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Homemade tools


gwaii

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after forming up the fuel tank parts for the gt,i posted a pic of this;



which i used to form up the parts.there were some questions about it's construction which i will try to address here.

at the same time it would be interesting to see some of the homemade tools others have come up with to do various jobs.



first,these are the parts for the fuel tank in question.where possible,bends will make the project look better and save on welding.



an end shot of the lower dies shows their construction,which is fairly simple but must be reasonably accurate.the two working edges must be parallel and level with each other,or the bend will not be even.
the wider die was made to fit directly on the press base frame,and the narrower die sits in the wider one.
i use the wider die to form up to 1/4'' steel,and do large radius bends on sheet metal.the narrow die is used for tighter bends on 12ga and under steel or 1/8'' and under aluminum,though it has been used for 3/16'' aluminum for certain jobs.



an end shot of the upper die.this part is made much more substatially,as it needs to take the loads from it's full width and transfer them to the jack base at it's center so there is always a large bending load on it.
i started with a piece of 6'' channel iron turned leg down to make the top plate.a length of 5/16x4'' bar stock was welded perpendicular to the center of the channel pointing downward.
this is the working surface for the die to push against.a 4 1/2'' piece of 1/4'' was plug welded to the backside of this,forming a backing step to clamp against.clamp sections are bolted through these to hold the dies in place.
angled pieces of 1/4'' give stabillity and help transfer forces to the outer legs of the channel iron.



some of the dies i've made for different jobs.this is why i went to the trouble of making the dies removeable,by changing them out it substantially increases the versatillity of the press brake.



another important item is these brackets on the outside of the upper die.they keep the die lined up on the uprights but still leave enough room for the assembly to slide up and down.also,the hooks that go on the regular press upper slide for the return springs are put on this die when it's used.
changing over from press to brake operation takes about 3 minutes.
the blue paint is to mark the front of each of the parts,so setup goes quicker.



the installation of the winch on my car trailer illustrates how usefull this machine can be.the winch tray was formed out of 3/16'' steel,24'' wide.the winch cover was formed from 3/16'' aluminum checker plate,as was the battery cover sitting on top of the winch.
 
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COPPERHEAD85

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Sweet.........A look inside Doc Frankenstein's lab!
You do still have the cool Dora lamp dont ya?

Hell of a job as always!
 

gwaii

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slow96gt

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so i have a question. do you just set on your couch with a pen and paper writing down idea? you come up with some of the most awesome, wierd and creative stuff ive every seen
 

gwaii

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so i have a question. do you just set on your couch with a pen and paper writing down idea? you come up with some of the most awesome, wierd and creative stuff ive every seen
i used to.

i don't bother writing them down anymore...



still,i'm hoping to see what other people have come up with.i'm certain there's a lot of great solutions to common problems we encounter in building our toys.

show us what you've done-even if it seems simple.
 

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Hey, gwaii
Thanks for posting that up, it clarifies my thoughts for when I do mine.

Here's a copy and paste from my build thread;

Well I decided I needed a better way of removing rust from these brackets off the '87 stx

After a bunch of online research I decided to build an electric rust remover, No not a wire wheel on hand held grinder, this;

This removes rust by electrolysis. The main portion of information that was used was from this site;
http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp
If you decide to build this yourself please read the warnings in the link I posted!!!!!!

I started with a plastic drawer from an Ikea set I found in a dumpster and formed some expanded metal , also found in a dumpster behind a metal shop, to run around the inner perimeter of the tub, with tabs welded on;



Used this stuff for the electrolyte;

also known as washing soda by Arm and Hammer
About 1/8 of a 4 litre ice cream pail of soda ash to approx. 10-15 gal. of water. Hooked up the positive lead of the battery charger to the expanded metal and the negative lead to the crossbar, hung the bracket from the cross bar with a coat hanger that was lightly sanded. Bubbles immediately started forming on the metal, both neg. and pos. sides, kind of reminded me of beer bubbles, mmmmm, beeeerrr.Oh, yeah, back to the explaining. I found that the new chargers don't seem to work. My theory is that the overload protection prevents the charger from charging, so I added a battery in[ series, parallel ?] hoping that would trick the battery charger into working. That worked till the battery died. I borrowed an old charger with no protection circuits from my father in law and problem solved.
This is a view without power;

This is a view with power;

Notice the bubbles, mmmmmmm, beeeerrr.
I don't have an after pic but it cleans a whole lot easier after electrolysis. A pressure washer would probably blast the rust off. I used a wire wheel and a file to get in where the wire wheel wouldn't. That took 5 min. compared to probably 1/2 to 3/4 hour the old way.

money spent C$25.00 for 25 lbs of soda ash - bought way too much
If I was to build it again I would use a 45 gallon drum on it's side, that way I can get in big items, like axle housings. Or maybe even build a plywood structure and fibreglass it, or just poly the inside. I read on one site that someone built a poly[heavy duty roll of plastic] and plywood structure around a full frame [basically a backyard pool] and used large dc amp arc welder to clean the rust off the frame. And yes, a sandblaster would do the job, but I don't have one with enough cfm to run my cheapo sand blaster.
Hope this helps out,

Richard
 
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gwaii

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cool....i like it!
 

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You know, I've always wanted to do this to my press, but I had no "good" idea as to how to do it.

Thanks to you, I now have a plan.............with pictures! :D
 

gwaii

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no problem!

i spent a few years running a large press brake,doing lots of custom jobs.i had to make lots of dies for that one(12')so it was a natural to build something for this press.
 

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My homemade bender







 

gwaii

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nice work.looks beefy!

things like this people tend to underestimate the forces acting on them,no problem with that here:icon_thumby:
 

Sasquatch_Ryda

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Seen a picture of one online that you could buy...looked simple enough to build...couple nights in the shop with some scrap 1x2 tube and robbed parts from my princess auto 12 ton pipe bender and voila! One day I'll buy a tube die for it...right now its just got a pipe die that I modified for my needs.
 

alwaysFlOoReD

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Seen a picture of one online that you could buy...looked simple enough to build...couple nights in the shop with some scrap 1x2 tube and robbed parts from my princess auto 12 ton pipe bender and voila! One day I'll buy a tube die for it...right now its just got a pipe die that I modified for my needs.
Good job!
What did you do to the die to make it work better with tube?


I've been thinking of building my own and in my research I came across the Pro-tools web site. They have a promotion where they give you plans to build your own bender;
Free Bender Plans - http://pro-tools.com/200k.htm
I'm sure they want to sell you the parts and pieces and die, but wth, you have to buy them somewhere. I also found [but didn't save the page] a similar set-up already built with a 1 3/4" die for sale for ~$300.00, so ~$50.00 to $100.00 more than the cost of the die itself, a pretty good deal in my books.

Here's another tool I've fabbed up from an idea shared on another forum [I can't remember which one so I can't give proper credit], it's an engine vacuum assisted clutch or brake bleeder;


Engine vacuum goes to the short outlet on the right side in the picture, the long outlet on the left side is submersed in fluid in the jar, and the opposite end is connected to the bleeder valve. Engine must be running to create vacuum. Works awesome when you're working by yourself.

Richard
 
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gwaii

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sweet....looks like that's a basic mason jar and lid you're using?
 

alwaysFlOoReD

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sweet....looks like that's a basic mason jar and lid you're using?
Yes, a mason jar and air line fittings with silicone caulk to seal the fittings to the lid.

Richard
 

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