Home build tools

I've lost track of the special tooling I've made over the years

These are some of the earliest I made when I was 16 and at college



Both the Die stock and Screw jack are still in daily use


Numerous sockets and sanners for limited access



Square head for old plugs



Engine stand made from scraps of steel and shopping trolley castors



Latest addition is this flare punch



Which does this



Also countless other jigs, fixtures and tooling for bending, shaping metal etc

It becomes almost addictive doesn't it. I keep looking for things to 'lighten'! lol

Is there some sort of rule of thumb for thread size vs the thickness of metal you want to flare?

it certainly does! almost everything round here ends up with holes in now.



not really, i just went through with whatever was to hand. mostly m12 i think, although tbh they need to be bigger and more importantly a finer thread for doing thicker stuff. to do anything over 18 gauge i need ot use a press, the bolts arent adiquate. fine thread = less force to pull em together. ile drill em out bigger once ive bought some appropriate bolts and taps, something like m16 super fine would be best i think, or 3/4"unf.



ile cost it out and drop you a PM. they're not a particularly cheap thing to make though when you factor how much time they take!

Thanks very much Dez, really appreciate it

Claymore, that may have to be copied! Very clever!!

Just made a new one of these little folders, so I took the opportunity to grab a couple of snaps for anyone interested.

Shamelessly stole this idea from my dad ages ago......

These little things are great for folding up flanges on small repair sections, particularly if there are multiple flanges, or curves, that prevent you from doing it in the folder.

So, it's as simple as this: two pieces of flat bar, 3 or 4mm is fine. Small piece of sheet, slightly larger gauge than the sheet you're working with makes it easier to use.



Sandwich the three parts together, spacer sheet in centre should be shorter than the bar by the size you want your flanges to be (15mm on this one), bosh a few small welds on to hold it all together



Trim one end down to a narrower point - to make curves easier, then chamfer all the edges down and you're ready to go.....





Easy!

Curves may need a bit of dressing up with a dolly after to crisp them up a bit, but it's a quick and simple way to get the fold started.

Don't forget to make it look a bit nicer, so you don't sweep it up with the scrap and bin it!



Cheers, Joe.

This is gonna be at the very, VERY other end of the spectrum from all the great tools posted so far ;D
Setting the scene, twas a warm summers eve (bowt 10 PM) and i'm down the yard doing an emergency top end rebuild on a vectra (cam belt snapped) for a guy who's off to france the next day .
Wrong parts and a S?H head (came with the car from the customer) that had more bent valves than the old head had set me back half a day so it was tight for time, hense 10PM and me still in the yard
Anyhoo discovery of the rubbish "new" head ment panic stations, i lost all me tools back in dec so evey job means buying tools i need but for this one i hadn't bought a valve spring compresor as it came with a perfect head (yeah right, note to self all customer are liers )
So using all the parts to had (which really isn't a lot as i've only been back in the yard 4 months and lost everything inc the boxes of shat you keep about the place "cos it will come in handy one day" )
So,, and you can laugh all you want,,, i made this traveller style

P'S differant head cos i didn't have a camera that eve



Screw hooks into the screw driver rack



old box spanner mullerd on the bench grinder



6 inch nail as a pivot and yes i did pull it out of a roof joist (i was that desperate) pushed through a hole in the top of the box spanner i drilled and obv the wood.



Hole sawed a hole for the box spanner sit in then reinforced it with some batten



Named (pat pending)



Note the gaffa tape handle "safety" grip , i was gutted i couldn't use a cable tie in it's construction but that will be written into the plans for the Mk2 ;D
Am i proud ? no
just glad i only got home at 2AM and he made it

I beg to differ, especially the nail from the roof

Hope the roof didn't need it too much!

John

[quote author=bortaf board=general thread=127635 post=1604208 time=1340192389(rushes off to check it's still above the walls) [/quote]

;D