Shop Made Tools

[doctor demo]

[QUOTE=bborr01]One day I was drilling some holes in a table for some automation machine I was building.

While struggling to reach up over the table and exert the necessary pressure to get the drill to do its job, a guy came up to me and told me I needed an "old man".

I looked at him kind of strange, being that he was an old man compared to me.
I asked him politely what he meant and he showed me one of these.
It can be clamped down near the edges of a table with "c" clamps, or held down with hold downs if there are any other holes nearby.

It has saved me a lot of wear and tear on my arms and elbows, at least until we got a magnetic base drill.

Brian
I'm glad You posted that old man, I completely forgot about those antiques. An old millwright mentor of mine had one made from roller chain and the handle had a curved finger on the end that hooked in the chain and a saddle for a D handle drill to fit nicely in it .

Steve

[J Tiers]

The original "old man" was used with a drilling ratchet (like a Cole drill) which had its own feed system. The feed pushed against the "old man" so all you had to do was work the ratchet and kick the feed as needed if it wasn't automatic.

Looks like the one in the picture has a lever to apply feed pressure.

[oldtiffie]

More old men

Variations of the "old man" are used on "chain" type fence strainers as well as by truckers and loggers (operates on a "toggle" principle as well) for tying down loads on trucks.

[im#2]

$47,995 Wrench!

Ok people here's my try at the US governments 48,000 toilet seat from a few years back, but im letting them have a slight discount.
I had the grandson over to help on it so yes we can get them started, He likes to do this kind of stuff but is also into gals and dragging town looking cool so you have to catch him between engagments.
This a bulk plant to propane delivery truck hose tightening wrench measuring 16"x4 at the widest part. we milled it out of a 3/4x 18" slab of aluminum and smoothed some of the edges down on 1"x30 belt. I have seen several of the purchased cast aluminum ones break from the corners so I rounded my corners.

[im#2]

http:/1039.photobucket.com/albums/a...-8-2010005.jpg

[doctor demo]

This a bulk plant to propane delivery truck hose tightening wrench measuring 16"x4 at the widest part.

No Pictures?

Steve
You posted that while I was typing,but I can't see it.

[im#2]

wrench

http://1039.photobucket.com/albums/a471/iam2/?action=view&current=3-8-2010005.jpg

[doctor demo]

http://1039.photobucket.com/albums/a...-8-2010005.jpg

Nice, That won't be included in a wrench set from H F any time soon .
Looks kinda like the one I picked up at a CNG demo job I did a few years ago, they took the tank and we demoed the rest down to dirt. I wonder where that wrench is now.
Better put a chain and lock on it or it will wander off when ya aint lookin.

Steve

[ZINOM]

I may be having a "thick" moment, but I'm not seeing what the Old Man does.

Does it just allow you to use a leverage bar to press down on the drill?

This is the best thread by the way...thanks for all the great posts!

John

[oldtiffie]

Push-down.

That's it in a nut-shell.

[gary hart]

Lots of ways to make spanner wrenches. The one like the best is to mill half the diameter of a rod that will be bent, bend and then add the pin. The one with the black oxide finish is done this way. Finish was by heating just below scaling started and then droping in bucket of oil.




A new electric melting pot with manual controls costs about $900. They are kind of neat in that you pour right from the pot like you would a coffee pot. They use a graphite crucible and have a lid, so the atmosphere has no oxygen for oxidizing the melt.

Bought a old Jelrus electric melting pot off of Craigslist with a bad control. Made new base and installed a digital control and made decal with some instructions. Put a hinge on the lid. Ended up costing about $100 which fit my budget.

[DaveR]

Tool grinding fixture

Here's a grinding fixture I made to grind precise angles on cutting tools, using a surface grinder.

Next to it is a 3" sine table that can be installed in place of the tool grinding head in a few seconds.



As shown in the photo below, I used vernier graduations for angles. The vernier reads to 1/2 degree, and it's pretty easy to estimate to 1/4 degree (such as 23-3/4 degrees for a British Association thread tool). I think the vernier is much easier to read than too-close-together marks at each degree would have been on a circle this small.



There are no graduations to set the table angle, but that's just the clearance angle and high precision usually isn't too important. I just use a protractor to set this angle.

Here's one more photo ...



Dave

[reggie_obe]

Lots of ways to make spanner wrenches.

What kind of steel did you start with?

[knudsen]

Cool stuff, Gary. On the vernier marks, you just make them 4 degrees apart?

[DaveR]

Cool stuff, Gary. On the vernier marks, you just make them 4 degrees apart?

I think you're asking about the Vernier on my tool grinding fixture. The graduations are 4-1/2 degrees apart, so that 1/2 degree increments can be set directly.

The graduations on the upper part are, of course, 5 degrees apart.

Dave