OzVMX Forum
Clubroom => General Discussion => Topic started by: FAT-TOY on August 09, 2012, 11:35:43 pm
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Over the years I have had to make a few tools. Some to do special jobs and others because I couldn’t find something suitable but most of the time they were just too expensive to buy and there is some satisfaction in doing it yourself.
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/Dotpipe011.jpg)
Some of the tools used when making a pipe, these are mainly for use inside the pipe for rounding and tidying up lobsterbacked bends (just makes them look better) also handy for some dents and the reground hammer works great. A mate of mine who has been making performance pipes for 40 odd years has a christmas tree setup with different tapers and balls branching off it, a very handy tool but to much work to make for a part timer. I will get a photo of it and put it up later.
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/Shockspringcompressingtool001.jpg)
Shock spring compressing tool, simple just put in the vice and its operated with one hand so I can remove the spring retainers easily with the other.
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/Dotpipe014.jpg)
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/Shockspringcompressingtool002.jpg)
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/Dotpipe015.jpg)
Then the whole thing folds up and it hangs on a nail until its needed again.
So thats a couple of mine, you blokes are probably like me and love to see blokes sheds and tools also any ideas you have to make jobs easier, so show us some of yours.
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Mate that is very impressive.
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Your spring compresser is sooooo simple Fat-Toy, often the best things are, off to the shed to make one, I used to be a two screwdriver user !!!
Foss
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Great Thread, hope others post up their stuff, i have a few i made up too but they are the standard run of the mill type clutch hub holders, fork seal drivers etc.
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A mate of mine has just called around with some Timing Degree Wheels he has made. He made one for me years ago and i'm still using it but these have brands on them like bultaco, BSA etc or he will print your name or what ever you like on them. I will bring a few down to CD9 if anyones interested. He is asking $10 each for them, that sounds like a good price to me.
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/Timing%20Degree%20Wheels/TimingDegreeWheels002.jpg)
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Thanks for this thread FAT-TOY I,m having a go at making the shock spring compressing tool. Jimson
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When I lived in Villawood in my apprenticeship days I used to ride my pushie down near Leightonfield railway station to the 'aero dump' where they scrap-metalled WW2 'planes.I found a stack of compass discs about 10 inches dia., being marked out in 360 degrees increments I grabbed a heap of them for timing discs. I gave them all away except one. You guessed it, I've lost it!
cheers pancho.
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In the first year of my boilermaking apprenticeship we were required to make our own T-squares, dividers, and other marking off tools and we even made our own ball peen hammer and cold chisels. I've still got the hammer and a couple of chisels I made in the forge shop and despite the fact that I made it, my Firko made hammer is the best balanced of the 10 or so that I own (the hammer is a boilermakers best friend). I've made a shock spring remover almost identical to Fat-Toys, a doo-dad for unscrewing the top of Works Performance shocks that works way better than the factory tool, a few different sized fork seal fitting tools, some dollys for removing dents on pipes and tanks and other gizmos that don't come to mind right now.
It's a real Eureka! moment when a tool you made with your own hands works the way it was intended. ;D
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This is the tool that I made to remove the shock spring, it works a treat.
(http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac346/albrid-3/shock001.jpg)
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The end hook goes into the top shock eye, and the square loose section goes between the shock coils and compress down and remove the collars. very easy and simple mark.
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Now you say it I can see it clearly Dave. It's a simpler version of mine and Fat-Toys gadgets.
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Yes, Very Very Handy Tool
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In the first year of my boilermaking apprenticeship we were required to make our own T-squares, dividers, and other marking off tools and we even made our own ball peen hammer and cold chisels. I've still got the hammer and a couple of chisels I made in the forge shop and despite the fact that I made it, my Firko made hammer is the best balanced of the 10 or so that I own (the hammer is a boilermakers best friend). I've made a shock spring remover almost identical to Fat-Toys, a doo-dad for unscrewing the top of Works Performance shocks that works way better than the factory tool, a few different sized fork seal fitting tools, some dollys for removing dents on pipes and tanks and other gizmos that don't come to mind right now.
It's a real Eureka! moment when a tool you made with your own hands works the way it was intended. ;D
I too did my apprenticeship with one of those companies that made apprentices make all kinds of tools as skill exercises. As a 1st year apprentice Electrical Fitter Mechanic in 1975 I spent my 1st year of “work” in a training workshop run by the company. The company put such an emphasis on the Fitter part of the trade title that the first nine month of that 1st year was spent learning to be a fitter/machinist and doing the same exercises as the Fitter / Machinist apprentices.
Many of the skill exercises were the normal chisel, hacksaw, file type job like turning a piece of round bar into a piece of square bar, but we did make a lot of tools. Some of the better exercises were making your own fabricated steel bench vice and making a boat winch, where you made all the components and had to do all your own welding, and remember we were electrical apprentices.
I still have most of the tools that I made and a few of them are still in regular use. Here is the picture of the most hated tool we had to make;
(http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s120/coljay/faceplate.jpg)
Yes, a tool box sized surface plate! This was one of those things that everyone asked, WHY!
I remember it took me FIVE days to file it square and then scrap the stupid thing PERFECTLY flat. It still lives in my tool cabinet, and surprisingly, although as an apprentice I never thought that I would use it, I do use it to check that the mounting face of flange mount carbies are actually flat and not distorted.
Although a lot us of asked why, and didn’t really enjoy spending days on end filing and scraping etc, I now know that those basic skills I learnt back then have served me very well for the last 37 years and allowed me to make numerous other special tools that I have needed while working on my various bikes.
CJ
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I too did my apprenticeship with one of those companies that made apprentices make all kinds of tools as skill exercises. As a 1st year apprentice Electrical Fitter Mechanic in 1975 I spent my 1st year of “work” in a training workshop run by the company
I did my apprenticeship with the NSW Railways and like Col we made all sorts of tools (as I wrote earlier) and learned skills that weren't necessarily part of out 'job description' such as using a lathe, mill and blacksmithing/forging. As Walter says, today's apprentices don't learn the variety of skills that we did. I have a young friend just out of his boilermaking (metal fabrication, as it's called today) apprenticeship and I was shocked to learn that he was never taught to use a lathe or forging. I did the first three years of my apprenticeship actually working on boilers, riverting, knocking down copper stays and all sorts of other now almost extinct skills. Thankfully the skills they taught us early on that we thought we'd never use were what carried me through my 40+ years in the metalwork business.
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i too did some but not all of the above.
very few Companies have in house apprentices these days and the focus is more on getting value for money from them instead of investing in their future skill (be it with that company or elsewhere). i have an Electrical apprentice with me 2 days a week who is apprenticed to a large labour hire mob (i'm a self employed contractor) we are working in manufacturing industry as maintenance electricians. he is a good bloke and very keen to learn and applies himself very well.
i am trying very hard to give him old school training like i had as it served me well. both the Manufacturer and the labour hire mob really don't put any effort into his advancement other than what they "Have to" its all about money and value these days. very few apprentices in industry these days compared to 15 + years ago, all the big workshop are nearly gone and its a casual workforce.
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Hoony, you are right about the apprentices, my son was doing app' as electrician and was with one of the training centres that put him out to different employers, and they had him pulling cables on industrial jobs or digging trenches on estates, yet a mate of his got on with an electrician who from day one taught the trade too make sure "his apprentice" was a good all round tradesman. There are I'm sure a lot og good tradesman who pass on their skills to apprentices, but unfortunately there are big gaps and a lot of kids fall in and get disheartened or take years to get it right.
I was lucky, left school at 16 and was apprenticed to an old Italian at a Fiat and Alfa service garage, had all the tools and machinery and refused to sublet anything out, we had to do it in house, and on the odd occassion where something had to go out, like welding a cracked ally cylinder head he would send the best mechanic with the job to go and see how it was done to see if we could do it next time. And he made a lot of the tools himself. Alfa would want some stupid price for the tooling to set up the rear diffs, and they were a weird set up, so he made the lot from scratch and of course improved them! He was a great tradesman, Agostino Beninca, sadly the Lexinton ciggies got him. Yep, did not know it at the time but was was very lucky, He told me years later that I got the job because the other applicants were either too big or too small for the well used overalls he had and that by employing me he did not have to buy new overalls for an apprentice that would not make him money for about two years ::)
Ayway, back to making own tools, this is the tool to convert a standard tension wrench to a left hand tension wrench so I can properly tourque the flywheel nut on my Husky
(http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc376/gippslander2/IMG_6535.jpg)
(http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc376/gippslander2/IMG_6534.jpg)
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Great story , top stuff
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Ayway, back to making own tools, this is the tool to convert a standard tension wrench to a left hand tension wrench so I can properly tourque the flywheel nut on my Husky
Brilliant in its simplicity. I'm tempted to go out to the shed and whip one up right now. ;D
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Love the tension wrench adaptor, so simple when you think about it. don't you just love need & ingenuity a perfect match !
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Great tool.
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Neat ,simple and very functional Gippslander!! Have made one up today ;) Cheers Tim754
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Being allowed to make tools must have been a government job thing.
It didn’t happen in the private sector. As an apprentice I had to make my tools when the foreman wasn’t looking.
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a393/gmcloa/Misc%20bike%20stuff/Tools-3.jpg)
Toolboxes nowadays all come with ball bearing runners on the drawers but I will stick with my old school box that was also made when the foreman wasn’t looking (as was my first bike trailer)
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a393/gmcloa/Misc%20bike%20stuff/Tools-15.jpg)
My Dads ‘analogue’ calipers, I still find them handy to this day.
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a393/gmcloa/Misc%20bike%20stuff/Tools-11.jpg)
I often make things to do a job, mostly slapped together in a hurry from offcuts.
I made this flat bar bender in the late 80’s and its still works fine.
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a393/gmcloa/Misc%20bike%20stuff/Tools-8.jpg)
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More secrets from the from the immaculate state of the art GMC facility. J
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Made a handy little tool a while back for a mate who makes a few pipes and mufflers.
This 3 piece set is used for cutting out and forming muffler end caps
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/mufflerendformer002.jpg)
Sheetmetal is placed between the 2 larger pieces then under the press it then cuts out a disc.
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/mufflerendformer006.jpg)
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/mufflerendformer007.jpg)
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/mufflerendformer019.jpg)
The cutter is then turned over and used to press and form the welsh plug shape.
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/mufflerendformer008.jpg)
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/mufflerendformer009.jpg)
The whole thing is then turned over so the 3rd piece can be positioned inside and it then cuts the centre hole and presses a flange in one operation to complete the Muffler End Cap
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/mufflerendformer011.jpg)
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/mufflerendformer013.jpg)
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/mufflerendformer016.jpg)
He will usually make a dozen or so each of the most common sizes (I have made him 3 different sizes) then they are just tapped into the muffler and secured with rivets
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/mufflerendformer014.jpg)
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/mufflerendformer015.jpg)
(http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac276/zane255/mufflerendformer017.jpg)
He lets me borrow them back from time to time if I have the need. They work on both aluminium and sheet steel and make a tidy job.
Zane
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Just found this in the family ‘vault’
Dad made his own lathe, I believe the base was made from old truck chassis rails. The bed was 2 pieces of waterpipe which I think were machined in a ‘real’ lathe and the carriage ran on brass bushes.
This was from long before my time but I do remember the remnants of it in the back shed, along with the TV he and my older brother made.
But like a 3 year old motocross bike it was so obsolete it was laughable and eventually ended up down the tip.
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a393/gmcloa/Misc%202/Lathe_zps7816624e.jpg)
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(http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c315/jimson13566/Mobile%20Uploads/9F92E834-EA8F-40DD-B2BC-ED797F5DD91C_zpszejqz3lc.jpg) (http://s30.photobucket.com/user/jimson13566/media/Mobile%20Uploads/9F92E834-EA8F-40DD-B2BC-ED797F5DD91C_zpszejqz3lc.jpg.html)
Thanks Fat-Toy I've made this compression spring tool,some time ago copying your idea. It's come in handy & thought I would get this thread running for more great ideas. Jimson
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I knocked this puller up to get the burnt on inner bearing of the stub on the front axle of my Iveco
(http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/q747/Slakewell1/04tb_zpsfgvrm9b0.jpg)
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(http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c315/jimson13566/Mobile%20Uploads/30DADEEA-007F-4B68-B311-5BF8F9EBDE89_zpsotyjja8b.jpg) (http://s30.photobucket.com/user/jimson13566/media/Mobile%20Uploads/30DADEEA-007F-4B68-B311-5BF8F9EBDE89_zpsotyjja8b.jpg.html)
Made this out of bits in the shed. For when your working on a bike without the petrol tank & you want to run the engine before you put it all back together. Jimson
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well done Jimson, love your work !