Harbor Freight Jack - Blew Out

How hot was it that day? Leak might not be so noticeable when cooler...

Its been pretty hot in the shop every day for about the last month. The other day we had a breeze and it wasn't cool. It was like walking in front of a furnace. One day recently I stepped out the back door of the house to head for the shop and it felt like walking into a wall. My system just recoiled from the heat. That's okay. This winter when some of you are fighting your way through snow drifts to get to the wood pile I'll be grilling steaks on the back porch. Yeah, I have a wood pile too. I trim the mesquite trees out front and stack the wood for grilling.

I'm actually not all that unhappy with the jack. I don't use it every day, but it has lasted 20 year. I have used it to its limit many times. Somebody in another group suggested I go ahead and replace it, then see if I can fix the original as a backup. I don't know about as a backup, but I have pulled it off the press and used it as a truck jack in spots where I couldn't really work the handle on a regular bottle jack... or just didn't want to lay in the dirt if I didn't have to. It might be convenient to have an air operated jack at the ready all the time. I do have plenty of working bottle jacks though. Even my toe jacks will work as a straight bottle jack if needed. What I really should do is spend the extra few dollars for a 20 ton air over jack to put on the bigger press, and strip the 12 ton down to go on the project metal pile. I've also been thinking about going full push pull on the

20 ton, but a pump, motor, and cylinder is a bit more money. Still there are other things it might be handy to have a hydraulic power pack available for.

For now it will likely get ignored until I need it again. I have way to many projects. Some more important than others.

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I have so many projects like that I'll never finish them in this lifetime. But that's okay, boredom is a far worse woe😉

This winter when some of you are fighting your way through snow drifts to get to the wood pile I'll be grilling steaks on the back porch. Yeah, I have a wood pile too. I trim the mesquite trees out front and stack the wood for grilling.

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This past winter was very mild with little snow, my notes show 46F on New Year's Day. I burned only 1-1/4 cords all winter. A typical year's use is

1-3/4, a harsh one 2-1/4. Others with similar houses burn 5-6, so my added window insulation film and other upgrades have paid off, or else they took the dealers' word for the amount delivered.

We had some hot (90's) and humid (DP 70's) weeks in July but August has been

70's and lower 80's with dew points mostly below 60F rather than the usual triple H, hazy, hot and humid. In exchange we've had wildfire smoke, flooding, power outages, ruined crops and the occasional tornado. Being downwind of Canada when the jet stream flows south of us has its good and bad points.

I know I can acclimate myself to 105F from living in an attic apartment and spending time near Atlanta. Doesn't mean I want to. I can at least dress for the cold, which around here means below +20F. In college we'd party outdoors at -20F. I attended a practice climb and picnic on a mountain top in January where the food would start to freeze between the pot and the mouth.

As we returned in late afternoon to the much warmer bottom we met and turned around kids from Massachusetts who were trying to hike the trail in sneakers. The popular trail itself was packed solid but beside it the soft dry snow was >4' deep. Step off without snowshoes and you sink too far to climb out, and freeze unless another hiker finds you. Our mountains aren't relatively high but their weather can be deadly.

in NH

I'm tired of pumping the 20t jack on my 12t HF press . So I just ordered a 20t air/hydraulic jack on eBay . Just under a hundred bucks . I'll report on it when I get it installed and have pressed something . Gettin' old ain't so bad if you can afford tools to do what your muscles can't any more ...

By the sound of things you could grill a steak on the deck about now WITHOUT a fire ---

Well, I did it. I ordered another air over hydraulic jack from Harbor Freight. I mean the first one only lasted 20+ years. How can I expect any better out of its replacement. (Shakes head.)

I was sucked in by an advertisement. They manipulated my brain with subliminal advertising. My eyes saw a jack, but my mind saw a super model. I thought... "gee my wife might have an issue with this," but I convinced myself otherwise. "Its only a jack. She won't mind. Really." Then I saw the parking lot sale price "in store and online." I bought two of them in case one gets tired or has a headache... Errr I mean blows a seal or wears out.

Nah, the plan is to do what I should have done years ago. Throw one on the 20 ton press, and retired the 12 ton to the scrap metal rack out back. The second is because sometimes it is really handy to just have a loose air over jack in the shop, and now I won't have to lever it on and off the press when I need one. With the sale prices it was $30 cheaper than the 12 ton.

Of course if I ever have a spare moment in the shop without something actually important to do I'll take a look at the 20 year old 12 ton and see if I can fix it too. Nah I'll probably just logon to the news server and blather on about something or another.

I also ordered a battery operated hot glue gun and a battery operated spotlight that use the Bauer batteries, because well why not.

(Subliminal advertising again. In my mind I saw professional cheerleaders.)

I also ordered a battery operated hot glue gun and a battery operated spotlight that use the Bauer batteries, because well why not.

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HF is hard to walk through without buying something you don't really need. I keep stopping at the ring roller to imagine what it could make. The cure seems to be not having a place to put anything else.

I started out just planning to order some hot glue sticks... The results for the glue sticks also showed the battery operated hot glue gun. When I am putting together an order I'll often add things of interest to the shopping cart so I can find them easily. Then I'll delete all the items I am not really interested in before I check out.

I do have a couple corded hot glue guns, but they can be awkward to drag a cord around where I need it some times. I use hot glue in odd places. For example in the control cabinet for the KMB1 mill there are low current trigger relays just hot glued to the back plane. Anyway, when I added the gun to the cart there was a price drop I did not expect. The light was something I had planned to buy anyway.

I've been accumulating things that use the Bauer lithium batteries that might be handy like lights for camping, cordless grinder so I don't have to pull a piece of equipment up to the shop for one cut/grind... I already have a couple Bauer battery powered service light. A lot of these things are cheap and it doesn't matter if I don't use them often because I have the batteries for things I use all the time like the two Bauer cordless drills on the back work bench.

Harbor Freight suffers from their own success in this regard. The batteries for the Bauer tools are decent, and they have failed to convince me to switch to their more expensive Atlas line of cordless tools. If their batteries were cross compatible I might buy some of both lines of tools. Sadly its their own fault even there. The batteries are basically identical in different color plastic, and just changed deliberately to prevent cross use.

As to the jacks. They were actually the last item added to the cart. I saw them come through on a parking lot sale for $99. As an inside track member I got early access to sale pricing.

Then there is their "new" flat rate shipping. I don't know if this is an inside track thing only or if its just their new shipping model, but two 20 ton jacks (on sale), some cordless tools (some on sale), and several bags of hot glue sticks shipped for only $6.99. I can't drive to the store for $6.99 at the price of gas these days. When I can get several items shipped together all of which would cost more to ship individually from anybody else... When I log on to their website I usually already have a list of needs and a list of wants that I plan to check current pricing and deals on. Often if its regular price I leave it on the list until next time.

I don't physically visit the store anymore except for those occasional inside track coupons that offer 30% off any item no exceptions... in store only. Then only if I actually need something that will save me more than the gas money on, or if I am already in town on other errands. Okay sometimes I need something TODAY, but not that often.

I haven't had much use for a ring roller, a buddy has one he would lend me any time, and I think I would enjoy making one more than buying one if I had the time.

Looks like supermodels are less reliable than cheerleaders. Tracking shows the supermodels have been partying in Bloomington for a couple days now. The cheerleaders should arrive today.

Looks like supermodels are less reliable than cheerleaders. Tracking shows the supermodels have been partying in Bloomington for a couple days now. The cheerleaders should arrive today. Bob La Londe

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Did you mean to share that with all of r.c.m?

Yep. Its was a continuation of a joke nobody appreciated the first time.

Yep. Its was a continuation of a joke nobody appreciated the first time. Bob La Londe

----------------------- NOT MEATLOAF AGAIN!

I've been fighting Gmail about a looping Catch-22 that I can't change the verification phone number without entering a code sent as text to a landline phone. "I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that."

The scary thing is that of all the various scifi predictors of AI outcomes HAL is one of the least terrifying.

Yeah, two factor authentication sucks sometimes. When Google forced everybody to use it then it rendered the "find my phone" web page useless.

"No problem Bob, we will locate your cell phone for you as soon as you provide us with the code we sent to your cell phone."

The scary thing is that of all the various scifi predictors of AI outcomes HAL is one of the least terrifying.

Yeah, two factor authentication sucks sometimes. When Google forced everybody to use it then it rendered the "find my phone" web page useless.

"No problem Bob, we will locate your cell phone for you as soon as you provide us with the code we sent to your cell phone." Bob La Londe

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James Cameron meant "The Terminator" as a warning.

On "Stars on Mars" when a hostile virus took over the station's AI they had to reboot it by either Lance Armstrong stationary bicycling 20 miles or Tinashe solving a musical Simon puzzle within a short time limit. As ridiculous as those are they eerily approximate the illogic of real life with computers. They think, so we don't have to.

I hope no one actually intends to send actors and athletes on difficult explorations, unless to dispose of them.

A NASA participant told me the story behind Neil Armstrong's moon landing computer "problem" and it wasn't too much different. The flashing light was a loop watchdog timer that hadn't been extended to account for the large amount of code added after the computer was built.

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Probably not helpful... I generate my own codes. App for Android or a utility program via a Linux terminal program. Don't need phone access to sign in that way...

I like the clean apps on f-droid. To bad its mostly games.