Shop Made Tools

[J Tiers]

Actually, it's surprising what a complete mountain 0.0001 is likely to be when scraping really flat......

[Mcruff]

Sorry you'll never convince me .0001 in 18" will amount to squat when scraping let alone a mountain. I have worked on a lot of stuff over the years that was scraped and precision ground by good people and it wasn't even close to that. The oil riding on the scraped surface will have way more error than that, besides most people can't lay the blueing down that accurately.

[J Tiers]

Sorry you'll never convince me .0001 in 18" will amount to squat when scraping let alone a mountain. I have worked on a lot of stuff over the years that was scraped and precision ground by good people and it wasn't even close to that. The oil riding on the scraped surface will have way more error than that, besides most people can't lay the blueing down that accurately.

Your loss.

I agree the oil will take that up, but it WILL make the print move around and be unstable, if you have a high spot on the FLAT of that much. The oil won't have an "error" though, it will AVERAGE OUT the errors of scraping.

As for what "some people" can or cannot do, surely you are being funny there............ SOME people cannot catch a ball or "accurately" swing a bat, OR pitch...... Does that mean that NOBODY CAN? Generations of excellent cricket and baseball players must have us fooled....

Besides, it isn't "accurate" laying down of blue... it is THIN laying down of blue.... when you are looking at a "haze", you are working in that area.....

The "mud splat" of blue I see in a lot of pictures is for the first "survey" print, if it is even useful for that.... it's probably a thou or two thick at least.

I have checked smaller scraped surfaces with an indicator reading to 0.0001, and had them barely wiggle the needle as the part was moved around under the indicator over sufficient space to move over several "spots"..... evidently the spots were of that order. How close they are would take a more accurate indicator to quantify.

if you have a 0.0001 high spot, AND a "print spot" of the same order, you have a potential variation of 0.0002 right there.

[A.K. Boomer]

Back On T., I had to build some tools to get into my cannondale headshok (or some would call "pandora's box") this last winter and haven't had time to post them till now,

this first pic will give you a rough idea of the headshok system - C-dale runs a ridged front fork and uses a linear needle bearing telescoping single tube inside the headset...



Probably the simplest tool I ever built - a subaru CV axle shaft nut gave the needed clearance around the headshok lockout drive nut and gave the appropriate outer drive (hex) flange - all that was needed was to measure and drill 4 holes and then install dowels...






More to come on next tool...

[A.K. Boomer]

Now I had to build a tool that has four drive flanges - slips down into the headshok itself and does not damage the hydraulic dampening slide...

I used an old spark plug socket I had laying around - trouble was it didn't have an external drive hex so I built one to fit an old snap-on line wrench I found years ago on the side of the road while riding my bike.








I had some ceramic plastic laying around (bright green) and used it for the internal cushion - it actually "snaps" into place and is awesome for protecting the anodized aluminum shaft whilst tightening and loosening...



Used a ball end mill to plunge the drive flanges (don't have indexer and wanted something fast)




And walla --- saved about 70 bucks worth of tooling from C-dale and they actually are far better for protecting the components...

[vpt]

Great job!!

[mattinker]

New ones?

try looking at tool stores to buy one new.. awhile ago I picked one up new at busybee for $60 iirc.

You first have to have the "stores" to look in! I'm fortunate in the I visit my son in the UK, if I can afford it, I mail order in the UK, free shipping to my son, and treck back home with the goodies! This doesn't allways work, as my French Visa card doesn't have a UK adress! Mail order is opening up here, Belgium, Germany and the UK being cheapest. I just bought some Telemechanic relay coils "off" eBay US couldn't find them here where they were made!

When I bought my "Denbigh" the seller offered me a large surface plate, I just couldn't afford the transport, despite getting cheap rates through a friend who work for an international trucking company!

Regards, Matthew

[chevy3755]

very good idea.......o the mind is a terrible thing to waste....

[harty]

Hi all

just thought i would post a pic of my qctp rack
just a few pins and peice of hardwood
its not realy a tool more a tool holder or is it a tool holder holder
simple to make and works really well








there are so many good ideas in this thread but not enought room in the shed keep em coming

cheers
harty

[SharkfacePilot]

I was slow to notice this thread, but I've spent half the weekend reading it and making notes.

Thanks All

Richard

[gary hart]

Small drag engraver. Uses 1/8th carbide broken drill ground to a taper and small radius on end like Evan showed.

Shank is 3/8” which is largest size that will fit my little mill. The spring not only gives about .200” in & out travel but also can rotate the engraver if needed. Spring ends are bent to fit in holes for driving.

[GerryR]

Another radius fixture

Nothing fancy; just something to keep this going:

First, is in the rough mounted on the lathe:



Second, it is all "dolled" up:



I started with a piece of steel that I had cut two 6" diameter circles from for another purpose. The fixture will do concave or convex curves up to about 2 inches radius. Simple 1/4" sq. tool bit held in the 1" diameter O1 tool bar. It can be calibrated from the zero point on the bar with engraved divisions, but I just use a caliper off the back edge of the tool bar to set the radius. Someday (maybe), I will add a digital readout by modifying a cheap set of calipers and attaching it to the bar / frame.

[Teenage_Machinist]

http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/sho...ild+sucsessful

There's my electric furnace. I did an aluminum pour yesterday- my first. It's able to reach over 1600 deg. F and will eventually have PID control. I also have my own homemade clay-graphite crucible.


Any word on Village's plan to make a book based on this thread?

[bjmh46]

OK, I hesitated to post--there are so many really neat ideas here in this thread, but here is a swivel-head bandsaw I built in 1995. It's served me well these last 15 years. It will miter 6 in sch 40 pipe and cut a 9 inch round at 90. It swivels a max of 60 degrees (only one direction) but I've never really considered that a serious limitation. Most cutting is done with 10-14 vp bi-metal bands. Carbon hardback 6T and 18T are used for aluminum solids and thin wall tubing.





I guess I've always wondered why more hobby guys like me didn't build their own saws. I've built many power hacksaws and bandsaws both vertical and horizontal--in fact a power hacksaw was one of the first metalworking projects I ever did--back in about 1969.

Regards
Bob

[BillC]

bjmh46 that is awesome! what a sweet machine did you build that from plans, copy, or just thought it up as you went along? also what did you use for wheels?.