A few months back, my mom hit me with a request that made my blood run cold… She wanted a garage door opener she could control from her phone. I had visions of midnight tech support calls and FaceTime sessions filled with “it’s not working again.” But hell, she’s my mom, so I dove in.| The Garage Journal
My M18, 1/2" impact wrench has stopped working . When you pull the trigger, the white Led , light just flashes. It was working fine , then just stopped. Tried a fully charged battery into it, but that made no difference. It is 5 years old and used in work as an Agricultural mechanic . Does...| The Garage Journal
I don’t usually give a damn about laser measuring gadgets. The only one I’ve ever owned was some cheap Bosch “Blaze” I grabbed for fifty bucks. It was fine for rough numbers… good enough to measure a closet, not good enough to trust when cutting lumber for built-ins. A toy, really.| The Garage Journal
When I think of Latvia, I picture Art Nouveau facades, dense forests, maybe a medieval fair or two. What I don’t think about… at least not often… is anything tied to The Garage Journal. That changed over the weekend. While poking around The Garage Gallery, I came across a thread from a Latvian member called, “The Lab.”| The Garage Journal
Our forums get hit all the time by people trying to sneak in promotions. Sometimes it’s a company pretending to be just another guy who “stumbled onto” a miracle product, other times it’s a YouTuber begging for clicks and likes. It only takes a second to ban them, but the constant parade of it gets old fast.| The Garage Journal
The other day, I watched from the beach as Steve took my daughter out to Waiohai for a surf session. The swell was coming in heavy, the chop was relentless, and most folks out there were fighting for their lives. Not Steve. He’d spring up on his self-shaped board, plant his feet closer together than any surf coach would recommend, and lean back like he was rolling a lowrider down Whittier Boulevard without a care in the world. When the wave closed out, he’d step off clean… no leash, no ...| The Garage Journal
About five years ago, I cobbled together a little shop setup on the island of Kauai. One of my biggest concerns back then was the salt air – how it creeps into everything and turns tools into rust sculptures. To fight back, I built a system using Milwaukee Packouts paired with desiccant packs. Five years … Read more…| The Garage Journal
This is probably terrible advice—hell, borderline irresponsible. Do your own research, trust your instincts, question everything. But I’ll tell you this: my favorite ear protection in the shop? Apple AirPods.| The Garage Journal
Most of my time in the shop is spent buried in ancient steel—real cars, not these wheezing modern things laced with silicon and shame. I hot rod, goddammit. I take something that works, rip out the compromises, and replace them with speed and danger. And I do it all with tools, not a laptop. So when Innova emailed me asking if I’d like to review one of their OBD2 scanners, I laughed. Out loud.| The Garage Journal
A few years back, I built a bench that ended up becoming a bit of a thing. It was called the Atomic BF/MFT—basically my own oversized take on the Festool MFT. I wanted something that could handle full sheet goods, offer endless clamping options, and stand up to just about anything I threw at it. It worked. People took notice. I ended up building a few for friends, and over time, hundreds of others followed suit with their own versions. Of all the things I’ve built, it’s probably been th...| The Garage Journal
