Shop Made Tools

[The Artful Bodger]

See post 32 for a variation on this, not the holder part , which is very good but the length.

A lot of import lathes with small tailstock travels would not be able to reach the work with a short holder.

.

Good point Sir John but the length is not a problem with my lathe as the retracted tail stock can be got to within 45mm of the chuck jaws.

[darryl]

Here's a nearly completed desoldering tool. The two wires will eventually lead in through the top, between the two aluminum plate pieces that form the handle. There will be a microswitch buried in there also, behind the trigger, and that will operate a vacuum pump motor in the base unit. There will be a second tubing leading off as well, carrying the wires to the element and the switch.



The heater element is obviously in the tube at the top, and the angled studs that extend from that go into ceramic bushings that are captive between the handle halves. The thinwall stainless tubing coming off the tip is also sandwiched between the handle parts, and that will serve to keep most of the heat that comes down the tubing from overheating the urethane tubing. I'm hoping that there won't be so much heat transferring down the studs and the tubing that the handle will be too hot to - eh- handle. I think it will be fine. I have a control to vary the power to the element, which is about 60 watts or so if run from 110vac directly.

I'm toying with the idea of mounting a bimetallic strip onto the heater tube, and using a pushrod of some kind to open a pair of contacts as a means of setting the temperature. I should be ok without adding that complexity, but I'm going to leave a way to incorporate that in the future if I decide to.

Back to the two studs- I was going to pinch two pieces of aluminum across them to act as a heat sink and also a standoff of sorts so if I laid the tool down on a desktop, the heater tube would remain above the surface. That's another maybe- what I probably will do is mount two standoffs to each side near the top of the handle, and the two front ones can be what drops into the holder on the base, giving me a way to set it down properly.

One alteration I probably will do is to add a 'solder catching container' inside the trigger, then have the tubing exiting from that. If I swing the trigger out enough, I'll have access to that, plus be able to clean the thinwall tubing easily with a bicycle spoke, suitably modified. When I swing the trigger back, a gasket will both seal the catch container, and act as a fairly stiff spring so I can also use the trigger as part of holding on the tool. It won't take much extra movement to trigger the microswitch, so I don't see a problem with that.

The tip is probably the single heaviest piece of this, being machined from solid copper. Once it erodes away enough at the tip, I'll re-machine it, and when it gets really bad I'll make it able to accept another 'front end'.

[bob_s]

Darryl:

You might also consider using a radiation shield between the heating element and the handle.

[RKW]

Spring Ball Tools

Here is a set of what I call "spring ball tools" that I made a few days ago, the inset photo is a test block for each size but one since I ran out of room on the scrap I had. The problem with threaded ones is that they take up more room in tight spaces than you may have. In order to get the ball size you desire, the threaded body has to be larger. And they are a bit expensive too.

The problem with what my tools do is create a near-permanent and non-adjustable set ball. But they work for me and that's what I was after.

The set includes tools for ball sizes of 1/2", 3/8", 5/16", 1/4", 3/16", and 1/8". The tools were all made in two pieces with the working edge hardened. Afterwards, I blued, polished and used a drop of Loctite to keep them together. The base was just some scrap poplar I happened to have and glued up.

I use them in the arbor press with enough gentle pressure to deform the edge and to hold the ball and spring in the hole. The protruding part compresses the ball and spring out of the way during the deformation.

Spring balls or plungers can be used for indexing detents, constant pressure, or to aid in ejecting components during disassembly.

Keith

[3t-]

RKW,

please explain what these "spring ball" tools are used for. They look very nicely done but I don't know their purpose.

thanks

[RKW]

I updated my posting but here is a link for McMaster-Carr since they do a good job of describing them as well as showing the different kinds.

RKW,

please explain what these "spring ball" tools are used for. They look very nicely done but I don't know their purpose.

thanks

[Spin Doctor]

This is related to the Bull Nose thread.

In years past I made a 60 and 90D bullnose center by modifying a piece of #2 Morse taper tooling and mounting a chunck of stock on a double row sealed bearing with one seal removed. The bullnoses are driven off of the headstock with a universal socket in order to keep run-out to a minimum

[KiddZimaHater]

Here's my shop-made Live Bullnose from my other post.
Morse #3 arbor blank with a bearing pressed onto it.
Bearing + arbor then pressed into the bullnose.
Only .002 runout.

[bborr01]

Spindoctor and Kidd,

Thanks for adding the bull nose centers to the thread.

I am adding that to my to do list.

Brian

[gary hart]

Simple adjustable stand for horizontal band saw or what ever.

Half of a 3/4" pipe clamp like the woodworkers use. Fasten clamp to tube and welded other end to base plate. Weld piece of 3/4" water pipe to hunk of angle iron.

Lift to adjust with one hand it stays where you let go of it.

[Jim Shaper]

Spin Doc, I was thinking rather than making a hex, you could simply slot the end and make a driver similar to a standard screwdriver to transmit power.

[Dr Stan]

Spin Doc, I was thinking rather than making a hex, you could simply slot the end and make a driver similar to a standard screwdriver to transmit power.

I noticed he was using a universal socket adapter to drive the center. My guess he did so to compensate for any run out of the hex.

[Spin Doctor]

Plus that way I can lube the bearing Its not like I need to use the center for small stuff. I've got a couple of nice once for that

[Frank Ford]

Here's one I used today - a flush cutting saw:



I use it to cut the steel truss rod and mahogany dovetail when resetting older Martin guitar necks:



It cuts neatly through everything without scratching the bottom of the fingerboard:



If you'd like to see more about this stuff, it's on Day 17 of my current repair blog:

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Blogs/37D28/37d28_1.html

[koda2]

chuck carrier

I'm a newbie so I can't match the creations on this thread but here's my contribution. I am constantly changing setups on my 3-in-1 and it only takes a half-second of inattention while mounting this chuck and my fingertips are tortillas, even with a board to protect the ways.

I got lucky on the height of this and it delivers the chuck to the spindle like a round going in the chamber.
Dave A.