Shop Made Tools

[bborr01]

Hi Guys,

It is winter time for most of us on this board and a lot of us may have a little extra shop time on our hands.

During my career as a toolmaker and later a tool and diemaker, I made many, many tools for my own use.

Some of them are run of the mill stuff like 123 blocks and parallels and some of them are things many of you have probably never seen.

I have photographed many of them and would like to share them with the group if there is an interest.

I don't have prints for any of them, but the pics should go a long way.

Also, if anyone else has any shop tool ideas they would like to share, feel free to chime in.

I hope you like them.

Brian

edit to add: If you are having problems viewing photos you can right click on the speedometer and select "open image in new tab" and it will display the photo in a new window. It is not quite as handy as it was before photobucket decided to charge a kings ransom to host photos to third party sites but it works. I hope this helps keep this thread alive. Thanks

[bborr01]

Lathe Spider

We called these spiders.

We had them in various sizes for different chucks.

When we would have a need to turn thin disk type parts, these made it easy to keep the disks parallel after parting them off.

They were also nice for keeping them all the same thickness.

Just make sure to gently tap the disks into the jaws to keep the spider from moving around.

[bborr01]

Crows Feet and Welding Angle Plates

These were used in the weld shop for holding pieces in place when tack welding.

The angle plates were something I made when I went into the weld shop with a weldment clamped to a pair of precision angle plates I had made.

The welder told me I wouldn't want to use them for welding and should make a pair of rough ones for welding.

I was an apprentice at the time but now understand why he told me that.

[bborr01]

The Precision Angle Plates

Made these when I was an apprentice. Made a mistake but finished them anyway.

Anyone see what the mistake was?

I drilled holes at the steps to avoid cracks and to give pieces with square corners a little clearance.

[bborr01]

Chipping Hammer

One of the welders asked me to make some chipping hammers.

The head is M-4. Also known as machinable carbide.

I used a friends chipping hammer that was a lot like this but with the flat surface turned 90 degrees.

What a piece of junk. You couldn't slide it across a surface to remove spatter.

Good practice for turning a taper.

[doctor demo]

Made these when I was an apprentice. Made a mistake but finished them anyway.

Anyone see what the mistake was?

I drilled holes at the steps to avoid cracks and to give pieces with square corners a little clearance.

No mistake, just not a matched pair.

Steve

[bborr01]

Scissor Clamps Circa 1979

Made these when I was an apprentice. No cnc's back then.

I made them out of gage stock. It was a bitch to work with but it was worth it.

I'm pretty sure I had at least 100 hours into them including all the lathe time.

As far as I know, they weren't commercially available back then.

I left two of them in an un-heated building one winter and they got a little rusty. I'm working on it now.

I bought a set of 4 many years later with copper plated threads to use in the weld shop. It saved a lot of wear and tear on my hand made clamps.

I left two of them out on a job one saturday and didn't realize it for a week or so.

Went back and asked if anyone knew where they were. Nope. Haven't seen them. Big factory with a couple thousand people at that time.

About fifteen years later I was working with one of my fellow toolmakers setting up a bunch of stuff for welding. We ran out of clamps.

He looked at me kind of funny and with hesitation and said he may have a couple more clamps in the bottom drawer of his tool cart.

I opened the drawer and there were my clamps.

I asked him where he got them and he said one of our recent apprentices made them for him.

I knew better. I had the only gage stock clamps in the plant.

I could hardly sleep that night. The next day I got to work and decided to call him rather than make a scene. (he was the leadman)

I told him I wanted my clamps back or I would go to mgt. to get them.

He said come and get them. His buddy just happened to be the set-up man in the department where I had left them.

Needless to say, I am not the president of his fan club.

[Black_Moons]

Good dealing with him, And I hope this doesnt ever drive you to buying an engraver :P (Unless you have some dials to make that is)
Im sure that rust will clean right up. maybe some phosphoric acid, or some of that 'to black' rust converter stuff.

[Walter]

Nice work!
The extra holes in the blocks were the mistake. I'd call it a feature

And to the guy who didn't return your clamps, well, you were nicer than I'd have been. Last time I had someone thief from me I broke both his hands.

[Peter N]

Nice work!
The extra holes in the blocks were the mistake. I'd call it a feature

And to the guy who didn't return your clamps, well, you were nicer than I'd have been. Last time I had someone thief from me I broke both his hands.

I would have said it's the mismatched steps at the ends, but who knows? Might be the holes.

Nice post btw, keep it up.

[Evan]

Also, if anyone else has any shop tool ideas they would like to share, feel free to chime in.

This is my favorite shop made tool. It is a slotter that mounts on the cross slide in place of the compound on my South Bend 9. It can make gears, dial markings, cog belt pulleys, splines and of course keyways, internal and external. Different size tool holders can be fitted to the business end to work in small openings or large.

[terry_g]

Here is a selection of some of Cat and Cummins engine tools that I made a living with over the last thirty years. They are all well used. There were lots more that I sold or gave away. Diesel engine mechanic is heavy work and I'm getting to old for that.

Terry

[Frank Ford]

Here are few:

Air Turbine Tool Post Grinder for internal grinding:




Hand or Electric Screwdriver Powered Mini Tapper for ≥ #4 Taps:




Midget Follow Rest Built On AXA Tool Holder:



Pliers With Self-Aligning Replaceable Machineable Soft Jaws:




These are among the items I have on HomeShopTech

[bborr01]

Back again.

The mistake in the angle plate was the mis-matched step. The tapped holes were planned on and make for handy clamping.

Black Moons,
I didn't put my name on a lot of the tools I made or on ANY of my precision tools.
I figured I worked with an honest bunch and didn't need to tarnish my work with my name. I was mostly right. In 30 years on the job I only lost a 9/16 wrench and some allen wrenches. Of course, I had a policy that the job was not finished until all of my tools were cleaned up and put away. The clamps got left at the end of an overtime job that went into overtime.

Evan,
Nice work on the slotter. I'm guessing you also have an indexing plate on the other end of the lathe spindle.
How did you put the black oxide/blue bath on the dark colored parts?
I have a few things that I made that never got blue bathed and have thought about setting something up at home.
Like this next one.

Terry,
Thats a bunch of special tools. Did you make them or buy them? One of my brothers is a diesel mechanic. I will have to show this thread to him and see if he recognizes any of them. I especially like the puller that pivots to get through the hole.

To everyone,
Thanks for the kind words. More to come.

Brian

[bborr01]

Guess what it is

Anyone have one of these or care to guess what it is?