Technical Home made specialty tools

We all create a unique tool from time to time to solve a unique problem. I'll start with an example my father created to pull frozen slot head screws out when nothing else will do. He welded a screw driver head to a C clamp and then drilled the other end and put a bolt so he can apply pressure to the screw from both sides. I just used this tool to pull the door hinges on our 31 roadster project. He originally made this tool to take apart windshield frames but we've found several uses for it.

 

good idea !

 

Nice innovation.

 

Ha! An impact driver for a broke-*** hot rodder! Love it! It would work better than an impact driver in places where you're removing the screw from wood, which might break under the impact of a hammer blow.

I love these threads. You should search and add this tool one of the several threads dedicated to homemade tools like this.

 

I like it because the flat head screw gets messed up so easy that it forces it to stay in the screw slot. It still takes heat sometimes and a lot of cussing.

 

Here's one of my home-made specialty tools for welding up the collector end of tube headers. I never liked the way four round pipes come together because of the turbulence created in the collector and the leaks that always develop. Plus, they are so hard to fix after the collector is welded on.

So, I came up with this nifty little modified Vise-grip tool that crimps all the pipes together. Just heat the common corners of the pipes until red and clamp them. Then weld them up! Works great!

 

Nice - That's not going to leak!

 

Great ideas!!

Here's a pretty good thread going on homemade tools;
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/home-made-tools-and-equipment.235784/

 

Ingenious! But thank goodness you showed how the tool was used. Otherwise it would be one of those things that you'd stare at for hours asking yourself, "Why the hell would somebody do that to a c-clamp?"

 

You ever need a large allen style bit it may be as close as you nearest Hardware store tie nuts for allthread are extra long and allow the use of a standard socket .

 

This is my home made deburring, slag removing and polishing machine. Right now it has a mix of pea gravel and some blue stone from my driveway in it. It gives a smoother result than grinding and gets in the drill holes better than grinding. Another plus is... I can throw parts in it and have them being smoothed up while I do other things. Tonight I had some paint bubble up on some brackets. Rather than have to strip them I just thew them in the ol' tire and took them right down to bare metal again.

 

Wanted to put the rebuilt transmission back in the coupe today. No one around but the dogs and they can't lift **** so I had to innovate. Made another hand from my floor jack by welding the jack plate to an old battery box I had laying around. Placed the trans on it and rolled that ****er right up to the cross member with an couple of threaded rods to guide it in while I lined up the u-joint . Hey it worked!

 

dang dogs...hardly earn their keep

 

Sorry I don't have a pic, but I made a '32-'48 Ford ****** 'extra hand' from a 4" length of 1/2" pipe ******, with a large flat washer welded to the center of the 1/2" pipe ******. The ****** is screwed into the drain hole at the bottom of the ****** case; then sloppily slipped into the floor jack bore when its pad is removed. ****** rocks enough to align with the clutch, and this elderly gent has a better back for it!

 

I like this economical method.
Do you use water or any liquid?
Ever have any slippage between the driving rod and the tire?

 

But you can't live without them

 

For small painted parts,drop in boiling water a min or 2 then cold water.No damage to parts.

 

I just finished building my practically perfect Pontiac piston pin press---possibly patent pending.

I made an adjustable installation stop so that all of the piston pins can be installed to the same depth. The stop needs to be set before removing the piston pin, obviously. When the pin is fully inserted the stop contacts the end of the alignment arbor. Since the adjustment screw is 1/4 20 it can be adjusted plus or minus a few thousands of an inch.

The baseplate locating pins go into holes in the press apron. They keep the whole shebang from shifting around while installing or removing the piston, rod, drivers, etc.

On the second piston that I removed the pin from I discovered that if the receiver is not properly oriented with the piston it damages the oil ring grove, who knew? I put a pin in the bottom of the receiver that indexes with a slot in the baseplate. Hopefully that will keep me from dinging up any more pistons.

Since I have a tendency to lose parts between projects I made the pin press with a self storage feature. Now I can lose the whole thing at once.

Hopefully this will keep me from screwing up pistons by removing the pins with a piece of pipe, a socket and a big hammer.

 

Cool^^^^^

 

Countersink/cutter for touching up the perch bolt seats in the wishbone.

 

tool for reshaping oval'd out threaded filler neck on a model A tank

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...aped-model-a-tank-neck.1133246/#post-12871105

 

I feel useless,,,,,,

 

that tire polisher looks pretty handy may have to build one

 

Here's one I put together today.
2$ in the br*** pile at the s****yard.
No hardware store had the right size set screw to attach the cable, so I used some plumbing parts that screwed in perfectly.
Now I have a secondary ground fast-clamp for tig on small parts that can't be held in place very well.
It fits anywhere on my home made stainless perforated set-up table, also pieced together from s****yard stuff.
Maybe someday I'll take pics of my electric drill and bicycle chain powered bead roller









WHY BE ORDINARY ?

 

What the heck, I might as well take a couple pics of my modified vise grips made to hold pieces in place on the perforated table.
The 1/2 inch co**** thread bolts snag&grab inside the table holes to clamp and hold parts in position before tacking.
Also sneaking into the picture is my football-inflation-needle back-purge fitting that reaches places you can't easily purge.
The vise grips that snag the table and hold things in place are fast and easy to use and move around.

....and also shown is the heavy handy dandy br*** plate heat sink to allow me to weld thin thin .020 aluminum if I'm super extra careful
ok, any aluminum .040 and thinner isn't my favorite, but I'm getting better...





WHY BE ORDINARY ?

 

Ok,guys, here is the first of a few..
https://49fordcoupe.smugmug.com/Caddy-Crane/

 

Getting the boost valve out of a 700R4 on your back in 100 degree weather can make a grown man cry. However, if you make a small tool to compress the spring loaded valve, it will come right out! 18 gauge sheet metal, the curve is important, the nearest pan bolt used, long skinny snap ring pliers.

 

Not really a home made tool.

Just 1/2"-13 thread-all and a couple on nuts. I needed to spread a lower shock mount "just a little bit".

 

Awhile back I built a stationary bandsaw using my old Milwaukee 6230 portable.

I built the base out of 1" square tubing...……….



Then built the upper structure and mounted a 3" vise I found at a garage sale. Paid $2 for it.



Tabletop is a piece of 1/8" steel scrounged from the dumpster at work.



Mounted my 6230 and I'm done!



I've used it to cut every piece of steel on the roadster, including the 2" x 3" frame and a million other pieces of steel. This works like a charm and has for the last couple of years!