Home made tools- show us yours

[formariz 11,988]

 From watching Kevin’s @pullstart post on the homemade valve spring clamp revived my interest in home made tools. In my craft I make and use many of my tools. I was always fascinated by home made tools for their ingenuity ,resourcefulness and individuality. Let’s see what is out there. Show us the tools you have made and use.

[ebinmaine 67,766]

Great post idea Caz!

 

I'm really looking forward to the incredible ingenuity that this crowd has been known to display.

 

I have nothing but a simple offering. Credit for the idea actually goes to Lincoln at A To Z. @A-Z Tractor

 

I needed to swap out the main carrier bearing in the 8 speed for Colossus. The 1533.

 

Lincoln uses one he welded together but I wanted to be able to use the bolt for something else.

 

I sandwiched a washer between 2 nuts and used the washer as a flange to carefully drive out the bearing.

 

 

 

 

 

[Pullstart 62,947]

28 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

Great post idea Caz!

 

I'm really looking forward to the incredible ingenuity that this crowd has been known to display.

 

I have nothing but a simple offering. Credit for the idea actually goes to Lincoln at A To Z. @A-Z Tractor

 

I needed to swap out the main carrier bearing in the 8 speed for Colossus. The 1533.

 

Lincoln uses one he welded together but I wanted to be able to use the bolt for something else.

 

I sandwiched a washer between 2 nuts and used the washer as a flange to carefully drive out the bearing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve used a stack of washers on a length of threaded rod on my slide hammer for pulling axle wheel bearings on a truck before 

 

Amazing what a few simple hardware items can become, huh?

[953 nut 55,394]

If you have a nice shift knob that needs to be removed and you don't want to use a pipe wrench or channel-locks just make one of these. I use a piece of leather from an old glove to line it.

To mount/dismount 6" and 8" tires I used a piece of 3/4" all-thread rod mounted through the work bench, works great.

Fingers cut from an old leather glove protect the paint when using tire irons.

[formariz 11,988]

@953 nut  I knew that there would be lots to learn from this thread. The idea of bolting wheel to bench is as simple as it is brilliant. My biggest complaint with the commercial small tire changers is that regardless how you mount them, there is simply too much play in their components and the whole thing moves and flexes too much . Bolting the wheel to a solid bench will make it absolutely rigid allowing one to comfortably apply necessary pressure on tire. I like the bench protection too. You would never know tires are changed on it.

[Shynon 7,459]

Engine building stand for teardown and building, rotates 360. Transmission building with a milk crate mounted to engine stand.

[gt14rider 765]

Made a hub puller for my gt14 , it's for a 4 lug hub, I might try to make this a 5 lug puller or make another plate

 

 

Edited April 8, 2020 by gt14rider
More pics

[formariz 11,988]

Some of mine.
 

 

[Pullstart 62,947]

Here’s something simple.  It’s oil change time on the zero turn.  The oil drain valve directs the crank oil through the pan of the machine.  The filter makes a mess.  I cut and bent this blade casing plastic to allow the oil to drain through the appropriate hole.  I might eventually cut a hole under the filter and build a block off plate,  then I’d rather not disrupt the powdercoat.   

Edited April 28, 2020 by pullstart
Pictures

[formariz 11,988]

7 hours ago, pullstart said:

Here’s something simple.  It’s oil change time on the zero turn.  The oil drain valve directs the crank oil through the pan of the machine.  The filter makes a mess.  I cut and bent this blade casing plastic to allow the oil to drain through the appropriate hole.  I might eventually cut a hole under the filter and build a block off plate,  then I’d rather not disrupt the powdercoat.   

Good idea. It’s a shame that a lot of machines are designed without taking into account the mess they make by not having any thought put into a simple thing as draining oil and oil filters. Same just to drain the oil it just goes all over machine. I modify all of mine so oil can be directly routed into the proper container without touching any part of machine.

[tom2p 2,394]

 

I use a large funnel with a section of rubber hose attached (automotive heater hose - maybe 3 foot length ?) 

 

funnel sits under the drain plug on the engine (416-H Onan)  ;  end of the heater hose is inserted into a drain pan 

 

can't recall if I use this on the 312-8 Kohler ... think I do ... 

 

[sannderz91 1]

formariz, wow, nice and robust collection of "must have" tools. I would also add to these of yours - a good wood router ( like one of these: https://www.woodroutersreviews.com/ ). There are a lot of things, which I cannot do without it, really. especially some angles of different details while doing basic wood working process. Do you use wood routers at all?

[formariz 11,988]

12 hours ago, sannderz91 said:

formariz, wow, nice and robust collection of "must have" tools. I would also add to these of yours - a good wood router ( like one of these: https://www.woodroutersreviews.com/ ). There are a lot of things, which I cannot do without it, really. especially some angles of different details while doing basic wood working process. Do you use wood routers at all?

Thank you. Yes I use routers. At least 10 of them. Keep dedicated cutters in each one so I don’t have to ever change them. Use also one large Makita upside down set up as a shaper.

[953 nut 55,394]

I replaced the bearings and brushes on a Starter/Generator today. To hold the brushes in place while replacing the armature I used a short piece of 1 1/2" PVC pipe which is slightly larger than the commutator. As the armature was being inserted the PVC was pushed out and the brushes fell into place. Easy and inexpensive.

[ranger 1,758]

Getting my Roper tiller Briggs engine running after a few years standing, I had to clean the points. Removing the flywheel was easy, tightening the flywheel nut, which is the recoil starter drive was the awkward part. The first attempt resulted in the key shearing on startup. So I made this tool to allow me to torque the nut to the required 65 lbs ft. I could have bought the tool but why buy one when you have the tools and the time to make it.

[Pullstart 62,947]

Using my drain pan assistant today again.  And yes, I own a Cub Cadet 

 

Even with a wheel off, there still manages to be a mess under the assistant but better than nothing!

 

 

[ebinmaine 67,766]

2 minutes ago, pullstart said:

Using my drain pan assistant today again.  And yes, I own a Cub Cadet 

 

Even with a wheel off, there still manages to be a mess under the assistant but better than nothing!

 

 

Ahhhhh yes...

The ever elusive mostly invisible super helpful oil guidance system

[bottjernat1 2,190]

Here is my steering wheel puller my late dad got it from a guy who made it. It works like a charm! 

 

[formariz 11,988]

Pretty beefy. How big is the hole in it?

[bottjernat1 2,190]

3 minutes ago, formariz said:

Pretty beefy. How big is the hole in it?

Not sure i will measure it when i get home later.

[Tractorhead 9,064]

On 5/29/2020 at 4:51 PM, pullstart said:

Using my drain pan assistant today again.  And yes, I own a Cub Cadet 

 

Even with a wheel off, there still manages to be a mess under the assistant but better than nothing!

 

 

 

As far as i know, this Oildrain screws are mostly 3/8“

I exchanged my oildrain screw with a 3/8“ pipe fitting and a bow with a End cap on the end.

As long as the Tyres allows, you can later simply drain the Oil by removing the End cap over the oilpan.

 

 

I used this Fittings in chome style, because they went cheaper as Steel type, another benefit was i can use common Gaskets.

so simply after removing the mower deck i just place the oilpan below and drain.

 

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,327]

I use a old transmission fluid funnel to drain oil on the tractors without removing deck . Have a thin wire attached to funnel , wrap around oil drain pipe , other end in drain pan. Sit down and drink a cup of coffee or start greasing another tractor . When I am finish with coffee. First motor finished. Start on second tractor.  

[WHX?? 48,853]

Getting real technical here Richard on the brush retainers. 

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by WHX24

[midpack 866]

I like to make things that make my life easier, I don't make things to sell, too much liability... lol

 

here's something I came up with a few years ago.

 

I don't like to leave gas in machines that are going to sit for any time so I put this together. 12v electric fuel pump runs on a (tractor/portable) battery, does a great job and no more gasoline taste!

 

I always hated trying to start a siphon

[ranger 1,758]

Good idea, but be very careful of any sparks when connecting/disconnecting leads.

Certain groups of people this side of the pond have similar equipment, but on a larger scale, big pumps and tanks inside vans. They visit farms and irrigation pumps in fields at night and empty the diesel tanks, perhaps they think an unattended unit holding hundreds of litres of fuel isn't safe on it's own in the middle of a field!