Shop Made Tools

[Jim Shaper]

I guess they make a sawzall attachment that shakes cans now too.


Here's an extremely quick and dirty broken shell extractor for my .308 cetme:



Nothing more than partially used 1/8" tig rod bent with a handle on the end (not shown).

The jury's still out on whether this is from a dirty chamber or crappy wally-world ammo. Since I still have 2.5 boxes of the same stuff left, we'll find out sooner or later.

[bborr01]

I guess they make a sawzall attachment that shakes cans now too.


Here's an extremely quick and dirty broken shell extractor for my .308 cetme:



Nothing more than partially used 1/8" tig rod bent with a handle on the end (not shown).

The jury's still out on whether this is from a dirty chamber or crappy wally-world ammo. Since I still have 2.5 boxes of the same stuff left, we'll find out sooner or later.

Hi Jim,

Was that on the first firing or had it been reloaded many times?

I have had cases burn through like that, but not until they have been reloaded 5 to 10 times.

What brand were they.

My brother just brought his ar15 out and tried to fire some cheapass wolf ammo and the bolt wouldn't even close on them.

He later tried them on his Ruger ranch rifle and they worked ok.

They were steel cases.

Sometimes you get what you pay for.

Brian

[Jim Shaper]

These were brand new, hot off the shelf, WM308A Federal ammo. They just happened to come from wally-world (all Federal wally ammo is marked WM as a prefix to the normal product ID number).

I've put something just shy of 2000 rounds through that rifle in the past 8 years I've owned it. I have NEVER had problems like it had today (except when it first came out of the box new - and all the bolt wear faces were parkerized and needed polishing so it would even cycle). In fact, this is the first time ever it's had a hiccup, and it had 4 failures to feed, and then the final cartridge separation that landed it back in the case. I'm not sure if it's just that dirty of ammo, or loaded light. The failures to feed were short strokes just shy of peeling a round off the mag. Horrible performance from having only run 50 rounds through a totally clean gun.

These guns have a fluted chamber, so the brass ends up stretched and looking like a roller coaster if you mic them. No one I know will even try reloading them. As such, I usually shoot steel, but I got a decent price on this stuff and wanted to put a bunch down range to make sure my scope wasn't floating zero (it was way off last fall, but was likely bumped), as I use this same ammo (not purchased from wally-world) for deer.

[darryl]

This is a cross-drilling adapter I made for the lathe. The back of this tool fits the mt3 taper in the spindle, so I mount it using a drawbar. On the right side is one of the clamping assemblys- this one holds round tubing or bar up to about 1 1/2 diameter. At the left is an adapter for use with small diameter rod and tubing.



A close up of the small diameter adapter. With all the tapped holes, I can hold a fairly short piece for cross drilling. Alternatively, I can use that as a stop for setting multiple pieces (like model pistons, perhaps) to a set position.



As you can imagine, there are times when this setup is way off balance. Sometimes I have to clamp a piece of steel to it to balance it.

[darryl]

Here's another contraption that works well- an adjustable-on-the-fly facing/boring/fly cutter for the mill. The recess at the top fits my spindle very snugly, and doesn't need the mt3 taper shank to mount it with. It's held on with a drawbar, and is very rigid and secure. The black toothy disc to the right turns to eventually rotate the lead screw which sends the cutter head across the diameter. With the spindle turning, I can bring a finger to touch the disc, and each time it comes around it gets rotated a bit, thus working through a worm gear to turn the lead screw.


Hmm, I guess I could have done more to clean this up- this is the bottom. The blocky looking thing is the tool holder, which has a piece of 1/8 sq hss in it, ground to suit a facing operation in this case. The block is attached to the dovetailed and threaded sliding 'tool post'. At the left is a limit screw to stop the cutter at a pre-determined spot. The cutter holder can be swapped for another cutting tool.

Here's a better view of the bottom. You can just see the lead screw at the right. The worm gear assembly started life as a guitar string tuning peg.


A few of you might be wondering if I still have all my fingers- yes I do (knocks on skull for good luck). It's not hard to keep my hand and fingers out of the way of this rotating mass, but the toothed wheel coming around is a bit hard on the skin as you touch it. This tool came about from a need to make several recesses in aluminum plate pieces that were way to big for the lathe. It was my first attempt at a dovetailed mechanism built up from pieces. Worked out well.

[darryl]

One more- what the heck. Here's a rotary table I made when I first got the mill. The table is about 4 inches across. It attaches to the t-slots using custom made mounting bosses, and is secured by running the four set screws down, one of which has the allen wrench in place to illustrate. The table can be angled anywhere from below horizontal to somewhat past vertical. The four brass bits can be tightened down to lock the table in place. The table is drilled with a pattern that allows a square bolt pattern and a three bolt, egual spaced pattern. Not sure if I said that right-, but you get the idea.



Here's the underside with the bottom cover removed. No worms in here, just some tightly fitted gears. I don't recall the ratio, but I know it corresponds to degrees in some way or another. I think it's one degree per click (see the spring wire notched into the brass gear). The two pieces of threaded rod are there to stiffen the sides and thus stiffen the top surface that the table sits on.



A couple interesting points before y'all fall asleep- or maybe this is what will put you to sleep- those threaded rods are epoxied into place, but the threaded holes had to be in sync from one side to the other. No tap I've ever seen is that long, so I had to cobble up something. I ended up screwing a piece of all thread halfway in from one side, then mounted a tap to the end of that by clamping a clamshell sort of thing across both pieces. To sync the threads, I first threaded a piece of metal, then cut that in half along the threads, giving me two half nuts. I then placed these half nuts onto a longer piece of threaded rod so the threads were automatically synced. Clamped a bar across both half nuts, then transferred the setup to the base of the rotary table. With the threaded rod and the tap both laying in the threads, I then tightened the clamshell around them. After that it was a matter of clamping the base in the vise to bring the sides into the alignment I wanted, then using vise grips I got the tap started. Did the same for the second hole, then got the base back in the vise again to pull the sides in and epoxy the threaded rods into place. Having got that done, I did the rest of the machining to true it all up. Lots of fiddling around, but an interesting exercise. The piece of channel was not very square, so I figured to pull it into shape in the vise, then secure it that way- ergo the threaded rods.

The other thing that sort of 'got' me was fitting the boss on the table into the opening in the base. I wanted a very close fit, so I was careful to machine and test, machine and test- oiling the fit each time so it wouldn't gall. I got it to fit nicely. Then during assembly, I figured to put some grease in that area. But then it wouldn't go together! It jammed on me, might as well have been welded. Combination of heat on the base and brute force got it apart. Then instead of grease I oiled it- nice fit again! Figure that one out.

[Evan]

Here is the easiest and probably the most useful tool mod I have ever done. It's another of those "when you need it nothing else will do" tools.

[Evan]

Ever had to hold a bolt from the side that the nut goes on? Maybe the other side is inside something you can't reach and there is nobody else to help with the job? Or a stud that wants to unscrew instead of the nut that's on it? Or to hold something like a shaft where it sticks out from a bushing while assembling a stack of parts on it? Keep a spring on a shaft in place without using up the space where the part needs to go?

I guarantee if you make one you will find plenty of uses for it.

[topct]

I used to bore and sleeve Amal carbs. At the top is the fixture for turning the sleeve down to size after installing it on the slide. Then two boring heads to bore the body out. The long brass thing is a tool for adjusting the idle mix screws on a Gold Wing. Next is a flex tool to get at the mixture screws on a GM carb. The bottom one is a tool to adjust the slides on Keihn carbs. A hollow nut driver with the handle cut off and a thin screwdriver down the center.

[mklotz]

A device to keep books open on the workbench. Made of clear plastic so you can read through it.



An attachment for a DI used for reading depth gauges. Once the device is zeroed, you simply insert the depth gauge into the hole and the reading appears on the DI.






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[mklotz]

A hand hammer for working in confined spaces. It's a length of black gas pipe with one steel and one brass face. Fill 2/3 with lead bird shot before attaching faces.



A tiny V-block that attaches to a fishtail gauge to aid in holding it parallel to the workpiece.



Impromptu lathe dogs made from electrical ground clamps.




A prick punch with a built-in slide hammer to avoid the problem of the punch shifting while you locate the hammer.

[mklotz]

A plywood "banjo" wrench to remove stuck 3jaws. The design provides high leverage and distributes the load unto all three jaws to avoid damage.






A low profile marking gage that can get down to less than 1/4" above the surface plate.
Adjustment is accomplished by rotating the cylinder that carries the marking point.

[dockrat]

My lathe didn't come with a follow rest so I made one.



And a block and tackle system for lifting my rotab onto the mill and back off





Make yourself an attachment to turn your digital caliper into a depth guage and save $67.00 on a Starrett.

[gary hart]

Electric motor shops generally replace bearings on motors and good chance they will give you some. You would think a arc weld on a bearing would ruin it, and sure it would for high speed use. Never have had a problem with low speed use such as making wheels out of them. Pry bar with 3 or 4 foot handle will lift a heavy machine and when up pivoting the handle to right or left will move machine an inch or so for getting into or out of tight spots.

[lugnut]

Little tool I made to help me shorten small bolts. Screw the bolt into the corresponding threaded hole until the unwanted section sticks out the back side and then saw off the unwanted length with the saw.
Mel