home made tools and equipment...

I just upgraded my Bridgeport mill with a 2.25 HP DC motor from a treadmill. It is variable speed and reversible. Best upgrade I have made in a while.

 

What a great idea! What did you use for a controller, and does it have a 100% duty cycle at lower speeds?

 

Here is the exact ebay auction for the controller:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/180962201921

I am not sure on exact duty cycle, but I can say it will shave a thick ass hunk of metal at the slowest of speeds..

Controller info:
CAMCO VARI-PAK 0-90VDC 1HP DC MOTOR SPEED CONTROLLER 92A61633020000

 

do you have a build thread on this. id love to build one!

 

I like this i think i will have to make one.Thanks

 

How about a portable bandsaw conversion. I was inspired by this.........



........but to cheap to spend $140 so I made my own. A stick of 1" square tubing, a $2 garage sale vise and my Craigslist 6230.



It works surprisingly well. Cut most of the 2"x3" steel and all the bracketry for my roadster frame with it.


Here's one for the road. My funnel drain system.

 

Do you have any more pics of this... thanx in advance

Roy

 

Neat idea there. Have you thought about a way to put a drain pan in it? I always end up with mine balanced on a funnel stuck in the used oil jug ... and hoping and praying it doesn't all fall over.

 

Yeah, I also have a bad habit of set it on my leg while I'm adjusting parts. Burnt the 'nads once, still haven't learned

 

Since these days I'm restoring pretty much only one brand of cars and that those are always rusted in the rockers I have to make them over and over again, to make my life easy I made that



Very simple and effective can be adapted to different size tubing and much more effective than a slip roll.

 

I've looked at a number of ways to make a radius bender attachment and this is the best I've seen by far.

 

Here's the link to my GJ thread................
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143508

I do the same. The cool thing is, our garbage company provides the oil jug and picks up the used oil when they collect the garbage.

 

Had someone stop by the shop needing to add a bead to the end of the aluminum tubing he had to install in his Cobra project. He had trimmed one end for a better fit and needed to replace the bead for the radiator hose...



......to match the other end.



The dies on the bead roller were much too large in diameter, so I thought to make a manual device out of a pair of vise grips... Once the teeth start to wear these make ideal candidates for purpose-built tools. For the punch part of the tool, started with a thick 5/8 washer and gave the edges a nice radius in the lathe.



The vise grip bottom teeth were welded in and sanded smoothed to provide a flat area for the punch to push against (for less marking of the tubing), then an 1/8" thick 3" dia cut off wheel provided the recess in the lower jaw of the vise grips.



The washer was notched and bent to better fit the vise grips for welding....







Masking tape added to use as a reference/stop mark to align against end of vise grip jaw.



The vise grips with their adjustable jaw setting work well to make one revolution, then adjust tighter, etc..



Finished product....

 

pretty slick!

 

alot of turbo guys make those. for all there piping

 

Great job! An old school hot rodder friend of mine told me once that back in the day rodders and modders used to make slap spoons from old discarded leaf springs. Your spoon reminded me of that trade secret.

 

Thanks!

I have one made from a leaf spring too. I made this one because it ever so slightly marks the metal as you travel the panel leaving an indication of where you have been.

 

I love this. Awesome.

 

It is pretty cool.. I get sick of shaking after about 3 seconds..

 

We tried the tool on stainless tubing today, 2" OD, .06 wall thickness.



Set the "stop" using tape again...



First pass....



Second pass....



Third pass....



At this point we were about .06 over the original diameter, which was about the same result we did with the aluminum.





We could have made another pass and made the bead more pronounced, but this process looks to be a viable option for the stainless tubing for the wall thickness we used...

 

Looks a neat way to get a bead on tube. How many cans of spinach did you need to eat before you did the stainless tube?
RodL

 

Actually, with the stainless it seemed like more work removing the vise grips than squeezing. But you could definitely tell it wasn't aluminum...

 

saw this on the you tube.... looks like it would be easy to figure out... pretty slick unit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiu0wvOdzMc

Roy

 

Nice stand. Simple, but effective.

Added to the homemadetools.net database: http://www.homemadetools.net/door-dolly

Ken

 

Great idea for an old set of vice grips, Thanks!

 

Great idea, I wish they would have shown a side view.

 

I have attempted many searches for a metal storage rack and could not come up with anything. After reclaiming an old store awning; I designed and built this version. I just finished it and hope that you guys can use it for ideas or a good laugh.

 

lift table

 

Looks good, I want to make something similar. I'd suggest adding a 90* upright to the ends of the rack arms to prevent stuff from falling right off onto your foot when trying to get something out of the rack.

 

That's a lot better than the one I had!