[How-To] Things I have made

[toprecyler]

Figured I’d start a thread here of tools that I have made to make my job easier. I work in a hydraulic repair shop as a machinist, and made several items to make jobs go easier. I think I have come up with these ideas myself, or I just modified someone else’s idea for my situation.

I will post pictures as I come across the items in use. Maybe someone else can get an inspiration to make something for themselves.

First up is bandsaw vice accessories. First improvement was adding a taller and wider plate to the fixed jaw. I made the edge only about 1/4” away from the blade. Makes for clamping very narrow pieces much easier.

Shown is my sliding jaw extension too. A piece of plate with two pieces of round stock welded as seen. I have several round blocks made with a flat milled on one side to sit against the main vice back. The sliding jaw can then clamp work pieces easier, and with three round points on the vice extension plate, allows more flexible sizes to be clamped, and uneven parts too.



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[extropic]

Very good. Keep them coming.

 

[toprecyler]

Couple other pictures of saw. I hung most often used pieces for holding/ shimming various pieces on front of saw so easy to find.

Assorted shim blocks reside behind main vice jaw.






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[silverhawk]

Figured I’d start a thread here of tools that I have made to make my job easier. I work in a hydraulic repair shop as a machinist, and made several items to make jobs go easier. I think I have come up with these ideas myself, or I just modified someone else’s idea for my situation.

I will post pictures as I come across the items in use. Maybe someone else can get an inspiration to make something for themselves.

First up is bandsaw vice accessories. First improvement was adding a taller and wider plate to the fixed jaw. I made the edge only about 1/4” away from the blade. Makes for clamping very narrow pieces much easier.

Shown is my sliding jaw extension too. A piece of plate with two pieces of round stock welded as seen. I have several round blocks made with a flat milled on one side to sit against the main vice back. The sliding jaw can then clamp work pieces easier, and with three round points on the vice extension plate, allows more flexible sizes to be clamped, and uneven parts too.
View attachment 467070


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That is brilliant!

 

[toprecyler]

Next item shows a fixture I made to turn the compound screw on work lathe. I meant it to power when needing to use compound to make tapers. But my drill really does not turn slow enough for that. Sometime I’ll find a slower turning one.

For now, I use it when I want to dial the compound back in to parallel with the spindle, sweeping a rod in the chuck.








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[toprecyler]

Made this today. Worked great.

Made a coolant drill guide . I took a piece of aluminum and thru drilled the size of the drill, and then counter bored the next size up on the side where I want the coolant to come out toward the work piece. Drilled a hole coolant tube and then small hole with a set screw to hold the coolant line into the block.

I then threaded at 5/16 -18 thread on the backside to be able to put a piece of threaded rod in hold to the magnetic stand.

I needed to drill a 15/64” hole 10” deep into the end of this chrome cylinder rod. The coolant worked great, kept the drill bit cool and work piece didn’t get real hot and by using the air drill on the compound and the lathe chuck turning as normal, the drill tends to self correct it self and drill straight down the rod center. Before when just holding the drill bit in tailstock chuck, the hole would wander off center the deeper I go. Not good when you need to drill a cross hole to meet up with center hole.

I had to pull drill out about every .200” to clear the flutes. I left the coolant block about an inch away from the rod, and the coolant would flush the flutes clean. And the block helped keep the drill aligned when reentering the hole.

When done drilling, the drill bit was cold to the touch, and the rod was just slightly warmer than ambient temp.





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[extropic]

I like your coolant delivery method.
Is the coolant pumped or gravity fed?

I'd like to see a picture (or more) and description of the way you mounted the air drill.
It looks, to me, like the air drill had an OEM torque handle (yellow ring) and you have made/modified/fitted something to hold that handle into a boring bar holder.

This is getting to be one of my favorite threads.

 

[toprecyler]

I like your coolant delivery method.
Is the coolant pumped or gravity fed?

I'd like to see a picture (or more) and description of the way you mounted the air drill.
It looks, to me, like the air drill had an OEM torque handle (yellow ring) and you have made/modified/fitted something to hold that handle into a boring bar holder.

This is getting to be one of my favorite threads.

The coolant is pumped. This is on a larger manual lathe used in a hydraulic repair shop.

The brass ring holding the drill was part of original handle attachment. I just made a tube with the threaded part so it would attach in boring bar holder.

I have been planning on changing this setup though. If I push too hard, the drill can rotate. So I always need to verify that it is perpendicular to the work piece.

The second version will be made when I get time to get around to it, or when I finally decide I need to make it better in function.

Originally I made this to be able to drill holes in the faces of parts in a circular pattern for spanner wrenches. I marked my spindle in four spots, and can also do six, so I can put in 2, 4, or 6 holes that are reasonable equal distance apart, thus saving me time from doing this as a secondary operation at the drill press, and manually laying out of the holes.

I added a air valve so I can control the speed.

The rags are helping to muffle the high pitch sound of the drill. I have a couple coworkers that hate me when I use it, so I try to ease the noise as I can. I really have a couple really irritating die grinders too.


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[7milesup]

I love the compound "power feed" for your drill. Literally yesterday, I was making a short taper with the compound and I thought "I should make something so I can use my drill."
You have inspired me.

 

[toprecyler]

Figured I’d post up pictures of the machine mover I made about 4 years ago. It may inspire someone. I made it to move a 10’ press brake I had bought at an auction. I was too cheap to hire a rigger, so I made this cart from yard material.

It had allowed me to move and load the 9,000 # by myself, although I did have a friend present for the actual loading on the trailer part, mostly in case it fell on me accidentally and I needed someone to call 911 to clean me up.

That press brake never made it home though. I had sold it to a friends shop, doubling my money. Plus I had the fun of building this cart. Finally 4 years later, I had the opportunity to use it again when I bought a Cincinnati shaper, 16” lodge and Shipley lathe, and index milling machine.

It was very handy moving the big K&T mill into the shop yesterday, although it was really overloaded with that mill.

I started with the wheels. They were old forklift tires. I made up the center hubs and welded them in. Fortunately I was working at present machining job then, and was able to use shop tools as needed to fabricate parts. Mainly I borrowed the big lathe. Everything else was done in my home shop.

Found some old trailer tongue jacks, from house trailer tongues. Had to clean them up to get them working, they been sitting so long in my yard, 20+ years.

Couple big 12” i beams, 4x4 square tubing, and flat plate made up the rest of pieces. The wheels made from the 1/4”x 7” flat stock are the known weak points. It really needs some more gusset supports, especially for the bigger (over 6000 # ) equipment.

The other weak spot are the pipe supports on heavier loads, and longer loads. I was using 2” pipe. The cart is adjustable in length, just get longer or shorter pipes as needed.

Hopefully the pictures tell the rest of the story. But the index mill, Shaper, and lathe that I moved earlier this year from old mentors / friend estate, I and one other guy was able to push the equipment close enough to the door to hook on trailer winch to pull onto the trailer.

Some pictures when was loading equipment earlier this year. It is painted now, but I think I painted cart when it had the Shaper on it, and I had leftover epoxy paint from a project, so I used it on the cart to use it up.

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