*TECH* Making a good tool better...

In my opinion, a good tech project should be innovative, help improve your skills, and be WORTH DOING!
I was the proud owner of a nice little body hammer holder that I won at a tool swap on another board. It looked like this:



The only problem with it was that the hammers piled up till you couldn't find anything. SO...
I decided it needed a second level, one that would spin easily. I tried a couple of different lazy-susan bearing plates but none of them worked very well under load. a box of hammers and clamps and vicegrips is HEAVY. I decided to use a planetary gear set left over from a parts tranny I had and welded it to an axel I had laying about. If it could move a car this should be no big deal. Plus I wanted it to spin VERY easily.
I welded one part of the planetary gear to an axel I had laying about:


So far so good. If I stop here I have a great ash tray...
Lets press on. Next I fabbed up a nice hat for it out of 1/8" plate:

As you can see from the welds, I NEED the practice..LOL.
Then I welded the other part of the planetary gear to the underside:

Then I added some rods that were extras from a bucket of pegboard hooks I got a long time ago (Please do not laugh too loudly at the welds):

They tell me the best way to see if your welds work is to stress them. Well, if these welds fail I get a hammer dropped on my toe as a reminder.
Here it is with its hat on. I bolted the second deck on instead of welding
it just in case the idea didn't work. I didn't want to screw up a pretty good tool:

(sorry the picture is sideways...my camera is not good enough to get it in the other way.)
I took it outside and added a nice shiny coat of Metallic Blue paint.
I mean ya gotta have some bling, right?

Then I brought it in and loaded it up:



The most used hammers and dollies get places of honor on the front row:


The rest sit in the bleachers:

The top carousel spins with one finger. The planetary gear REALLY worked well.

The final part of the project will be to attach a mid-level holder for dollies.

My welding skills got a little better, the box of hammers is off the floor and I can FIND one now, AND BEST OF ALL THERE IS STILL SPACE FOR MORE TOOLS!!!!!

The PERFECT project!

 

I love makin' my own tools. Nice job man.

Jaysin

 

cool

 

Sweet!!

 

That is quite the collection you have there!! Nice rack!

 

Excellent tech! Thank you for posting.

 

Great idea......
So Glen when will you have mine done ?????...joe

 

I think i love this idea. my hammer and dolly drawers are a mess and this would free up not only drawer space but the visual access is really neat. nice job bird guy mind if i semi copy?

 

Cool Stuff.

 

I have heard that some people are as dumb as a box of hammers but that is the first time I have Great v& tech.

 

Wow man that's super cool. I just got a bucket buddy and thought that was the greatesst thing since sliced bread, but yours really takes the cake!

 

That is great. Mine would be a lot smaller tho, I only have one body hammer and two dollies.

 

Is that thing a little tippy or top-heavy? If you bump it with your shoulder, what happens? Not trying to be negative, I like it, just trying to be safe

 

"He who dies with the most hammers....wins! "

Good idea

 

Generally, I prefer a woman with nice rack, but yours is real nice, too. Hey! You can fix just about anything with that many hammers!

 

Geez I thought I had a lot of hammers.

 

Looks like a body man's christmas tree, nice hammers.

 

If I only had a bigger shop to have something like that.
Nice job.

 

Real cool.

 

I was concerened about stability as well (hence the bolts). It's very stable so far. All the weight is inside the spread of the legs.

 

Tools do not make the man. Therefore, the man must make the tools. Nice job, love the homebuilt stuff!

Yeah, you can probably buy a hammer rack. But you've got one just the way you want, you had the fun of making it, and you saved money to go into the projects- win-win-win.

 

so what's in the tool box? just kidding man, i love hammers.

 

Hi Glenn Good idea. I might steal the use of a tranny gear. I think your welding is getting better JinB

 

Thanks Jim!
That's high praise indeed!

 

i wish i had enough hammers to make something cool like that. i think it would be space INefficient with my 4 body hammers and 8 dollies

 

I like things that are vertical...That is a GREAT idea for limited storage areas and I just hate it when the toolbox drawers get TOO full...like mine is right now...so it looks like I have a project to do now... NICE work, Dude!

 

Looks Good, my problem is I only have one body Hammer!!

 

sooner or later I'll do something similar so i can open a drawer up in my tool box....i like the use of the transmission planetary....

 

planetary gear is a cool idea.

But, holy shit you have a lot of hammers!
Hammers are one is my most loved to use tools and I am satisfied with only a fraction of that.

 

Holy smokes! Professional grade! Thanks for the inspiration.