50 Best Tools.1

Table of Contents!

Chapter 1 - Automotive 2

Chapter 2 - Electrical 6

Chapter 3 - Machining 9

Chapter 4 - Metalworking 15

Chapter 5 - Woodworking 23

Chapter 6 - Workholding 31

i

Automotive1

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Heavy-Duty Rotisserie

By toolman8

Homemade, heavy-duty rotisserie fabri-cated from square steel tubing and ca-pable of supporting and rotating at least 5,000 pounds.

Engine Break-In Stand

By jniolon

Homemade engine break-in stand con-structed specifically for a Ford 460 en-gine. Fabricated from 2x2 tubing, a lawnmower throttle/lever cable assem-bly, Cadillac radiator, a fan from an 80's Honda, and some spare gauges.

See more Automotive entries


Tapered Axle Puller

By nonhog

Homemade tapered axle puller adapted from a surplus Toyota MR2 hub and util-izing a section of black iron pipe as the tool's body.

Chassis Jig Table

By astroracer

Homemade chassis jig tables featuring sliding H-beams to accommodate varying track widths. Mobility and leveling are each facilitated with both casters and jack-ing lugs, respectively, at each corner. One table incorporates a melamine top to en-able layout marking directly on the wash-able surface.



Engine Stand

By jniolon

Homemade engine stand construction project detailed in a comprehensive photo-tutorial.


Electrical!2

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Lathe Electronic Edge Finder

By Rick Sparber

Homemade lathe electronic edge finder (LEEF) de-tailed in an extensive writeup. Provides the capabil-ity to detect the cutter coming into contact with a workpiece, all without any modification to the lathe, cutter, or workpiece. Utilization of the LEEF enables one to quickly re-establish zero when changing cut-ters and will also indicate boring bar touchdown at the bottom of a hole.

12v Car Battery Desulfator

By kmpres

Homemade desulfator for 12v car bat-teries. Instructions cover building a desulfator circuit, smoke testing, and attaching the circuit to battery charg-ers. Circuit schematic and parts list in-cluded.

See more Electrical entries


ATX Power Supply to Lab Supply Conversion

By Abizarl

Homemade ATX power supply to lab supply conversion. Includes comprehensive instruc-tions, photographs, and video detailing how to salvage the ATX power supply, discharge it, drill the case, attach the binding posts, and create proper wire connections.

Detonation Detector

By Julian Edgar

Homemade detonation detector con-structed from inexpensive electronics parts, earphones, microphone cable, battery clip, and battery.

See more Electrical entries

Machining3

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Cap Screw Holders

By Frank Ford

Homemade cap screw holders ma-chined from brass and intended to facili-tate the safe presentation of short screws to a grinder. Mounted in turned rosewood handles.

Boring Head

By ISHIMURA

Homemade boring head with a MT3/JT6 arbor. Connected to the mill spindle through the MT3 taper. Boring head fits on the Jacob's taper. Bor-ing head body, sub-head, and micrometer shaft all machined from free-cutting steel. Gib plate is mild steel. Moving the micrometer dial by one increment moves the boring head by 0.02 mm. Boring head is adjusted using an Allen key.

See more Machining entries


Taig Mill Screwless Vise

By Dean Williams

Homemade screwless vise constructed from a section of 7/8" thick scrap alumi-num and intended to fit a Taig mill. Fixed and movable jaws are fabricated from 1 1/4" square aluminum. Capable of accepting 3" workpieces.

Rotary Broaching Tool

By mikesworkshop

Homemade rotary broaching tool intended to be mounted on a lathe's cross slide. Comprised of a tool post block and a cut-ter. Block measures 25 x 50 x 50mm. Cut-ter is machined from a 10mm diameter sil-ver steel rod. Brass M5 screws secure the cutter holder to the tool post block.



Stepperhead Universal Machine Tool

By jackary

Homemade Stepperhead universal machine tool. Util-izes TurboCNC v 4.01 and powered by a 430-Watt, 1400 rpm, 240v AC three-phase stepper motor. Spindle speed is 15-3000 rpm, forward and reverse. Nema size 23 motors for the head, cross slide, and saddle. Milling head motor is 430 watts, 24v DC, with a speed range of 1000-4000 rpm. Overall dimensions: 1000 mm long x 600 mm wide x 500 mm high.

Fixed Steady

By ISHIMURA

Homemade fixed steady design based on commercial units. Frame features three channels, supporting brass fin-gers with adjusting and locking screws. An L-shaped base with vee slots mates with the lathe vee way.



Kurt-Style Vise for Gingery Shaper

By Rick Sparber

Homemade Kurt-style vise for a Gin-gery shaper. Separate and perpendicu-lar screws provide clamping force in both planes. Features soft jaws with the clamp screw pulling on the movable jaw.

Fly Cutter

By Frank Ford

Homemade fly cutter adapted from a stock R8 arbor and utilizing a piece of round stock for the head. Tool is able to perform both rough and finish cuts si-multaneously.



Keyway Slotter

By ISHIMURA

Homemade keyway slotter designed to be mounted on a lathe's cross-slide. Block is mild steel, bushes are brass. Accepts HSS bits.


Metalworking4

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Miniature 4-Jaw Chuck

By Dean Williams

Homemade miniature 4-jaw, 1" diame-ter chuck intended for use with a small model lathe. Spindle features M12 x 1.5 thread. Jaws machined from cold rolled steel.

Scratch-Built Bead Roller

By Andy P

Homemade bead roller featuring a main body constructed from 10mm laser cut plates. The only proprietary parts used were phosphor bronze bearings and two reverse gears sourced from a Toy-ota Celica transmission.

See more Metalworking entries


Hydraulic Press

By Dave Propst

Homemade multi-purpose hydraulic press powered by a 25-ton Enerpac ram.

Coffee Can Furnace

By W. E. Johns

Homemade coffee can furnace pow-ered by a repurposed dishwasher blower.



English Wheel

By idickers

Homemade English wheel with remov-able legs.

Crucible and Tongs

By Rick Sparber

Homemade crucible and tongs fash-ioned from 6" diameter x 1/4" thick pipe. Bottom is 1/4" plate, welded to the body. Has a capacity of 9 lbs. Lift-ing and pouring handle was con-structed from CRS rods and bars.



Leveling Ring Roller

By nitronorm

Homemade leveling ring roller powered by a bottle jack. Assembly consists of top & bottom carriages secured to the base by 2x20mm locking pins. Carriages were fab-ricated from 10mm plate. Utilizes 100mm rollers with 20mm spindles. Top roller is driven through a 5mm keyway.

Freon Tank Forge

By Fred Frontino

Homemade forge fabricated from a re-purposed freon tank and featuring an in-tegral ceramic shelf to support work-pieces during firing.



Light-Duty Bender

By Goff

Homemade light-duty bender fabri-cated from flat bar stock and long bolts. Designed to be mounted in a bench vise. Utilizes homemade dies.

Gas-Fired Crucible Furnace

By Joe Hildreth

Homemade gas-fired crucible furnace based on a Dave Gingery project. Fur-nace refractory contains 1/3 perlite. Fuel is propane. Fan motor rated at 1/3hp at 1725rpm.



Boring Bar Holder

By Steven Vine

Homemade fixture designed to hold a Glanze boring bar for a lathe. Made from a solid piece of laminated steel.

Variable Volume Flask

By Rick Sparber

Homemade variable volume flask for casting. Constructed from extruded alu-minum channels and wood blocks. Sides are bolted together to form the cope and drag. Kit consists of 12 sides and two bars for mounting the upset.



Custom V-Block

By Glenn Wegman

Homemade custom V-block fabricated from A2 tool steel and intended to facili-tate the securing of small parts for drill-ing operations.

Waste Oil Burner and Furnace

By Lionel Oliver II

Homemade waste oil burner and fur-nace adapted from a 20lb propane tank. Frame constructed from steel pipe and rebar. Powered by a home-made blower.


Woodworking5

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Drum Sander

By Ronald Walter

Homemade drum sander powered by a 1/3 HP, 1725 RPM motor. Rotating drum is constructed from a stack of MDF and Baltic Birch discs mounted on a steel shaft.

14 Bandsaw

By Matthias Wandel

Homemade wood-framed 14" bandsaw utilizing Ikea shelving components and plywood for the frame and table. Pow-ered by a 1hp pool pump motor driving a V-belt mounted to a 2.5" pulley.

See more Woodworking entries


Blade Sharpening Jig

By John Heisz

Homemade blade sharpening jig de-signed to facilitate the accurate honing of planer and jointer knives.

Table Saw from Plans

By Hector Acevedo

Homemade, wooden table saw con-structed from plans and featuring a knee-operated panic shutdown bar, micro-adjustment in crosscut and rip fences, and dust collection unit pow-ered by a vacuum cleaner motor.



Horizontal Mortiser

By Brian Grella

Homemade horizontal mortiser utilizing bronze-sleeved shafts for the horizontal slider mechanism.

Box Joint Jig

By John Heisz

Homemade box joint jig constructed from wood. The jig is fitted with a mechanism intended to advance the workpiece a quarter inch at a time.



Ultimate Woodworking Table

By Dave Munkittrick

Homemade woodworking table incorpo-rating space for a mounted planer, router, and sander. Features an integral clamping system and a downdraft sand-ing station, as well as an outfeed table.

3D Router Pantograph

By Matthias Wandel

Homemade, 3D router pantograph ca-pable of controlling the depth of cut.



Box Joint Jig

By niki

Homemade box joint jig for a router ta-ble consisting of clamps utilized in con-junction with a set of precision spacers. Capable of producing accurate finger joints.

Gear-Making Pantorouter

By Ken Coulter

Homemade, gear-making pantorouter specifically constructed to facilitate the production of wooden involute gears.



Router Table

By John Heisz

Homemade router table featuring a built-in router lift and router bit storage drawer.

Longworth Chuck

By Woodworkers Guide

Homemade Longworth chuck con-structed from two plywood discs. In-tended to enable the finish turning of a workpiece's normally inaccessible bot-tom face.



Sphere Template

By David Reed Smith

Homemade template for turning wooden spheres on a lathe. Scales are utilized to measure proper distances. Template is fastened to aluminum flash-ing to provide working stiffness.


Workholding6

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Bandsaw Vise Modification

By mikesworkshop

Homemade bandsaw vise modification to enable the cutting of smaller pieces. In-volves alteration of the moving jaw, addi-tion of a jack rod and scale, repositioning the fixed jaw, and replacing the lock nuts with tee nuts and tommy bars.

Bison 3-Jaw Chuck Soft Jaws

By Rick Sparber

Homemade soft jaws fabricated from 6061 aluminum and designed to fit a Bi-son lathe's 3-jaw chuck.

See more Workholding entries


Hold Down Clamp

By Matthias Wandel

Homemade hold down clamp con-structed from a repurposed C-clamp fit-ted to custom-made, wooden compo-nents.

Bench Vise

By slickSqueegie

Homemade bench vise constructed from lumber, wooden dowels, and a 3' section of 1" diameter threaded rod.



Hold-Down Clamps

By niki

Homemade hold-down clamps for woodworking constructed from scrap lumber, threaded rod, and T-nuts. Nuts embedded in underside of the work-bench enable a variety of clamping con-figurations.


Documents

50 Best Tools.1