Tips and Tricks you can do at home in your garage.
Here I will put a few bits and pieces that may or may not be helpful in your home garage or if you're involved in racing at any level you may benefit from some of this, well that's the hope anyway!
Cuban Cigars!Have you got some small files rolling around in your tool box or small screwdrivers like the ones for sunglasses or RC hobby car tools or even some small long parts? here is a good solution for keeping them in order. Find a friend or friend of a friend who smokes big arse cuban cigars!. They come in cool aluminium tubes or wooden boxes if you are lucky. Both make great storage compartments for tiny files ect.
|
Sometimes you just can't pick that flat 6 inch ruler off your work bench! ( even harder with gloves on) If you have not done this you will kick yourself. just put a cable tie through the hole in the end and your life has just got a tiny bit easier!
Brake Bleeding BottlesI have used every type of brake bleeding system - bottle, both the vacuum type and the regular type. In the end the best one is a home made one with no vacuum attachment. You can make one at home really easy.
(In the MotoGP teams I've been in we bleed the brakes every morning rain, hail or shine!)
|
|
Getting a splinter of wood, metal or carbon fibre out of your hand in the workshop!

This is a tip almost as small as most splinters. But when you need it you will thank me.
As a Mechanic or anybody that uses their hands as tools, sooner or later you will get a splinter of something in your hands.
I keep tweezers in my tool box but I and a lot of other Mechanics prefer to use Vernier Calipers. Next time give them ago.
You're Welcome!
Gone Fishing!
If you’re a home mechanic then you probably have on your shelf in the shed a tub of all purpose grease and maybe in your tool box a tube of rubber grease. You might have a small pot of anti seize on the bench and somewhere you have a special container of silicon grease you got one day for a job then it rolled under the bench never to be seen again!
Well why not do what we do. Go down to the local fishing store and get yourself a small fishing tackle box and fill each compartment with the grease you use. Keep all the rest on the shelf and fill it as you need.
Having the grease in the tackle box makes it perfect to keep in your toolbox, great if you travel to races or fix things when you’re out and about, etc.
Anyway it’s just a handy tip you might like that most race mechanics use.
You’re Welcome!
Well why not do what we do. Go down to the local fishing store and get yourself a small fishing tackle box and fill each compartment with the grease you use. Keep all the rest on the shelf and fill it as you need.
Having the grease in the tackle box makes it perfect to keep in your toolbox, great if you travel to races or fix things when you’re out and about, etc.
Anyway it’s just a handy tip you might like that most race mechanics use.
You’re Welcome!
|
We have two toolboxes on our side of the garage with almost identical tools in each. Lorenzo guys also have two with much the same gear. This is basically the same set up that has been in every team I have ever worked in. One little trick we use in our team to differentiate between our tools is to colour code them. (I use pink as nobody else does!) We do it for a few reasons. One is so you know whose are whose! But the main reason is for cleaning up quickly at the end of a job. It's just so much faster to separate everyone's tools when packing up at the end of a session, job or whatever. It works great in large workshops & dealerships with many mechanics and it also works well if you are a home mechanic and have more than one set of tools. Maybe you have one for keeping in the house? Or maybe you have some that stay in the work truck, or you have ones that you take to races? For any reason, it makes identifying them easy and quick. Some people engrave their name or initials or something on their tools for the same reasons. That works but it's still hard to see and not even close to how fast you can clean up after a job if you have paint marked tools. It's very easy to do. Get a paint pen and paint over the printing on your spanners. Wipe off the high spots with a rag and contact cleaner or fuel later leaving the identifying colour in the low spots. For screwdrivers or sockets, just run a line right around them near the handle or along a ridge - your call! So that's it. Simple tip that can save you plenty of time. AB. |