Tech Month~~Home made metal shaping tools

Ok cool so different sizes will work but the bigger the better. I'll use the stump i have and make the biggest dish i can without sacrificing the stumps strength on the edges. No point wasting a the good stump i have just because its a little small.

 

what a great post this is!! This is what its all about!!
Jimv

 

jhnarial,

Is there a reason to place the dish off center in the stump?

 

it might be off center to give you a flat spot for hammering?

 

Metalman

If you can't find a hardwood stump you can make one out of hardwood pieces and glue them together.That is what I used at first,it worked real good except I didn't leave enough material around the perimeter and It started to chip on me.





5150 merc

I had two bat hammers but gave them both to friends after I bought my shaping hammer.I did drive a wedge at the top.I made mine the same way Tim described.

Docco

Just make sure there is enough meat left on the stump so it doesn't crack like the one I just showed did.

Mac the yankee

I placed the dish off center for two reasons,you want it close to the edge so you can get your fingers out from underneath your panel your shrinking.I also had planed on putting some different size dishes on the stump.Not sure if I will now I love having the flat surface for beating on.

Tim if this tach cup would work for you,you can have it.Me and Bill were just drinking some beer and messing around.Plus I wanted to help Ranunculous.

 

Here are some homemade tools for metalshaping.
The E wheel is basically 3/16 steel welded in a box section with the lower anvil holder made from a semi driveshaft spline and yoke. A planishing hammer and other tools bolt to flanges welded to the sides to save space. Other tools include various hammers and a double ended shrinker/ planishing hammer.
deChrome

 

more info and more pics on the double ended shrinker/ planishing hammer please

thanks

Beaulieu

 

I want to know more too.

 

Thanks for all the help, i'll post pics when its finished.

 

Heres the block of wood i have with a 6inch circle scribed into it. I'll let it dry for a couple of days before i cut it out.

 

Dechrome,

Paul, I thought that was you! The tool pics prove it! Nice work on the Ford shown in the sheetmetal shaping thread.....but for some reason i thought you were working on a Merc. I must be getting old.............

Johnny, here's a guy who thinks outside the box and sees tools in the most unusual places! i never would have thought of using slip yokes and output shafts that way, and I'm a fairly creative dude!

Tim D.

 

Johnny I missed this thread. Here is a picture of the tank I used for a stump.

The tanks sit in dirt and water. Over the years they get rough and pitted. I chucked mine up in the lathe and ground and sanded a long time to get it this good (it could be better).

Anouther low buck tool you can get are these weld on pipe caps.

They come in many sizes.
This is a model a axle I used to test a dropping fixture. I have it done now and am waiting on lower wheels. I ended up boxing most of it in because it was to flimsy. Here is a teaser.... I'll try to get a camera to the shop this week for a updated picture.

Jeff

 

SWEET! Ya need to do that with a Peterbilt axle! I was considering making a planishing hammer out of a '53 F-100 axle..................I still have that axle, hmmmmmmm.

Tim D.

 

Dechrome, I would love to see more of that double ended power thing hammer shrinker or whatever it is. I think I need one of those.

 

Took alot of time with the rosebud. Lots of flex, I didn't think it would be bad but it was. I boxed the back half up to the kick in the axle with 1/4" plate. I have a set of 1X3 wheels coming from Hoosier for it. I needed a wheel with more clearance and narrow wheels.

I could have pulled the axle out of my Anglia. It would be an English Ford wheel then

 

Head up 44 past Cuba to the La Jara / Regina area for hardwoods. Juniper, cedar, old growth spruce. You just need a chainsaw & some owners permission (bring a beer or two and a good attitude). Might be something in a woodpile pre-aged for you - print out a picture or two of what you want. Nice folks up that way, or used to be.

 

For those that want more picts. of the double ended shrinker,here are what I have.
The major parts are slip joints, with the motor driving thtough a 5 to one reducer.
It is a little slow for pro but ok for my use.
the thumbnail shrinking dies are not for this machine but illustrate the shape required.
deChrome

 

While I am on a roll, here are pictures of a slip roll ane a tinker tool used for contour templates. Also a shot of the Ewheel graduated dial for repeat adjustments.

 

I don't have any pics, but I've made pretty good use of pine blocks from left-over pinewood derby cars for bumping things back into shape--oil pans, valve covers, etc. I use them in conjunction with my shot bag.
Hardwood is usually used for metal shaping, but the pine is sacrificial, and it absorbs more. Seems to work out the dents pretty well.
Shapes easy on the disc grinder/belt sander too.
Any chunk of lumber will work--handy for when you need a particular shape or need it to fit a particular area.

-Brad

 

O K ,dechrome,......You've done it!!!! Gonna' need a closer pic of the shrinker/stretcher doodad, specifically where the shafts, and I am guessing, the eccentrics, are all located.........Gotta see how that all came together, and what was used, If You please......

 

Paul;
I thought that was your stuff. I am really impressed. We've talked about this before, but I would like to set up a small tour of your place some time this winter. Probably 4 to 6 guys. I love homebuilt stuff and different ways people do things. I still have your card and I will call you in a few days.
Steve Hardin

 

Simply awesome, love all the info! Now just gotta get some bats and a hardwood stump. Thanks for the inspiration!

 

Stealthcruser,
The eccentric is 3/4 in dia turned 1/8 in offset on a 1 in shaft and a 1/2 in dia turned on the end of the shaft for an outboard bushing. An olite bushing is slipped onto the eccentric to give a floating bearing for the splined U joint yoke with the ears cut off.
The stroke is only 1/4 in and there is no return spring so no eccentric contact until metal is inserted in gap.
The lower tool holder has an adjustment screw from below.
I hope this is clear enough.

deChrome

 

Thanks, Bro....Thats pretty damn clear, now I have to sit down and draw
it!!!!!! Thanks for the info!!! You did say the u-joints/ slip joint thingys are all big rig castoffs, correct?

 

Found my pics, finally!

First 3 are my little reciprocating machine - some call it a power hammer, but it's not.




Here's the homemade thumbnail dies that go with the above machine. 5/8" bolt shanks and some 3/4"x2" 4140 bar stock:



Slappers anyone? The first 2 are wood slappers made from pallet pieces, third in line is a pair of steel slappers made from a C-10 spring:



Need to put a flange on a part? Here's one of my favorite tools for the job. Been using this one since '04. Just a chunk of 1/2" square steel with a groove cut with a cutoff wheel. Mark your line, then start pulling it up, a little at a time. Finish it up with a hammer and dolly.


The pipe tee hammer I mentioned in a previous post. It's as simple as it looks. I drilled a hole in the top of the tee and ran a drywall screw down into the handle....just in case.


Cheap and easy planishing hammer. This one is just a little guy made for an experiment.


My cheap and easy e-wheel........well, it was cheap. The majority of the frame is 1"x3"x16ga tube, laminated into a 3x5" tube. The balance of the tubing is 3" square.


Finally, one of my beater bag stands along with homemade beater bags. Sold this one not long after the pic was taken. My current one has a hammer hanger on the center tube. Discarded disc blades, 2" pipe couplers and a section of 2" pipe makes the basic stand. The "post dolly" arm is 1 1/2" tube.


Tim D.

 

I have used a bat on a car before but not like this....great info....

 

You should post a thread on building one of these tools, nice.

 

Thanks for sharing your homemade tools ideas!

I think it is about time I start thinking about a reciprocating machine.I might have a few questions for you Tim when I do.My to do list is getting pretty long so it might be awhile.


Hotrod 33

I guess that would still be considered a form of metal-shaping.


Anybody else have some homemade tools to share?I can always add a new tool to my to do list.

 

Thanks! After I get a new camera (mine died last night during the photography of my billet bezels), maybe I can do a quasi-tech piece. Quasi-tech as in I'll do up some drawings and tear mine down to explain it a little better. I ain't building another one of those right now, even though I do have a good sized piece of 3/4" plate

I'll look through my pics and see if I have any good stuff from the first one I built. It wasn't as pretty, but it worked. That one was all tube with no special parts at all.

People have asked, no, I don't have any plans for either design, they were both seat of the pants engineering and made with what I had one hand and could scrounge....well, I had to buy the pulleys on the yellow one. The first had a 1/3hp furnace blower motor on it. The yellow has a 1hp motor on it. the first one had a tube-in-tube slide design with UHMW sliders added in. The yellow one uses a tool slide to guide the ram.

Here's the first one:


Here's the business end. I used a similar design on both machines, but made different ways.


The first one had a variety of eccentric designs. In its first incarnation, it was built with nothing but a drill press, a chop saw and a welder. Ok, there was some grinding too. The first design eccentric was a cut off piece of shaft with an off-center hole drilled in it and a threaded hole drilled in the end of the shaft. The next couple of variants are harder to explain - especially without pics, so I won't even try.

The eccentric on the yellow machine was made by sticking a piece of scrap steel on one jaw of the 3-jaw chuck and turning the 1-inch shaft down to fit inside the bearing. The stroke comes out to around 3/16".

Both designs use a yoke over the bearing to lift it back up. Easier than a connecting rod. Might not be as good, but it's been working for me since '05.

That's it in a nutshell.

Johnny, fire away with the questions.....I'm a virtual fountain of useless information

Tim D.

 

I've got one of these too, but rather than marking the line on your piece and inserting the tool up to it, and having to keep running that same line, I put a couple slits in the tool and marked them with number stamps-- One is 1/4-inch, one is 3/8-inch, and on the other end of the same tool is a 1/2-inch slit. That way you decide how wide of a flange you need and just bottom the tool onto the work piece.
The one I have right now is made of 1/4-inch stock--being thin, it allows me to bend a flange around a bend. For instance, if you take a rounded edge and want a flange on it, the thin tool will make the radius. Work slow and "walk" it around, and you can work the metal that would normally need to be shrunk.

-Brad