Portable soldering iron: Such a wonderful thing does exist!

Whiskey not included.

Have you ever stumbled across a tool that made you wonder how you ever got along without it? How you never so much as considered such a thing might exist or how it would work?

The Weller Portasol is one such tool. A couple Xmases ago, I received this butane-powered soldering iron kit and the standard tabletop electric kit behind it. Both were gifts from Amanda's dad, Jim, and both had been sitting at his place unused for many years. The Portasol is probably the best unexpected gift ever.

I've often needed to solder something inside a car, but it was impractical or impossible to take the part out and bring it indoors to solder. Using a soldering iron in a driveway is also annoying, especially when you don't have a long enough extension cord and it's too cold and/or windy outside for the iron to stay hot. Herein lies the joy of this little tool.

The kit has a sponge, a stand, and a handful of attachments including a hot knife. There's even a striker in there, so to take it anywhere all you need is a wet sponge and some butane. The solder has an on/off control, and a flame (temperature) adjustment.

It was 30-some degrees and windy last night when I went outside to repair Amanda's coil pack connector. I loved being able to just grab the kit and go to work. No need to run an extension cord out the window and down one story. It's easy to use and does everything you can ask of it. A perfect tool. Even for quick indoor jobs I prefer to use it over an electric one.

This particular model is no longer sold, but you can find new Portasols out there.

Mad props to Jim for this gift. The variable temperature electric iron is handy as well. Thanks!

Tool Review: Task Force mini locking pliers

Edit: Brevity! I got this mini locking pliers (Vise-Grip knockoffs) at Lowe's for $2. It is awesome. I keep it with me all the time. It's saved my ass on more than one occasion, and I haven't had it more than 2 months. Highly recommended. The End.

These were an impulse buy at Lowe's. Cost me all of $1.99. They've really small, but fully functional locking pliers. These are also known as Vise-Grips, though that's a brand name.

This thing is cheap, but surprisingly well built. The jaws line up like they're supposed to, the rivets hold tight, it doesn't wiggle or feel insecure when you lock it up.

It does everything you expect locking pliers to do. They open, close, adjust, lock, and unlock. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw how wide the jaws open; they open wide enough to grab the thick part of the Miata's shifter, and you can lock them down tight enough to mar the living fuck out of said shifter. Yeah, those jaws have real, functional teeth that get excellent bite.

They do not open far enough to grab a spring-type radiator hose clamp, however. When I went to procure a radiator hose at a junkyard last week, I used these along with my multi-tool to open the clamp up. The locking feature came in handy there.

That multi-tool and these locking pliers are the tools I keep with me nearly at all times. They take up little space and are excellent performers. And at a tenth the price of that multi-tool, these locking pliers are a performance bargain.

Pocket multi-tools actually ARE useful

I changed the fuel filter on the ZX2 today, using nothing more than this, a Leatherman knockoff using the Columbia name. I did this on my lunch break. It took no longer than it would have with the proper tool(s): about 10 minutes, including hand-washing. All I would've needed was a flathead screwdriver, and my tool has one. Sort of. It did the job, anyway.

On a related note, I've discovered that my skin doesn't really like gasoline. It turns red and blotchy where I come in contact with the stuff. 

Pardon the shitty photo. I don't think my cell phone camera focuses at less than a few feet.

This is how we fail

This is how Eric fails. Wondering why he can't get the taillight to fit back on properly, he realized that the wires and sockets weren't quite in their proper locations.

To soften the blow, since I have failed in similar ways many times myself, here's a wonderful photo of how, exactly, I fail.

That's the pushbroom I gave my dad for Father's Day.

(This is why "brokkake" is one of my new tags.)

My dad is a clever bastard.

As you can see here, the valve cover on our Zetec engine was busted into pieces. One of these pieces fell behind the cams and got itself into an oil return galley. We tried reaching in for it with tweezers, but they couldn't reach and still open enough to grab it. Removing the cams and lifters would have been really annoying and would not have made things any easier, since it was actually buried in the middle of the head casting.

My dad, always with the clever ideas, grabs a small metal rod he has laying around. Then he gets some glue (in this case, a silicone-based general adhesive) and plops a dab on one end. He then puts that end against the chunk of valve cover buried in the head and lets it sit awhile.

About 20 minutes later, I come back and carefully pull the rod up. The adhesive holds, though barely, and I manage to just get it out of the head before the glue lets go and it drops into my hand.

A few more minor repairs and this engine is ready to drop in. The only parts left: swap some pulleys around, find a serpentine belt that's the right size to bypass power steering and A/C, and repair/replace the thermostat housing. I think that's everything, anyway...

a few minor updates

My cheaptastic steering wheel wrap was starting to get pretty nasty, so I reapplied with what I had left of a roll. The old stuff peeled off fine and the new stuff looks much better. I was surprised at how quickly this thing got nasty. The part I took off actually looked worse. It was practically black.

Steering wheel athletic wrap: reapply every 6 months or twenty thousand miles. Darker colors may last longer.

In other news, my PCV valve split in half. The hose basically held the top part in place on top of the other half. Never seen that before. I replaced both hose and valve.

In still other news: you may have noticed a thin red line with a dot at the end appearing on the right side (or bottom, for vertical shots) on some of my photos. That's new; it makes me sad and angry, because I like my camera. It's fairly noticeable on the top photo in this post. Look for a red line running up from the bottom, about a quarter of the way from the right side. This is my camera's fault. I don't know what I should do to fix it, if anything, or just deal with it. I can't justify buying a new camera. It would probably cost nearly as much to fix this one, since I'm not skilled in the ways of digital camera voodoo. This will have to be copacetic. I'll pretend it's my watermark.

One hundred and four blaglock

Not a time or measurement of time.

Sometime last summer, a box of cheap watches showed up at work. It wasn't addressed to anyone in particular. We spread the word trying to find the intended recipient. No one claimed them, so after two months we divvied up the collection among the engineering department. I took this guy.

Let me be clear: These are not expensive watches to begin with. These are what you'd see in the open display case sitting 6 feet away from the jewelry counter, or on the impulse buy rack at the auto store, marked at $3.99, next to the pinky-length tire pressure gauges and fist-sized Zippo-knockoff novelty lighters.

That said, I'd at least expect the watches to do one thing right. Not necessarily be the most accurate timepiece, but at least have an understanding of how telling time is done. And it's not like these are printed on, either, and somebody can just toss a few reams of sticky-backed vinyl prints. Somebody made this cast and popped out a bunch of them before (hopefully eventually) realizing there was a problem.

Haven't figured it out yet? Here's a hint: look at the ring with numbers at 10 minute intervals.

There you have it, folks. A perfect example of how details come back to bite you in the ass.

** VERY DIRTY!!! **

I've done a lot of heavy wrenching in my black Carhartt coat over the years, in various locations and with varying degrees of cleanliness and success. I've had it since late in my high school years, and I don't think I've ever cleaned it. After these last couple weekends under two very rusty cars, one of which was out on a gravel-and-snow driveway, and getting covered in even more dirt, rust, grime, and brake fluid, I decided it needed a thorough cleaning.

A professional cleaning. So I had Amanda take it in when she was getting a zipper fixed on her coat. Amanda said they told her, "I think we'll need an extra day on this one" when she dropped it off. You can see above the note they put after the coat.

Very dirty indeed, with three exclamation points.

Well, it was true. I wish I had a photo of it in its full filthy glory. All I have is of it clean, and they did an amazing job.  Green Acre Cleaners is a pretty excellent place.

I haven't seen the coat this black practically since I bought it, though there are plenty of worn spots in the denim by now. After all, high school ended 8 years ago; this thing is probably about the same age as my old Caterpillar boots. Anyway, I'm happy it's clean now, though the season for this heavy a coat is practically over. It's fresh and ready for next year, and it no longer smells like earth and grease and sweat. It's ready for another 10+ years of service.

Well, maybe not quite that many.

Weekend racecar prep Number 1

These are my 10-year-old Caterpillar boots. They've seen a lot of abuse, including a weekend photographing an NIU ROTC trip for the Northern Star (which, since its redesign, is one "Under Construction" GIF away from 1997), among other less taxing camping trips, junkyard treks and work excursions. This pair finally bit the dust on Saturday the 13th, and I promptly replaced them with another pair. Hopefully these will last another 10 years.

The job that did it was swapping suspensions on the new Ford Escort diarrhea bucket of an automobile. That's right, I officially have an unofficial LeMons/ChumpCar racer! It'll be a 2nd-gen Escort LX/3rd gen ZX2 Franken'Scort. (Theme and actual car/team name TBD.)

Eric, my only willing co-conspirator and co-money pit feeder at this time wrote up a good bit of detail on it. It's worth every second of your time to read, because he is a hilarious and insane man. This most recent Saturday, we (almost) completed that job by doing the rear suspension. Details on that are coming, as soon as I get my photos back from my dad's camera.