home made tools and equipment...

History 101 is down the hall on the left...................

 

Lol, my auto correct on my phone made it say Uss titanic instead of SS. Lol I have just used a jack and block of wood. I like the padding around the bars..

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

 

There are some great ideas on here! MP&C-that door-hanging fixture is something else!

 

Made this today.. ever have trouble getting that clip off a Gm colume? Well with a large flat washer and 3 old bolts I made a quick little press.. worked pefect..

 

Lock plate depressor..................Good Idea!!!

 

I was in a creative mood a few days ago and I was tired of trying to use my shrinker and stretcher while c clamped to a sawhorse.

So, I had some extra material and I made a couple of stands for them out of some square tubing. They are lightweight and easily moved around, plus they take up very little room when stacked together.

Personally, I like the feel of the lever operator and I don't use mine often enough to have them taking up space all of the time. These are set up at 28" high, which is high enough to give me good leverage and it accomodates most anything I use them for.

 

I put a piece of 2"x2" angle on the bottom of my shrinker and stretcher and chuck them up in the bench vice.

 

Same idea except I have a piece of receiver tubing welded into my fabrication table so I can slide tools in and lock them in place. I also have a Beverly shear (clone), planishing hammer, vise, bead roller and probably some others I can't think of right now.

The red clamp on MIG torch holder is really handy also.

 

Here's a freebie my Nephew picked up from the car dealership he worked at......



Cutting down to size. Leaf was 2-1/2 wide, started with a length of 10-1/2....









Cut out and edges radiused/deburred:



Used a small rosebud torch to heat up and make the bends. "Pad" was bent at about 4-1/2"....



The face of the slapper was sanded progressively to smooth the surface, starting with 60 grit and finishing up with 1500 and then 3000 3M Trizact for a mirror finish.





Comparison to the Snap-on version







It has a bit more weight to go with that extra size, and the leaf spring looks beefy enough to also make some right angle dolly-spoons I've been needing. Making this one I probably have about $10 in abrasives and O/A

 

I work at a dealership, had the same idea. Somebody after I tagged them with my name took them for scrap. Next time.
Yours is awesome!

 

I've made several of these in varying shapes and weights.They are the best for doing final planishing when getting a panel straight. I use them mostly with a glancing slap to level out the last bit of unevenness, the term slapper is the best description of how they should be used.

 

Mini chopsaw made from an angle grinder.

adjustable fence made from a clutch spring, cone washer, valve cover t-bar and some angle (before cleaning up haha)

 

I bought a reman Ryobi power miter saw at Big Lots and then added a 7 inch cut off wheel from Home depot. Works great for cutting angles in metal. Just don't force it and it will make some nice cuts.

 

I love the slappers, and I have the factory leafs from my shoebox sitting in the corner. Know what I'm doing tomorrow, thanks.

 

i bought about 30 belts for $20 one day but they are all diff sizes.... the donor sander was made out of plywood that had given out causing belt tracking problemsit was made from some old kit from the 60s..i remade this with steel and it is adjustable to any size belt i can get.....i'm happy not to have to walk back n' forth to the wood sander and happy not to be shooting sparks all over the wood dust.

 

It was suggested on the recent angle grinder thread that I post this here. I'm always working in situations where I don't have the tools that I would really like to have. I occasionally go to help friends fabricate brackets and such for their cars and they never have anything to work with. The one thing they usually have is a vice so I threw this "low-no-tech rig" together to help me dress up rough cut parts.



I used a ten dollar HF grinder and fashioned brackets that are bolted in the holes that the grinder handles fit into.





I added a cross brace and a piece of 1/8" plate for a rest.



Just loosen the 2 bolts and the rest pivots so that the flap disc can be changed.



It's convenient for me since I can throw it under my work bench when not needed and just clamp it in my vise when I need it.







Not pretty, but it has been handy.

I know that HF tools are frowned on, but I have 3-4 of the cheap grinders and I haven't been able to kill any of them. I figure they're cheap enough to just throw them away when they finally give up.


Drew

 

Great idea ^^^^^^

 

Like your bench I mean vice grinder!! Way cool, I know you mentioned Harbor frieght some time they have tools that work and some not to Great. I must say I bought a Welding Helmet the other day and for 35 skins it is a good deal..It works great!!

Keep up the good work on the fabbing pretty sweet step side ford F-100..You really have the skills man..

 

Hay Drewski,,, Looking back on your post it appears you have an interesting mobile grinding stand?
Any info on that and what your using for casters?

 

great idea Drewski!!! its now on my to do list!!!

 

great idea.....thanks

 

Can you give some more details how you built this?

 

i'd be happy to, i watched the classifieds locally for a sander that was cheap enough to make it worth the time. I found one that had been built very well out of plywood in the 60s but had tracking problems because the plywood frame had given out. I took the good bits and mounted them on a piece of 6" channel about 6 feet long. permanently mounted the adjustable tracking end and made the drive end adjustable because i have 5 different size belts.

look for any wood belt sander 3" , 4"or 6" and adapt away.

after looking at the adjustable end and how it was built i could easily reproduce it with common shaped channel and some rod.....give me till the w/e and i'll post some close ups. the tracking adjuster could be used to build a band saw as well. the drive end is as simple as you can make it.....mine spins at 1725 rpm and has 1:1 pulleys.

 

I'm not really sure what you were referring to. I have to assume it's my roll-a-round work bench. If so, it's an old Air Force vacuum that I re-purposed by gutting the mechanicals and welding on a metal top. I keep my grinder hanging on it and a vise bolted on along with my redneck metal break. The casters that are on it are the originals that were on the military vacuum.








One of these days it may get a paint job.

Thanks to all who made the positive comments on my modified grinder. I'm glad that I was able to contribute something that others may find useful. I really enjoy threads like this where people have done some extraordinary things with everyday items that we have laying around our shops.

Drew

 

That angle grinder mod it really neat.

 

This is one I did years ago and I host 2 metal shaping events a year and the newbies always go home and order one .

It is a Harbor Freight shear and works quite well for the price .




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jsRSS234eA

 

Cool but where's your safety glasses?

 

I'm always amused by Harbor Freight Tools instruction sheets.

Even the most innocuous tool instruction sheet advises you to wear safety classes.

It's as though they think that you are going to poke your eye out with a bag of shop towels.

However with the number of Attorneys ready to sue for damages I understand their concern.

Dick

 

Same with MSDS, Material Safety Data Sheets. I got a small bottle of printer cleaner, maybe 3oz. The packaging was 10 times bigger than necessary to accommodate the MSDS.

 

Now that's the Kitty's But,,,, Dam near stick a welder under there.
Way COOL !!