Tips & tricks, uses for non tool items. Re-purposing, and home made tools

[rdn2blazer]

I though I'd start a Tips & Tricks thread here in the tool forum with any kind of brain storming ideas we all might have. I had to hand truck dolly something up onto my porch. I could have just pulled the load up the steps, but saw my sons little plastic scooter ramp and used it instead. It was sooo much less work and effort vs pulling the hand truck up the steps.

Sooo, post up what you've done with pictures of items you've custom built or used in a cool manor other then it's intended use. I have a few more I'll share since I've been re-organizing my shop/garage.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Here is another cool other use idea. You can use a universal water spigot wrench to drive taps when hand tapping a hole. I've had this for most of my machining career and have used it a million times if I've used it once. It has four square drives for 4 different sizes of squares. I found out many years ago it fit a fairly large selection of taps. Cool thing is you can use it in a drill to power tap a hole too. Of course you can just as easily chuck on the tap shank too, but this allows for a quicker tap change to a bottom tap that you can power into the hole and get close to the bollom before you have to hand tap it to the bottom. And with the cross bar you can put leverage tubes for larger taps to drive easier too.

And it works great with a tap block too to hand tap holes straight. Once you get a few full threads in you can remove the tap block and tap the hole as deep as necessary. I have a million custom machinist tools to make jobs easier that you can not buy. Tools machinists make themselves. I'll be manufactruing some of these custom tools to sell at some point too. Can make things easier for all you guys too.

 

[sokoloka]

The water spigot wrench idea is amazing! THANK YOU.

 

[rdn2blazer]

The book, "Standard Handbook of Fastening and Joining".


If you call your self a builder, then you NEED this book. I have a first edition and would like a new third edition book as well. Will pick it up soon. It's very interesting, a great book. Going to make my son read it for extra credit either at school when and if necessary, or here at home for a way to teach him cool things he can use in life throughout his life. Enjoy. A home stedder would kill for this book.



http://www.amazon.com/Standard-Handbook-Fastening-Joining-Parmley/dp/0070485895

 

[rdn2blazer]

Since I've been cleaning and re-organizing my shop/garage I though I'd post up some more things I've used to re-purpose or custom make into something else. Its a sickness. I get rid of nothing that can be used for something else....within reason. No, I am not a horder by any means .

Here is my 50ft airhose I coil and hang. It gets used but not like my 25ft hose. So one day my son tosses his old and too small roller blade skates in the junk get rid of pile. I grabbed them and pulled the wheels off which had plenty of life in them. I used two to replace two worn out wheels on another riding toy he has.

I'm saving the other wheels if I need a roller wheel in the garage for some reason. But I also cut off the Velcro straps on the skates themselves. This is what I wrap my hose with now. It's adjustable since it's two pieces. I've used it for other purposes too, but now this will be it's home.

I like to wrap my air hoses because if you hang more then one together, and quickly try and remove just one, you inevitably grab a coil or two of the hose you DO NOT want and it becomes a tangled pita sometimes, so, I wrap all my hoses. Not electrical cords though. They hang indivually on their own hooks.

 

[xenomarine]

I screw 5 gallon buckets to my garage wall. I coil hoses and wire around them, makes for an easy removal and you also have room for storage of tools or other crap inside.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Uses for random foam. We use this type foam at work and some guys like to use this as a form of holding items and tools and pens and pencils. I just had these two blocks of foam so I used one for a few sharpie pens and pencils and an X-acto knife so I don't have to run to my tool box where I have my main stash of X-acto knife's and blades. And one for one of my sets of cheapo machinist's files. It's nice cause things don't fall out. If these were larger I would have taper cut the edges for stability, not that that tip over easy at all. You have to knoch them over so they work great. Keeps things from rolling off a work bench.

 

[rdn2blazer]

I screw 5 gallon buckets to my garage wall. I coil hoses and wire around them, makes for an easy removal and you also have room for storage of tools or other crap inside.

Intersting idea! I could see that for large quantity items with the need for quick access. Nice! Thank you. Keep'um coming

 

[rdn2blazer]

I THINK I'VE WON FINALLY! And it was only a $4 dollar fix! against these damn birds that have apparently been nesting in the rain gutters in our patio awning for a long time, because they've been back every year since buying our house four years ago. So my fix was finally figured out with of all things....Noodles. No, not the kind ya eat, but the kind you play with in a swimming pool.

I had to come up with some way to block their access and tried several different things that didn't work. So I told my woman to go to the dollar store and pick up a cheap small nerf type football so see if I could stuff it into the openings. It worked, but at about 78 openings to block, thats A LOT of made in china footballs to buy! No thanks. So I said to also pick up a noodle, maybe it would fit and I could cut it up and push them in. Sure enough it works!. Little bastards CAN'T get in now .

Also, these are awesome for uses all over the place. I'm using some for padding on some areas in the garage that are head knocker spots. It's all padded now. I just split it down the center and wrap it around things just like roll cage padding. And this stuff is a dollar a length so it's CHEAP. ANd the fact it's bright colors makes you see the danger spots too. I just built a shelf and used this on the entire leading edge. It also keeps things from rolling off shelves too.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Ink pen rubber grips work on 1/4 extentions too, makes for a good grip like knurling and if you use a bright color it makes it easier to see in your tool box too. You may have to find just the right size. Some are tighter then others. When they are tight to get on they work great.

 

[BadDog]

Nice. I made parts with my son's (and my) old inline skates too. About 2 years back, I turned down a worn out wheel and made a guide for the big sliding gate leading to my back yard. Before that, it just slid in an upper channel, metal on rusty metal. Lots of uses, and I have a box full...

 

[munepit]

Good ideas and a great thread!

 

[rdn2blazer]

This Ingersol Rand right angle air grinder is the best I've ever had. It's my goto grinder most times. I've had it close to 20 years maybe, hell maybe even longer? Really have no idea, but it's been a looooong time. Spicific reason why this is such a good grinder is it's collet type. It's not your typical crappy air grinder collet, seen pictured below 2nd pic, but a precision type collet.

It uses the exact same type collets that are used in precision machining. They're not THE best precision type collets for mill work, but for this type tool it gives you WAAAY more then a good collet system. It gives you versatility in the range of sizes you can drill and since it's a small air tool as compared to a cordless drill or even a right angle cordless or even corded right angle drills for that matter.

And because it's an air tool it spins way up in RPM in the range tiny drills are ment to be drilled at. I've used this in my aerospace and aircraft trade building aircraft seats and for years at home fabricating things too. I've got fair amount of collets for this type system. Shown are some of the collet holder extensions used in a mill when necessary. Exactly the same.

 

[rdn2blazer]

The Roly kit. Great storage. I've had mine for 30 years. They still make them. Bought mine used for like 10 bucks when I was 16 or 17.

http://www.rolykit.nl/Company/original.html

 

[rdn2blazer]

Moving a heavy plate. I used just some random extra caster I have laying around to move this 120 some odd pound 1 555/8 thick plate Aluminum, measuring 16" X 44". I just C clamped two to one end of the plate. It rolls around by picking up the other end of course just like a dolly. They roll perfectly at a certain angle at a comfortable level for your arms to be at. I need to finish cutting this in two. It's two different sizes of sub plates for the cnc mill. One will mount to the mill table and one will be a vise mountable sub plate for quick install and removal. These will get a pattern of drilled and tapped holes for fixturing work for machining.

 

[rdn2blazer]

With as busy as I've been I've had no time to post anything for some time. Shop pics to come soon.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Clean & Oil your steel welding table(s).

I've had both my bare metal welding table and jig and fixture table for about 15 years now and have never had them rust. I little with montsh of neglect, but when I do see it staret to form I jump on getting it cleaned up.

First I sweep it, make sure no debris is just sitting on it. Then I spray WD40 or any kind of penatrating oil you want to use and coat the table and a couple fresh fairly new or brand new Skotch brite pads for scuffing. Then it's wax on and wax off with some good elbow grease for a good amount of time, and I go over the entire table surface, not just the light surface rust spots.

Then I'll wipe all the dirty oil off. Then I wipe with the surface with a clean rag for about four rags to get as much rusty oil off as possible. Then I clean the table top two times with 91% alcohol to help leach out any dirty rusty oils still soaked into the metal. I then wipe it again with clean rags until the rags are clean. Then I re-oil it with clean oil and wipe it off until it "feels" clean, but with your fingers you still feel something. Not greasy or wet, but oiled.

This will last for a hell of a long time without rusting again. I HIGHLY recommend doing this to preserve your welding tables or whatever steel table you have. Unless Rust is your thing of course .

 

[rdn2blazer]

Clean up coming out nicely. Only takes about 30 mins. Re-oiled and wiped back off, cleaned and stoned too so there's no raised material, but still very flat surface.

 

[rdn2blazer]

These small parts from Harbor Freight tool are actually very quality storage containers. I love the small storage cups that are removable. I use a sheet of thin 1/4 foam in top of my tiny washer container just in case, it helps seal all the removable cups. Never have lost a washer even when flipping this all around. I took some of the cups out of the containers for the tool tray on my parts washer. Now I have a larger container I can use if necessary. They run $5.99 reg price, but can be gotten on sale for 3.19 when on sale and after another 20 or 25% coupon is used. I've bought 7 so far and want a few more. Great storage from HF.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Vacume the garage??? WTF? , yep thats what I said, vacume the garage. When my mom died I of course have her nice Hoover she had. We have a bad ass vacume (not a dyson) but wasn't going to just get rid of a good vacume. So I decuded to keep it for the garage. Now that my isle in the garage are actually clean and clear from all the re-organizing I've done, Now I can actually keep the wind blown in dust down to a minimum by just vacuming the shop isles every few day or whenever I want now. Did it last night fore the very first time. Stoked!