Shop Made Tools

[Cenedd]

Nice. Good job you don't live near me! "You know your heat-treat oven..."!
Everyone needs a surface grinder....and the space to put it *sigh* Pretty sure I'd need a divorce lawyer too if I tried to buy one anyway!

[Jack F]

Beautiful job Matt. What did it cost to build this?


Jack.

[mattthegamer463]

Beautiful job Matt. What did it cost to build this?


Jack.

It wasn't too bad. About $100 for the brick, $60 for the flat bar and sheet metal, $30 for the heater wire, $30 for the timer unit, $12 for the big LED lamps, $15 for the power meter module. The rest of the stuff was in my junk bins and scraps from work.

[DICKEYBIRD]

Did you do a build thread on your oven Matt? If not, will you pretty please?

[Yondering]

Another vote for a build thread on that, and especially a section on the controller. I've been wanting to build one like this myself, nice work!

[mattthegamer463]

Did you do a build thread on your oven Matt? If not, will you pretty please?

I did have a thread talking about my issues with Nichrome wire, initally. I did not know about "surface load" at the time.

http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/thr...me-Heater-Wire

I got a lot of my info from this guy's blog post, including my brick layout as I found the same bricks from a local pizza oven supply.

http://dcknives.blogspot.ca/p/electric-forge.html

I could do a bigger post with more pictures if it was wanted. My coil would greatly benefit from 2x the groove length so I could stretch it out longer, but by the time I was learning that I'd need kanthal and not nichrome, and that the surface load was way too high, there wasn't much I could do as the oven was glued together already.

[gambler]

With all the Threads about grinding tool bits maybe this will help!!!!
The company below is reproducing the SB grinding fixture with capacity to 1/2" square.
Should help get a tool that cuts right the first time!

http://alisam.com/tool-bit-grinding-gage-jig.html


Tinkertoy1941

the first project in the book "the shop wisdom of D. E. Johnson " is one of those grinding jigs. if you want to roll you own.

[DICKEYBIRD]

Very good link; thanks for posting it Matt.

[Hopefuldave]

I started putting together a torch cooler for my newly-acquired TIG welder, and realised I was going to have trouble making space for Jubilee (worm-drive) hose clamps and would need a lot of 'em, saw the ClampTite wire tool and though "I can make one of those" - it worked out pretty easily, a few holes drilled in some aluminium tube (clearance bore for 8mm all-threadalike) and a pair of slots angle-grindered, I DID have to buy a wingnut, though...

Here it is in all its inglory, alongside the cooler's pressure-pulsation damper (I'm using a diaphragm pump)



The business end - a piece of M12 all-threadalike Loctited in the drilled and tapped end of the tube, then the lot spun in a drill against the bench grinder, finally slitted with a 1mm cutting disc in the angle grinder:



And... the end result, 0.8mm / 0.032" stainless lockwire on a clear PVC tube over an 8mm (5/16") hose barb,



Crude, but very effective and I put it together in 15 minutes - delivery if I'd bought one would have been a few days!

Dave H. (the other one)

[Danl]

Crude, but very effective and I put it together in 15 minutes - delivery if I'd bought one would have been a few days!

Dave H. (the other one)

Very nice, Dave. There are a lot of people out there who simply cannot grasp how these can possibly be better than normal screw/gear adjusting hose clamps.

I suspect most of them would appreciate these after making and using them a few times.

Dan L

[dian]

what is better, this type or the one where you wind the wire onto a handle?

[MattiJ]

I had to "invent" my own version of wire tool also:





Extra small version with friction lock for cramped spaces. Can be tightened with 10mm wrench or 5mm allen key.
5x6mm piece of POM acts as a slip block and spring for the friction (set) screw, works surprisingly well and shaft is pretty consistent and stiff to turn.

[Hopefuldave]

I had to "invent" my own version of wire tool also:





Extra small version with friction lock for cramped spaces. Can be tightened with 10mm wrench or 5mm allen key.
5x6mm piece of POM acts as a slip block and spring for the friction (set) screw, works surprisingly well and shaft is pretty consistent and stiff to turn.

Am I right in thinking the cross-piece is drilled and the wire is fed through the drillings?

Right or not, that's a handy tool I may steal it

Dave H. (the other one)

[MattiJ]

Yeah, "cross-shaft" is drilled' with 1,5mm holes.

[lugnut]

Good looking tool MattiJ. Now, you just made my clamp tool obsolete. Oh well I needed to make another tool anyways.