I'm always harassing my dad because he has thousands of tools, and each one seems to have been modified for one specific purpose. There's a draw with about 50 screwdrivers in it, but I'll be damned if you can find a regular, un-modified phillips or flat head. Some have weird things welded to them, some are bent and filed in all kinds of weird ways, etc.... So, I thought it would make a cool thread to see what clever tools HAMBer's have built themselves or made by modifying common tools. Let's see whatcha got.....
post some of the screwdrivers. Im curios. I have a wrench that my ol man heated and bent to get the fuel pump off his cat motor.
I've thought of building a tool to build (Shark Tank?) thats long with a cog type thing on each end and a small chain (1/4") running around each. Your socket would go in one end (square hole in cog/gear) which would of course turn the other gear with the socket on it. Would be used for reaching into deep shallow area's.
in the 60's I worked at NAS Alameda, Engine overhaul (Aircraft) They had an air ratchet that was like a box wrench, that would fit into narrow spaces, and was set for torque. The wrench had cogs, and a finger that moved back and forth to rotate it. You turned it over to loosen. I always wished I had a set of these, I imagine they were wildly expensive.
Nothing earth shattering but I needed a tool to tighten my aluminum screw on lakes plugs with out scarring up the finish like channel locks would. So I made a socket from some exhaust tubing and rods with a cheap socket welded on top. It works great. I pull the caps as often as I can with no marks on the caps. Not very pretty but it's effective. Nobody sees it in the rumble seat floor area anyway.
No photo but when I was working on Power steering pumps and hoses on a daily basis I cut down a 1 inch combination wrench so that I had the open end half with a five inch handle and trimmed down head to fit in tight places to hold the fitting so that I could take the pressure hoses off. that one paid for it's self time and and again with saved time on hose change jobs. I think anyone who specializes on specific brands as a mechanic has a few modified tools in his collection to make certain jobs a lot easier.
i've worked at an airbase most of my adult life. building ,repairing,modifying jets and engines. our techs are some of the brightest and talented in the world. some of the special tools will boggle the mind. some guys have special tool design down to an art. one of our members here,blojectedj, does nothing but design tools. what is sad about all of this is,once a year,uncle sugar sends in an inspection team,tthe bosses panic and more tools are destryed than you could ever imagine. some would shake up the hotrod world in their usefullness. then the process starts all over again.
My Dad had a small tool that fit on a 3/8ths drive extension. When I was a youngster he asked me if I could guess its use. It was a notched holder for wing nuts. Back then radios were dealer installed and the speakers were held in place with wingnuts. The tool would cradle the wingnut while starting the threads and tightening it. I need to dig around and find that thing.
I have a "SBF oil pump shaft removal tool" it's a screw driver with a hot-glue stick on the end. SBFs like to drop the oil pump drive shaft down into the motor when you pull the distributor out. Straight hell to get it out. I warm up the tip of the hot glue stick with a lighter, and then put the warm hot glue to the top of the oil pump drive shaft until it cools. Then pull it right out. It works best of you clean the oil off the top of the drive shaft with a q-tip covered in carb cleaner or something.
When the inspection team comes, you're suppsed to HIDE the "special" tools, not destroy them. Take them off base if necessary. I'm in the process of making a screwdriver right now to reach just one screw on my car that has a fitting directly on top of it, and the right-angle screwdrivers that you can buy commercially are all still too thick.
I agree about takeing tools away for awhile instead of destroy them.Thats what the trunk is for in your car.That sounds like a comand from upper managment from a guy who has never held a wrench,or he would know better.I hope.........................YG
did i mention this is on a federal facility,with car searches..one tool in your car will get you a trip to kansas.
I don't have any pictures to show, but one of my "proudest" home built tool contraptions was a 12" large flat blade screwdriver that was strategically bent in three locations so that I could adjust my rear brakes with 3"lowering blocks. To this day people pull it out of my tool box and stare...
if your talking about my drum puller its pretty simple ....hooks on to a groove in the snout....you then hit it with the impact driver... then a hammer... then repeat havn't had one beat me yet....or need heat...threads are starting to show wear tho
I have a 14mm box end wrench with two pieces of flat steel welded up in the shape of a boomerang to make a long handle. Its for loosening the serpentine belt tension on my wife's Honda CR-V. Its otherwise too crowded between the fender and all the other crap in there to get my hands in.
Here's a tool I made to remove those heater hose nipples with the screwdriver slots on top. And one I made to remove Mopar torsion bars without scarring them up. And a tool to cut open oil filters.
The heater hose tool is ingenious, the torsion bar puller I understand (mine is two pieces of 2x4 bolted together) yours is way better. But, why would someone want to cut open a oil filter?
Working on my '57 you can tell that they didn't use sockets very often, and box end wrenches, including ratchet wrenches, wouldn't be able to turn very far if at all. I've thought something like you described would be handier than hell working on this thing.
Yep. All of my tool cribs had hidden compartments to keep the 'scrounge' and un-official/non-conforming tools out of sight. Ha. Reminds me of a TSgt Jasquez that operated the brake rebuild shop at Carswell AFB TX in 1965. We were getting ready to deploy to the 'new' war in SEA. The powers sent a Lt dumbass to do a pre-deployment inspection of the equipment. I was assigned to escort the inspector. One of the essential tools to jig up a multi-disc Bendix brake had steel fingers that were not painted, just raw steel. When new the fingers were Cad-plated but after a lot of use that got worn. The brake jig was fairly precise and a tight fit to assure proper alignment of all of the rotors on the B-52 brake as it was being assembled. Lt dumbass ask TSgt Jasquez, reading his name off the nametag on his fatigues (actually pronounced his name JAZZ-QUEZ). The Lt(idiot!) ask; "Sgt JAZZ-QUEZ, can't you paint that tool to make it look better"? Answer; pronouncing his name correctly, "It's Jasquez. Jasquez, Sir, No, the paint will just get scraped off the next time it's used, then all of the paint chips will fuck up the works, contaminate the fluid in the test bench. Lt dumbass said, "if you can't paint it, get rid of it". TSgt Jasquez, with enough years in grade to have trained a dozen such green Lt's, responded by grabbing a passing worker and said, "put that piece of shit in the dumpster, that way we won't have to rebuild any more fucking brakes, we can just send them out to depot for work!" Lt dumbass looked at me with a question on his brow, I merely shrugged. Of course had the tool actually been disposed of there is no doubt that Jasquez would have retrieved it later, but the Lt, back-pedaling, stating to "wrap it up nice and neat in plastic or something". We are surrounded by idiots.
Now I'm beginning to understand the origin of one of the famous "big lies" ... "I'm with the government and I'm here to help you"!!
MAde this just the other day. It's for getting Ford drums off. screw it on 'till it stops and whack it once. Works great. Tim
English wheel for roofs made from random junk and home made fender roller from this to this yep that goofy thing laying on the floor very handy and a real time saver Pat www.CustomRidesbuiltmine.com
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