home made tools and equipment...

I keep my paint cans in a filing cabinet. Open the drawer all the way, so you can see every can in the drawer. Even the ones in the way back. Do this with most things I have. I have over 35 filing cabinets.

 

I don’t have 35, but maybe ten! They make the best storage cabinets. Recently I scored these at a garage sale for $5 apiece, old military file cabinets. Not the prettiest, but solid. I Rearranged my shop a little and and cut up the shelf that was there and put on top of the cabinets. I, then started putting “ things” setting around the shop in the cabinets. Best thing I’ve done in years for the shop! Now I have some sort of idea where some, not all, but some things are! It’s a work in progress. I’m thinking of adding about four more.






Bones

 

I realize that we're getting away from the home made and into the repurposed world but as for filing cabinets; I have about 15 arranged (mostly) in facing rows. Three of them are the 10 drawer units that were used for file cards or something. The drawers are half as tall and twice as many. Really, really handy.

Anyway, the point here is twofold:

• placing them in facing rows makes everything easily accessible and pretty well organized. Well; except for the Model T seat, lawn chairs, poles for the volleyball net, etc.
• it made life a LOT easier when I put labels on the drawers

Sort of in the realm of home made stuff is the wheel racks I built over one or the rows of file cabinets:

 

This the “file cabinet “ I have in my attached garage!








Bones

 

My re-purposed file cabinet. The deep bottom drawer has my air and electric hand drills. Top 2 drawers have my accessories, drills, countersinks. hole saws, drill driver bits and other stuff.

Gary

 

Lots of great ideas, I have several ear-marked to build. Thank you to all.

 

this is the welding bench i built a few years ago. the top came off a ugly weld bench i bought for $50, casters from the swap meet for $40, bank teller cabinets out of the dumpster and bought new steel for the frame. I have all my grinding, welding, drilling stuff in the drawers. i built the end with a lower table for the cutting saw so the bench is level with the saw. i also bought a bunch of hitch recievers and mounted the under the top edge for various mounting points. i ran a pipe on the back side that all of my clamps hang on out of the way. i have outlets mounted at all 4 corners to power the saws and grinders.

 

Can I see a pic of the top pls? I was just getting ready to build a welding bench...thanks. Randy


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this a pic of the top when it was on the old ugly bench. i took it off and flipped it over. it doesnt look heavy but it is

 

Thank you!


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So I made this tool to ease the installation of the distributor intermediate shaft for an Early Hemi but it could be adapted to many others.

Simple piece of tubing with a machined stub welded in the end - the stub is sort of reverse collet as I called it, but better stated as an expanding mandrel. Heck maybe there's some off the shelf ones that would work also. I dunno.

I got tired of bending up coat hangers and wrestling with installing these - maybe I am just loosing patience!!!! THIS tool makes it a piece of cake - no patience required!

 

way cool

 

Here is the welding table I built (more for the wife for her metal sculpture but I get to use it too Itis 4x6, 3/8 plate and has casters on the back and a tongue jack if I want to move it. Outlets on all corners, two inch receivers on the sides for different tooling, angle to hold the grinders/etc under the table, perforated shelf under it for seldom used tools plus the dirt falls through and a home made "stinger" holder that can be moved around. Other than the top and shelf it was made from s**** we had laying around. It is used every day that we are in the shop.

 

We started with a smaller sand blast cabinet but we wanted one that was a little more robust as well as bigger, this one has a foot operated control and I added an extension so we can do bigger items, like a dashboard. We've used it enough that we have had to replace br*** fittings and hose from the abrasion of the sand as well as having cut through the perforated floor in the cabinet.

 

I like that welding table. I don't know why I didn't think if using a tongue jack like that. The perforated floor is a great idea too.
I see that you haven't solved the cord problem either. I hope someone will show a good way to do that.

 

I’ve been thinking of building an extension like that too, have some long items to do.


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You can buy rolls of lexan and mount them next to your viewing window like a sideways toilet paper roll. Then lift your gl*** and slide the lexan sheet under the gl***. When it dulls the view, simply lift the gl*** and unroll some more lexan. You can find it on Amazon.

 

You forgot to tell us about that leveling bolt on the forth leg! So that the table doesn’t rock on uneven concrete after you move it!






Bones

 

Well thought out welding table , You incorporated some very good features to make work easier and quicker! Of course you knew all that already. It's just my way of complimenting you.

 

Just turn your compressor off and bleed it down to the desired pressure before testing the gas tank.

 

Head Polishing Tool..........
When porting and polishing heads or polishing the inside of some mating part, the little Cross Buffs are kind of expensive. I made this little tool many years ago. It uses Scotchbrite pads that you can buy by the box and last a lot longer than the Crossbuffs. Buy one pack of Cross Buffs for the really small corners and use the scotchbrite for the bulk of the polishing.

 

Toolpost Grinder.......
For those of you lucky enough to have a lathe in your shop, you know that many things you do will need a shaft to fit tightly in a hole or have a slip fit.......and getting that last .001 can be frustrating.
I started using a Dremel tool and polishing till I got the fit I wanted. Works good.
I decided the Dremel was a little too light duty, so I bought a larger HF die grinder. Then I made a simple bracket out of some s**** so I can mount it to the tool post on the lathe. Now its easy to get things to fit together precisely and smoothly. Interference fits are easy too. Just turn something a few thousandths smaller than the shaft you want to press in the hole. Then use the toolpost grinder to size the hole to the undersize part and you have the correct fit for the interference part. Takes an hour or so to make this thing.

 

^ just have to be aware of causing "bell-mouth" with a flexible media

 

This is a place where a stone grinding bit will work much better, you'll just have to account for bit wear.

 

I only have three metal filing cabinets, but I use them for my power tools, such as skill saws, recip saws, grinders, and sanders. One bottom drawer is for bolts, and screws.
Bob

 

I don't know how many wrenches and drivers I have heated and bent to adapt to one job.
2 hours to make a jig for a 10 minute job is usually the case.

 

That is a neat adaptor. I don't know if I can find the one I made, but I made the front part out of maple. It was a 2" x 3" block of wood, 1 1/2 inches wide, that was drilled with a hole saw to fit the front of the 1/4 inch Craftsman die grinder. It was then sliced, and bolts threaded, so it would clamp the front of the grinder case. To stabilize the back of the motor, I used a 12" long, 1/2 x 1/2" aluminum rod, secured between the back of the grinder and the tool post. I used that stupid rig for over 20 years, until I purchased a valve grinder.
I used a couple of different die grinders over the years, but the best one, was the Craftsman, simply because it was a variable speed unit, and it was important to have that flexibility.
I did purchase a flex cable for this grinder, and was thinking of just clamping the tool holder end of the cable to the tool post, for small diameter inside grinding and finishing jobs that require that the nose of the tool be small enough to be inserted right inside the project. I have not done this yet, but it is easy to do.
If I find the adapter, I'll post a picture.
Bob

 

Having been an aircraft mechanic for the last 20 years before I retired I have a huge selection of "modified" wrenches from the simple "ground thinner to fit into tight places" to the "multiple bend kind to fit specific bolt locations that you can't find without an inspection mirror". I'm a firm believer that the engineers who design things should have to do the maintenance at least once on the parts as ***embled and then they might make access for tools part of the design.

 

I made a CNC torch machine once. It cuts mild steel from 10ga to a couple of inches. Once I had it, I started thinking of more places I could use cool brackets and stuff. I think I'm in it for $1500, all up.













It was fun to build and is fun to use. Mike

 

@AccurateMike
Outstanding!
Even greater considering the cost figure.
I've often toyed with that idea, and have done alot of ACAD to dxf drawings in the past but my knowledge about CNC steppers and drivers, or lack thereof always seemed to be the stumbling block.

I've been wanting to make a CNC cutter (either Oxyacetylene like yours or plasma) that would be used with one axis being rotary to cut the outside of a used (and purged) propane tank.

these were done by hand "the hard way"


Mind if I PM you on the details ?