stupid shop tricks

cuda65vpt said
Just for fun, try to break a good V-belt. No nicking or cutting allowed, just brute force and ignorance.

Your set-up as you did it is probably safer than a chain.

x2

My machinist uses an ancient gates V belt that he's had in his shop forever, just like you're showing. You'll break that cast intake before that belt goes. He used the belt through the cam support casting to pick the block up from the truck and on to his cart. In a way, depending on what you're picking up, it might actually be more intelligent to use a V belt, because it won't scratch the crap out of things.

69B-Cuda said
when I was in high school, a friend's dad would change an engine in his Pinto by stacking a couple pieces of firewood in front of it, then put a long 4x4 (probably and 8' fence post) across the firewood and use it as a lever to lift the engine out and then roll the car back and set the engine back down...

I love it.

I used two really big tie down straps, crossed up under the roof of a '66 D100 cab, hung from an I beam in the shop to get under it for rust repair, because the lift was too cumbersome, to get to the cab to frame points that needed rust repair.

Honestly, after I load tested it and bounced it with all of my weight, I felt safer under that strap hanging cab, than under one on a lift that would only take a little bump to topple off of one of the lift arms. I had gravity working for me, clamping the roof of the cab, instead of against me if I budged the cab off of a lift. I could rotate it all over the place to get to areas, if I needed to, without anything blocking my view from underneath.