home made tools and equipment...

I have seen a few use a drill with good results.

 

One of those cheap winches they sell at HF could be modified to work quite nicely, and I think there was one earlier in this very thread.

 

i have 6 gear reduction motors i removed from power beds, i found the beds for free on craigslist, there 110 and reversible.

 

Motors and controller off of treadmills work pretty good too. (no reverse)

 

It's been a while since I posted anything on this thread so here's some of the later additions to my tool arsenal.

One more modified HF bead roller

This one has a beefed up frame and is powered with a HF 12v winch motor and chain drive. I use one of the portable battery jump start units to run it with. The advantage of using the winch motor is that you can disengage the reel from the motor (for pulling the cable out quickly) so I can run it fairly fast on the straighter sections and then stop and use a steering wheel to negotiate the sharp corners. I find that I am steadier on long straight runs if the machine is running a little faster. The foot pedal is not my picture but I copied it shamelessly.











Buffer

I an using a C4 Vette suspension in the project and I wanted to polish the aluminum components. I had an old 1 1/2 hp 3450 rpm motor from something so I went through the scrap pile and started building. I originally just had it set up to run at high speed but the first motor crapped out so I substituted a really old 1 hp 2 shaft motor I also had laying around. This gave me the option to run 2 different pulley systems so I could either run high or low speed by moving the belt from one side to the other. The 1" pillow blocks are from Northern Industrial and were a bargain at about $8 each. The shaft is a piece of 1" cold rolled with 3/4" RH and LH threads on the ends. I learned how to single point a LH thread on my lathe with this project.











Gas Cylinder Cart

I ran out of space to put my old cart that mounted the bottles side by side so I would slide it into a smaller space sideways. That meant that it was always a hassle to get it out when I needed to use it. I made a new cart with the bottled fore and aft so I can easily roll it into the same small space. The bottles are held in place with hinged brackets that swing down flat to make changing bottles easier. Turnbuckles hold them securely against the bottles in the up position.

 

Here's a great sandblaster that solves some of the issues with ordinary siphon and pressure blasters. I built it so I can cut a '68 Impala windshield glass for my MGB project. There was a guy on the internet that was selling plans for $10 but his site wasn't working so I looked at a lot of units I found through Google and figured out how it worked. The basic theory is that you use a siphon gun that you can get from Home Depot online for $9. The sand hopper is pressurized with low pressure (7-15 psi) using a regulator and that low pressure feeds the sand from the bottom of the hopper to the gun. The air to the gun is at 60-80 psi. It uses less abrasive and doesn't clog as easily.

I made the hopper from an old air tank I got from a friend. I cut off the end and welded it back on backwards so that there was a basin for filling with abrasive. At the bottom of the basin i welded in a female 2" pipe thread that takes a pipe plug, the "T" handle is square tubing for a wrench. The orange line to the gun is the high pressure air line and the black line is the low pressure sand line. Incoming air goes through a filter/regulator that separates out any moisture (very important) and drops line pressure down to the 60-80 psi working pressure. The air line to the gun tees out after this regulator. The air then goes through a second regulator that drops the pressure down to 7-15 psi to pressurize the top of the sand tank. A second low pressure line comes off after the regulator that goes to a "T" fitting on the bottom of the tank to pick up the sand and then on to the gun.

It works slick. Remember to wear a respirator because o silicosis (bad lung disease)

 

I found new surplus garage door opener motor/gearbox. Something like $20. Reversible, obviously.

 

I have a couple of of those 12 volt power wheels jeeps in my yard that my kids are growing out of. I thought about using one of them because they have forward and reverse. I live probably 20 minutes from you. If you want one of them let me know and it's yours..

 

Joarek,

Do I recognize the bottom of a ur-Quattro on your rotisserie? A very rare car here in the US.

mike

 

Neat idea. I saw his plans for sale but got a new blaster for 35 bucks at a yard sale.

Can you cut glass cleanly with that?

I remember your MG from that Hot Rod Engine Swapping Guide. I still have that book somewhere.

 

That Engine Swapping book was originally done in 1973. I was at Del Mar at the Goodguys event and saw a later edition on sale that still had the car in it. Some things never die.

Blasting is the preferred method for cutting windshield glass without cracking the glass and it makes a nice edge. You mask the edge with a rubber resist tape that headstone engravers use and blast down to the plastic on both sides then cut with a razor blade. I'll post pics when I do it.

 

Please do.

 

Heya Mike,

It´s not a ur but the quattro without the wide fenders. Even more rare than the ur-quattro

 

Hotrod7,

Thanks for the thums up on my gear driven engine stand.

I am making one for my mechanic friend who wants one that he can pull the head off of without unbolting the engine.

I just have to find the right size tubing to make it work.

When I get it done I will post it here.

He says that he sometimes likes to pull the engine off of the stand for some opperations he has to perform and then put it back without having to unbolt the head.

He can do that with his non-gear driven stands.

I will ask him what he needs to take the engines off for the next time I see him.

I'm not against Man Hugs as long as they don't last uncomfortably long.

Dick

 

Needed an adjustable wrench and a hammer but didn't want to carry two tools around all day so I just welded up the thing in my avatar!

 

Now you know your going to see that Adjustable hammer at Napa soon.
You'll be able to say,, I Invented that,, Or should I say, There go's one I built.

That would make a good tool for the "Yard box"

 

I like that... Great idea!

 

good idea for the junkyard toolbox........

 

I made one of those while in the Navy 20 years ago or so.. It worked great till the head flew off one day while banging on a shore steam hose and almost hit my Chief... Thats a whole nother story LOL

 

Hi folks, here's some humble odds 'n ends-
Made from a household scraper, flexy to help scrape off underseal etc

Small chisel made of out a hi-carbon slate roofing tool & scrap, to make a floor panel


My folder/brake (not finished)

Needed big circlip pliers, 10 mins with grinder+welder did it. Sharpened stainless bolts for the tangs

Using any old bits of tube, air fittings etc, sharpened up, to punch gaskets

We call this a 'bolster' here, a chisel for cutting bricks. Slightly dulled the edge for this-


Flaring a bit o'tube, the 'bullet' made in pillar drill+grinder

Welding studs true; drill+tap a block, screw in bolt, chop, melt-

For 1/2" square axle plugs and the like, 2 spare sockets to be welded together

Quickie tool for setting toe-in-

Adaptor for swapping valve stem seals without pulling the head, air fitting and a hollowed spark plug-

 

^^^^Outstanding, Thanks

 

awesome thread, so much stuff i will build from the ideas in here.
Now, i really wanna build myself a press for sheetmetal or steel plate bending, what kind of hydraulic cilinder you guys suggest?

 

Well I was only going to post this then wasted quarter the day reading this thread.

Saw this, thought it was simple and clever.



Original thread
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=58790

 

great idea.

 

Im stealing this idea!! Our shop is always packed and getting the cart around is a giant pain in the ass!! Im probably stealing your sandbaster idea, too!! Great stuff, I always prefer building a tool over buying one.

 

I'm glad when people use ideas that I post, it makes me feel less guilty about borrowing other peoples' creative work.

 

That bead roller on the vise is real neat. But only for small size panels...i'll try it thou.
The truck cab as a sand blastin cabinet too, now i need to find a scrapped truck!

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/album.php?albumid=25872


This is a link to the photos of my garage built belt sander.
I started with some experienced 6" channel for the main frame. the uprights are trailer hitch reciever tubing. the tensioning device is a flattie valvespring inside the maintube,riding on a piece of 3/8" rod to keep it straight. I then welded a piece of square stock in the bottom of the moving tube to stop the spring at a height that gave me light pressure at operating range. I can adjust this with washers if I require more belt tension. I drilled a 7/16" hole in the square stock for the rod to go through. The tracking adjustment is through the idler wheel, mounted on a 1936 Ford brake pivot that was mounted on the center cmbr on my 36 frame when it had mech. brakes. I bushed the pivot for 3/4" shaft which holds the idler and its controlled by a ford clutch clevis.
The idler and driver were machined by a friend at a 2 degree crown, which keeps the belt centered
The contact wheel (rubber one that you grind on) is a 6"x2"-65 duro purchased wheel. both the idler and contact wheels have sealed bearings.
The contact wheel is held off of the frame by Detroit Diesel injector rack stands, usually availble for free at rebuild shops, as they are replaced during an overhaul.
I run the belt at 4,285 feet per minute, but can adjust that with an adustable driven shieve,from 3500-4500 fpm
I had to buy the motor (baldor 1.5HP-220v-1725RPM) and the contact wheel, but the rest is stuff that I had laying around.
The stand is a Ford banjo axle housing and a truck brake drum, weighs a ton and is very stable. You can lean on it and the belt is hard to stall.
This sander works as good as any that I have used including some high end units costing 3 times as much as I spent.
P/M me for details, pulley diameter etc.

 

Awesome! Every time someone posts one of these home-built belt sanders I want one even more! Super handy! Even BETTER that it is made with various old car parts. Interesting about the idler wheel design.

 

my homemade hammer, made from a diesel wrist pin,,