home made tools and equipment...

Hi all! I have spent the last day or so looking at this thread...........so much good reading.

I saw a couple of roll formers here and it reminded me of one I made a few years back to make some curved panels.

This is my version, made from a length (about 30") of 3" pipe, the follower (former) is 1" pipe. It was made with a detachable end so you could remove a cylinder without uncoiling it. To use, it was just clamped in a vise, the work was clamped to the 3" pipe, and that worked out very well. A longer loose handle slips over that stub, makes it much easier to store. You can see it hasn't been used recently and was never painted, unlike most of the things I make for my shop.


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I am a big recycler and am always on the lookout for material that can be reused (and free). A small welding table was put together from coin-op washer meter boxes. When it is not enough, there is a 29" "wheel" that can be rolled out. Both the barrel and that wheel came free.


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Here's my take on a tool cart. I got the service cart at a rummage sale, the file cabinet I've had forever. The drawer is made from a Milwaukee circular saw case. The center casters are stationary and the outer ones swivel. This allows it to be spun around 360 degrees while sitting in place. I have less than $30 into it.

 

I love this thread. The tool cart reminded me of the pit cart I made a while back out of extra tool boxes, vice, card file cabinet, etc. The tool boxes were "extra" because when a friend's dad died, I helped her sell as many of his tools as I could, then I bought the rest to help her out. I've still got a bunch of wrenches with "Nate" etched on them.

I got the basic idea from somewhere on the Net and adapted the design to what I had on hand. When I went to a track that didn't allow trailers in the pits, it was easy to just roll this out along with a few parts boxes and spare tires. Even with the trailer in the pits, I'd roll this to the back of the enclosed trailer and didn't have to run back and forth so much. (Especially on those nights when I had to rebuild the car just to get it back inside the trailer. )

I sold it after I quit racing and sold the car and trailer so I wouldn't be tempted again.



I made the steering with leftover heim joints from crashed swedge tubes, spindles from bolts and tubing and stuff I had laying around. A little crude but it worked great.



I carried a nitrogen bottle on the end for airing up tires and running air tools. The top box latched but the drawers on the bottom didn't, so I had to make a stop for them. Before that, all the drawers would open in transit.

 

With over a 1000 posts I'm sure of the DIY built bead roller thing is boring but here is mine anyways

 

Never boring. Picked up new options for tooling storage and uses for the odd valve cover hold down in future projects.

Thanks for posting.

Ed

 

I don't think I've found one post useless or boring. Keep 'em coming!!!

 

I have to agree; I have a bead-roller on my list, and hope to actually get to it some soon day, so any of these 're-posts' are really useful to me!!!

 

"Very Nice"

 

I just finished a bead roller upgrade myself. Very nice.

Here are a couple projects I did about 15 years ago. The first one is a power hacksaw that I built from the Gingerly plans. It has been retired to wall hanger status.

The second is a disk sander/buffer I made after someone gave me an old motor.

 

Wow, two days of looking through this thread and I finally made it to the end! I will post a couple tools I have built that I did not see in here. I'll try to give a description with accompanying pic.

First 2 blurry pics are of a radius cutter. It was designed to sit on my Nardini lathe's compound cross slide. It utilizes 1000 lb rater tapered spindle bearings. I machined the entire thing. The rest of the body is made from cold rolled heavy bar stock.

The third pic is of another radius cutting tool that is used on my lathe. It uses a carbide insert in the vertical shaft. It allowed me to make the tube bending dies in the subsequent pics. One was a die for my Hydraulic tubing bender (started life as a 10" diameter piece of 8620. The smaller die in the lathe and being machined was one of a set of 3 dies that will be used on my roll bender that is still in the works. The roll bender uses 50mm shafts and will let me bend tubing up to 2" without batting an eye.

Grant

 

Not sure why my pics didn't take. Here are the ones I was referring to.

 

Here are a few of my hydraulic tubing bender. I machined the top portion of the bender to ensure it was square and did not buckle and twist like my previous version. This set up is excellent. I use BendTech pro tube bending software to eliminate tube waste. It uses a Tube Bandit Digital readout as well.
A basic tray top on my MM210 provides a great crap collection site
The very last pic is of a cart for my XMT350 and Dynasty along with leads.

 

Hay Jack,,,,, Do you have more photos of your welding cart in your last pitcher? I'm in the proses of doing one and changed it 3 times now. Looking for inspiration hear,,,,,,,,

 

I don't have any more on my phone but I will try to snap a few Thursday when I get back up to the shop. Any particular angle or area? It is still sitting unpainted and bare. Too many other things waiting to be completed
Grant

 

nice job to make more nice jobs!

my weekly metal work blog www.themetalsurgeon.com

 

Hammer and clamp rack. The top is mounted on an axle welded to a planetary gear so it spins freely no matter how much weight.

 

Here are a few more pics of the welding cart. Additionally, there is a picture of the modification I made to my chopsaw. I basically mounted it to a long 13ft steel table. I recessed it so that the stock being cut can just lie on the table top and no need for additional support. Works great.

Last picture thrown in for good measure. It is my 28. A work in progress.

 

Anyone have a hammer I can use. like it.

 

If you have that many hammers why not spread them around the shop so you don't have to walk to the rack and get one to use. You are wasting too much time being organized.

 

Yea like me.

I have my tool spread around so much that I can't find anything.

That is why when I need a Phillips screw driver all I can find are straight blade drivers and visa versa.

Dick

 

I have 4 small stations in my shop with basic screwdrivers and open/box ends and a vice grip at each. At least that's how the day starts.

Ron

 

Handy dandy spark tester. Pretty was not a priority.

 

That right there is so simple and a great idea that it is pure genius...

 

im gonna have to make one... my inductive tester never works right

 

Not a HAMB vehicle but the tip could have many uses. My son needed to drill a hole in his motorcycle faring to mount a crash peg, but couldn't see the bolt hole because it was under the faring. He bought a cheapo laser pointer at the 99 cent store. He mounted it to a stand pointing at the bolt hole with the faring off. Then he mounted the faring without moving the bike or laser stand and the red dot pointed the exact spot to drill. Nailed it first time.

 

There's a laser in the end of one of my levels. Another good use! Thanks

 

I hate it when that happens.

 

This post brought to you by the letter C


Shop boredom has set in while working on my speedster project, and I realized that I am lacking some tooling. I am building my entire speedster body out of aluminum, and it will have loads of compound curves. My shop mainly handles heavy duty apps, so I'm not really set up for sheet metal. I really didn't want to go out and buy an English wheel, planishing hammer, and dare I say it... Louver press, so I've come to the decision to make one tool to handle all three tasks.

Now I'm not finished with it yet, but here is a teaser. I plan to eventually have 3 sets of attachments for use on the one base. I will post a complete build thread once I have this all finished. Version 1 will just be the planishing hammer, until I can afford the anvils for the Ewheel, and the punch dies for the louver press.

I made two "C"s from a left over sheet of 3/8 plate I had rusting on the floor in the corner. I used an oxy/acetelyne torch to cut them, took forever. Then I took some 3" channel and welded it between the two. The inner and outer curves were made from 3/16 flatstock that I rolled on my brake. Again, this took what seemed like forever.

As you can see here, I didn't quite cut the first "C" perfect. A little bit of a gap to fill, but workable.


I made big progress on this today, but neglected to take any pictures. I'll post more tomorrow.

 

adjustablejohnson

Great Idea,

I think that I will make one only I think that I will slip a 90 degree black rubber plug boot over the spark end of it to make it easier to see the spark in daylight.

Dick

 

There's been some really great and innovative ideas in this thread. I like the 'giterdone' and 'havago' attitude of the guys.That's how both our countries got built! I reckon you'll appreciate this link even though it's not car oriented. Someone may even adapt the ideas to an auto workshop. http://www.wimp.com/toolchest
RodL