I have a tool that is basically the same that I built to fold the edge under on stock car wheel openings, but I never thought of using it on smaller holes. Nice tech!!
Kevin ,Ive seen these before ,I hear they do a real nice job.that sort of gear is hard to get over here, unless you bring it in urself.
Yeah, but any combination of beat-to-hell drill press, poor quality drill chuck, poor quality hole saw, or thin sheet metal can make things more challenging. I sometimes don't have control over enough of those factors to ensure it'll work properly. I also do a lot of work on sheet aluminum. There usually isn't enough material bearing on a pilot drill to ensure everything stays aligned. I usually need to have some thicker backing material or other tricks - like the plywood pucks. I like the look of the flared holes on your ride. Brian
Its the simple things in life ..... like making 25 cent homemade tools..... really sets our hobby apart. great job
Recently someone told me to drill my pilot hole, then replace the drill bit with some 1/4" rod to prevent "walking" It worked for me !!
This is the only way to use a hole saw in sheet metal. No mucking about with backer blocks or using mills. Just drill the 1/4" pilot and stick a piece of 1/4" rod (cold rolled or drill rod works best as it varies in size less then hot rolled) in the hole saw arbor and no more wandering. If you can get to both sides of the material cut halfway through from both sides and you will have much less burr left around the hole. Jaysin P.S. Super great post about the flaring by hand. There have been many occasions that I have wanted to flare an odd sized hole and this is easier then my way. Thanx
I've used this method to flare oval and other not round shapes where a dimple die won't work. nice job.
How thick of materiel have you used this on? I can see it being limited to sheetmetal or slightly thicker. Cool tech. Frank
After spending my lunch reading the build of the roadster pickup by Kuztom and his son, Hot Rod Kid, they get my vote as Tech week winners. Too many cool ideas. Check out what they do with the steel toe inserts from workboots, and the bicycle fork light bar. Brilliant!
Thanks very much for taking the time to have a look, & the kind words. I suppose we could throw the above idea's into this Tech Week Thread also....... We had some steel toe caps from work boots given to us ,so we used them for mounting the 39 Chev tail lights....
With the Head Lights, which are from an old Railway Jigger, we used a combination of old 1940's Bicycle componets, seat & handle bar stems, plus forks, once fitted ,we had a clearance issue,so the trusty steel to caps came in use,to raise things up a tad.... As you can see ,its all very simple stuff, This whole build was about using stuff in the shed, giving every thing a go ,and having heaps of fun !
Frank Hi, I have use it on various sheetmetals, the challenge is on thicker stuff, the tool tends to open up a tad in the 'jaw', but really its for doing just simple flares in light to medium grade sheet. Steve
All by hand , had to shorten them first, then just tapped away with a ball pein hammer , easy as ,just takes time.....
Clive , cheers , get some holes in that LINC ! Big Jon , thanks for that ,Bill is a bit pissed at the moment ,he's 14 , now they talking about putting up the driving age ........
Im working on another part, once I get it done,I will post up the pic's.... Please check back later Steve
Meh, I'd rather go to the hardware store and buy a big packet of pre-flared holes and pre-made lips...
I had to do a double take on the headlight supports/bike handlebar stems, on first glance they looked like something you'd see on a vintage aircraft... Well done!
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