Model Boat Mayhem

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length.
Pages: [1] 2   Go Down

Author Topic: Home made tools  (Read 5692 times)

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Home made tools
« on: March 22, 2020, 08:03:38 pm »

Here are a few of my homemade tools, my most used one is the 1 inch by 4 inch sander, restored to a new condition with a new piece of sanding belt, stuck on the 3/16 balsa backplate with double sided tape, the previous bit gave me good service by doing the seaknight, jetranger and big wasp. Also shown is round sander, meccano drum sander and extended scalpel. The balsa bit is actually my instant compass, used for drawing the wasp abdomen rings. One of the best things about these tools is they are cheap, very cheap. Second pic shows my sanding centre, made from a motor from battery powered strimmer which had dead batteries and cordless drill with same problem. Both are powered from 12v sealed lead acid battery, surplus after changing my bike to li-ion powerpack. The sander is very effective, and really handy to have sitting ready.
 Last photo shows one of my building/cutting boards, if you need a fresh cutting surface, open it up and choose a new pristine page. I have several of these on the go. Very useful.
Logged

tigertiger

  • Global Moderator
  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7,748
  • Location: Kunming, city of eternal springtime, SW China.
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2020, 03:40:34 am »

Nice one Andy,
 :-))


It would be good to see other tools that people have made.
 Maybe a chance for people to make some tools themselves over the coming weeks, while stuck at home.


I have also made a number of tools, jigs, fences etc. Some of them very rough and ready. I will have a dig and post some pictures.
Logged
The only stupid question is the one I didn't ask

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2020, 10:25:57 am »

All tools welcome! Lol. I made an attachment for my router once, basically a hardwood block with a 10mm hole in the side, which met the hole for a straight cutter, halfway over, the intention was to produce half round 10mm rubbing strip from 10mm dowel 8 feet long. I dont know if I am explaining it well, but the point of the story is that when I tried it, I fed the 8ft dowel in the wrong side, and it grabbed, ripped the dowel through my device in about a second and spat the chewed dowel 10 feet down my garden.
The device worked perfectly if the dowel was fed in from the other side tho!
Logged

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2020, 11:50:29 am »

I don't know if this counts as a tool really, but I regard it as a shed warming tool, so I am including it here. Made from an old (empty) gas cylinder, left with the valve open for a day for any residual gas to escape, it was still a bit worrying to do my first angle grinder cut for the door, a small whumph sound was all that happened. Whew!  Myself and my friends reckoned it puts out about 10kw when its stoked up, resulting in us sometimes needing a heat shield to avoid the direct heat when you put a bit much wood in it. I built it a few years ago to replace a smaller one which was made from a party balloon gas cylinder. Recyling at its best. It has had many old unwanted wardrobes and chests of drawers fed into the front of it, along with pallets, logs, coal and rotted decking. Also fed through it were two of my full size boats ( chopped into small bits) which had seen too many winters outside and had gone a bit mushy. Truly a multi fuel stove. Hinges were from bongo drum fittings, the main body of the drum is now my wifes table beside her seat. So every part of it got used.
 The chrome bit above the stove blanks off the hole in my shed wall. It was pristine to start with but ended up being used to test the relative power of bb guns and home made kebab stick firing crossbows we made as well.
Logged

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2020, 05:19:07 pm »

Home made mini workbench, chair with the back cut off, useful item in my crowded workshop, doubles as an actual chair if I get visitors. Lol.
Logged

roycv

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,389
  • Location: S.W. Herts
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2020, 09:58:53 am »

Hi Andy, quite a long while ago now I remember going to a regatta and there was a chap there with an electic home made bicycle and trailer with a boat on it.  Was that you?
regards
Roy
Logged

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2020, 10:57:32 am »

Hi Roy, wasnt me. Its only last couple of years that I have had the electric bike. And unfortunately I have never been to a regatta. Will get to one sometime once all the madness is finished. Its funny you mentioned the electric bike, the photo of my bench/chair shows a bosch bike battery given to me by a neighbour, part dismantled in the photo, it had a faulty battery management board. I have since stripped it down to 40 individual LG cells, my old laptop will be getting a nice upgraded pack. That will use up 9 of them. The rest will be made into boat, car and aircraft packs. I have still to test them in a plane, hoping they will cope with the current demands. While dismantling the pack in my lap, one of the nickel bus bar strips touched another and went white hot, quick action saved anything worse happening than the melted hole in my joggies. Sure concentrates the mind after something like that. 36v 8ah pack heats nickel up real fast.
Logged

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2020, 12:11:51 pm »

Here is my home made lathe, made from a bench drill and a cross slide vice, works well after some adjustments. I used it mainly for making wheels for my mini race cars. It handled aluminium and brass with no problems, nylon was really easy to work with on it. I had the bench drill and vice for years before I had the idea of fitting them together. Some adjustments to remove slop resulted in a serviceable machine.
Logged

grendel

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,948
  • Location: Canterbury, Kent, UK
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #8 on: March 25, 2020, 12:30:51 pm »

I see a unimat 3 poking into the bottom of that picture, mine has had the motor replaced with a 24v scooter motor and a 24v power supply, meaning i can run it continuously now
Logged

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2020, 01:35:27 pm »

That was one my friend bought from ebay, it cost him a lot more than mine, but his is a lot more precise than mine.
Logged

Baldrick

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,414
  • Model Boat Mayhem is Great!
  • Location: Nether Effingham (Perfideous Albion)
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2020, 04:26:12 pm »

  Got 3 of em,, great so long as you don't cook the little motor .   Have an SL set up as a circular saw , a 3 set up permanently as a vertical mill and the other 3 for turning I keep under the bench .  That home made job of yours is ingenious , interesting cos I also use my digital vernier as as a readout, stuck on with a couple of magnets.
Have been looking out for a good used Cowells ME90 
Logged
And everyone thought it was IVAN who was terrible

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #11 on: March 25, 2020, 04:40:09 pm »

My verniers are attached with small brackets that can move if you move past their limits. I can do end boring too, by repositioning my cutter onto a bracket that fits in the vice, it needs to be set up for each different operation so is a bit time consuming.
Logged

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #12 on: March 25, 2020, 04:42:37 pm »

In the photo, its actually set up for end boring. I now have a 3 jaw chuck on it, the only actual outlay since it became a lathe.
Logged

chipchase

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 932
  • Location: Northumberland
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #13 on: March 25, 2020, 05:29:59 pm »

I wouldn’t like to guess how many Elastoplast’s have come in handy

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #14 on: March 25, 2020, 05:51:11 pm »

Only one, and that was on the unimat
Logged

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2020, 08:06:15 pm »

I am still trying to work out if you meant the lathe is dangerous, or me?
Logged

Terry

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 207
  • Location: Ebenfurth Austria
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #16 on: March 26, 2020, 09:09:33 am »

Here is my home made lathe, made from a bench drill and a cross slide vice, works well after some adjustments. I used it mainly for making wheels for my mini race cars. It handled aluminium and brass with no problems, nylon was really easy to work with on it. I had the bench drill and vice for years before I had the idea of fitting them together. Some adjustments to remove slop resulted in a serviceable machine.


That is real "outside of the box" thinking, or should it be Boxford thinking   {-) {-) {-)
Logged

NoNuFink

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 106
  • Model Boat Mayhem is Great!
  • Location: Hemel Hempstead
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #17 on: March 26, 2020, 09:12:39 am »

These are my two but neither is my own invention.  I can't remember where I got the ideas from - just hope it wasn't this forum.  Even if it was they may be useful reminders to somebody.

No 1 Peg clamp.  Two wooden clothes pegs epoxied together and the shape modified with a saw to produce a pag clamp with double the capacity

No 2 Mini power sander.  A cheap (approx £7) Wilko electric toothbrush.  Cut off the bristles.  Epoxy a wooden disc to the head and then double sided tape a disc of sandpaper to the wooden disc.

Logged

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #18 on: March 26, 2020, 12:07:17 pm »

Think I might make one of your sanders next time the kids get new toothbrushes.
Logged

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #19 on: March 29, 2020, 08:48:47 am »

Made another couple of wee sanders to use in my tug, and 100 other things in future., hopefully. 😁
Logged

chipchase

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 932
  • Location: Northumberland
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #20 on: March 29, 2020, 09:40:08 am »

I am still trying to work out if you meant the lathe is dangerous, or me?
LOL

RST

  • Guest
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #21 on: April 05, 2020, 12:37:40 am »

I tried the whole sander from a toothbrush thing but they weere all naff.  Bit like a DIY static grass aplicator for model railways,  BUT great use for an old used electric toothbrush as a paint shaker!...
Logged

NoNuFink

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 106
  • Model Boat Mayhem is Great!
  • Location: Hemel Hempstead
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #22 on: April 05, 2020, 06:49:34 pm »

 :-)) :-)) :-))


My sander works OK but I applaud the paint shaker.
Logged

Andy M

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,504
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #23 on: April 08, 2020, 06:18:58 pm »

My powerfile died a while ago, it had its last gasp and started smoking, so I opened it up for a look and had it in a box for a while. An 18v motor from a little motorbike, which never ran. Turns out its perfect size for frankenfile. I am running it on 12v as a static sander, its pretty heavy! I thought a out brackets and bolting but settled on large but carefully applied blobs of hotglue gradually building up to the structural attachments it has now. Two dead things brought back as a balsa tool. Running it on 12v gives a nice speed.
Logged

RST

  • Guest
Re: Home made tools
« Reply #24 on: April 09, 2020, 12:16:15 am »

Hi Andy,
Did you ever see this?  It's old but I was always amazed Bosch actually made them (I still can't think of a use!), but converting to IC out of spare bits should be no issue for you LoL.
https://youtu.be/c1X3-5uD8aE

Quote
My sander works OK but I applaud the paint shaker.
...thank you.  I was very impressed untill the 'tother night -it doesn't like full tinlets and seemed to strip all the mechanisms. ""xxxxx""

Logged
Pages: [1] 2   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.094 seconds with 22 queries.