[cboy]

Originally Posted by OLNOLAN

Sir, You have the patience of a Saint and the eye of an Artist, awesome.

Or as my wife would say...a certified, grade A, tightwad.

[OLNOLAN]

Originally Posted by cboy

Or as my wife would say...a certified, grade A, tightwad.

Mine says I'm so tight, I squeak instead of farting. olnolan

[CalmLikeAbomb]

Two years ago I couldnt find a breaker bar anywhere so pulled the handle bars off of my little sisters razor scooter. still haven't bought a breaker bar...

[MRGM]

this may be considered a tool...maybe.

had a bedroom dresser laying around, put casters on it, now it is a movable workstation. The 9 drawers are nice and roomy. Put down those rubber shelving mats and all is well. Top sits about 36" above floor, perfect for me.

My shop is a mess, saw dust, and drywall dust. Just added an office and of coarse law of displacement. Have to find another area for a lot of stuff.

[trees]

OK, some promised pics of my big home made tool. We started with two rear hubs/cross member from a couple of 80s K cars, some scrap metal, 4 throw away tires, and a spindle and rotor and a steel rim, all free stuff. We cut and welded up the top rail and then added the risers at the corners. We then welded the first cross member to the rear risers. In the front, we welded in a spacer to give the same height to the front as the rear. We welded the spindle to the spacer and then welded the rim to the other cross member, giving us a steerable wagon. Some scrap 1 inch pipe was used to make the tongue for steering. This thing rolls very easy, can turn 360* in the space of itself or the item loaded on it, which ever is the largest. I don't know how many frames and bodies have been completed on this tool. It has been used to transport a 66 Mustang body in the back of a horse trailer. It was used by a local body shop to assist in swapping bodies on a wrecked and a flooded Suburban. They liked it so well, they used it around their shop until we needed it again.

Trees

[MARTINSR]

That is a hell of nice cart! What a neat idea. Getting the thing up for your body work takes a heck of a lot of wear from the back doesn't it?

Very nice!

Brian

[MRGM]

im stealing that idea

[OLNOLAN]

Originally Posted by trees

You guys make me feel like taking my stool and dunce cap to the corner and face the walls!!! Great ideals that I will just have to copy!!! I'll get a shot of my big tool (PG 13) and post tonight.

Trees

"BIG TOOL" Thats a big tool all right. I'm gonna post my big tool soon, be watching for it (PG-13) olnolan

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by cboy

So after doing a little reading on the subject, I headed out to the woods and took down a dying oak tree to make these metal forming stumps. I cut mine at about 36" tall so they are at a comfortable workbench height. Then I cut and formed various shapes into the top and sides of each stump (I made three altogether). These shapes are then used as a form or solid backing to hammer the metal against. Hopefully the pictures will explain the usefullness of this addition to my "crude tool" collection.

You're something else Dewey!

Brian

[cboy]

Originally Posted by trees

OK, some promised pics of my big home made tool.

The "Big Tool" was well worth waiting to see. That's got to be very handy in many many ways.

[OLNOLAN]

Hey Ya'll, Here's my big tool I promised. Its a big shaft. Ok, for the hot rod boat folks, it's an engine alignment tool for Mercruiser stern drives. Cost: one 12 pack of Budwieser to my machinist buddy to turn a scrap piece of shaft stock. This one only has the small step for Alpha drives, the Merc tool has two steps for different engine couplers. Total length 22" x 1.375", first step
2 1/4" long & 1.010" dia.--second step 2 3/4'' long & 1.150" dia.

[OLNOLAN]

Here is another; the smog quadrajets have the plugged idle mixture screws. Once you get the plugs out, then you have to deal with a recessed tamper proof screw. I've run into torx style and the flat blade style. I used an old brass vacuum fitting, filed a flat groove to fit the idle mixture screw. I later crimped it onto an old GM points adjusting tool for flexability. Cost $0.00

[67Mustang Al.]

Originally Posted by OLNOLAN

Here is another; the smog quadrajets have the plugged idle mixture screws. Once you get the plugs out, then you have to deal with a recessed tamper proof screw. I've run into torx style and the flat blade style. I used an old brass vacuum fitting, filed a flat groove to fit the idle mixture screw. I later crimped it onto an old GM points adjusting tool for flexability. Cost $0.00

while the Mustang is wating for its body to shine again i have found a new use for the 347. Chev enthusiasts would say thats all the Ford is good for.

[crussell85]

these are all great tool ideas!! I think I like the tubing bender the most, but cboy doesn't the tube ever want to pull up in the center and not shape to the board or does it just roll right around. How heavy of tube do you think you could roll that way?

[cboy]

Originally Posted by crussell85

... but cboy doesn't the tube ever want to pull up in the center and not shape to the board or does it just roll right around. How heavy of tube do you think you could roll that way?

I didn't have any trouble with the center lifting up but that might be due to the size and shape of the particular curves I was bending (long, relatively gentle curves). The roadster rear quarter curves were the only bends I made using this technique so I can't guarantee it would work as well with other shapes. And I'm quite certain this technique would not work for really tight of sharp bends. The tubing would kink up as you suggest. That is the reason I had to come up with the bending die for my HF bender - also shown above - to make tighter and sharper bends.

Also, if you read the journal section I linked to, you'll find that there IS one other limitation for the come-a-long bender. No matter how hard you pull the tubing tight to the curve pattern, it will retain a bit of it's memory and want to straighten out a bit. So the last bit of bend, to fit the pattern perfectly, has to be coaxed into the tubing some other way. I used my Harbor Freight pipe bender in very small increments to do this. Another option would be to cut a second pattern out of particle board which would have a smaller radius and then over bend the tubing (put a little too much curve in). Then lay the tubing back on the correctly sized pattern and clamp or hammer it down around the curve to fit perfectly.

One final note regarding this bender. My body fabrication's are far short of rocket science. The bends made with this concoction (or any of my other bending techniques for that matter) are not things of great precision. If you need something bent within tight tolerances, you may need a more professional level tool.