Show us your home made tools

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Here is a nice tool I came up with, rather then trying to flip each breaker and see if you found the right one, this little doohickey will automatically isolate the circuit you are working on AND flip the breaker for you

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diymirage said:
Here is a nice tool I came up with, rather then trying to flip each breaker and see if you found the right one, this little doohickey will automatically isolate the circuit you are working on AND flip the breaker for you

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Safety glasses and proper gloves reccomended.
I have a pair of side cutters that work for that too,now they have a built in wire stripper. Buddy insisted the breaker could stay on,as the switch was off. The electchicken wired it bass-ackwards....
 
Tooljunkie said:
Safety glasses and proper gloves reccomended.
I have a pair of side cutters that work for that too,now they have a built in wire stripper. Buddy insisted the breaker could stay on,as the switch was off. The electchicken wired it bass-ackwards....
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Switch legs are pretty common. But they do leave the device hot. LOL
 
One thing switch leg can do is reduce the wire runs and keep the box fill within code. There's probably other reasons electricians use them in some situations.
 
I must confess I didn't check out all 16 pages of this thread to see if these time savers are already featured:

Had to pull my Distributor recently, and knowing how picky it would be to reinstall it "close enough" to start the engine and get the timing correct, I cut a slot in an old Distributor cap and marked the exact rotor position at TDC. On start up, it was only out like half a degree.
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I also windowed an old valve cover for use when drill-priming the oil system. Keeps the oil in the engine, and not all over my headers (like the 1st time I did that).

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Righty Tighty said:
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Hey! I’ve made one of those! Works like a charm.
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man, i was looking for that tool yesterday...but i needed it as an "exhaust pipe flare expander"

never did find mine, but i ended up being able to pound a second flare into the first flare to expand it farther
(some dummy had cut the pipe to close to the bend, so i had to reweld it, but then i didnt bother dressing the weld properly and so i needed to open the flare in order for it to slide over the weld)
 
JayD said:
I like that pnuematic valve tool - gotta make one of those!
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I was always paranoid about dropping a valve using those... I just spin the piston down in the bore, feed 6-12 inches of soft poly rope into the plug hole then spin it around til its compressed and holds the valves up securely...
 
diymirage said:
man, i was looking for that tool yesterday...but i needed it as an "exhaust pipe flare expander"

never did find mine, but i ended up being able to pound a second flare into the first flare to expand it farther
(some dummy had cut the pipe to close to the bend, so i had to reweld it, but then i didnt bother dressing the weld properly and so i needed to open the flare in order for it to slide over the weld)
Click to expand...


found it!

i musta used it last fall to pull the drain out of the pond pump and left it laying there
 
here's one for you guys

tried to put a helicoil into the transmission without removing the mount

only issue is, I didn't have a handle the tap fits in...figured it out though
(turns out the square end of the tap fits in a 3/8 drive extension)

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Whatever it takes to get the job done!
Bought a set of tap driver sockets a few years ago. Have used my tap handle once since then.
 
Tooljunkie said:
Whatever it takes to get the job done!
Bought a set of tap driver sockets a few years ago. Have used my tap handle once since then.
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didn't even know they made those
like you said though, whatever it take

I had a ratchet with a 13mm socket, then the 6mm star bit (bought it for a cv axle swap on a vw once)
then another 13mm also on that, then a 3 inch extension and finally the tap

it was quite the contraption
 
diymirage said:
didn't even know they made those
like you said though, whatever it take

I had a ratchet with a 13mm socket, then the 6mm star bit (bought it for a cv axle swap on a vw once)
then another 13mm also on that, then a 3 inch extension and finally the tap

it was quite the contraption
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Been there done that.
Have a couple nuts welded to a bolt for removing a wierd transmission plug. Its like 5/8” hex. Ford, maybe ?
 
diymirage said:
here's one for you guys

tried to put a helicoil into the transmission without removing the mount

only issue is, I didn't have a handle the tap fits in...figured it out though
(turns out the square end of the tap fits in a 3/8 drive extension)

View attachment 1715541134

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Click to expand...

A friend taught me a "tap trick" from the old days, he had friends that were and he worked part time as a millright along with driving a Pettibone loader and a few other things.

You get a collection of taps, you get a collection of nuts, different sizes and different THREAD, because USS and SAE are of course slightly different actual size. You can put the tap and nut in a vice, and with the proper size nut, simply PRESS THE NUT ONTO THE TAP and now you can use it in a socket or box end!!!

These two nuts have been on these two taps SINCE THE SEVENTIES!!!!

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Craftsman sets used to come with tap sockets. Well they were sockets for square head pipe plugs actually but one of them worked great on taps.
 
fishy68 said:
With my failing back these darn 8-3/4 pumpkins are so hard to swap out for me anymore that I decided to make an attachment to use my floor jack to R&R them. It's made from scrap metal I had laying in my pile so it's not the prettiest but gets the job done. It bolts on top where the pinion snubber bolts on and to the yoke then wraps around the bottom where I used a nice wide plate for stability on the jack but I'd still recommend a strap of some sort so it can't fall off the jack.

And don't laugh too hard at those welds that look like crap. I ran out of mig gas before I got done.

View attachment 1714996408 View attachment 1714996409 View attachment 1714996410 View attachment 1714996411 View attachment 1714996412 View attachment 1714996413 View attachment 1714996415 . It bolts on top where the pinion snubber bolts on and to the yoke then wraps around the bottom where I used a nice wide plate for stability on the jack but I'd still recommend a strap of some sort so it can't fall off the jack.

And don't laugh at those last welds that look like crap. I ran out of mig gas before I got done.
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That is badass
 
MoparMike1974 said:
Craftsman sets used to come with tap sockets. Well they were sockets for square head pipe plugs actually but one of them worked great on taps.
Click to expand...

"Back in the day" there were lots of things square drive. I recently dragged home a set of square sockets from the thrift store, for no good reason.

They are Power-Kraft, 1/2" drive and range from 3/8 to 1"
 
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