Custom made shop tools

[Erik the Awful]

Have you had issues cutting or drilling bed rail frame? I’ve got some in the shop that seems to be either made of ar500 or is work hardening

Yup, bed rail is hard stuff. I had to drill some the other day and dulled two bits before I grabbed my "hardened steel only" bit set. The Bosch bits are the best I've found, but at $60 for a set, I only use them on hardened stuff. I'll chew up Harbor Freight bits all day on the softer stuff.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Q64LTFB

 

[Moparmat2000]

Today I welded together the "nuclear bomb proof" paper towel holder. A simple clevis pin will hold the one end on. Paint is still drying. The plastic piece o poop in the pix dropped a roll of paper towels on my head for the last time today while I was working on major shop cleanup. I got mad, and this was the result. That plastic junk is going right in the trash can.

 

[Moparmat2000]

Probably a bit overboard with the clevis pin idea. The metal tube doesnt even spin.

 

[Moparmat2000]

I am selling out of my turbo mopar stuff, but heres special tools I had made to do the jobs years ago.

The 5 bolt crank sprocket puller /adaptor i made from 1/2" plate steel so a regular harmonic balancer puller could be used. Looks factory made, but I assure you this thing was home made.

I cut grooves in an old 11mm head bolt to make a thread chaser that wont damage the block threads like a tap can.

I cut the tops off 2 old head bolts, rounded them and cut screwdriver slots in them. Cylinder head guides when dropping a head back on the engine with cam, intake, exhaust and turbo still attached.

The bar with 2 pins is a cam and intermediate sprocket holder bar, so the sprocket bolts can be tightened and torqued or loosened and removed.

The funny looking red thing with the stainless steel strips on it clamps into a vise. You mount your steering column to it and it can be dissassembled and reassembled with it sitting bolt upright without it rolling all over the place. The tilt column in these is identical to GM vehicles so much so that GM tilt wheel tools work on these lol.

The clear template is for making new foam gaskets needed when pressing in wheel bearing assembly in the steering knuckles.

When you rebuild transmissions. Save the old bearing inner and outer races on your trans are rear axle rebuilds. That's what's in the box from the FWD transaxle I rebuilt. These act as "pusher mandrels" in a press to install new bearings.

The angle with 5 holes in it, and 2 long bolts is for pulling the intermediate gears on the transaxle.

Now granted these are for FWD mopar turbo cars specifically, but theres a lot of ideas here that can be adapted for other vehicles.

 

[Moparmat2000]

Some more. A quick on the fly made pilot bearing puller when I had the trans out I couldent get the needle bearing out. The rounded bolt fits through and hooks at the front. When you tighten the nut it pulls the bearing out of the back of the crank.

The other 2 are just heavy gage steel tubes for pressing in control arm bushings. The smaller one supports the arm from behind so a bearing press can push a bushing in. The larger supports the arm when pushing the old bushings and shells out.

 

[Moparmat2000]

An old supervisor of mine told me one time, if you dont break a tool once in a while or mess up once in a while, then your not actually working.

 

[Orpedcrow]

An old supervisor of mine told me one time, if you dont break a tool once in a while or mess up once in a while, then your not actually working.

I work an awful lot then

 

[Moparmat2000]

PSA for Y'all. Harbor freight is having a 20% off sale for fathers day weekend. Now really the angle and straight die grinders from there are great. I can get 3-4 years out of a $19 die grinder using it daily at work and never even oil it lol. When it gets the death rattle I bring it home, and run it in my shop till it pops. The other thing is wrenches. Oh sure at work I have SK, Snap on, and Craftsman. I make my living with them after all. But at home I got some mix matched craftsman and a bunch of china freight. I have used hammers and cheater pipes on the china freight wrenches. Never broke any of them. The best part is if you lose one in the junkyard, you dont really care. I picked up a 22 piece polished smooth side combo set of metric and SAE to add to my home shop for $15.99 yesterday lol. Good enough for hobby shop work, and you dont care if you have to cut or grind on them either. They have a metric / SAE shorty combo set for $13.99 regular price since the coupon is online at www.harborfreight.com I just screen shot it, and will go there today and hit em again. They got a stubby wrench SAE metric combo for $13.99 regular price. This puts em at about $12 with sales tax LOL. Happy fathers day to me!!

 

[Erik the Awful]

I'm 1 for 3 on the $19 grinders, and I don't buy them any more. On the other hand, the Bauers aren't much more expensive, and far better quality. The only upside to the $19 grinders is that they're so lightweight and easy to handle.

 

[Moparmat2000]

I'm 1 for 3 on the $19 grinders, and I don't buy them any more. On the other hand, the Bauers aren't much more expensive, and far better quality. The only upside to the $19 grinders is that they're so lightweight and easy to handle.

I look for the ones with the bronse bushing guide pressed in where the pin is under the trigger. Those tend to last longer, also with the angled ones dont freewheel them full throttle, always have em under a load when cutting or grinding, or the gears wear out prematurely. The 2 at home have had the death rattle in them for awhile. Have not popped yet. Ones at work are now 3 years old. These all were $15 cheapies on sale.