My wife just gave me the nod to toss her slow cooker out since she got a nice new one from Santa. This old one has the heavy ceramic pot, works fine, and it occured to me I might use this in the shop, carb cleaning, etc. A buddy of mine snagged his old portable dishwasher for the shop and now has a very effictive parts washer. What the heck, the price is right!What seemingly non-shop tools have you adapted to shop use, and how did they work out?

A friend of mine wired his beer fridge compressor in reverse and stores his welding electrodes in it. I believe a proper electrode stabilising oven gets to much hotter temperatures, though.

Ive used hotplates in the shop before, to boil transmission seals to make them easier to install. Ive also used them to melt tar in pots and seal body seams with it. Electric egg beaters are good for mixing paint, low speed only (dont want to aerate it). Electric carving knives work magic for cutting seat foam. Convection ovens work alright for heating bearings for press fit onto a shaft, if they have self clean and you disable the door lock.

I suppose you could use the crock pot for warming parts cleaning solvent, but youd need an agitator to reap full benefits. Ive also seen restaurant equipment being sold at surplus stores for very low prices; commercial duty equipment generally takes a lot more punishment than consumer quality merchandise does.

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.