Home Made Tools, Equipment, Gadgets and Parts

[KustomKartKid]

I promised Tank a while ago I would start this thread but never did...

Got bored being snowed in...I was looking through some old posts and stumbled upon it again.

So we'll let him kick it off.....and then let's see what else you guys & gals have created.

>>>>> Please adhere to the title, complete bikes and other vehicles already have their own threads :hammer:





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[TANKSAREUS]

KK

You a toolmaker by trade - I see you know metal pressings.
Were definatly on the same wavelength - I am still poor and yet have a million great ideas running through my pip.
First thing I made was also about 10. My olld school had a wooden floor and one of my buddies dropped a pen through and Knot in the floor ( not a cheep one either like nowadays) the kind of pen that lasted you half your school carreer. Attached a torch bulb to a piece of wire ( stuck down one knot so we could see what we were doing) Then a washing line peg and elastic bands with a release string to close the jaws on another piece of wire. The things we pulled out from under that floor:laugh: was like opening my own stationary shop.

One though One day

Sent this in 2005 to Leatherman - they said my Idea had no potential

 

[KustomKartKid]

Sorry no pictures.....but I had my first “invention” when I was about 10 years old. I had one of those snow globes..you know where you shake it up and the fake snow swirls around. This one had a scene in it… little flat house with a tree and a snowman standing in front…

Well I thought, “gently shaking the globe and watching the snow flakes softly fall” is for losers….what you need in there are bona-fide blizzard white-out conditions… !!!


I swiped the little electric motor and prop shaft out of a little battery operated toy boat I had….drilled a hole in the bottom of the snow globe so the propeller would be hidden behind the little house in the scene. Being 10 yrs old I knew nothing of lip seals or O-rings so I just wrapped the tiny prop shaft with plumber's putty or pipe dope or some other gunk I found on my grandfather’s workbench….you had to get it just right so it wouldn’t leak (much) or be so tight it stalled the little motor.

It actually worked pretty well except for the fact that it leaked all over my Mom's dining room table ruining the finish :doah: and you had to refill the water every 10 minutes. It also ran the Eveready "9-Lives" D-cell battery down pretty quick….

I failed to convince my father he should invest in my fledgling new corporation or even spring a couple bucks on the proto-type I had built…:deal:

Dammit if 40 years later I didn't see the same idea for sale on QVC.....I callled them on the patent infringement and they hung up on me...:biggrin:

….undaunted, I moved onto a career filled with similar failed “sure fire” money makers.

I will try to recount some of these time honored gems for your amusement as my time and memory permits….

Next up: A toy car cleverly powered by an old rusty spring loaded “Rat Trap” that shattered my thumb at the joint and sent me to the hospital....”Fun for the entire family"!!

 

[KustomKartKid]

Nobody yet...? Ok I'll tell another story while we're waiting...:smile:

1973…Science fair at my grade school. There was a kid named Martin Matzuk who always won…his father was a chemist for pharmaceutical company so he would help him build these elaborate projects that were unbeatable…:glare: I remember one year he made a giant mercury switch….a big test tube with a shot glass of mercury in it and a cork in the end. In the cork was a couple wires hooked to a lighting circuit so when you tilted the test tube it lit the lamp. When the fair was over I remember us kids taking turns playing with the mercury…swirling it around in the palm of our hands. hmy:
Where was I…oh yeah, so I decide I need something spectacular to beat this kid…so I build this little wooden truck..kinda looked like a Paddy Wagon or a C-cab Model T…wrapped around the back axle was a string that went to the hammer bar of a Victor rat trap…not a mouse trap..a RAT trap with a spring you need two hands to pull back to set. It worked good at home…kinda dangerous but I figured what the hell....:shrug:
The next morning I was showing it off in the playground before school started…it was hard to set it so I had a a friend pull the hammer down while I wound the string around the axle…I had that thing cranked all the way back and my hand on top when the string snapped…:doah:
Now I know exactly how it breaks a rat's neck because it slammed down and shattered that bone where the thumb attaches to your hand…damn that hurt like hell and my hand swelled up like a balloon. :crying:
Needless to say my mom was not happy when I showed up back at home and we had to take a bus (she never got her driver’s license) down to the hospital in Elizabeth. That thumb was never right again..to this day I sometimes get wicked stingers in it when I go to press the button on a car door handle.


where's Jeep and TRK...those guys are always building stuff...hurry up before I tell another story...:biggrin:



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[KustomKartKid]

One time I invented a 10 ft ladder that was only 3 ft tall...for people afraid of heights.

 

[bikebudy]

I was looking for a Old School Chrome metal pipe, but could not find one around the house.

e-bay Cone Filter 281117132959

Or # 121171376011

 

[The Restore Kid]

I made a gear pusher once for a chevy slave cylinder.. Doing breaks, NO WAY to get a C-clamp in theres.. So I just ran a bolt with a nut through a piece of steel.. Screw pressure on the nut pushes the bolt out, pushes the cylinder back in.. :shrug:

Hell, there's lots of em out there..

 

[HDBobbers]

I use random heavy objects within arm's reach as hammers... rather than finding a hammer. Does my invention count?

 

[Harleys Papa]

When I started redoing my Wards T555 I needed a way to paint the back half of the frame as it was too heavy to hang from safety wire as I do with smaller parts :doah:
Well the center bar of the frame was open all the way thru :thumbsup: so I had some 4 foot rebar, I cut about 4 inch's off one end :grind: and welded it to the longer piece :weld:

Then I took my trusty 3 pound hammer and drove it into the ground :hammer: Now I had a way to paint my frame being able to get all the way around it :thumbsup:

 

[KustomKartKid]

How about a mini tire rack made from scrap conduit and plywood....

 

[KustomKartKid]

I was a fresh faced kid out of High School (1977) when I made this tool...still have it!

Screws into the spark plug hole and allows you to face off the deck surface in a lathe without all the setup time you have in a milling machine. I originally made it for moped heads...but it will work on most any small engine head where the plug is straight (perpindicular) to the deck.

 

[markus]

when I built VW's a lot I wanted something to hold the crankshafts so I could assemble them easier. Someone made and sold one with a flywheel glandnut welded to a cross shaped base made of square tubing to stand it on your bench.

The Gland nut should not be reused (they get torqued to like 250Ft lbs) so you always had a "junk" one sitting around when your rebuild. My bench vise swivels 360 degrees so I just welded the gland nut to a piece of angle iron and clamped it in the vise at whatever position I desired :thumbsup: made one everytime I did a rebuild and would sell them at the swaps when i attended the VW shows, could not sell them for enought to make any money on them though....

 

[Beal]

I was a fresh faced kid out of High School (1977) when I made this tool...still have it!


Screws into the spark plug hole and allows you to face off the deck surface in a lathe without all the setup time you have in a milling machine. I originally made it for moped heads...but it will work on most any small engine head where the plug is straight (perpindicular) to the deck.

Hey thats cool!

 

[jeep2003]

Heres a compressor water seperator I made but havnt even used yet. its all copper and the bottom tube is filled with copper wool. also my shop table from a section of bowling alley and the legs are from some excersize equipment

 

[jeep2003]

I dont have a bench belt sander but iv got plenty of regular belt sanders so i made a stand for one. also the little 1" sander had a bad motor so i made it drill powered. both work great

 

[jeep2003]

Heres a wood bending die i made . Actually works not too bad as long as you dont go over 90 degrees. but then I bought a real die and made my own bender for that. not pretty but gets the job done

 

[jeep2003]

Car ramps i use constantly. Fork tube crush dies work great. I have guide pins in them now . Mini vice i made just for fun. And a sheetmetal bending brake i made. I havnt used it much yet it needs a bit more bracing

 

[jeep2003]

some more shots of the sheetmetal brake and a clock i made from an old carlisle :thumbsup: also i made a little V thing for my press to use as a bender for thick steel. Works great i use it all the time

 

[bikebudy]

Machine Gun talk a while back, for a Theme bike OR just for the kids.

Just add a metal tab to click off of the gun barrels and it would Annoy the best, :laugh:

 

[KustomKartKid]

Son and I built this stand a few years ago to work on bikes in the basement:

I had 2 very stringent requirements when we started:

1) It had to hold a frame
2) It had to cost me nothing to build.

I could only use scrap pieces I had lying around....NO trips to the hardware store.

We cut some 3/4 ply into the basic shape for the sides and glued/screwed them to a couple of 2x4's which form the base...then we added another piece of 3/4 ply flush for the top. We originally used this trapezoid shape with the open ends so we could reach in and bolt the frame to the top if needed...

Later we realized that by adding a bottom to it (1/4 Hardboard or Luan) it would create a compartment to hold some of the bike's components or a place to throw the tools when we were done working for the night...

My first choice for the top cover would have been a nice piece of 1/4 thick soft rubber....but since I didn't have any I used a piece of black commercial carpet tile I had left over from a job. I left a cutout in the center to allow for a handle...

For the handle we used a piece of 1/4-20 threaded rod ("all-thread" to you southern boys)..... 10" piece.... 4" for the handle portion and 3" each for the down legs...we slid a piece of 1/4" fuel line or vaccuum tubing over the thread to act as a cushion (be sure to slide the tubing over before you bend the 2nd leg :doah

Drilled some 5/16" holes so the handle drops in easily....a couple of washers and nuts are threaded onto the ends (acorn nuts would have worked best since they would jam themselves...but remember I'm not spending any money). In use the handle lifts up to carry it and then drops down flush when you let it go....

To hold the frame secure while working on it we bent a couple of "shepherd's hooks" or "candy canes" out of the threaded rod..use the rubber tubing again as a cushion so as not to scratch the frame paint..

Pass them through a couple of holes drilled in the top and tighten from below with a couple of wing nuts. If you've got a whole fleet of bikes you may end up with lots of different holes but that's ok.

Couple of coats of standard white house trim and some free decals...presto!!!