Built-it-myself tools/machines - show us what you've done

[isb cornbinder]

This little vice opens to 1.75 inches. It is made of about 10 pieces and all held together with machine screws. It was a High School shop project from back in the day when our schools offered the shop class option.

 

[mx842]

Now don't laugh too hard but I found the need for somehow making it easier for my little 14 hp Power king tractor to pull big logs out of the woods and up to my wood pile. I was using a short piece of chain and the 3 point hitch but it was really hard on the little hitch. I had this old axle with wheels and tires out back that I was going to use for something else and I married it to an old engine lift that had a bent bottom frame and wouldn't roll around on it's own anymore.

I bolted the lift to the axle and turned the lift arm around pointing backwards then welded me a toung on to the two newly weds and bingo!! a back yard log skidder was born.

 

[22george]

Now don't laugh too hard but I found the need for somehow making it easier for my little 14 hp Power king tractor to pull big logs out of the woods and up to my wood pile. I was using a short piece of chain and the 3 point hitch but it was really hard on the little hitch. I had this old axle with wheels and tires out back that I was going to use for something else and I married it to an old engine lift that had a bent bottom frame and wouldn't roll around on it's own anymore.

I bolted the lift to the axle and turned the lift arm around pointing backwards then welded me a toung on to the two newly weds and bingo!! a back yard log skidder was born.

I like it

 

[Free Willie]

Floor cut and framed and I now have a working elevator! you can see more detail on my build thread

 

[Posi]

more

 

[mslisaj]

Floor cut and framed and I now have a working elevator! you can see more detail on my build thread

Nice job!!

 

[atch]

This has been dormant for 4 years.

Surely someone has made something worth sharing during that time...

 

[yhprum]

This is a mechanical sheetmetal shrinking tool I made awhile ago. It uses thumbnail shrinking dies.

 

[RoninB4]

This has been dormant for 4 years.

Surely someone has made something worth sharing during that time...

-Made something but am a bit embarrassed to share a photo. I have to construct an enclosure from XPS foam board that's 12 feet long and has multiple angles along the length. Being a retired toolmaker, I wanted to pin the sections together for location, several of these pins are from 12"-14" long and using a hand drill just isn't a good method. I needed a horizontal boring mill or a gun drilling machine for depth of the hole. I had an old mini mill I seldom use so I unbolted the column and mounted it on a rolling carriage I had made years ago for cutting long, heavy lumber with the horizontal bandsaw. I made an ersatz table to mount everything so the center of the drill axis is at center of the 2" thick XPS foam board. With my Rube Goldberg Hor-Bore I can now drill a hole 14" into the foam board without breaking out the top/bottom, aluminum rod serves as a dowel pin and the fit is good. I can reliably assemble/disassemble the enclosure several times for fitment/rework while maintaining panel alignment.

My point? Not having the proper tool/machine should not prevent you from getting through a project, especially if what should be used is either temporary and/or prohibitively expensive. Yes the cobbled together solution looks a bit goofy but if it does the job and meets expectations nobody else (besides here) needs to know about it. It's not about the crime it's about the witnesses. Use your imagination and what resources you have available to adapt/overcome difficulties.

 

[ncornilsen]

I built a lift for installing C5 Corvette transaxles more easily.... balances just a fuzz heavy on the front with the torque tube on. It minimizes how far I have to lift the car, and is a good place to store the trans while I finish building my Nova, which is on a C5 suspension.