What tool did you make for your shop?

I made a spotting dolly for my trailers. It has a handle out of 3" pipe (about 4 feet long with "T" grips at the top) a trailer ball, and two small wheels at the bottom. I can easily roll it over to my boat or utility trailer, pry it upright (inserting the ball into the receiver), and maneuver the trailer in tight quarters by hand.

While not an original idea (I saw some "cheesy" ones at the boatyard and designed my own heavy duty version from what I saw) it is DEFINITELY one of the handiest "tools" in my shop.

Larry Wager

Offering No cost web solutions for Non Profit Organizations "Just a welding hobbyist"

Damn, that is one long list for me.

In the last year or 2:

20-ton air/hydraulic shop press, 2" stainless tube welding jig to prevent distortion, titanium welding glove box, Tube/Bar roller, carts, tables, jigs jigs and more jigs.

Most of my stuff is in the dropbox. I have yet to write up the glove-box or tube jig.

I've made several (benders, jigs etc) but the one I'll post here is my three roller. Rather than spend thousands of dollars I made one. It isn't up to the quality of the Ernie made or a commercial unit, but it does what I need it to do.

I guess I could have provided a link.

Here is the press with some in action pictures.

Here is a page that has several (13) "Tools" listed as links on the left. Some of you may find something usefull in there.

Please post links to the things you have made. If you don't have the ability to post a link, let me know and I will host the picture for a couple of weeks on my site. Just send the picture with the subject line of "Picture for the welding group" or I will delete it.

Bob

Any pictures of that? Sounds interesting.

Bob

What material are the rollers made of?

Bob

Here's a few of mine:

Aluminum

It is all aluminum. The uprights are painted boxed aluminum scrap I found at Boeing Surplus. The rollers were made for me by my brother who is a machinist. I didn't have my mill at the time. Since then I have made another set of rollers myself to roll 1" copper tube, which is 1-1/8" OD. The 1" tube is the maximum I'll ever do with this machine. It has reached the limit with that size hard drawn tubing. It grunts and groans, and the screw pressure handle on the top is very hard to turn with the 1". Hey, when you can't afford the best, you make do. I would love to have a $5000 professional one, but my hobby/business just doesn't sell enough to make that a reality. I thought I could generate some interest with the amateur radio (ham) guys to help make their copper antennas, but no luck there either.

The two bottom rollers are both powered using a surplus 30:1 reducing gear box.

Thanks for the interest.

Lane

I get "URL Not found" for the pix

It works for me! Try it again.

Same as Bob. I get to his page, but get the "URL Not found" on the links to his pictures.

I can see the pics just fine.

The page was severely mixed up, but the pictures were ok Henning (not sure just what a fence is)

Ok, I figured it out. Netscape does not like the spaces in the URL ("...TS Fence 1.jpg"). IE converts them to "%20". So maybe it's not Netscape that doesn't like them, but the server-lookup. I dunno, but I can see them in IE. Bob

I'm using Mozilla and it works great. Martin

Oops! Sorry to Bob and others who had trouble with the web page. I had set the software to eliminate the spaces in the filenames, but for some reason it did not do so. Steve, I added a few pictures of the bandsaw rip fence as well -- basically just a scaled down version of the table saw fence. I used 1" square tubing for the fence and the rail, 1" angle iron for the t-square and the back rail, and 1.25" angle for the rail support. I keep thinking about re-doing it, because I really was learning as I went on this one (learning to weld, work metal, and learning how to make it all work). In fact, that was part of why I made the bandsaw rip fence -- in order to work out the problems before tackling the tablesaw rip fence!

Someone (I don't recall who) asked what a fence is -- for woodworking, a fence is generally a straight guide that is used when ripping wood (ie, cutting with the grain).

Here again is the (updated) website:

I also made a slip roll to form steel rod. I used a tire cutting machine as the torque and power and had a couple of rollers offset to allow for OD. I also use it to power my small 3 roller I bought from Harbor Freight. I can roll up to 1/4" rod with it. Doyle Carver