settle into place (or go away). I try not to force things to happen too much, but instead try to lay the ground work that will allow good things to happen.

Spudz

Hey John,
Thanks for your ideas !!! I have been adding shelving to my garage this last few weeks along with wiring another outlet for my stereo. I am putting a cable outlet for my satelite dish in there also. I plan on adding a TV with a swivel bracket like I have here in my home office in there. Will also add a cable for my computer modem , so maybe I can do some live feeds from the garage like GTZilla tried. ( Reminds me I need to fire of an email to Randy AKA GTZilla ). I am also looking into a real air compressor . I used one of the small wheeled ones on my last body working
project and swore never to do that again.
I am also going to add at least two more 4' ceiling lights in there, paint the floors and finish the drywall

I just got my satellite hooked back up agian and can watch the cool car tuner shows again , just watched the Mustang one the other night.. Must have been tough to get a free crate motor from Ford .

We did just get one ton duallie tow rig and are currently looking for an enclosed trailer, so I guess I am getting something done over the Winter .

Thanks again and I will keep you guys all posted on Project 240 Race in the next few months or years whatever it takes .

Mike

preith

jburge01 mentioned the wood stove. This winter in the Milwaukee area has been pretty harsh, and even with a 35,000 btu propane heater, it's not pleasant out in the garage.

I was thinking of building a waste motor oil stove, which I found plans for surfing. It's built from an electric hot water heater. Thought you guys might be interested as well. It burns about 4/5 of a quart an hour.

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_...earth/me4.html

Look for the page 3 feedback link about 3/4 of the way down. There's a guy who changed the design a bit and made it much more efficient and hotter.

My tow vehicle/daily driver is a Powerstroke diesel, which requires 3 gallons of oil. Sure would be nice to put it to good use!

That brings up another subject, I thought it would be kinda neat to start a tow vehicle thread. Any bites??

Phil

preith

Just another thought. I've been passing the time away this winter with Gran Prix Legends on the PC. Anyone else play this?

Even though it's an older game, there's an amazing amount of add on software out there for it. This includes amazing car graphics, and just about any track you can think of.

Phil

Spudz

I bought the 35k BTU one also . I have a very small garage and it takes about 20 minutes or less to heat it up in 5 degree tempratures. I finished insulating last winter and also used some foil backed bead foam on the roll up door.

I get to addicted to online games I played some race game on the Nabisco site a few Winters back and I had 5 of the top 10 times in the country and had to use friends email addresses when posting my results. I ended up winning the walkie talkie set in my friend from Canada's name and they wouldn't ship to Canada

Yeah , lets do start a pull rig and also trailer thread and see what happens .

jburge01

That heater design reminds of something we used to use in the military. The military one was about the size of a pony keg and was fed with a gravity drip of kerosene from a 50 gal drum. It was mostly used for heating tents and quonset huts. It had an "M" number like M5 or something. I lived in a ancient farmhouse in England that had no heat at all and I put one in there and vented it out a fireplace. It worked great but you need to watch out for excessive CO from these things (like any kind of heat source from combustion). I love the idea of using waste motor oil. Of course nowawadys many communities even require woodstoves to be EPA approved to meet certain emissions requirements so it might not be real legal in those places.

preith

There shouldn't be any exhaust venting into the area your heating. One would have to put a chimney, or vent in. I thought about the legalities too, but I would imagine something like this would be hard to enforce. I did manage to find a portable unit which Northern Tool sells. Too bad it's 2k dollars!

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...egoryId=155625