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

[rdn2blazer]

Wow! what great attitude.....my hat is off to you and even though we may never meet face to face.......my thoughts and prayers go out to you!

Also if you get all your stuff organized and get bored, feel free to come and do all of mine! I have a full blown machine shop already. It would be like you were in heaven without the prerequisite......

Keep up the good work and fight the good fight!

Thank you for the kind words . Very much appreciated. Only way you can will survive is with this kind of attitude. Don't get me wrong, I have my low points and moments, but thats in those private moments, you allow yourself to feel for a moment then you tighten your boots tight and keep on truckin. My family is of course my main motivator and a dream doesn't hurt either.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Tape dispencer setup I brainstormed last night on the fly in my shop in about three minutes from idea to done. Love this stuff.

The previous owner of our home had shelving up in the garage before we bought it and I still use one of them over my tool boxes. I don't have a good place for tape. Tape is a pain in the but if you don't have several large capacity tape dispencer, and I don't. So it gets put on a shelf for some time only to usually be moved again and again and again.

So I think I found a good home for my tape, and I can put a crap ton of tape up like this setup allows. This may work for you if you have a similar shelving setup possibly . I used a length of 1/4 all thread rod but would rather use a piece of 1/4 solid rod so the tape can slide off the rod easier, and be removed from the hole easier. Looks like I need some utility stainless steel 1/4 304 rod now.

Anyways, I hung my tape under this shelf by just drilling two holes in the shelf support boards far and aft, in line with one another. The hole on the back shelf support I slotted with the drill bit that drilled the hole in the vertical position only tilting the drill down. This allows the rod to droop once the near end of the rod is removed from the hole on the front shelf support board. Pictures are I think pretty self explanatory.

I also will be adding a hacksaw blade as a serator blade for the tape, just like a regular tape dispenser has. Thats in the works, havent gotten that far yet. Benifits are it holds a lot of tape. Will be eventually be able to be dispenced with a cutter blade. Any roll of tape can be easily removed or installed by removing either end of the rod and sliding only half the rolls off, vs a single end only removability. I have access to the backside of the shelf too by the width of a 2x4 if I need to push it forward to remove the back end of the rod.

This type of idea is just about inginuity. I love this type of stuff. Hope noone is minding the pic whoring. Not enough pictures get posted in threads imo. Hell I'll post a pic as often as possible . But I'm gonna make you read all my crap too . What'cha think?

 

[rdn2blazer]

My little bud patiently waiting to play lol! LOVE this damn dog. Of course, he's no dummy. He knows thats an really soft thing and feeld good to lay on vs concrete. I lay it out for him pretty much everyday. It's fast becomming his to lay on when I'm in the shop working. He loves it lol.

 

[rdn2blazer]

A seal removal tool.

When I was doing the clutch on my kids Kawasaki KX65 2 stroker I had to remove a seal and the only way was to pry. But this for sure would have caused damage to the aluminum clutch housing. I don't even know how any puller would have worked either. Nothing on center to push from. So I made this plate out of an old washer. The OD & ID were perfect, all I had to do was match the housing shape. I sharpie marked it and went to the disc grinder and widdled out this plate.

It's a permanant tool for as long as we own this bike and the clutch gets replaced. It's actually what protects the housing. It fits snugly and firmly in the machined housing and removed super easily once done prying the seal out with a seal pry tool, like the one I have and used. It may work for my KX100 too. Nothing to do with trucks or anything that would help someone here, but just sharing to encourage any and all to think, use your immagination.

 

[rdn2blazer]

A simple hard stop settable, adjustable universal tool. A shaft collar and a length of rod the same ID and the bore of the shaft collar. Can be set like the combination square with calipers to the thousandth for hole depth measuring and whatever you want to use it for.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Super easy and fast Ultrasonic Cleaner setup.

I wipped up this Ultrasonic cleaner in a couple minutes yesterday to clean some small parts that were gummed up. I just used s medicine bottle as the container to soak the parts in, in 91% Alcohol. I taped this bottle to a vibe pencil for etching tools, whatever. I taped it to a hard surface for maximum vibe effect. It worked flawlessly. Now I have a simple idea for a larger tub capacity too.

Use a larger flat bottomed aluminum pan resting on supports at all four corners. Have these supports just slightly shorter by probably .020/.030 max then the vibe pencil housing or body is, resting on a flat surface. Put the vibe pencil in the center of the pan area so as it touches the vibe pencil, the weight of the pan will flex the unsupported center of the pan until it contacts the four supports.

Fill it with your favorite cleaning solution, and watch it ultrosonic clean. I have not tried this one yet, but believe it will possibly work, and want to give it a try. The smaller version worked. We will see... If it does or doesn't I will post it of course. I don't have the need right now for this setup. Anybody else do this though post up your results please.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Thin machinist's scales in 100th's.

These are awesome for accurately measuring around things since they flex really good. One of the most used tools in a machinist's box believe it or not. For many other purposes too. Screw driver, scraper, debur tool, etc.

 

[Stein]

Super easy and fast Ultrasonic Cleaner setup.

I wipped up this Ultrasonic cleaner in a couple minutes yesterday to clean some small parts that were gummed up. I just used s medicine bottle as the container to soak the parts in, in 91% Alcohol. I taped this bottle to a vibe pencil for etching tools, whatever. I taped it to a hard surface for maximum vibe effect. It worked flawlessly. Now I have a simple idea for a larger tub capacity too.

Use a larger flat bottomed aluminum pan resting on supports at all four corners. Have these supports just slightly shorter by probably .020/.030 max then the vibe pencil housing or body is, resting on a flat surface. Put the vibe pencil in the center of the pan area so as it touches the vibe pencil, the weight of the pan will flex the unsupported center of the pan until it contacts the four supports.

Fill it with your favorite cleaning solution, and watch it ultrosonic clean. I have not tried this one yet, but believe it will possibly work, and want to give it a try. The smaller version worked. We will see... If it does or doesn't I will post it of course. I don't have the need right now for this setup. Anybody else do this though post up your results please.

I'd bet my brass tumbler could do double duty seeing as it's used rarely for it's intended purpose. Not filling it with liquid directly but inserting several containers that would fit inside.

 

[rdn2blazer]

I'd bet my brass tumbler could do double duty seeing as it's used rarely for it's intended purpose. Not filling it with liquid directly but inserting several containers that would fit inside.

Yep, worth a try. Great idea, and I have a small tube vibe tumbler too. I WILL do the same when needed, Thanks!

 

[rdn2blazer]

Ha, I even found an old picture of when I was working on the rectangle tube bumper showing the use of a wallet chain to hold up the stinger mockup rod too.

 

[A1971Blazer]

My little bud patiently waiting to play lol! LOVE this damn dog. Of course, he's no dummy. He knows thats an really soft thing and feeld good to lay on vs concrete. I lay it out for him pretty much everyday. It's fast becomming his to lay on when I'm in the shop working. He loves it lol.

Here's my shop buddies ......I can't recall how I got all of them to pose...hot dog maybe?

 

[rdn2blazer]

Thats an AWESOME picture! Not an easy task to get them all to even get all in the same area and sit still I'd bet. How many takes? lol. Only a hot dog! Wow they bribe cheap lol. Haven't owned a dog in about 25 years since my last, and never owned a Boxer. I'll never one any other breed after this guy. He is such an awesome and smart dog. And man what a cuddle bug . Big damn baby that has all us wrapped around his paw . HUGE Love for our dog. Going to kill all of us when he goes, but he's got some years to go still thank god.

 

[A1971Blazer]

Thats an AWESOME picture! Not an easy task to get them all to even get all in the same area and sit still I'd bet. How many takes? lol. Only a hot dog! Wow they bribe cheap lol. Haven't owned a dog in about 25 years since my last, and never owned a Boxer. I'll never one any other breed after this guy. He is such an awesome and smart dog. And man what a cuddle bug . Big damn baby that has all us wrapped around his paw . HUGE Love for our dog. Going to kill all of us when he goes, but he's got some years to go still thank god.

This should be a whole new thread and after this one I'll try to get back on topic...........(or rather let you)
The one in the back is CJ.....to her right is her sister Harley (R.I.P.) ....white one is "Tater"....."Sampson" is directly in front and the solid one is TJ....he was sold. Those three were litter mates.

We raised boxers for 25 tears and these are the last ones.

 

[rdn2blazer]

All beautiful looking Boxers indeed. Sorry for the loss of any. So then it's not totally insane to consider you THE CK5 resident Expert on Boxer's then, correct? . Ya'know, incase someone, or myself has got a question or something . Wow!, 25 years of breeding. Crazy dedication, but cool as hell too. And I'm SURE I have NO idea lol.



Re-rail . Back to man cave goodness .

 

[A1971Blazer]

All beautiful looking Boxers indeed. Sorry for the loss of any. So then it's not totally insane to consider you THE CK5 resident Expert on Boxer's then, correct? . Ya'know, incase someone, or myself has got a question or something . Wow!, 25 years of breeding. Crazy dedication, but cool as hell too. And I'm SURE I have NO idea lol.



Re-rail . Back to man cave goodness .

You can......or I will start another thread so's not to derail this one any further. Got some neat pictures and stories about boxers to go with them on my office computer.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Tip:

Anytime you make a cut with pretty much any type of metal hand cutter where the fragment will fly and shoot off at a rapid rate, if you can't put a hand over to catch it like most do, use a piece of tape as a "flag" before you mark your cut line. Mark right over the tape. This will keep the cut frag from flying off, then just peal the tape along with the fragment with it off your material. I did this the other day for the first time and if worked perfectly. With a free hand I usually always put my hand over to catch it. But if I don't have that free hand I'll probably do this. I hate crap all over the floor walking on metal chips and stuff.

 

[rdn2blazer]

A cool youtube vid on how to bend PVC pipe/tubing using air pressure and heat. Super simple method that can open the possibility of PVC for use for may other things. But for got sake NOT a roll cage .

 

[rdn2blazer]

My new favorite garage chemical. Lemon Pledge. I've used it to clean wood all my life. My mom used it as far back as I can remember. This stuff is awesome for making a not so slippery surface super slippery and slick. And it smells good too . Earlier in this thread I posted pics of one of my machine tables I cleaned and oiled. Well after a few days it gets a little drier then right after being freshly oiled.

So I decided to wipe it with Lemon Pledge to see what it would do. Well it seems to work awesome at a metal protector and gives a super slick slippery surface too. So I tried in on a couple other things where drag and friction was an isssue. Makes whatever you spray it on super slippery and slick as snot. I would not recommend cleaning your hand tools with it though. You will drop them MUCH easier.

 

[bigjbear]

Just a caution on the Pledge, don't use it on waxed tile floor. Not a big deal on normal household vinyl flooring, but if you use commercial type flooring (like you would see in schools or stores) in your shop, pledge makes it slippery as hell. Looks great, and seemed like it would be an easy way to clean up the place. But don't do it, unless you like finding yourself on your butt.

Love those vids you posted. I've seen a lot of metal fab over the years, both at work and for hobbies, but I've never seen anyone make their own rivets out of an old nail. Props to that dude

opti-visor

I lol-ed when I read opti-visor. I have not used one since I worked in the pattern shop. Those were some good times, and made me remember a tip. If you have old carbon steel kitchen knives you can cut them down, regrind, and sharpen into carving knives (we did a lot of carving on patterns & prototypes). I did this to a set of old steak knives I bought at yard sale for like a buck. Not sure how well it would work with stainless steel knives, but it works great with old carbon steel ones. Another benefit being those will often be rusty, so they are cheap/free.

 

[dhcomp]

My new favorite garage chemical. Lemon Pledge. I've used it to clean wood all my life. My mom used it as far back as I can remember. This stuff is awesome for making a not so slippery surface super slippery and slick. And it smells good too . Earlier in this thread I posted pics of one of my machine tables I cleaned and oiled. Well after a few days it gets a little drier then right after being freshly oiled.

So I decided to wipe it with Lemon Pledge to see what it would do. Well it seems to work awesome at a metal protector and gives a super slick slippery surface too. So I tried in on a couple other things where drag and friction was an isssue. Makes whatever you spray it on super slippery and slick as snot. I would not recommend cleaning your hand tools with it though. You will drop them MUCH easier.

In highschool shop, my shop teacher was super into this type of stuff.

We ALWAYS lubed blades and machine tables with this product

http://www.slipit.com/index.html

Not sure which one.

But, it doesn't stain. Issue with using products like Pledge in a wood environment is that you won't want that stuff on raw wood before finish, or it will stain and finish weird.