Shop Made Tools

[Dan Dubeau]

Obligatory vice grip slide hammer. I've got a bigger one, but this little guy has proven very handy over the years. If I've got a block that needs to be pulled that won't fit in the jaws, I'll clamp it with a c clamp then grab the clamp with the jaws.



Nothing special, only a file handle, but was one of my great ideas that didn't pan out. Started off making a handle out of the material the file was to be used on. Made one out of steel (looks identical to this), wood (normal file handle shape), and brass (round stock, grooved same as alum and steel one. .05, .1, .15, etc). Aluminum one seems to be the only one left. can't find the others (I think the wooden one is at home), but the brass and steel ones have probably grown little legs. I liked the wood one best as none of the others quite fit the hands as nice a self turned wooden ones. I hate using this one as it's too small, but it still happens almost daily. Too lazy to sit down and turn some new wooden one. although I do set aside all the spalted maple or other interestingly figured wood I run across in the firewood pile specifically for tool handles and such.



Cheap box of 2 flute HSS endmills I bought, then had ground undersized for "boring" holes on location prior to reaming (I do a lot of that for drill jig bushings). Work great for that and other things undersized cutter are good for.

[Dan Dubeau]

Aluminum nameplate with emery super glued on. sounds simple, and it is, but very handy. two different grits on either side, and I've got a few more with different grits as well. works great cause you can bend it into any shape to follow surfaces (we do a lot of 3d aluminum work). when it gets loaded up, rip it off, and glue a new strip on.



Tool rack I built for the CNC at work out of more scrapbinium. Top is scrap tooling plate. I just cleaned up the edges, and designed around the shape. Brackets, are some scrap tube, and angle welded together. Should have painted it before I mounted it, as It will never get done now. ah well. pretty handy, though already too small. as the second picture shows. A rolling cart is on my list (long list) of things to build when I get some spare time.



I made the holder clamp bottom left out of scrap. It actually looks nice, cause we had anodizing going out the day I made it, so I lumped it in with that. Good timing I suppose. The rest is just, well, mess. (it's been cleaned up, and messed up again since this picture was taken, it an ongoing thing)

[Dan Dubeau]

closeup shot of the cnc bench with a few fixtures, and vice jaws etc...clutter.



quick and dirty tap holder extension as I often need to tap a 6-32 hole in some weird, hard to get at places. (for tooling buttons)



to drill those hole in those weird places, this often comes in handy. Camera lens cap not required for hole drilling.

[Dan Dubeau]

My daily use hammer. Used for tapping around tooling buttons using the CMM. Been in daily use for 3 years, and not broken yet. It's just a made in china brass punch out of a set. epoxied into a handle I carved out of Teak (just happened to be closest scrap piece that was closes to the size I needed). Drilled the handle for the punch, and ran a tap through to create some grooves for the epoxy to bite into. Just a natural oily hands finish on the teak.



I'll finish off with a shot of my sketchbook. When an idea pops into my head, I'll sketch it down so I don't forget about it. Then I'll roll the idea around in neurocad for a while, until I come up with something that works. then I'll either go back and make notes in the sketchbook, or create a design/model in CAD, to make sure it really works. Then I'll probably never get around to building it.



That's all I'll bore you with for now. All my stuff is pretty simple and plain in comparison to some of the really nice stuff posted in this thread. But some of the real simple things are real time savers. And after posting these again and re-reading them I realize how wordy I can be, so if you read everything I wrote I'm sorry next time just click the pictures.

Thanks to all the posters in this thread. I hope to see it bumped up every once in a while, and I'll try to do my part as well. I made a couple drill chuck arbors since I posted these pictures the first time. I'll include them in the next installment.

[ssnuce]

post home shop tools

here are some shop tools i made

http://s1098.photobucket.com/albums/g366/ssnuce/

SNUCE

[tsmartin_98]

Large Bore Lathe

Several years ago I had a project where I had to modify about 15, 2" OD conveyor rolls. Neither the lathe at work or the one I have at home has a headstock bore large enough to handle it. I set up the steady rest on the one at work and modified one roll as a prototype. What a pain in the rear. The thought of having to do 14 more had me thinking that there must be a better way. The project got canceled before I could think of something but the idea was still stuck in my head and would make a reappearence now and then. I had all sorts of hairbrained ideas but I got hit with the solution last December. Attach a self centering large bore chuck to a piece of pipe, drive it off the spindle and use a steady rest near the chuck. Plus, it would be a perfect winter project to keep me busy.

The chuck is an 8" import, couldn't justify spending the $$$ on a Bison, with a 2 1/2" bore. The pipe is 3" SCH 40 about 12" long. The whole thing probably cost a bit over $200.

It's not completely finished and I'll need to make a beefier steady rest, that will be next winters project, but I'm confident the idea will work when it's all done.

TS

[Ron of Va]

Several years ago I had a project where I had to modify about 15, 2" OD conveyor rolls. Neither the lathe at work or the one I have at home has a headstock bore large enough to handle it. I set up the steady rest on the one at work and modified one roll as a prototype. What a pain in the rear. The thought of having to do 14 more had me thinking that there must be a better way. The project got canceled before I could think of something but the idea was still stuck in my head and would make a reappearence now and then. I had all sorts of hairbrained ideas but I got hit with the solution last December. Attach a self centering large bore chuck to a piece of pipe, drive it off the spindle and use a steady rest near the chuck. Plus, it would be a perfect winter project to keep me busy.

The chuck is an 8" import, couldn't justify spending the $$$ on a Bison, with a 2 1/2" bore. The pipe is 3" SCH 40 about 12" long. The whole thing probably cost a bit over $200.

It's not completely finished and I'll need to make a beefier steady rest, that will be next winters project, but I'm confident the idea will work when it's all done.

TS

Great Idea, You might also consider putting some brass tipped screws between the steady rest and the lathe for internal support of a shaft.

[roundrocktom]

here are some shop tools i made

http://s1098.photobucket.com/albums/g366/ssnuce/

SNUCE

Nice!

It took me a moment, but I like the cross slide dial adjuster.

Do you have a threaded rod for setting "zero"?



Tom

[rbertalotto]

This gets the award of the Day! For all you folks that do gunsmithing and the spindle bore isn't large enough, this would work on a tapered barrel.....Brilliant!





Now, put a cover on that switch plate before a nice long curly chip finds its way into it and lights you up like a Christmas tree.......and then we wouldn't get anymore cool ideas!.....


(PS...If you don't mind I'd like to show this to some friends on a gunsmithing forum I frequent)

[gwilson]

This is also an old way of making accurate work on a lathe that has worn ways near the spindle.

[fciron]

Once you discovered the switch was dead, you didn't bother to put the cover back on?

Cast iron boring bar, made out of scrap from a table leg I shortened. I was thinking on how to put a square slot in the end and mount a couple of set screws; then I looked in my box of tool bits and there was a broken tap that I saved after reading someone's tip here!

I cross drilled it to hold the tap and drilled and tapped the center for a set screw. (Ground the tap single point internal threads, can't forget that step.) I don't have any comparable boring bars, so I can't comment on the vibrations damping properties of cast iron. It's also the first time I got to use my boring bar holder.


HPIM0482 by fciron, on Flickr

[Ian B]

TS,

Very nice; first time I've seen that setup.

One question; why the use of a 4 jaw self centring chuck, rather than a 3 jaw? Just wondering.

Ian

[Westline]

The scariest tool I have ever made.

After seeing (can't remember where ) Someone surgesting to cutting pieces out of a old Circular saw blade to make cheap part off blades, I thought hey why not use the entire blade.

I have no fondness of circular saw but this worked out better than I thought.
I would love to have a slit saw and I can make my own arbour but the blades in South Africa are like $130 (I converted since nobody want to lookup the ZAR)
Circular saw blade on the other hand is about $5 hence.


I ran it at 125 RPM on Leaded steel and it came out pretty well.

I did not want to push the brassed tungstan bits to much at it will jump off but on the size off the blade I should be able to run at 400rpm max.
It makes bit of a noise but cuts a nice smooth 2.5mm wide slit.
The only downside is it makes a V shaped bottom since it is a framing and ripping blade.
I have to say during time first run I looked like this and I did not unpucker for a few hours.

[Westline]

Thor's Rattle

After seeying the Paulding hammer (It's a piece of Art) http://toolguyd.com/2010/01/preview-...ulding-hammer/
My hart started going all warm and fuzzy ,so I decide to make my own.
Not a piece of Art
How does it go ...whatever is worth doing is worth over doing.
The shaft is salvaged Alu that I knurnled and shrink fit to the head (I real hope it holds) If my post just stop in the near future it means the head came loose and killed me.
The head is 2kg of hardened 4140 with 3 holes inside for deadblow weights.
I hot blackend the head. The only snag was I wanted to use a Alu and Nylon face but only had Nylatron GSM.
I really wanted to finish this and had some scrap virgin teflon lying around so now I have a gsm and ptfe head.
Soft head , no recoil and loosens everything it touch.... I'm one happy camper.

[tsmartin_98]

TS,

Very nice; first time I've seen that setup.

One question; why the use of a 4 jaw self centring chuck, rather than a 3 jaw? Just wondering.

Ian

So I can turn square stock as well as round if needed. I thought about a 3 jaw but figured why limit myself.

TS