home made tools and equipment...

Made this when I was doing 671 Blower motors....makes it easy to lift off or install the blower
while in the car. Adjustable for length, width and different brands / sizes of blowers.
Saved my back many times....

 

Wish I needed that spreader tool above. Sadly, no blowers in the outlook.

 

On spot welds, I started out using the mini belt grinder on the advice of a youtube body shop guy, but got tired of replacing belts and making a mess. Then I went to the spot weld cutter on the next car center punching all the welds which was way better. My current method is to just drill clear through both panels and I have had no problem with panels still being useable since I’m quick at plugging the holes with my welder and homemade copper backer tool. Someone tell me how I’m wrong with this. I have no problem trying a better way if someone can explain it.

 

^^^ that's the way I do it too^^^

Except at work I use a plasma cutter, at home a drill bit. Same with the hole, I need a hole to spot weld the new panels on with.

Good thing is all the new spot welds are in the exact same spot and number count as the original panels !!..


.

 

I have used all of the mentioned methods on spot welds, and if drilling completely through will work, it is definitely the cleanest, fastest way. 40 years ago, we even tried grinding through the outer panel with a 3" cutoff wheel, talk about a noisy mess! I personally never liked the plasma cutter, for various reasons, but if it works well then why not? Experimentation is always good, especially when it proves there is a better way.

 

Tool for checking Block Deck Height (and Bellhousing Concentricity)

When building an engine, we can either assume the block we are using has never been decked or we can measure it. I know there are specialty tools for checking the deck height, but I decided to make my own.
I had some aluminum tubing, so I made a ring to put on it (press fit/shrink) so it would protrude up into the cylinder a ways. My original idea was to make another tube with a flat top and bottom that I would insert into the cylinder. Kinda like a piston and rod replacement. Just slip it in the cylinder till it settled against the ring. Then measure from the deck to the top of the tube. (maybe an inch down in the cylinder)........but as luck would have it, I found a smokin deal on some WIDE base depth mics 9" long. $50......
So I bought those and like them much better.

Anyway, I turned the aluminum tube and the ring in my lathe so all would be concentric. I only turned the tube a short distance and to the same diameter as the main bearing support (with no bearing installed). The ring was turned to a known (4.500 diameter/2.250 radius for centerline)diameter. Simply place the tube in the main saddles and snug the main cap bolts. Then Mic down to the ring and you know the exact deck height.
Switch it to opposite end of the engine and mic those two cylinders.

Then the idea came to me that while doing this I could also check the concentricity of the bell housing I will be using and make those changes easily before installing the engine. So I added a couple of old bearings I had in a drawer and made a shaft that slips snugly into them. The shaft is hollow and allows an adapter to fit in it that will hold a dial indicator and can be adjusted to the length needed to fit the housing .

While it takes a little time and effort to make one, it allows for measuring before and after machining the block and getting deck height and quench set correctly. Most people just assume that they have a certain compression ratio because the piston manufacturer said thats what it would be......but different deck heights, different gasket thickness, and piston dishes or valve reliefs can have a significant effect on what you really end up with. I'll also include a picture of an inexpensive calculator some of you might be interested in that makes calculating CR easy........as well as a lot of other things. You can quickly see what small changes in combustion chamber volume will have on your final CR. Its REALLY SIMPLE to use. You can calculate your CR in about 2 minutes with a few simple entries. Then push the CR button. Then if you want to see what adding/subtracting some combustion chamber CCs will do........you only have to change the CC info and push the CR button again. So you can quickly and easily see what effect changes make. Bout $40








Put the Diameter of your Bore in..............then press BORE
Put the Length of your Stroke in...............then press Stroke
Put the Diameter of bore in the head gasket..........Then press Conv then Bore
Put the Compressed Thickness of your Head Gasket.........(.039 ?).....Then press Conv then Stroke
Put the CCs of the head you are using............Then press Conv then HP
Now push the CR button and you have your Compression ratio.

If you change the CCs, you don't have to change any entry but the CCs as it keeps the other info.

Now that example is for a flat top piston with a zero deck height. If your piston sets below the deck or has a dish in it, then you have to add that amount of CCs to the heads CCs so you have the total CCs of the combustion chamber. Again, pretty easy to do.

Here is an example from the instruction book.


Notice that a simple change in head gasket thickness of .015 made almost 1/2 a point difference in the compression ratio. So if you don't allow for the CCs of being below the deck, having a dish or a domed piston, you won't know for sure what you have.

Notice also that it calculates tire size and gear ratio vs speed.

 

Every now and then somebody screws up and writes instructions that even I can follow.
If you had a dished piston with would you enter it as a negative dome?

 

Tool for recutting domes in Ford Flathead heads

Made this from an old lug nut and a piece of a file. Needed to recut domes for piston clearance after milling the
heads.

 

Nothing Earth shattering here, but I needed an oil pump priming tool that would work on a 500 Cadillac. So, an old HF regular screwdriver got its handle cut off, and a 5/8 socket that was made overseas were welded together. Worked fine.

 

My homemade welding cart made from a used painters cart covered in 1/2" of paint.

After several hours of stripping and getting the paint off I cut some bed frames up and reinforced the upper shelf. You can see the bed frame angle iron turned upside down and welded to the shelf and legs.

Cut and notched the upper shelf to allow the two bottles to tuck in nice and tight. Again a bed frame brace to hold and lock the bottles into place.

Cut a couple u-clamps cut in half and welded to the legs to wrap the welding cables around. I then cut a 1/2" plywood and angled it for the mig and tig to set on.

A couple pieces of 1/4" rod to build a couple "pockets" on the bottom shelf with chains to hold stuff in, 1 on each side of the bottles to store the welding rods, a round tube on the side to hold the tig rods. I even put a 1/8" plate under the bottles and mounted the wheels too to support their weight.

Luv it and it's nice to have the welding stuff in one spot.

 

Actually, I have a piston that has large valve reliefs and I wanted to know exactly how much the volume was different from a flattop piston. I'm doing some juggling with two different Cadillac heads (76 cc/120cc). I'm trying to see that CRs are "as advertised" and if machining the deck and/or the head what ratios I can achieve. I have a couple of junk heads that I may machine to different depths to see how much the combustion chamber changes. I'm going to build 2 engines and have a blower for one of them......so I'm trying to be as precise as possible. The calculator makes computing very easy once you know how many CCs you need to change. I think the basic idea though is without doing any physical machining, you can just make changes to the number for Combustion Chamber volume and see how many CCs need to be added or taken away to get a certain ratio. In other words..........If the Heads Volume is say 76 ccs. And the Gasket volume is 5 ccs and the engine is zero deck, then you just put in 81CCs. If there is a dish in the piston that is 20CCs, then add that to the 81 CCs for 101 CCs. Thats the total amount of CCs above the piston.
If you have a flat top piston, and your compression is going to be higher than you want, then just insert a number of CCs (your choice)added to the existing volume of the Combustion Chamber (76+5) 81 and hit CR and you can see how much you need to remove from the piston top or add via a thicker head gasket to increase the volume and get the Compression Ratio you want. (Hope I explained that OK)

 

I’ve been puttering around with ways to make a bead on 3/8” tubing to replace the gas line on my 37. The best tool for the job is really expensive, so trying for a less expensive alternative.



These are the WWII vintage aircraft tubing beaders from Graham (Parker).

https://www.kitplanes.com/to-bead-or-not-to-bead/

$500+, if you can find a set. They’re back in production, but that hasn’t made them less expensive. So, trying other methods that are more garage budget friendly.

First was modified dikes.



This made a large bead, but it’s kinda bumpy and rough.



Probably this would work ok, but I’m not happy with it.

Next, this mini bead tool from Earls.



A nicer looking bead, but not very big.



Thinking that the balls pushing out the bead are also pushing out the tube around it, I ground a channel in a split collar.



Best result so far. A bit larger and better defined bead.



Still not really happy, so I bought a $7 HF tubing cutter



and used some scraps of steel, source unknown. I had some small pieces of 1/4” plate and a length of 1/4” rod.

Using this for inspiration



but not having a lathe, I welded a bead on the 1/4” rod, then shaped it down to fit inside the 3/8” tube, with the sort of profile I wanted on it. Air cutoff wheel, air belt file, and a few files and sandpaper were used.

Once it looked like it would work, I cut the 1/4” plate and drilled some holes in it. Welded the Rod to the plate, and shaped the resulting assembly on the belt grinder. The result



The HF tubing cutter was modified to bolt the anvil in place of the cutting wheel.



The inspiration picture only shows one screw. I tried that first, and found the anvil moved around too easily. The second screw was added, along with a cut down aluminum spacer, to eliminate any movement of the anvil.

Put a test bead on a tube



It‘s about 0.04” high, which is about (mil spec) what I was aiming for. So, I think I‘m happy and calling this a success. I’ll probably hit it with some paint later.

$7 is much better than $500+ when I’ll probably only ever make four or six of these beads, ever.

 

Wow David!
You're my hero.
What an ingenious solution to the problem. You could probably sell them and retire.

 

That is a great idea - thanks for sharing.

 

Oh man! I love it! Great innovation. Been trying to figure out something like this forever, good job!

 

Now that is thinking out of the box. What a great solution, and yes you should patent it.

 

I just solder a wire ring on tubing. Quick and pretty much free.

 

You can also just use a flaring tool. Put the line in it, use the first die and crush till you get the bead you like. Fast, easy, cheap.

 

I’ve seen that. Also bubble flares. Didn’t like either one, wanted a proper bead on the line.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Sorry to disagree but I dont see a big difference between mine and a factory fuel filter or line bead. Should we tell Ford this is not " proper "

 

I do this also. The thing I like about it is there is no sharp edge to rub on the inside of the rubber line.

 

I think David did a great job solving a problem by using some ingenuity and some cheap items. Nothing wrong with wanting something to be a certain way and keeping at it until its that way. There is a small tubing bead roll that can be purchased if someone doesn't want to make one. Also, there are some tubing flaring sets that make the "push on" type of "bead?" for late model fuel injection fittings. They can make a decent bead if you don't form them all the way.



Didn't have a good picture of the bead formed for a late model injector line, but here is one with some piece I scrounged from a junk car. If you look at the silver/shiny ring encapsulated in the black plastic on the left, you can see the factory bead. If anyone has a flaring tool set with that bead attachment, they can just not push the tube all the way and the ring will be less pronounced.
Anyway, Kudos to David for using the ole noggin to get the job done.

 

A friend of mine has that aviation set of bead formers, but he is some distance away, so I came up with my own way. The die I made has a flat bottom hole the size of the tubing I'm using and a chamfer about the same size as the one on my Lisle flaring tool clamp. The other side has a large countersink for the taper of the flaring tool. I the tube up with about a 1/16" gap between the tube clamp and the adapter and run it down with the flaring tool. I clean up the clamp marks with a wire wheel and it works good.

Gary

 

For bigger tubes, like this radiator hose splice, I made some dies welded to a pair of locking pliers. Mark the tube with a guide line and set the pliers to dimple the tube just a bit. Go round and round adjusting the pliers tighter each round until you get the ridge you want. This is a piece of chromed brass sink drain pipe but I've also done beads on steel exhaust tubing with it. Really gives your hand a workout.

Gary

 

An engine tilter I made from a trailer tongue jack. Not as much travel as the store bought ones, but it works fine.

Gary

 

I have to many funnels, no easy way to store them.

 

Hello,

Back in our old, single story, tract home days, we had a kitchen with all old stuff in place. The house was built in 1963 and it must have gone through many changes until we bought it. A range hood that hit my head every time I was cooking in place. Cabinets that looked like someone took a chisel and made marks on the surface area of each door. The best thing was the interior walls that were covered with clear cedar planks, in a ship lap version. It made the inside look like a nice cabin in the woods.

So, we had saved some money and my wife designed what she thought was going to be a great looking kitchen. We consulted with a designer and we were off and running. The make over was a little over our budget as the old saying… “Yes, that extra switch is good in that location…” “The counter could be a little larger and curved in this area to give the flow a nice smooth corner,” etc… then the running tab started rising.

We ended up extremely happy with the total remodel of this old 1963 single story structure. Now the kitchen was brand new and my wife was an extremely happy camper/cook/wifey!

Jnaki

At the time, I was doing some electrical work using soldering guns and my workbench. Originally, I used a metal slab to use on the wooden surface. It was protecting the wood and gave me a place to put stuff together. But the metal rusted and I did not want to coat it with anything. So, in looking around the garage scrap pile, I found a large piece of white Corian that came from the kitchen counter.

Corian was just starting and provided a clean hard surface for kitchen use. I shaped the edges, made it a size that could be placed anywhere on the counter and even back in the kitchen for small assembly work that we did not want to do on the new counter. (Wife’s demands…)

A Corian countertop was the newest thing on the market, better than tile and grout or any other more expensive single slab counter material. So, for the next several house moves, the little counter slab moved along with me/us. When I needed to use my small hand saw and did not want to damage the latest garage counter, I use the hard Corian slab. The soft protective pads on the bottom provided a secure base and protection for any counter work.


The size of the custom old Corian work surface was perfect versus a commercial cutting board. After the knife cuts scratched the commercial cutting board, we relegated it to the garage work pad surface duties. Not for sawing, but for soldering and drilling with a block of wood for support. The drills will go through the commercial board easily. It takes plenty of force to get the drill through the Corian. So, care is taken when using the orange board.

With all of the knife cuts on the commercial cutting board, it saw its days in the kitchen. All of the bad stuff from those cuts were sanded off and now was an additional board for garage work. If you don't have a smooth work surface, use your kitchen cutting board and sand it clean, without any scratches. It will at least protect your current counter top.

A smooth new cutting board without scratches always is preferrable in the kitchen. We also have a glass cutting board that does not get scratches, cleans easily with soap/water and alcohol. But, that one is not for hard hits with a hammer or drilling.

The 37 year old Corian counter workspace board still does its duties for assembly, light drilling, shaping small parts like Hot Wheels little car body work and the most important part: It saves the pristine counter top of the remodeled garage from scratches, dents and accidental drilling holes or scrapes. YRMV

 

My quickie rotisserie , two engine stands, 1 pc 1.5" sq. tube and misc. scrap. Works well so far. It will only be used to prep and paint the hiboy frame.

 

A damaged F3 Ford rear made into a bench grinder stand. Bench grinder was sourced at a yard sale. Wrapped the wood base in sheet metal and wiped the spindle off axle end. Nice and stable.

 

I can't take credit for this, but read it here on a "welding" thread. Someone mentioned about welding when you have a bright light behind you and it reflects off the inside of the visor, (giving poor vision through the lens) and covering the back of the helmet with a dark cloth. Next time I welded, I had this very problem, so I thought I would try it, and I had a small shop hand towel handy, so I just hung it over the back of the helmet, blocking out any light coming in from the back. The difference was amazing, much better than using the helmet-mounted LED light I had installed on my helmet. One of those black disposable shopping bags and a couple of bulldog clips gets used now, but maybe a piece of woolen blanket or thick cotton may be better, in case a spark gets caught in there and it catches fire!