Homemade tools and ways you have saved money on tools

[Willie0]

I have made quite a few stamps from nails.  Granted most are pretty ugly, but some are really useful.  I like the undercut bevelers better than my storebought ones.  Also I use cheap clothespins to hold leather while gluing.

[chrisash]

I am on limited budget (retired) so I rang around all the local upholstery makers asking if they had any off-cuts, ended up with about 10 kilo of chrome leather in all colours and sizes, some large enough to make Tote bags from

Amazing how they reject the leather for such minor scrapes or blemishes, most were marked by chalk and you really had to search to find the fault why they had rejected using it

[YinTx]

20 hours ago, Willie0 said:

I have made quite a few stamps from nails.  Granted most are pretty ugly, but some are really useful.  I like the undercut bevelers better than my storebought ones.  Also I use cheap clothespins to hold leather while gluing.

Those are cool!  Would love to see the impressions they make.  Any issues with iron oxide on the leather over time?

YinTx

[Grumpymann]

Off topic. But I have a few punches I could part with if you want them.

[Riem]

Where I live I don't have easy access to leather shops and especially not shops that sells tools and accessories. Besides I'm a hobbyist and have only sold a few items, I'm certainly not funding my leather addiction yet ... When I started looking at doing some tooling, it became pretty clear that the mallet I used would not be adequate. I had the choice of either importing one or attempting to make one from empty milk jugs, a ready source of hdpe plastic which melts easily. My tooling maul is below. It consists of roughly 18 2-litre milk jugs melted down in my kitchen oven @ 180°C. I think it took close to three hours to complete the melting. The handle is a 30 cm long water pipe, covered with a veg tan scrap. The complete homemade maul - "Moker" - weights in at 736 grams, handle included.

My tooling surface is a granite washbasin cut out I picked up from a local manufacturer of bathroom ware. The edges are tapered and were quite sharp when I got it, but I used an angle grinder with a flap disk to smooth it down.

[zuludog]

Search YouTube for 'Mallet From Milk Jugs' and you'll see there are several examples

I don't do tooling so I don't need a heavy slab, but for skiving I use the glass oven door off an old cooker

[bikermutt07]

On 7/30/2018 at 8:00 PM, Riem said:

Where I live I don't have easy access to leather shops and especially not shops that sells tools and accessories. Besides I'm a hobbyist and have only sold a few items, I'm certainly not funding my leather addiction yet ... When I started looking at doing some tooling, it became pretty clear that the mallet I used would not be adequate. I had the choice of either importing one or attempting to make one from empty milk jugs, a ready source of hdpe plastic which melts easily. My tooling maul is below. It consists of roughly 18 2-litre milk jugs melted down in my kitchen oven @ 180°C. I think it took close to three hours to complete the melting. The handle is a 30 cm long water pipe, covered with a veg tan scrap. The complete homemade maul - "Moker" - weights in at 736 grams, handle included.

My tooling surface is a granite washbasin cut out I picked up from a local manufacturer of bathroom ware. The edges are tapered and were quite sharp when I got it, but I used an angle grinder with a flap disk to smooth it down.

Now that's what I call homemade. Hat's off to your ingenuity.

[chrisash]

I would offer to swap wives with you, my wife would have killed me, if i melted plastic in HER oven

[bikermutt07]

8 hours ago, chrisash said:

I would offer to swap wives with you, my wife would have killed me, if i melted plastic in HER oven

I shared the technique with my wife. She asked me not to do that in the house.

I was also thinking.... If it melts at 180* then you could make molds out of wood. Right?

 

Edited August 2, 2018 by bikermutt07

[YinTx]

20 minutes ago, bikermutt07 said:

I shared the technique with my wife. She asked me not to do that in the house.

I was also thinking.... If it melts at 180* then you could make molds out of wood. Right?

 

Must be time to build that outdoor forge you've always wanted, then.  Perhaps a shop to keep it safe in.  Must have it to save money so you can make a maul, right?  

YinTx