home made tools and equipment...

My handmade 2''x48" vertical belt sander...

 

I started making this 40'' finger brake, but may not get finished as I have a lead on a 10' finger brake...

 

Made everything but the 2 forward coated wheels. Is you can see in the 3rd pic the pinch bolt can be loosened and the "head' can rotate 360 degrees, this allows you to have the big wheel out front, small wheel for tight areas, flat platen (as shown in pics) and reverse from the way the pics are and you can grind loose belt for deburring and such.

 

Chris, did this come from a plan or is that your own design? Looks like a very versatile tool.

 

I seen some basic pictures on a knife making website , Took those and designed my own. I use it for anything from sharpening lawn mower blades to sheet metal fab. The good thing about using the 2"x72" belt is, they have any grit known to man in that size due to that being the standard belt for custom knife makers.

 

Very cool Mike. It's taken me a while to get back to this one. I got the instructions from Lindsay Books (Link already posted by another).

Thanks.
John

 

My old vise from 4x4 tube w/ changeable jaws:

 

Now that's the poop right there!

 

anyone have any interesting home made vice accessories? or custom vice jaws? i would love to see them. I think I have seen one on here where someone had made a bead roller out of one. I have a small garage with a 19ft long chrysler in it, and I need all the "10 in 1 tool" type ideas I can get my hands on.

 

I made this ring roller in a vice. It could be an atatchment since it bolts in where the jaws were.

I also drilled and tapped some holes lower in the vice to brace things up. You can't see the drive wheel, but it's about 18 in. around and I made it in this roller

 

Nice. Do you have a few close up photos of how you put this together and what you used for the parts? Thanks.

 

I'll get some better pictures today. The bearings are old truck piolet bearings I collect at work. I had to turn the shafts in the lath to fit the bearings, and the driven wheel was turned in the lathe and has ac compressor clutch bearings inside. I like the compressor clutch bearings because they are nice and thin.

It's thrown together with what I had so it is crude.

 

Crude my ass. Looks pretty slick to me!

 

thank you.......

 

This little thing is incredibly simple, but pretty handy. It allows you to securely hold tapered stuff in your vise jaws:




Just a piece of aluminum bar stock (could easily be steel, but I didn't have a hunk this size layin' around), mill a groove lengthwise on one side (to aid in holding round stock), drill and tap thru the center for a bolt, the head of which is rounded.

The jaw liners are just aluminum plate, cut to size, placed in the vise and a hammer-bent lip shaped on them. I have another set that has some pieces of heavy rubber conveyor belt Gorilla-glued to 'em.

There ya have it.
Mike

 

Very nice! I think I will copy that one.

 

The smartest ideas are usually the simplest.

 

Anyone get that new Jawhorse? I got one for xmas. Pretty cool. I have had my gears turning on add ons I can make for our hobby, such as a fender holder jig that will sandwich in the jaws. If you havent seen the jawhorse, its pretty sweet. Sturdy as hell. Alot more stout than I thought it would be. It also closes up small and is surprisingly easy to move around. Here are some pics of it. It also has a welding attachment (pictured)

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

 

Interesting home made vice accessories?

Brake & fuel line bender,,,, You can make the nice tight bends without bitching to much. Just make sure,,, Like we all been told hundred's of times,,, To put on the fitting and flair before you bend. And you can take it with you under the car for tweaking.
The only reason I say that is I was unable to find my other bender after the flight lessons I gave it.

 

I built myself that engine stand after seeing one similar that retails for over $500, There are 2 ball bearings for ease of rotation and the stop is spring loaded, the big wheels help on almost any terrain and they all swivel for tight areas, 2 have brakes too.



But after seeing the idea of the winch I might modify it...
The other tool I made with a left over of ACME threaded rod, an old ball bearing and some over-sized scrap iron is this engine balancer, the only thing I bought for it were the 2 ACME nuts.

 

Looking at this thread has given me some good ideas and here is one that just saved me a lot of money . I think we all would like that , right ? These panel clamps at Eastwood are 25.00 for 4 plus shipping of 20.00 dollars . I will make 20 for 10.00 cost in . Scrap piece of 1X1.5x24 inches Aluminium $2.00 , ( For now I bought 12 machine screw hooks from a local hardware store and 12 wingnuts ) $8.00 I cut the aluminium into 1" blocks , drilled a 1/4" hole for the machine hook to go into , sliced the bottom of said block for the sheetmetal ( See pic) Drilled two holes in sheetmetal ( 1 for the eyebolt and one for the 3/16" throughpin ) and used a 3/16" X 1" round rod for the business end of things . This works very well and will save lots of $$$$ . Andy..

 

Ugh i'm a bit sad i'm at the end of the thread already... however i've got ideas for days now lol.

 

no pictures but since i love my welder so much and most of the time i don't have the cash to buy those fancy factory made tools i have made a few, my favorite is my tire bead breaker, it was made of an old weight set that the weights disappeared on, and a cut out of a rim for the breaker blade, it works great, the accompanying tire spoon i made out of a wood splitting wedge and a piece of iron pipe i had laying around the yard, then there's the a frame i built using 4 rail road ties and a truss made from fence poles, and other random steel pieces i had laying around, my favorite part of that thing is 2 side braces that used to be autozone shelf bars lol, I picked up a pile of those when the store i worked for updated there shelves lol. for an update on the motor puller i plan on making a powered winch using a ford flywheel, a motor from a compressor, and a drum brake from my 50, and of course a rim for the cable spool see tree huggers... I recycle lol...

 

Love it!

 

I am wondering why use the eye-bolt and 2 holes in the strap.

Why not cut the head off a bolt leaving enough thread to go through the hole for the wing nut.

Then use a thin cutoff blade or a hacksaw to cut a slot in the end where the head was cut off and weld the strap into the slot.

This could be easily done with the strap extending through the slot with a single hole through the strap in the appropriate place for the anchor pin.

I like to use the assembly line technique to make multiple things like this.

I would first drill holes at an appropriate distance apart on a long piece of square tubing, cut the slot down the length of the tubing, then cut the clamps to length.

I would then cut off the bolt heads and slot them.

I would then drill all of the holes in a long piece of strap and cut them to length.

I might even build a simple jig to hold the pieces in place for welding.

If properly proportioned and welded the pieces can not fall out of place if not a washer and wing nut will keep them together..

Dick

 

I bought 8 of those sheet metal clamps for $6 at HF. Absolutely identical to Eastwood's.

 

use pan head screws weld or solder the piece of strap into the screw slot pass through the hole drilled in the bracket and put on the washer and wing nut.drill a hole through the bottom of the strap for what ever wire you use for the cross pins under the panel.

 

As the saying goes theres more than one way to skin a cat . Both ways will work identically just my way you dont have to use a welder to get them made up . AW1950

I wish we had A harbour freight up here . Andy..

 

More pictures I promised:
Like I siad, i used bearings out of an ac compressor clutch to keep the size of the dirven wheel close to the same diameter.

The other half. Broke a tap off in the lower right hole

The bearings mark up round stock a little, but for what I use it for it works fine.

I used it when I built bucks for '36 Ford coupe rear fenders. This would qualify as a homemade tool made by a homemade tool. It is for finishing the fender opening on the '36 fenders I built.

 

Here's a couple pictures of the buck.

It was still under construction at the time.

Built 3 pairs of fenders off these bucks.