A new welding/cutting bench that collects all the slag. I now have a sheetmetal back and sides on it , so the sparks are contained. I can weld in my shorts, without getting burnt!!

(Great idea about the engine stand- I almost bought a roll around cart to hold tools while working on the car!!)

 

My "Rolling Work Center" is pretty handy...

As are both of my Chassis Jig Tables...

 

Good stuff...
The welding bench is great. Problem is EVERYTHING I have ends up on any flat space. How do you keep it clean?

Astroracer - I'm glad you included an electrical outlet on your mobile cabinet. What kind of countertop. I always add a piece of masonite as a throw-away when it gets too messed up.

Lets see more...

49 T&C

 

49-
See the spacing on the angle? EVERYTHING falls in between ! LOL

 

no pic but I cut up a file and a C clamp and welded them together to compress the pistons on my brakes since they spin when they go in.

 

I just put some metal screen over a fifty gallon drum to weld on. Yours is a little fancier.

 

Love the welding table.

I made a rack for my air tools out of some scrap I had laying around. The cover is hinged to allow access. When lowered it does a pretty good job of keeping the dust out of the fittings.

I also make a cycle lift. All of the ones that I could find for sale were portable, but not with the bike in place. Considering my wife's insistence on parking her car where my bike should be, this was a necessity. The end pieces are attached with only four bolts each. It only takes a few min to put them in place or remove them. One end is operated by a scissor jack, and the other uses a trailer jack to allow some steering.

 

Heist yourself a few shopping carts.They kick butt.The only one I know I have left is the engine dolly one.They can also be fabbed into a welding cart{I think I still have mine around somewhere},as well as a tranny dolly that allows you to roll trainnies under cars and then allows you to get a floor jack under them to put them in place.If I can take a pick of the engine dolly tommorrow I will post it.
You need some cheap stairs to load stuff into the loft of that rental garage that you would never really invest money into,try zip tieing a bunch of milk crates together then drywall screwing a few sheets of scrap wood onto them as treads.The scrap wood adds strength too.Just make sure the zip ties are the heavy duty ones.I got that one from my dad who was the first one in his boat club to pioneer them as a means of getting from the dock onto his boat which sits at least 5 feet higher then the dock.Now it seems everybody in the club has them.

Here are some pics of some homemade stuff.The pic of the engine dolly is obvious.If you look at the boat pic,look near the rear of the boat,those stairs are actually 6 milk crates tied together with indoor outdoor carpet over them.we dont need to get that fancy.The idea works though.

 

I've got a number of special tools that I've made, mainly for transmission and differential work. Semi transmissions are a real challange to assemble and keep phased correctly. I did some spacers with parts of old bearings and bolts to let me place all the shafts perfectly and swap one spacer at a time for new bearings. Some of that kind of stuff is never found in a tool catalog or is priced way out of reach

 

My dad made a welding table. Flat as can be and level as anything. Made a valve spring compressor out of slotted flat 1/2 inch thick metal.

 

Yeah MeanGreen, after buying a fancy spring compressor which was a piece of cr$p, I made a simple one out of angle iron which works very well.

 

I made the spring compressor to end all spring compressors.when I first built my firebird,I made the mistake of not putting new valvesprings in the used heads when I freshened the engine.I broke a few springs early on but was too lazy to change them all.I was drivng the car to the track on a friday night{35 miles to Englishtown},and about half way down on the turnpike it started missing.I pulled off the next exit and into a goodyear service center.I asked them if any of them had a valve spring compresor and they said no.I asked them if they had anything that I could use as a prybar to cange valvesprings and they handed me a piece of heavy duty piano style door hinge.I made a few calls and got one of my friends to go to my shop and pick up some valve springs to bring down to me.I used a 5/8" wrench locked crooked around the rocker arm nut with the chunk of door hinge as an extention to the lever.We used a long skinny screwdrive that I bent over a parking stop to use to hold the valve up and in 10 minutes we did 4 valve springs and were on our way to the races.The manager at the Goodyear stared in utter amazement at what we were doing.The sad part was that I owned a truck and trailer to tow my car,but figured that since my truck was as loud and obnoxious as my race car and had no air conditioning or anything that would have made the trip more comfortable,I was just as well of driving my car.I never made that mistake again.

 

These are two tools that I personally fabricated. The standard model on the left and the one on the right is for more complex work.

 

LOL

Hard to master those? Looks like it might take some practice to get the skills up.

 

whatdja make?

My shop is geared more at machining and weld/fab steel and aluminum, but I have built a hydraulic shear that will handle 3/8" by 48" steel, plus it has a punch press included that can handle 1" holes in 1/2" plate. I also built two metal brakes, first one was 48" capacity on 1/4" steel, newest model is capable of 3/8" by 96" I also machined all the dies for this brake out of 3" solid 4140 steel. Took more than 20 hours of work on my Cinncinnati #4 horizontal mill to do this, but it was a hell of a lot cheaper than buying new! Unfortunately, I am a better designer/builder than computer expert, so until I figure out how to post photos, this will have to do.

 

Hey MI2600 - I've got a left handed one of those - couldn't work without them... My neighbor has got a Whitworth set...

49 T&C

 

Gosh, 49, I didn't know about the English Whitworth models. I'll have to do some more research.

You never have enough tools!

All joshing aside, some good ideas above. I like the air tool hanger.

 

Air Tool hanger is really neat. Did you buy a quantity of connectors or is there something else?

49 T&C

 

Hi
Heres a pretty basic toolchest trolly, its a must for large work spaces, its fabbed from 3mm angle iron and cost about30 bucks to make.

Cheers RobbieRat

 

Howdy,
I've been workin' on an engine that was stout enough to hold a BBC motor. I've got about 5hrs of my time and spent about $50 for the steel wheels and gdr8 hardware. The steel was misc scrap from the shop. I still need to finish the mounting plate and paint it.

 

49 T&C

Air Tool hanger is really neat. Did you buy a quantity of connectors or is there something else?

There are no other connectors than the quick disconnect fittings on all of the tools. The slots are cut into the angle so that the narrow portion of the fitting slides in between. The flare at the end of the fitting keeps it from falling through. I'll get a pic with the cover open tomorrow that shows what I mean.

Sorry that took so long, came down with a wicked case of the flu.

 

Here's a blast cabinet I'm just finishing. The first one had a flat front but I couldn't look down into the cabinet so I cut it just like the "real ones." Now I just have a couple of finishing touches to add.

Here's the inside. I covered the chute with aluminim so the medium would slide out.

 

Two idle engine stands + a little scrap steel = car rotator

 

Grinder stand?

Anybody whip up a decent,cheap and quick to build grinder stand?
I'm looking for some ideas!!
Thanks
Mike

 

Re: Grinder stand?

Anybody whip up a decent,cheap and quick to build grinder stand?
I'm looking for some ideas!!
Thanks
Mike

Well casing and two flat pieces of steel. Lag to floor.