Homemade Tools

[Mohawk Dave]

PCO6,

Thank you very much for your detailed response. I appreciate it and you answered all my Qs.

Great input. Thanks.

 

[Rural53]

I didn't make this, it arrived in the mail after i sent a guy on our main NZ 4wd forum $35.

Any guesses what it is for?

 

[Burtonrider10022]

is the square for a socket drive? So you would bolt the "device" to something and then you can use a breaker bar or ratchet to remove it...

 

[FunkyfullWidth]

Front end axle nuts?

 

[scrapart]

PCO6,

Do you have a write up or more detail on the blast cabinet. I am very interested in building one and would like to know your set up. Thank you.

Have you seen the blasting cabinet NASTYZEN made? I guess he is going to do a write up on his. You can see his here about 4 post down. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=121477&page=8

 

[split150]

Some type of crank pulley/balancer holder? Breaker bar goes in the square end to hold, 2 short bolts go into crank pulley or balancer, and ratchet/socket breaks nut loose that comes through the center?

I didn't make this, it arrived in the mail after i sent a guy on our main NZ 4wd forum $35.

Any guesses what it is for?

 

[KF5LCH]

A hub locker?

 

[PCO6]

Have you seen the blasting cabinet NASTYZEN made? I guess he is going to do a write up on his. You can see his here about 4 post down. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=121477&page=8

scrapart - I really like the way NASTYZEN built his sand blast cabinet out of an old oil tank. The thread below has a few overall shots of it.

Post #'s 48 & 55...
http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68451&highlight=sand+blast&page=3

 

[zuk123]

Stephenw-- love the little air tool. Thanks for the pic.

There is some great creativity on here!

zuk

 

[Rural53]

Front end axle nuts?

A hub locker?

Close enough. Wheel bearing "nut" on a Nissan front H233b axle, as used under a Nissan Patrol, is not a nut but a threaded disk with holes in it. It is locked with two screws. The tool is 1/2" drive. I have been meaning to make one but when a guy on our main 4wd forum said he was making some I decided to buy one instead. All the bits are profile cut, hence why he wanted to make more than one.

 

[gf0012-aust]

Close enough. Wheel bearing "nut" on a Nissan front H233b axle, as used under a Nissan Patrol, is not a nut but a threaded disk with holes in it. It is locked with two screws. The tool is 1/2" drive. I have been meaning to make one but when a guy on our main 4wd forum said he was making some I decided to buy one instead. All the bits are profile cut, hence why he wanted to make more than one.

Mate, how much does he sell them for.

Have 2 trolls, so saves me getting the cheap ebay rubbish

 

[Finnrodder]

I made a screwknocker from crappy chisel and 1/2 socket extension.
It worked pretty good with the 51' Ford door hinge bolts.Those over 60 yr old philips screws can be real pain in the ***.

 

[Krokodil]

Here is a "basin wrench" that I made. Tried the normal basin wrenches, crowfoot wrenches, nothing could get in. Cut up an old wrench and made this. Works perfectly!

 

[T_Raven]

Time to bring this thread back to the top. . .

Quite often I am given tools from coworkers and friends that no longer function. Last year I was given a Craftsman 14.4v drill and flashlight set that "both batteries died." Turns out the cheap dumb charger took a ****. My solution to make the system usable is below. I took the top of an old DeWalt 12v pack and wired in a S connector to the battery terminals. Then I filled the pack top with epoxy. I also gutted the Craftsman charger and wired in a S connector to those terminals. Now to charge the Craftsman battery packs I hook what is left of the Craftsman charger to the adapter and put the adapter into the DeWalt charger.

It works like a charm and as a bonus, since the DeWalt is a smart charger, it doesn't cook the Craftsman batteries.

Did you check that bad charger for a fuse? My mac charger quit working once and I took it apart and find a blown fuse in it

 

[STGFordCrazy04]

Ive made a few things over the years...

289/302/351w oil pump primer. I also have one I made for 351m/c/370/429/460

Not really a tool but it holds my stinger and ground for my mig.

also not really a tool but it makes installing and removing axles really easy

20t air/hydraulic press

using a tool to make a part - 98 Polaris Scrambler linkage

Spanner wrench for rebuilding 9" axles

 

[supra90turbo]

Awesome work! I like the scrambler linkage

 

[rslaback]

Did you check that bad charger for a fuse? My mac charger quit working once and I took it apart and find a blown fuse in it

It was a super cheap charger and didn't have a replaceable link in the system. It was also a dumb charger so even if it would have been that simple I still would have gone this way.

 

[RCStocker]

Those old drills use to be bolted to every barn beam support across the country.
That one is missing parts. I have seen the remounted 101 ways. We had 2 of them in the grain barn on the farm That is where the shop was. It was half way up in the loft and went across the entire width of the barn. I still have the tools.

 

[gj67stang]

0-1.75" adjustable crowfoot wrench, 1/2" drive. Takes up less toolbox space (and certainly left me with more cash) than buying a whole set of jumbo crowfoot wrenches.

 

[Cjreyes0101]

I found this hammer in one of my dad's boxes.

 

[E.Marquez]

Too many to list and show all..
Making a tool is a weekly occurrence.
Here is today's

The new QCTP has a center bolt with a 22mm nut.
While I have lots of 22mm wrenches, sockets ect on hand to use, I wanted a dedicated tool to keep at the lathe.
Quick inventory of the garage sale / pawn shop tool bucket.. and I found a ½ drive craftsman 22mm socket.
The steel drops pile reviled a 3ft piece of 5/8 cold rolled bar.
And the Aluminum drops pile had some old motorcycle handle bars …..
And a tool was conceived.
5/8’s bar was cut on four sides at one end down to .500 across the flats, .500 in length… No spin indexer yet, so it was just a WAG on the indexing.. Not a big deal here as I planned on welding it to the socket.
Heated and bent the bar .750 from the cut end to a 85 deg bend.. and added a few deg of curve to the bar for 5.00”
Cut off a section of the old aluminum, faced one end, knurled the other for 1.75” and then bored 1.25” in depth for a .002 friction fit to the bar.
Cut off the section of aluminum I needed, debured it, and pressed it on to the bar with some Loctite stud and bearing mount anaerobic compound.
Welded the end of the bar to a faced socket (just enough to remove the chrome for welding)
Cleaned it up , taped off the aluminum handle part, and shot it with plastic dip aerosol spray.
And there we have it





Simple homemade tool, produced from scraps in the garage and now a dedicated, tool on hand for the QCTP.
And a few others


Motorcycle case splittter


Clutch holder


Shock shaft vice jaw



Ford 4.6 broken spark plug remover

 

[Jure]

i have made piston stoper and 1/4 socket extension

 

[supra90turbo]

From the mini hard handle thread:

I took a spare mini pick, and turned it into a multi-bit driver today.

5¾" overall, which may be a little too long, but I'll try it for a while and see how it goes.

The pick:

What was used. The wrench was slid up to the handle to prevent damage when removing from the pick.

In the hand:

In it's new home:

 

[Justin1776]

Not too fancy but I made this when trying to get a snapped off seized starter bolt out of my Detroit 6.2. Extractors where not working, drilled a slightly off center hole into the bolt, made this tool thinking I would have enough torque to twist out the broken bolt (broken inside the hole). 20 years of salt exposure proved otherwise, it didn't work. I ended up drilling out the whole hardened bolt and putting in a heli-coil but it was fun using my redneck ingenuity for a few hours. That's 5/32 rod, a steel bushing and regular zinc plated nut, welded and ground to fit.

 

[Outlawmws]

Time to resurrect this before I lose track of the ****** pic...

This is the press I built about 25-30 years ago. I have no clue what the frame will take, but the ram is good for about 40T IIR. The pump and reservoir are off it just now as the ram is the "new" one and I'm still in progress. This is actually a good thing as I'd have had to take the plumbing off the way we went about moving it the 200 ft around e corner to the new shed...

I only got to it as it was buried in the corner of the garage, and this is one tool that can live in my new shed for as often as I use it these days...

The uprights are 5X5 box tubing 1/4" thick and the table alone weighs over 100 lbs, and is made of 8" channel with grade 8 bolts holding it together with heavy wall tubing as spacers. The top beam is 5" I beam 3/8" thick, and all the heavy structure was arc welded using SS rod for higher strength. (that was the highest I ever had to run the old buzz box....)

The whole thing as it sits is about 500 lbs. It stands 6 ft tall and the inside the posts dimension is 32".

 

[IONH]

Just went through this entire thread. Great read, thanks for posting the pictures and please keep them coming.

I've been known to McGuyver some tools from time to time, but I haven't done nearly as creative of things as yours. If I think of something to post, I'll be sure to contribute.

 

[clintonroy]

A spring compressor tool for a Dodge 48RE overdrive unit.


<a href="http://s1160.photobucket.com/user/clintonroy/media/Overdrivetool1.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q496/clintonroy/Overdrivetool1.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Overdrivetool1.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1160.photobucket.com/user/clintonroy/media/Overdrivetool2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q496/clintonroy/Overdrivetool2.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Overdrivetool2.jpg"/></a>

 

[Provincial]

I had a leaking pilot valve plunger on the joystick of a Caterpillar skid steer loader. I made a tool to hold the plunger guides in place while I repaired them one at a time. It works by removing the universal joint that the joystick pivots on and screwing the center shaft where the u-joint went. I used .45 Auto brass to transfer the pressure from the four screws to the plunger guides. I turned the ends of the screws to a slip fit in the primer pockets of the brass. 9mm brass will also work, but the .45 Auto gives you some wiggle room.

 

[1951sms]

Cobbled this up from a set of throwaway Channellocks, & some scrap .125" steel strap. They're used to install those miserable Lucas bullet connectors on old English cars.

Lookin' good!

 

[ArkTinkerer]

Great idea! Now do you have a tool to pull them apart???

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

DIY Wire bender:

Didn't want to buy a wire bending jig. That would require going to the store and cut into my fabrication time. What I did have around me was my welding table, nuts, bolts, my 3/8" drill and a welder.



Quickly drilled three 3/8" holes along one of the sides of the table in the 2x2 tube. They are spaced 1.5 and 1.75 apart from the center hole. Welded on 3/8" nut on the bottom of each hole. I took three 3/8" x 4" bolts and cut the heads off them, then ground them smooth. They go into the holes and screw in place securely. They can readily be removed and inserted to the same nuts from below for storage.

Easy, simple, and fun. I think I may make another set further down the same side using 1/4" bolts next for tighter radius bends.

 

[rusty65]

My tiny little addition to the thread. A 3/8 chuck mounted on a screwdriver handle.

Sent From Snap On Headquarters deep in China.

 

[fred d]

Been almost a year since last post
Anything new to show

 

[Alchymist]

Fence stops for router table. Rods from old ink jet printers, stops and mount from aluminum bar stock. Ran out of thumb screws, hence the one hex bolt until I restock.

 

[PCO6]

This is a tool I made years ago but haven't used in a while. I used it a few days ago to test the ignition wire on my son's ATV. Just plug the ignition wire on to the end of the spark plug an clamp the tool to the engine to ground it. Crank the engine and if the plug "sparks" the wire is good. His did so it was on to checking all of the kill switches.

This is a common homemade tool that I'm sure many of you have made. I have a spare spark plug for various cars so there is usually no need to remove one from the engine I am testing.

View media item 44352

 

[bonneyman]

I didn't make this, but I picked it up on Craig's from a guy who father did build it. $50 I couldn't have bought the material to male it myself for that much!

Absolutely love this rig! Nice use of aluminum blower motor pulleys to adjust the turning speed. Just awesome!

 

[kelpaso1]

I already posted this in another thread but thought I'd post it here also.

Simple homemade piston ring compressor for motorcycles and ATV's

After looking at ring compressors for atv's and motorcycles online I made this myself for nothing. Since most atv's and mc's have about 3 inch pistons I grabbed a piece of 3 inch abs pipe and cut about a half inch off the end. Then I split the ring in one spot. Now just spread it open and place over the piston and rings. Don't even need to use a hose clamp . Now makes setting the cylinder onto the piston so much easier without having fiddle with compressing the rings with your fingers while at the same time trying to push the cylinder down. After the piston is in the cyl just slide the compressor down the rod and spread it open to remove it from the rod. Plus the ABS doesn't scratch your $300 piston and rings

 

[Outlawmws]

This is a tool I made years ago but haven't used in a while. I used it a few days ago to test the ignition wire on my son's ATV. Just plug the ignition wire on to the end of the spark plug an clamp the tool to the engine to ground it. Crank the engine and if the plug "sparks" the wire is good. His did so it was on to checking all of the kill switches.

This is a common homemade tool that I'm sure many of you have made. I have a spare spark plug for various cars so there is usually no need to remove one from the engine I am testing.

View media item 44352

I like it! Simple and to the point!

 

[NicksRodz]

These tools are great. If there is a will there is a way.

Its like tool recycling. Don't throw it away make it into something else useful.

 

[22george]

This is a tool I made years ago but haven't used in a while. I used it a few days ago to test the ignition wire on my son's ATV. Just plug the ignition wire on to the end of the spark plug an clamp the tool to the engine to ground it. Crank the engine and if the plug "sparks" the wire is good. His did so it was on to checking all of the kill switches.

This is a common homemade tool that I'm sure many of you have made. I have a spare spark plug for various cars so there is usually no need to remove one from the engine I am testing.

View media item 44352

Thanks for posting. So simple yet effective it makes me feel stupid not thinking of it