Shop Made Tools

[jhe.1973]

Custom counterbore for working w/logs

Hi Everyone,

20 years ago we were building a homestead in the mountains of West Virginia. It was a shoestring venture to say the least.

The plan was to start with a couple of mobile homes & live in them while we were building a more permanent place.

Flat areas didn’t exist so I needed a way to save space – build the shop under the mobile homes. Except I wasn’t building a basement.

I had to make this counterbore to get flat washer seats on the sides of logs. The head of the c-bore is Ketos tool steel that I happened to have but it already had a hole that was bigger than the bolts I was using. So, I annealed a truck axle & turned it for the pilot, shank & interior segment of the cutter teeth. Then I re-heat treated it all w/a coal fired forge I had taken w/me.



This shows how it makes a washer seat.



This tool is a drill guide so the holes would come out straight on the opposite side of the log.



These helped me do this:



The poles were sunk 4 feet to a foot thick concrete footing & were going to continue up & over the mobiles for a post & beam structure that would envelope the house above & shop below.

When I took the above site photo I was standing on the roof of a 40 foot refrigerated trailer I used for my shop.

Not too bad considering I worked alone w/o cranes, although the old military truck sure got a lot of use!

[jhe.1973]

Custom portable sawmill

Hi Everyone,

Here is the sawmill I built & used for the various cuts necessary on the top of the logs pictured in the site photo of my last post.

It allowed me to make some rather intricate cuts so that the bolts only held the beams in place on the posts. The bolts didn’t take any shear loads.

The mill also allowed me to make parallel cuts 12 feet away on the bottom of the posts so they would sit flat on the footings & not be as inclined to settle.

I was building it for a bandsaw but used it w/my chainsaw until the bandsaw was finished. Only it never got finished.






I also used the sawmill for squaring 2 sides of the logs I used for our post & beam outhouse.

[rbertalotto]

M37 or a Dodge Power Wagon down there in thew corner............Love em' !

[Chris S.]

I had to make this counterbore to get flat washer seats on the sides of logs. The head of the c-bore is Ketos tool steel that I happened to have but it already had a hole that was bigger than the bolts I was using. So, I annealed a truck axle & turned it for the pilot, shank & interior segment of the cutter teeth. Then I re-heat treated it all w/a coal fired forge I had taken w/me.

Given the typical diameter of a truck axle, even a small one, I'm having a difficult time getting my head around this. How much steel did you remove?

Chris

[jhe.1973]

M37 or a Dodge Power Wagon down there in thew corner............Love em' !

I had 2 M37s at the time and this Power Wagon I used for a shim.

[jhe.1973]

Given the typical diameter of a truck axle, even a small one, I'm having a difficult time getting my head around this. How much steel did you remove?

Chris

Hi Chris,

IIRC, the axle was one from a junkyard - I get a lot of raw materials from them.

It wasn't too large at the differential end, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 dia.

The finished pilot is 5/8 & the I,D. of the primary cutting head is 3/4 inch diameter.

[Chris S.]

Hi Chris,

It wasn't too large at the differential end, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 dia.

The finished pilot is 5/8 & the I,D. of the primary cutting head is 3/4 inch diameter.

Ah, now I'm seeing the big picture. Also, those were the days when we were welcome to traipse through a junk yard with tools in hand, before the nanny state and prior to litigation becoming an art form.

Chris

[davidh]

K.I.S.S. or Whatever it takes to get it done

i needed to true up this 5" diameter hunk between centers on my 13" atlas/craftsman. i have no dogs big enuf to drive it so. . . this is what i ended up using. worked great. . . it slipped a bit until it found its sweet spot, then just did what it was suppose to do.

[jugs]

I note the look of surprise on your face (top center).
My you're a handsome guy

[swordfish]

Sewing Awl

Anyone ever not cursed a sewing awl? I came up with this to sew heavy leather for knife sheaths. The dremil drill press is about 25 dollarish on amazon and from the way the awl is designed after the first time it is installed and tightened it is set and adjusted. May require less than a minute of file fitting and you are ready to sew.

[Chris S.]

i needed to true up this 5" diameter hunk between centers on my 13" atlas/craftsman. i have no dogs big enuf to drive it so. . . this is what i ended up using. worked great. . . it slipped a bit until it found its sweet spot, then just did what it was suppose to do.

I gotta admit that my first reaction to this photo was... "What the f**K!"

But hey, it's field expedience!

Chris

[TDmaker01]

i needed to true up this 5" diameter hunk between centers on my 13" atlas/craftsman. i have no dogs big enuf to drive it so. . . this is what i ended up using. worked great. . . it slipped a bit until it found its sweet spot, then just did what it was suppose to do.

On somthing like that Id have drilled and tapped a 3/8nc hole in one of the faces (if a hole was allowable) then stuck a screw in it which fits into one of the slots on the faceplate. I used to do a lot of cylindrical grinding and thats how we were able to do things that needed the ends concentric with the shaft diameter/length such as a cylindrical square.

if a hole was not allowed in the end then that is a good idea ill remember it for the next time i am doing somthing like that

[Fred P]

It worked that is what counts.
I have used a muffler clamp with a bolt sticking out of the face plate a few times.

Fred P...........

[jhe.1973]

Easy to make tool for back purging TIG welds

Hi Everyone,

At the last place I worked we fairly often had to make welds w/total penetration. Usually this was on UHV (ultra high vacuum) chamber work. Interior seams had to be avoided so as not to trap atoms that would later contaminate the UHV environment.

Here is an example of what I am talking about. This weld was done totally from the outside:



I made this tool to help w/these kind of situations:



The cup holder:



It is just a 3/8-24 socket head cap screw that I machined to give the same shape as a torch collet w/o the tungsten hole in the end. I figured this would give the same flow pattern out of the cup that the torch has. I used a stainless screw because it is not as hard to machine as a steel screw.

After drilling a blind hole from the socket end I pressed a piece of 3/16 inch tube into a hole drilled into the side & welded the hex hole shut afterwards. This unit then is a snug fit into a piece of ¼ O.D. inch tube that I can use w/magnetic base. The slight bend in the tube seems to give more flexibility w/positioning.

Here is the setup in use. I also added a valve in the hose so I can take my time to re-position the cup as needed w/o running back & forth to the flowmeter.



That’s all there is to it but it sure is handy!

[Ron of Va]

For you woodworkers, here is a router table I made about 5 yrs. ago.