home made tools

[Rookie]

Any of you guys make some of your own tools.
Homade blast cabinet for example or anything like that?

 

[Uncle Buck]

Engine stand for rebuilds. Hell for stout, will hold the heaviest big block with ease!

 

[drbill]

I made a temporary blast cabinet out of a big box, a used piece of plexi glass and a old shirt. It was crude but it worked.

 

[OctaneMotorsports]

I have made a spring puller, that's about it lol.

 

[kartracer55]

I have had to make some custom thin wrenches for various things. Some 1/8 flat stock, cut it out, grind it to fit, heat then quench it. Works fairly well and I DO make them from american steel


lol


Jim

 

[imported_banzaitoyota]

I made the fan removal wrench for my Cummins Diesel. I revamped the Homier Chi-Com Special Cabinet using Delta and TIP parts

 

[dternst]

Necessity is the mother of all invention (I think that's how it goes.)

 

[W-Cummins]

Some of my home made tools

6' wide dual operator bead blast cabnet out of 12 gauge ( looks just like tip's old commercial models that they no longer make with the angle iron frames)

dust collector for the cabnet

3 ton adjustable gantry crane ( just like the wallace 3 ton design

16"-18" 10 hp mitering abrasive chopsaw ( not quite done with that one yet)

HD engine crane 3"X4"X.188" wall tubing, 8 ton ram

Welder cart with 360° rotating, height adjustable telescopic boom for the wire feeder, 1/2" plate welding surface and a 12 gauge metal drawer to hold welding stuff.

 

[TonyF]

ive made a bridge/universal style valve spring compressor with some angle iron. sorry no pics right now

 

[Katbird]

Here is a tool that I made to remove the retainer nut from my out drive on my boat. made out of 1/4" steel and it took a while to cut out the 4" hole with a hole saw but it works nice. I had to cut a cheap socket in half to weld on the end for a torque wrench.

 

[W-Cummins]

Here is a quick picture of the gantry crane knocked down and the boom from the engine crane ( compaired to a HF cheepie.) I had the dam things outside so I could pour the last section of the floor and they got some rust on them. even though they were covered well ( I NEED to get them hot dipped any one know of a place in IA that does that??)

 

[mikeyr]

yup, I made my own blast cabinet, I did cheat though and buy the plans then I basically threw them away and made it the size I wanted. Made a bunch of other small things as needed also.

 

[Toolmaann]

Made my own router table. Built it mostly for use in panel raising. The school I work underwent it's modernization years back, and there were a ton of cabinets removed, so I grabbed one for the base. Contractor was putting up some new cabinetry from scratch so there was also a whole bunch of 1" melamine scraps which I used for the top and fence. Used some cabinet trim that they were tossing to trim it out. I dedicated a Craftsman 1/2" router to it for use with my panel raising set.

 

[eschoendorff]

Made my own router table. Built it mostly for use in panel raising. The school I work underwent it's modernization years back, and there were a ton of cabinets removed, so I grabbed one for the base. Contractor was putting up some new cabinetry from scratch so there was also a whole bunch of 1" melamine scraps which I used for the top and fence. Used some cabinet trim that they were tossing to trim it out. I dedicated a Craftsman 1/2" router to it for use with my panel raising set.

Nice work! Our district just built a new high school and renovated parts of the middle school. You would not believe how much perfectly good stuff that they just throw out! I'm not talking about old furniture (although there was some of that too), but new (unused!) construction supplies like fasteners and uni-strut. I salvaged a bunch of threaded rod and uni-strut out of the dumpster many times during the construction projects.

 

[Toolmaann]

"You would not believe how much perfectly good stuff that they just throw out!"

Just wait till I show you guys what I did with the old locker room benches... (1 3/4" solid maple, not laminated!)

Thanks for the kind comment.

 

[cdrewferd]

What are you waiting for Toolmaann, show us the benches already!!

 

[Toolmaann]

Alrighty then...

10' long, 1 3/4" thick, 8" wide locker room benches became the top for my workbench. Built the base out of 3/4" birch ply, painted. Base is in three pieces (two side cabs, 1 center drawer section) so that I can break the beast down when we move someday. Base trim is milled down from pieces of the maple gym floor that they tore out.

Nice thing is, I have about 10 more pieces of this 10'x8"x1/34" stock waiting future use...

Bench dimensions are: 9' L, 29" D, 30" H

 

[Jared]

Nice work there toolmaaann!

 

[the shop rag]

3 of the pictures below are seal drivers that i made and use at work. 1 is a pinion seal installer made from a 4 inch schedule 40 connector with the end turned down on a brake lathe. 1 is a tailshaft seal installer for allison trans., no modifications required, and the 3 inch schedule 40 cap is turned down on the end for installing front crankshaft seals.

i have found that schedule 40 pipe and fittings make the best seal installers around unless you want to spend big bucks for the oem stuff. the galvanized pipe and adapter are for installing lower ball joints in mid 90,s ford trucks.

if you ever need to install a seal and a shaft does not allow for a flat driver you can buy most of this stuff for about 3 bucks. you can also turn them down on a bench grinder if you dont have access to a lathe.

 

[krooser]

Great ideas....

 

[red caddy]

Here's a couple of Vice grip mods...

 

[Goobzilla]

I made a spanner wrench to tighten the side adjusters on Ford 9" rears. Don't know what the right tool costs, but I'm sure I came out cheaper! Yeah it's not as cool as some of the homemade stuff, but we've all gotta start somewhere, right? Besides, once I powdercoat it Ford Blue, it should look even cooler.

 

[JHunter]

Car body 'flipper' - here's the plans and pics in action:

A mobile paint / body work light, again, plans, don't have pics of the finished stand:

And, as with the earlier post about PVC, my piston ring 'setter' to place the rings 1 inch down the hole:

 

[RGausman]

The car flipper is interesting idea.

I saw some where some used two HF engine stands as the basis for a frame/body rotisserie.
Engine stand bolt at each end and just rotate.

Bob G.

 

[javajaws]

The car flipper is interesting idea.

I saw some where some used two HF engine stands as the basis for a frame/body rotisserie.
Engine stand bolt at each end and just rotate.

Bob G.

Rotisserie? Here's one I threw together to paint a trailer frame:

 

[javajaws]

And does this qualify?

Completely modeled in sketchup before construction:

 

[giants]

Engine stand for rebuilds. Hell for stout, will hold the heaviest big block with ease!

Thanks. Would you post pictures and explain how you made this?

Thanks

 

[bonneyman]

Some of mine. Water meter valve socket, double flex 1/4" ratchet, nut grabber tool for shelving assembly.

 

[bonneyman]

My own ratchet from a bare handle.

 

[bonneyman]

Carb adjustment tool

 

[lilredex]

Thanks. Would you post pictures and explain how you made this?

Thanks

He's filed under the "B" word, so don't expect a reply. Interesting to see who replied in "06" and has gone missing since.

 

[tombell572]

[/ATTACH]
My retirement hobby is restoring and riding BSA motorcycles. Shown is the tool for removing and installing fork seals (top), and the tool for drawing fork legs into the yoke. Both copied from BSA design, made from scrap a lot cheaper than buying re-pop tools. One-Inch nut courtesy of Bolt Depot.

Tom B.

 

[jeffmoss26]

I have a few locksmithing tools that were custom made for me.

Plug followers are used for rekeying a lock, to hold the top pins in a lock. I found a design I really liked, and had a coworker slightly modify it and make me a couple more.

I had this tool made, slightly modified/improved from the tool Best makes.
This is for installing interchangeable lock cores into housings and testing the operation of cylinders and padlocks.

This last one was made for half the cost of the factory tool. This is for disassembling Best padlocks for installing new shackles.

 

[mikegt4]

I make all sorts of tools and fixtures. I made this auto rotisserie that also works as an engine stand. I assembled my Oliver tractor engine (heavy) on it and could spin it over with one hand.

 

[evintho]

I saw some where some used two HF engine stands as the basis for a frame/body rotisserie.
Engine stand bolt at each end and just rotate.

That might have been me.













Also fabbed a stand to turn my portable bandsaw into a stationary unit...…..











Welding cart...…..









110v up top for welding sheet metal and 220v on the bottom for heavier stock. Found this neat little Y-valve to transfer gas from the 110 to the 220 with the twist of a knob.

 

[giants]

That might have been me.













Also fabbed a stand to turn my portable bandsaw into a stationary unit...…..











Welding cart...…..









110v up top for welding sheet metal and 220v on the bottom for heavier stock. Found this neat little Y-valve to transfer gas from the 110 to the 220 with the twist of a knob.

What brand is your engine stands?

 

[davethorik]

Ive seen a couple homemade jack screws on here, thought I'd share. This is pretty basic but a shop I used to work at cleaned out the tooling cabinets and found two of these jack screws with the swivel pad, but no jack body, so they tossed them. I fished em out of the scrap hopper and made a pair of these. Only one in pic, other at work.

A2 or S7 1.75" dia x 1.5" long drops. Drilled and tapped thru bore 1/2-20 to match screws.
Nothing fancy but they work.

 

[evintho]

What brand is your engine stands?

They're the cheapest stands they offer at Harbor Freight. I did make some mods, though. The factory stand had a 30* tilt to the main bar (I guess to help compensate for engine weight). I cut the main bars off and rewelded them at 90*.



In addition, I added diagonal support bars (1" square tubing). Finally, I replaced their garbage casters with swivels that I had laying around. I greased the head units and the rotisserie works really well!

 

[mikegt4]

[/ATTACH]
My retirement hobby is restoring and riding BSA motorcycles. Shown is the tool for removing and installing fork seals (top), and the tool for drawing fork legs into the yoke. Both copied from BSA design, made from scrap a lot cheaper than buying re-pop tools. One-Inch nut courtesy of Bolt Depot.

Tom B.

I have made some tools for my BSA. It is a 1966 650 Spitfire MK2 that I have owned for over 45 years.