Tools for the job { Home made pipe notcher}

[Wildfire]

Well seeing I've shown you some of the restoration work I've done I thought I'd get a little serious for a moment and show you one of the other things I do and it might spark the inventor in some of you fine folks and the ones who have made tools to post pics some of your home made working tools and please post them here so we can all get ideas and maybe be able to use them in at our own jobs.

Who knows, the tool you post just might be the tool we all have been looking for.

The tool I'm showing here is just one of the many I've designed and built. I started out doing some pipe work for a customer and I was having a hard time fitting the pipe together and making the perfect fit and this item does the work perfectly. I know you can buy similar things like this on the market but what's the fun of that when you can build the one you need and it if breaks you can repair it. I used this tool for years and it's perfect for my needs.

I made the tubing notcher out of small end pieces of metal I had laying around. I used an automotive strut rod for the main shaft and I use a 1/2 drill to power it as well. I milled and machined than welded all the parts. I machined the inner bushing out of oil pregnated bushing stock that is self lubricating but I also added oil service ports so I could add oil for added protection. Here's how I built my pipe notcher.

Cost of material: $0.
Time spent: 30 hours
Experience and functionality: PRICLESS!

 

[Wildfire]

Here is how it tuned out and what it does!

Here's the cut it makes. PEEEERFECT! Now I weld them and I have my factory fit and finish.

Well. Wadda dink

Hope you enjoyed the thread.

 

[Greg]

Well, it seems there is nothing you can do wrong. Incredibly well made, may hats off to you once again. I have made tons of tools in the past. Usually just one time tools at the moment it's needed kinda thing. I a am very limited right now in my tools in my garage. The sad part is I own my own business, and one of the things I have in the corner of my building is a CNC machine shop. I have 2 CNC 3axis milling machines, 3 good ole' fashioned Bridgeport mills, a couple of lathes, drill presses, verical band saws and a bunch of support equipment as well. My problem is that when I need to make a tool, it's always at the time i need it, and it's always when I am at home.

Below is a tool I made to remove the bearing race from the bottom of the steering shaft on my B7100. I got the idea from http://www.newlandsgroundcare.com/sboxrebuild.html. However, in an added twist, I used the old steering shaft to make the the tool. Sorry such a blurry picture, my cell takes the worst.

 

[Wildfire]

Wow cool to see others making tools. I'm like you. I build them as I need them. You got allot of great tools there my friend. I only wish I had the room I would add some of them. My little Mill drill is good for what I use it for. I've had my lathe for 20 years and love the thing. The only problem is my stuff is not CNC. I'm old school and do it all by hand I consider myself as a jack of all trades and master of none

I'm working on a little project that I'll post on in a few weeks but I've made plenty of tools that got me out of a pile of trouble. Here's a pic of the lathe.

 

[Wildfire]

Well I thought tractor guys would have a barn full of home made tools but I must have been wrong in thinking that

Anyway seeing I'm still trying to keep the thread alive and by posting some of the tools I've built I'm hoping it might give some of you a few ideas so I'll post one more tool.

Well actually it will be two more but it's the same tool just different sizes. After I built my home made press. I used it for a few years and it's been great but I wanted to try and utilize it for other chores so i decided to build a couple of metal brakes. the following photo's will show how I build them and how they work. Don't know how I did without them now.

 

[Wildfire]

More pics of the tool!

 

[Wildfire]

Even more pics!

And I use them for this type of work!

 

[Wildfire]

The final results of the tool!

 

[Kubota Tee]

Paul,

Once again, well done!! I guess I am going to have to get more active on this forum to keep up with all your excellent work!

Keep it coming.

Sorry - no tools to post, but I'll keep reading!!

Thomas (aka Kubota Tee)

 

[Wildfire]

Paul,

Once again, well done!! I guess I am going to have to get more active on this forum to keep up with all your excellent work!

Keep it coming.

Sorry - no tools to post, but I'll keep reading!!

Thomas (aka Kubota Tee)

Thanks Thomas. I got more of this stuff to post but will sit back for another while to see if others got some stuff they want to post. Glad your enjoying the stuff though. Thanks again!

 

[johngwalsh]

Wildfire,you do some class work.Just a question on the bending tool you made.Each one has what looks like a guide bar on the front tray held down by 2 allen keys.Are these exactly that, guides to feed in the material square?Great thread .Would love to see some more neat tools and jigs.As a side of the road engineer, I love to see innovation like this.

 

[Wildfire]

Wildfire,you do some class work.Just a question on the bending tool you made.Each one has what looks like a guide bar on the front tray held down by 2 allen keys.Are these exactly that, guides to feed in the material square?Great thread .Would love to see some more neat tools and jigs.As a side of the road engineer, I love to see innovation like this.

Thanks John. Glad you enjoyed seeing this. Your correct. I put guide bars at 90 degrees to insure a good bend. They are also movable from one end to the other.
I've designed many different tools. Ill see if I can round up some photos for you. Hope everything is going well in Ireland.

Cheers. Paul

 

[Lil Foot]

Before I retired, I made tools constantly for the Fiber Optic research group where I worked. Unfortunately, virtually all of them stayed behind when I left.
Of course, they were nothing like the tools shown above, but the principle is the same. The only one that retired with me is this special screwdriver. I used to service, repair, & calibrate filament fusion splicers for the group, in addition to being the group's toolmaker. Occasionally, a locating ring on top of the machine would come loose, an easy fix, except the screws that needed to be tightened were only accessible from inside the machine, requiring a lengthy, tedious, delicate disassembly & re-assembly. I fabricated this screw driver to tighten those screws through an existing hole in the top of the machine.
It measures 11" OAL, has an idler gear to keep rotation direction the same, and a 2 to 1 gear ratio. (2 turns of the handle for 1 turn of the screw)
Sorry for the blurry pics, my camera does not do close-ups on small stuff very well.

 

[cabu]

@Wildfire: Looks like you are very buisy the last time. Haven't seen you around since 'years'. Maybe buisy because you pushed all the snow off Newfoundland in the Atlantic... Or you have a new great project and you make a lot of pictures?



Hope your fine.

carl

 

[skeets]

Ya know you guys that can make things, you see them in your mind and poof you make them. It's a gift that few of us have. Thanks Paul,, and Lil Foot that is a cool little screw driver,, I guess it is true nessisity is the Mother of invention

 

[Lil Foot]

Lil Foot that is a cool little screw driver

Thanks skeets
Here is something else I put together, a little more tractor related, posted on another site:
http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=176632

 

[skeets]

Pretty cool as soon as i can figure out how to post pictures I'll put one up of the hitch I made to the BX a little heavy duty for a smallish tractor but it works well

 

[Wildfire]

I fabricated this screw driver to tighten those screws through an existing hole in the top of the machine.
It measures 11" OAL, has an idler gear to keep rotation direction the same, and a 2 to 1 gear ratio. (2 turns of the handle for 1 turn of the screw)
Sorry for the blurry pics, my camera does not do close-ups on small stuff very well.

That sir is very nice work. I tip my lid to you. I don't impress easely but this tool did it for me. Good stuff

Ya know you guys that can make things, you see them in your mind and poof you make them. It's a gift that few of us have. Thanks Paul,, and Lil Foot that is a cool little screw driver,, I guess it is true nessisity is the Mother of invention

Thanks skeets. I'm not sure if I'm one of the types of guys you discribed but I will say that when I design and build a tool it's usually via complete desperation and it's usually an idea that will get me out of really deep $hit

@Wildfire: Looks like you are very buisy the last time. Haven't seen you around since 'years'. Maybe buisy because you pushed all the snow off Newfoundland in the Atlantic... Or you have a new great project and you make a lot of pictures?



Hope your fine.

carl

Thanks Carl. Doing well my friend. I've been flat out over here. This is our busy time of the year. Been doing machining, fabricating, welding,vehicle repairs and just finished working on an old Zetor tractor for a local farm. Last week I punched 73 hours and it's been like that for the last 9 weeks

I have completed two projects. One was I put the finishing touches on our Mustang. It looks pretty good now or at least I think it does. My wife keeps saying that I'm the only person she ever knew that could buy a new car and rebuild it theres only 7000 km's on it now.

The other project I completed was to build a machine for filling cracks in the pavement in our driveway and it works pretty good. If you would like to see it I'll get some photo's for you.

Hope everything is going well on your end. Cheers. Paul

 

[Lil Foot]

and Lil Foot that is a cool little screw driver

Thanks!

That sir is very nice work. I tip my lid to you. I don't impress easely but this tool did it for me. Good stuff

Wildfire- Thank you sir for your kind words. I am impressed with your tooling, but what I really like is the fact that you could have bought similar tools commercially, but chose to fabricate your own. Carry on, I like your style!

If you would like to see it I'll get some photo's for you.

Please, I love photos!

 

[Wildfire]

Thanks!

Wildfire- Thank you sir for your kind words. I am impressed with your tooling, but what I really like is the fact that you could have bought similar tools commercially, but chose to fabricate your own. Carry on, I like your style!

Please, I love photos!

Thanks Lit Foot. Your right about some these tools already existing. Living on an island like I do and so far away from the mainland it takes a lot of time to receive items that's been ordered in plus the cost of shopping is crazy expensive and most of the time when I need a tool I need it NOW so that's why I build so e things. It's a win, win situation for me.

I had my external hard drive crash on me about a month ago and on that external drive was over 26000 photos of my restoration and other work but as luck would have it I do work for a computer geek and he was able to retreave the photos and they are now on a new external hard drive and i have learned my lesson and backed it up twice this time.
I'll have a look and see if I can find something of interest and post it.
Thanks or your kind words on my tooling

Hey Carl. Here's what I've been working on the last few weeks. Sorry to send you to another site but the machine is a Zetor and it's not orange . I'm known as 4shorts over there
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/zetor-century-branson/241850-brake-issue-zetor-7745-a.html