Homemade tools

[scotts90ranger]

LINKY $20 sounds worth a shot... possibly for other uses too.

and a note on belt/disk sanders, I love mine, hadn't thought of making my own, didn't know I wanted one until I found a 4x36" belt/6" disc in the clearance area of HF for $22.50... it was missing the sliding guide but otherwise NIB

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Yeah, I wonder how it works? does it reduce voltage or amps and can that hurt a motor in the long term? I have a cheap motor I'll will test if I get one.

Richard

 

[brinker88]

Pirate 4x4 has a gear reduction kit for any drill press. It's fairly cheap to.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I saw one by rogue fabrication, it's where I got the idea. They also have a tube bender that looks good for the price.

Richard

 

[Shran]

Be careful about the mother board as if it burns out it's not a cheap replacement.

What about the drill didn't you like? I was thinking about using a dc motor so I could turn down the drill speed for bigger bits. Is that what you did?

Motherboard is covered, it's mounted upside down on that metal plate beneath the speed control dial and switch. Shouldn't get much, if any, metal dust buildup on it. I was more concerned about getting stuff into the motor anyway.

The drill is a different story. Original AC motor was rated at 1/3HP, the DC motor replacement is supposedly 1.25HP. I'm using the original pulley.

The main objective with that was to give it more power - I could stop the AC motor dead pretty easily with a 1/2" bit or larger. Unfortunately I can do the same thing with the new motor. It DOES work better in that I can turn the speed down real low.

My theory is that the DC motor had a giant weighted pulley on it to begin with, which had to be removed to accommodate the step pulley. I think the motor relies on the rotational mass to develop its rated power; removed, it's a turd. There is no easy/safe way to put it back on so I'm stuck with it being the way it is.

I would say that the project was a success, though, even though I gained no more HP at the motor. The speed control alone was well worth the effort. The other bright side is that I didn't modify the drill press itself at all, it's all reversible...I can take out four bolts and put the original motor back in place in a matter of minutes.

 

[brinker88]

Spanner wrench I made for setting up my gears.

 

[nooch450]

Spanner wrench I made for setting up my gears.

To turn pinion?

I made a similar tool to remove my mechanical fan off the 4.0... it took me less time to make it than it would have taken me to drive to the store 1 way! Lol

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[MastuhWaffles]

Brace yourself. For the most ingenious homemade tool ever.

 

[nooch450]

Brace yourself. For the most ingenious homemade tool ever.

Dalm! I can't believe I didn't think of that. You should have called the patent office before exposing such a genius idea to the public!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[brinker88]

To turn pinion?

I made a similar tool to remove my mechanical fan off the 4.0... it took me less time to make it than it would have taken me to drive to the store 1 way! Lol

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

Wow sorry I didn't see this. No. It's to hold the yoke when you're torquing the pinion nut to spec. Worked great btw

Here's another nifty tool I just made tonight. For those of you with Jeep D30s or Dodge dana 44's this will be especially useful. This tools is used to remove the upper ball joint on the Dodge/chrysler axles (they're pressed into the inner axle "C") I took a 3 inch piece of 1.5" 1/4 wall DOM and welded an impact socket on one end. Then took an old air chisel bit, cut it down, and welded a 1/2" extension on. Use a universal and an air hammer and it will push the upper ball joint right out of the axle

 

[Frank The Tank]

I'm the official fabricator at work. I've built two tools to remove UV lamps out of the sewage treatment plant. One set of racks and a flushing (spanner) wrench that is a one off fit all that actually works. Supposedly by not buying the real tools we saved 3k dollars... i was thanked, once. I love building though. Haha. They didnt realize they paid me 25 hrs to 'play' with a welder and torch at work!

My step dad has built his own pulley removers and Cadillac caliper remover that saved us almost 200$

 

[4x4junkie]

Dynamic tire spin balancer

In my ongoing battle of trying to get my Goodyear MT/R-Kevlar tires balanced (and in the process finding out what a POS the bubble balancer sold at the local Chinese-tools store is, at least the return was hassle-free), I finally decided to build myself a real unit that I can also do actual spin tests on.


(click pics for bigger)


If you're patient enough, this unit is capable of static-balancing a tire to within 1/2 oz for bigger tires (>33") and 1/4 oz for smaller tires (<30"). Imbalances of 1 oz and 1/2" oz (respectively) will be readily obvious however.
Dynamic imbalance is the prime cause for steering wobble or shimmy, so it should help eliminate those issues also.

If your tire shop can't (or doesn't want to) balance large oversize tires (or charges obscene amounts to do it), then just another reason to read on.


To build it:

First, weld together a stand like shown that will fit around the largest tire you plan to balance (I used 1x2x.120" rect. tubing).

Next you'll need a spindle & rotor from a 2WD vehicle with the lug pattern you need (I sourced mine from a '86 Ranger at a junkyard).
Make sure the brake rotor you get is good (not warped), otherwise this will negatively affect your spin results.

Trim the "fat" off it until you're down to just the spindle itself and a portion of the knuckle about 6-8" long




Make a pair of brackets like shown that will fit around the stand's frame to stabilize the spindle (I used various pieces of strip steel 2" wide, 1" wide, and 1/2" wide, all are 1/8" thick except the 2" is 1/4" thick). Leave about 1/16" of 'wiggle room' between the guide prongs and the stand (grind the inside of the prongs a little bit if necessary)

Make a "hook" on the spindle and a "pocket" on the stand so you can attach the spindle to the stand while it's stood upright (two offset pieces of strip steel stacked on each other forms the pocket)



Weld an eyebolt (threaded end cut off) into the rear of the spindle and attach a short piece of steel cable between it and the stand using a 2nd eyebolt (I used 1/8" cable and 1/4" x 2" eyebolts)

Weld a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" wide angle steel to the stand so that it's end will be about 1" from the rotor's surface




Hook the spindle to the stand and assemble the rotor & bearing onto the spindle.
To minimize rotational drag as much as possible, hone out the bearing seal using a drum-sander bit on your rotary tool (Dremel, etc.) so that the seal has about a 1 mm gap around the spindle (you could also leave the seal out entirely, however this will leave the bearing more exposed to dust, which can affect the balancer's performance).
Lubricate the bearings with engine oil (don't use grease), and tighten the bearing nut just barely finger-tight (leaving a couple thousandths free play in the bearing).




____________________________________________________



Using the balancer:

Static tire balancing:


1.
Mount your tire & wheel to the balancer (use all lug nuts, missing nuts will affect the balance)




2.
Identify any heavy (out of balance) area of the tire by allowing gravity to slowly bring it to the bottom.

3.
Secure stick-on wheel weights to the inside of the rim (as close to centered as possible) opposite from where the imbalance is. Continue repeating until you have established good static balance of the tire & wheel assembly (I like to tape the weights in place initially so that I can remove/reposition them if needed).



Dynamic spin balancing:

4.
Once good static balance is established, disengage the spindle hook from the stand and place the stand with the tire facing downward so that the spindle assembly is supported by the steel cable.


5.
Spin the tire up to approximately 300-350 RPM, or about 5-6 rotations per second (put your angle grinder or a die grinder against the tire tread to spin it up).
Stabilize the spindle assembly by firmly pressing the guide prongs (red arrows) up against the stand with your thumbs for about 8-10 seconds (this is to eliminate any slow-speed wobbling (precession) of the spinning tire).



6.
Take a marking pen (Sharpie, etc.) and carefully place it within the angle steel bracket directly above the spinning rotor. Very slowly bring the tip down until it just barely contacts the rotor, leaving a mark on the rotor.

7.
Slow the tire to a stop by placing a wood 2x4 or something similar against the tread (don't try to stop it with your bare hands unless you like friction burns!)


8.
Examine the mark from your pen... If it's uniform all the way around the rotor, skip to step #9.
If the mark occurs only partway around the rotor, add weight at the inside edge of the wheel rim immediately next to where the mark is thickest/darkest on the rotor, and another equal amount of weight to the OUTSIDE edge of the rim 180° opposite of the mark, then repeat steps #5 thru #7 (a paper towel soaked with brake cleaner or acetone can be used to remove previous marks from the rotor).




Continue repeating until a uniform mark that fully encircles the rotor is formed during step # 6.




9.
Dismount the tire from the balancer. It is now ready to put back on your vehicle.


Note that if your tires are more than a few millimeters out of round (as I discovered my MT/R-Ks are), they may never ride perfectly smooth. However the improvement over what they were before (after trying to deal with them to no avail at the tire place) was quite dramatic.

Happy balancing!

 

[97RangerXLT]

This is awesome! I wish I had the welding skills and a shop big enough to create one of these.

I do have a sugestion for a finer tuned spin balance tho... get a peice of your square tubing and cut it to the same diameter of the rotor. drill a hole in the center of it and mount it on the rear of the frame perpendicular to the frame. drill another hole at each end of it and weld a nut to the top.

get a long bolt or threaded stud that will fit the nut you just welded and place a knob at one end and thread it through the nut. Take your sharpie and cut off the end of it and create a slot in the end of the sharpie, slide it over the other end of the threaded stud and secure it with a small hose clamp to the stud. the tip of the sharpie should be just above the rotor surface and you can use the knob to turn it closer. this will let you fine tune it fairly well, as you will always have the sharpie in the same place at all times.

AJ

 

[4x4junkie]

That's a good suggestion, though I didn't really have any issue getting good marks the way I did it, I just lean the pen at a slight angle into the rotor while holding it against the bracket (if it looks awkward in the pic, it was because I was trying to hold the camera taking a pic with one hand behind me while at the same time holding the pen with the other... Maybe I should make a tripod my next project lol )

I added another pic showing the mark all the way 'round.

 

[jhammel85]

So many good things here....I have to say, I'll be stealing Nathan's Spindle nut idea!

I need to post up some of mine. Really, they're just modifications to existing tools. I'll post up later today when I'm home from work. I love this kind of stuff.