Shop Made Tools

[dockrat]

A double barreled boring bar holder LOL
For 1/2 and 3/8 bars



And before someone asks, no, I dont use em both at the same time

[darryl]

Well, here's this- a corded cordless fit anywhere drill.



Took a cordless drill and shrunk it as much as I could. It had three tabbed AA nicads in it, which have died, so now it's corded. I have a couple of batteries around that I can hook it up to, a 6 volt and a 12 volt. Bit of a pain, but it works. This is a real drill, not a cordless screwdriver. It's not anemic, though it sort of was on the three cells.

This was built a long time ago. The successor to this would be much smaller these days, with the smaller, more powerful motors that are available now. I'd like to reduce the size of the casing behind the chuck to maybe an inch long or so, and narrow the diameter to just larger than the chuck. I think I can fit the motor and the chuck shaft bearings into that space. Still in the design stage.

Ok, so now I'm sucking for ideas Look how large that chuck is for the relatively tiny size of bit that can fit in it (3/8 max). Still want to use ordinary bits, but want to get rid of that chuck. Hmm - ?

[gary hart]

Tool holder made to hold odd ball set of 3-H collets, Works for boring bar holder



Another ball turner welded to Omni-Post type tool holder



Forest Addy design for sharpening carbide scrapers.
DC motor with cast iron "faceplate" Table is set at 3 degree negative angle.
Diamond lapping paste is imbedded in cast iron using ball bearing on end of rod.
Small container of kerosene in old 35mm plastic film container.
Kersosene applied to lap with acid brush. 2 passes then touch of kerosene.



Small copper lap is charged with diamond paste just like the cast iron scraper lap. Small motor and light dimmer switch for speed control.

[TGTool]

Indicator Holder

I made this thirty some years ago. I wanted an indicator holder with flexibility for positioning, a compact fine adjustment, smooth action and lots of options for assembly. This was it.



The first link fits different collets or holders, can both rotate and swing and the central screw locks both movements. The fine adjustment has an internal spring and probably 3/16" movement at the end. That could be amplified or not depending on where in the chain the adjustment was placed - near the base or near the indicator.

The indicator holder at the end of that group has both dovetail and stem mounting. The other parts add length, angles or whatever. One day I may get around to making ball handles for the locks to avoid hunting the allen wrench.

[gary hart]

Holder and organizer for small taps, tap drills and clearance drills.
Taps are in bottom two holes and just above that is the tap drill.
Drills above that with the tip angled to the right is clearance plus drills.
Drills above that the tip angled to the left is close clearance drills.




Hex socket wrenches made from socket head cap screws.
Handles are ¼ hex stock, which works good. Don’t roll on table easily and a ¼ inch nut driver can be used for wrench extension.
Number system for the wrench sizes is:
One row of dots = 1/64th of an inch.
One narrow groove = 1/32nd of a inch
Two narrow grooves together = 1/16th of an inch.
Two pairs of narrow grooves together = 1/8th of an inch.




Kit in a box. For making quarter inch model pipe elbows.




Holding fixture for positioning the two halves of elbow that are screwed on rods for silver brazing the halves together.

[millhand]

Gary: I sat straight up in chair when I saw your latest: model pipe 90's. I bought Superscale 5/16" elbows for the cooling system of my Mery engine, but they do not stock them in 1/8". I've been dithering on this for several months and I'd sure like to get on with it. Any chance I can talk you into more info and a picture or two??

TIA
Carl

[gary hart]

Carl, the Mery was one of the first IC engines that I made, nice engine. Haven't made 1/8 elbows since making this kit, so don't have measurements. Maybe the ones for 1/4" elbows will give you an idea.



At bottom of picture shows threaded on one end short rods that the halves of elbows are screwed onto.

They then are slipped into the holes at 45 degrees and pushed down until elbow contacts milling block. Tighten the screws to hold rods in place.

Put block in milling vise. Before milling do a little thinking about how the rotation of the mill cutter has a tightening action rather then a unscrewing action as it starts milling.

On the right hand of the block is tapped and a male thread that can be milled 45 degree for making a 90 degree street elbow.



The long rods are threaded to put the elbow halves on. One of the rod pairs has a female thread for making a street elbow.



On the back side of aluminum holder for soldering is some strong computer magnets epoxied on that hold the rods in place and make it easy to get the joint aligned.

Silver brazing (silver soldering, hard soldering) requires the right torch for this job. The brass wants to heated fast so not much heat goes into the steel rods. The steel rods should be oxidized so solder don't stick and not too much flux on solder joint. Hope this makes sense and not confuse.

[J Harp]

Just finished this knurling tool last week, only had to remake two to three pieces. Think I need to make a shorter set of arms to get more mechanical advantage, I was shooting for max capacity which I think was a mistake.

Made the screw slotting fixture to slot the pins in the knurler, it uses eccentrically mounted inline skate bearings.

I'm still trying to figure out how to post the image directly with picasa, a how to would be appreciated.

Edit, I'm useing Ubuntu 9.04

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_y9yg1bxEL2Q/S5hrsydILRI/AAAAAAAAAOM/60KdkEDHPbU/s144/IMG_0120.JPG

[gb25]

I'm still trying to figure out how to post the image directly with picasa, a how to would be appreciated.

Edit, I'm useing Ubuntu 9.04

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_y9yg1bxEL2Q/S5...4/IMG_0120.JPG

At picasa's website, click "link to this photo" on the right. Then check "image only" box. Change the image size to 400 or 800 (used 800 below). Copy the link in the "embed image" box.

Then in the box that you type your reply on this forum, click the "Insert Image" icon (yellow square with mountains) and paste the url.

[Doc Nickel]

Freshly-made insertable-carbide spline cutter. Holds three TNMG-style inserts pointing straight out. The inserts are modded slightly with a flat ground on the end to get the approximation of the proper spline shape- which, incidentally, lets me "recycle" dull inserts out of the scrap can.



A test piece in aluminum, checking depth of cut and playing with proper indexing:



The final part was made from chrome-moly, and the cutter held up quite well for the entire job.

Doc.

[rickak]

Thanks for keeping this on the first page,I study it every night when I get home.Picked up a old LeBlond 13c Regal a few weeks back,great shape.
Trying to deversify a little in this economy.
Should turn this page into a book..........

[Bruce Griffing]

Doc-
Nice post - how about a profile view of the cutter and a closer look at the grind you did on the carbide.

[gary hart]

Making horizontal space for another hobby, lost wax casting. Built cart that takes up about 3-1/2 sq. ft. Has couple shelves for storage inside and underneath is vacuum pump.




Has 2 flip out tables and table that pulls out to front. Now have over 8 sq. ft. of table surface.




Metal rectangles on left are flasks for vulcanizing a pattern in rubber, using a heated press. 3 vacuum chambers for debubbling the mixed investment. Two temperature controllers. One is 120 volt and can be used on wax put and the other is 230 volt which can be programed for upto 30 different heat steps or ramps. Used for the wax burn out or can be used for heat treating. The rubber disk on a rod (lower right corner) is for mixing investment. Works exceptionally good for mixing and not intrappng air bubbles.



The stainless steel flasks with the holes are for vacuum casting and the vacuum chamber that they go in. The vacuum chamber has the red silicone gasket on it and adapter plate so two different diameter flasks can be used. Will do another post to explain rest of stuff.

[gary hart]

Two wax pots. The one on the left has a 110 volt burner hot plate and built a pot with a top hat washer on top. A little insulation and slipped into an old coffee. Had pump with coned nozzle on discharge.

Second wax pot is pressurized by air and has an electric heating elment around the inner tank. Temperature is controlled either with variac or the 110 volt PID controller shown in earlier post. Spring loaded discharge valve is inside the tank. Originally had valve on outside but had wax temp problem with that.




A model connecting rod pattern is shown with 1/8" rod sticking out to the left.
This pattern is made bigger then what wanted by a shrink factor for the wax shrinkage and for the metal shrinkage from the pout.

The pattern is put in a metal flask with rubber packed around it and then put in heated press and vulcanized. After this the rubber mold is cut open leaving jagged notches so the two haves will index to each other.

The rubber mold is held closed between two metal plates and pressed against discharge nozzle on the air pot to fill. Wax pattern shown which will be "invested". Investment is a high temperature slurry something like plaster of paris. This is vacuumed and put in burn out oven where the wax is burnt out.




Mold for making a wax tree which wax patterns are welded to with some wax using a hot wax pen. A female thread is cast into bottom of tree and the white plastic flask bases have the same thread. A short set screw holds the base and tree togather. Just use cheap black electrician tape to hold base to flask and wrap the flasks with holes and when investment is set up the base is removed.




Broken arm centrifugal caster. Made years ago but have yet to use it.

[AlexK]

Small copper lap is charged with diamond paste just like the cast iron scraper lap. Small motor and light dimmer switch for speed control.

What about the angle table on this picture? Did you make it? Looks great.