home made tools and equipment...

This thing turned out bigger than I thought. It all works out though, the mouth is eye level

 

This thread is great!

 

but what fun would it be to keep working on the same project when your time and energy can be used to create one cool bead roller

 

Hillbilly break...I think this counts!

It worked

 

i love this thread

 

But of course.

 

That's a good point, I saw a bead roller "table" if that makes sense. It had an adjustable fence so you could make nice straight beads or angle them. It looked pretty simple, however, the throat of the roller was pretty large. My tool has a pretty small foot print (roughly 2.5 sq/ft) as shop space is always tricky to manage. I plan on redoing mine soon so I can do thicker metal or I'll try and find a Pullmax.

 

great great thread.......always useful

 

Here is my version of a popular reciprocating hammer documented on another website. It still needs cleaned up and painted, but I couldn't wait to use it. It works very well with a set of thumbnail dies and doming dies I also built.

 

Nice machine!! You have any build pictures you could post? The reciprocating machines open a whole different world!!

 

Here's my welder/plasma cutter cart...

I used 5" racing go-kart wheels and tires that I found on ebay... I could have bought the hubs, but what's the fun in that? lol So, I made some out of pipe flanges and d.o.m. tubing with garden tractor bearings... Probably overkill, but it sure does roll nice!


I used a 1960 Wheel Horse Suburban front axle with some heim joints for steering...


Here it is all loaded up and ready for throwin' sparks!!!

 

Well here is my drop in the hat.. now they may not look the best but this was a paying job so spending hours making the tool look good was not my plan.. build it..tune it so it worked and do the job. these are two different dies I made for beads for the step and floor for a 66 Dodge Van.. one was a press type while other one was formed with a air chisel..

 

could you post a link? i would love to try one.

 

Very nice. Almost hate to get that dirty.

 

the thread that keeps on giving.thanks everybody.....

 

That frame is going to have a lot of flex in it. Might work OK as as a planishing hammer, but it's going to be springy for a e-wheel, and definitely too springy for a louver press.

You'd be wise to add additional plating to the sides of the C to help stiffen it up.

 

After making the machine I posted yesterday I started on the task of creating dies. Here is a pair of dies I made in about 10 minutes and a couple of pictures of what they are for.

 

Yes I too would like to see how this thing works.

 

There was a group build on www.allmetalshaping.com, pay attention to their rules and you will be fine..

I just read as much as I could and started building it. That 29 rear piece was punched out in about 15 minutes. That machine will mangle a piece of sheetmetal into any number of unrecognizable forms if you don't have a handle on what you are doing from the get go..

 

On the bead tooling. Am I correct that this is a ball bearing or ball peen hammer end, welded to a plate, thats then welded to the "mount". I've been wondering how I could do something kinda similar, I believe you have shown me how. Thanks!

 

You're welcome..

The smaller bottom plate has a hole drilled in it and the ball bearing is welded from the reverse side. It is them welded to your bottom post. You need to have enough surface area around the ball to create a place the top die can form against to create the radius. This surface also helps in planishing the part.

 

For the straight beads are you going to fab a back rest to guide the metal parallel ?

 

It is funny that you brought that up because I have been out in the shop working on it. That was the next thing I was doing to it. I have milled a shot for a single bolt that I can slide forward and back.

 

After all the hard work is done........

 

Mine isn't near as nice or crafty as what most of these guys can do, but here's my latest:

I needed a transmission jack and couldn't afford one, so I made an adapter for my basic floor jack.



Oh, and in the lower picture, if you can see the little red handled thing with the tubing coming off of it; that's an electric spray nozzle off a bug spray container, it works great for flushing brake lines with alcohol.

 

Now there is a useful tool.

 

Regarding floor jack mods, Here's my contribution. In my cramped shop this works better for me than hanging the door with a cherry picker. The round pipe swivels to make loading it a little easier. The wood strip supports the bottom jamb. Crude but effective.
This thread is great I've got a lot of ideas here, Thanks to all.

 

bolt a piece of 2x2 square tubing to the floor jack,slide your new reciever hitch on and its held up in place with jack for easy to line up and bolt on.

 

The other day while picking up the shop I found my 3/8 extention was a good fit for a piece of 7/8 DOM. A little more scrounging and I found enough pieces to put this together.



The tap holders are various sizes of running nuts drilled to fit the shank of the tap. I also ground a flat on the tap for the 10/32 set screws. You meerly hold the nut in a deep socket and turn the handle. Need to come up with a better handle though.

Ron

 

Harbor Freight does sell and trans plate adjustable and with chains to fit the floor jack. Works pretty good