home made tools and equipment...

Heres a licence plate press die iv been working on. Cut out by hand with drill, jig saw and files. took a while but it works good.

 

Thats really cool and looks super nice I'm from just down 17 suprised we have not run into each other some where nice job Hobo Jim

 

My son needed to bend up a rollcage for his OT truck. I have a Hossfeld #2 with some dies but not the one he needed. He sprung for the correct size 1 3/4.Tube is 1 3/4 .125 wall.After anchoring it to the floor real good we gave er a try,no dice.Not enough mustard to get it done. So we decided to put some power to the thing and hopefully that wouldnt cost more than the bender.Priced out ready made units,no way. We dont do enough tube to spring for the gold.
After watching videos,blogs,etc and trying different setups,we decided on the following and it works good.
Took the handle off swing arm and bolted to mainframe. Made up 3/8 brackets and used a air assisted engine jack from HF(will pump sideways...the hand pump model will not!)On first stroke we got just under 45.Rebolted handle and made up another mounting bracket.Takes four resetups to do over 90 and is a bit time consuming,but one picture shows first bar.I can post better pictures if someone wants them.We have a little over $200 in jack,bolts and plate.No welding or torch work. Just drill press,coldsaw and bandsaw

 

Fedcospeed,
I did something like that on a bender that I made. The only difference is that I used a high lift bumper jack like the off roaders use. The air jack may have more power as the bumper jack was limited to how hard I could pull the handle.

 

I will get more pics of the other brackets posted so it all makes more sense

 

More pictures.We used the handle figuring it would save time and wouldnt bend.Worked fine.The pictures show position 2,3,4 of the other plate needed. To get it bolted up we removed the inside bolt on the handle and rotated it.The plates have a spacer inbetween to keep them from collapsing or spreading.It rides about a inch in step two till the pivot force catches up with it and pushes more squarely,if that makes sense.
While at HF I grabbed these hook and loop cable ties I saw,10". They worked slick for holding the bars to the inside of the cab and can be adjusted to the setup.Can be used over and over and work tons better than anything else like tape,string or regular cable ties that will be cut off.

 

how is this related to "homemade tools and equipment"?
Doug

 

A neat bit of history for those that know about those knives. I agree though, it's time to get back on topic before a Mod steps in and closes this thread.

 

I will try
Here's my Grandads ban saw that he made way before I was ever a thought.
That's him to the left

 

I don't see him

 

Still trying to figure out what to make from this 800# gorilla
24 inch throat 24" wheels but only 8" cut height. I've already built an E-wheel that makes this look small but what other possibilities?

Movin/on

 

Two words - louver press

Steve

 

I'm thinking he's in the avatar.

 

I was going to say, "Louver Press". Since Steve already did, I'll say, "Band Saw"

 

Home made Pulmax type recipricator.

 

how often does one need to cut 8" thick material ? Just refurbish it with a vari-speed motor

 

The saw is too small for the wood beams I have. I bought the framing from a demolished lumbermill and the beams start @ 12" X 12" and go to 12" X 18" most are 20 feet long. I end up using a chainsaw mill to cut the beams. Besides the band saw has to tall a table to be useful. Blade length is 137" so blades are all custom.
Hadn't thought about a louver press.

 

A couple of little things I made to make life easier in the shop for me. The doors & trunk lid for my '36 3W ere getting in my way and had to be moved frequently, so I decided to make a dolly to sotore them and be able to move them, as required.
I have a bunch of 1½"x1½x6' Kindorf that I picked up at an auction several years ago. I cut the Kindorf up and welded them together, the swivel caster wheels on and placed 2"x6" boards for the doors to rest on. My wife had some left over carpet remnants, which I cut and nailed to the 2"x6"s.
I had a 2" I.D. x 4' long shipping tube, which I cut into two pieces and slipped them over the Kindorf uprights, to prevent damaging the doors. I bought 6 more tubes at Staples office supplies ($10.00 total) for the rest of the uprights.
The pics below show only the doors on, as I'm working on the trunk lid, but that fits on the cart nicely.
Sorry, not as glamorous as some of the stuff presented, but it works well for me and might help out someone else.........

 

I used to work in a vending machine factory. We had dozens of carts just about like that to move & store vending machine doors in-process.

This is what I built to store, move, & work on the doors for my Plymouth.

 

A sheet metal tucking tool I made from 2 allen wrenches,the toughest material I could think of that I had on hand, welded back to back.

 

Something pretty simple.......I got an HVLP gun holder from H.F. and had to modify it to fit my gun. While I was at it, I took a 6"x6"x1" block of steel I had laying around, drilled & tapped it for two 1/4-20 screws. I glued some rubber on the bottom of it to prevent it from sliding around. I can place a gun with paint in the cup & hose attached, on the stand and it never moves a bit, yet is completely portable. Works well.

 

Hey Blue 49 I am at a loss as to how you use this tool, do you have a couple of Pic's showing what it does.

 

I had to take the gearbox apart on my bike, so I built this quickie stand out of old junk and some galvanized conduit. You can see I just mashed the ends in a vice & drilled a few holes.

 

Here's a guy using a tuck shrinker. A bit different, but the same idea.

 

I spent a little time at the shop over the weekend and made a hand held english wheel sorta thing. It will allow me to take the wheel to the panel without removing it. I machined all the end "bungs" as well as the turnbuckle. Made it out of a hunk of brass and then knurled it so that you can easily hand tighten/loosen the wheel. In the pick the one end is not yet tapped as I was waiting on a 5/16"x24 Left hand tap for the heim.

 

Here are a few other modifications I made to some of my machines and tools. First is one I posted a long time ago but now have a better pic. It is basically a pic of my chop saw mounted into my 13ft table. Stock can just lay flat on the table and be fed into the saw and cut without having to prop it up.
A pic of my HF E wheel that actually works VERY well but the reason it is in the pic is my planishing hammer I built is mounted 90* to the wheel. It can come off and be hand held as well.
Also a pic of the wheel I mounted on my Bridgeport. It allows for fine feed compared the chincy handle.
A pic of Bridgeport tooling. Simple holder made out of wood.
A pic of my lathe tooling. I used an AV cart and machined a big piece of aluminum angle. Holds all the MT3 taper tooling and then the QCTP holders simply lay up on top.---Extra credit for whoever can figure out what that "thing" is in the background that has little white wheels around all 4 "sides."
Last one is a pic of my TIG machine with a rod holder and cart made to sit right on top of the machine.

 

Jack,
The white thing looks like it might be a stock puller for light tubing ?
I notice that you added an "r" on the end of lathe.
I do that more often than not....for some odd reason, the finger jumps up to the letter "r" as if to finish the word. IDK
Incidentally, did you win big at an auction? There's quite a cluster of Albrecht chucks in that tooling rack.

 

Thing with the white wheels looks like a truck for running a camera down a pipe

 

Rich B wins the prize! That was one left over. I used to make those for a plumbing company that sold specialized cameras and other weird stuff.

Gatz, I do that all the time by adding the "r"to the word lathe....
As for the Albrecht chucks, I actually paid dearly for them on Ebay. They are worth every penny though. I have used virtually every brand chuck and Albrecht is the cat's ass. The one thing I DID win big time at an auction is the Leland Gifford drill press that the "pipe skate" is sitting on. Believe it or not that machine was $10K and it is in EXCELLENT condition. Paid $150

 

Jack,
We had one of those drill press when I was working, We just used little.
also had a big American radial drill press, that had a feed and some power. I notice the the yellow machine light. On my Bridgeport, smaller machine light I switched to LED bulbs. They don't cook you when you milling for a while.