Shop Made Tools

[gary hart]

Or a little "catch" that goes under the jaws in the slot in middle of vise.

[danlb]

Dan,

You mean like this?

LOL You beat me to the punch! Yep, that's what I meant.

Dan

[noah katz]

That is a neat idea.

You can use one of these to save the time of making the articulating arm:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10828&cs_id=1082806&p_id=6198&seq=1&format=2

[noah katz]

That is a neat idea.

You can use one of these to save the time of making the articulating arm:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10828&cs_id=1082806&p_id=6198&seq=1&format=2

or a heavier duty one

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10828&cs_id=1082806&p_id=5471&seq=1&format=2

[gftoolshop]

Back again.

The mistake in the angle plate was the mis-matched step. The tapped holes were planned on and make for handy clamping.

Black Moons,
I didn't put my name on a lot of the tools I made or on ANY of my precision tools.
I figured I worked with an honest bunch and didn't need to tarnish my work with my name. I was mostly right. In 30 years on the job I only lost a 9/16 wrench and some allen wrenches. Of course, I had a policy that the job was not finished until all of my tools were cleaned up and put away. The clamps got left at the end of an overtime job that went into overtime.

Evan,
Nice work on the slotter. I'm guessing you also have an indexing plate on the other end of the lathe spindle.
How did you put the black oxide/blue bath on the dark colored parts?
I have a few things that I made that never got blue bathed and have thought about setting something up at home.
Like this next one.

Terry,
Thats a bunch of special tools. Did you make them or buy them? One of my brothers is a diesel mechanic. I will have to show this thread to him and see if he recognizes any of them. I especially like the puller that pivots to get through the hole.

To everyone,
Thanks for the kind words. More to come.

Brian

wow your my hero. also a toolaholic thanks keep it comin

[DATo]

Pipe / Tubing Spider

This is an in-house made tool that can be found in many shops. We have always called it a "spider" but it might be called by other names. It is used to support the tailstock end of long pieces of pipe which would ordinarily require the mounting of a steady rest. The four screws projecting radially are adjusted in much the same manner as the jaws of a 4 jaw chuck while indicating the O.D. of the workpiece.



The device is clamped to a live center which has a revolving outer bearing housing as illustrated in the picture. The radially projecting screws were made from hex screws which were cut to a slightly conical point. In the following illustrations the device is shown in position to be used and in the middle of a facing cut. Note that there are more tapped holes at 45 degrees to the studs - they are also used when the workpiece is a thinner walled pipe for added stability.

[sasquatch]

Interesting handy project for sure!!

[DATo]

Interesting handy project for sure!!

It DOES come in handy sasquatch. We usually use this on Big Bertha, our 26" X 72" lathe, for cutting larger OD S.S. pipe. The steady rest for that lathe weighs about 170 pounds with its clamp plate attached and to get it up over the tailstock with an overhead hoist puts it about 7 - 7 1/2 foot in the air. That always makes me nervous *L*. This spider is easy to set up and works just as well for most projects.

[form_change]

An interesting little project

Most of my button dies are 1" but the other day I bought one that was 1 1/2" diameter. I thought I had a holder for it but discovered that it was a strange 1 1/4" for some BSF dies. I could have bought a holder but wanted to try out the incremental (coordinate) radius production method and see how that worked before thinking about radius turning devices. This is also a good turning project, as the main work was all done on a lathe.



The overall length is around 15". The centre portion started life as a lump of black bar, 60x20mm. The round portions were turned on the ends and then on one face the round section was marked out and bandsawn/ rough turned to size. Once I had the approximate shape, I used coordinates generated from a spreadsheet to step off the radius. The shape is true, but the steps (1/2 thou increments) are coarse enough that they are visible -



The centre holes were also done on the lathe, but with the holder body flat against the 4 jaw.

There has been some discussion in other threads on knurling. The screw in handles (from cold rolled bar stock)were knurled with a pressure knurl, and as can be seen, there is no problem traversing along the bar to have a long knurl (the knurling wheel is 3/8" long)



All I need to do now is throw on a coat of paint

Michael

[DATo]

Nice job Mike! Not only did you provide yourself with the tool you needed but you also got some experience using a new technique. You could easily make a bushing insert for that new die holder which will allow you to use your smaller dies in it as well for those occasions when you have two threads to chase and you don't want to keep alternating dies on the same diestock. For example: if you had an adjustable die to "rough" the size and another to finish to size. I sometimes do this, as well as mounting two taps in different T style tap holders - one for the starter tap and the other for the bottoming tap. Saves a lot of switching back and forth.

[Dan Dubeau]

.... I sometimes do this, as well as mounting two taps in different T style tap holders - one for the starter tap and the other for the
bottoming tap. Saves a lot of switching back and forth.

I've got an old feeler gauge handle I salvaged from a fixture that I mount a 6-32 tap in each end. I drilled a hole through the center of the handle for a handle. One end has a gun tap, the other a bottoming. Very quick to start the thread, flip the handle over, and finish it. Only thing I don't like is that it's sometimes hard to tighten it enough to keep the taps from spinning once in a while. Making a new dedicated one has been on my long list for a while.

[sasquatch]

Agreed, good looking project there Mike!!

[DATo]

In a recent discussion on another thread a few people expressed an interest in an idea I mentioned regarding Split T nuts so I thought I'd dedicate a specific post to the idea in the Shop Made Tools thread.

Split T nuts are useful when you already have a complicated set up involving strap clamps and you find that you need to place one more strap clamp between two others. To save tearing down part of the set up you can insert these T nuts directly in the slot between two other strap clamps from above without having to disturb your original set-up.



Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures. Didn't have time to preview them before posting.

[Jaakko Fagerlund]

DATo, very nice idea, thanks for sharing! Haven't ever used split nuts, but have used those "square" (don't know the name for it, like a square squeeze sideways) nuts that you insert and then twist it so it goes underside the T-slot

[John Stevenson]

Setting a boring head up on centre

Simple jig to set a boring head up on centre and then swap over to the boring tool. Saves loads of time as it relies on the same setup as the tool needs so no need to use co-axial indicators DRO's etc Next two pics are staged shot centring up on a screw jack as it was handy



Two more or less identical pieces in the picture, one is fitted to the boring head and the one on the vise is made to fit a screw in Clarkson collet.

The idea is that the bar is dog-legged so the stylus is on the centreline of the boring head.

The indicator is one made my Verdict but they seem to have disappeared these days. All apprentices had to buy these and they were stopped out of your wages, they cost something like 30 shillings at the time. They have a read span of 20 thou and being skeletal you can read these from any angle.




Shot from 'tother side showing the pointer still at mid scale, in the first pic it's hard to see the pointer.

Couple of wipes round whilst adjusting the handles then replace the bent link with the boring bar and jobs a good un.