Making my own tools today!

[Hairic]

So I decided to try and make some carving/tooling tools, Turned out ok actually, I only purposely made the lifter, and the steep bevel, the others I just wanted to see what they turned out to be.  Actually all turned out pretty good, still got some work todo but wanted to see if they would do what they are supposed to before I church them up a bit.  I started with 5 inch by 1/4 inch grade 8 bolts, And ground down the heads of them into the tools, I used my home built 2 by 72 belt grinder for the bulk of them and then sanded by hand and polished with a Dremel and buffing wheel.  Anyways So they go as such, What I'm calling them anyway. Left to right, Large steep bevel, Flat shader, Double bevel, Steep bevel, pear shader, Small lifter.  These are all polished, trying to think of a way to add checkers or something to the shaders but again just made these on a whim and they still need a bit of tweaking, Also threw in a pic of my old 2x72 grinder that I made, I call it the Frankenstein Grinder as I built it from a d.c treadmill motor, then had to add an a.c to dc convertor that would literally melt, so I attached it to a computer heatsink, that runs to a potentiometer to control the speed, thing will rip some stuff, so much that it blew up the bearings in the tension arm roller, I just dont run it as fast now lol.  Anyways anyone else make there own tools?

Edited February 24, 2022 by Hairic

[tsunkasapa]

Well done! For crosshatching, try either draw filing or use a needle file to cut one line at a time.

[DrmCa]

I never had to use that much cooling on a rectifier

[Hairic]

4 minutes ago, DrmCa said:

I never had to use that much cooling on a rectifier

Lol I dunno if the first one I used was defective or not, It literally pretty much melted, SO I stuck that heat sink on it and never gets hot now, I used to even plug that in and have the fan going, I don't do that anymore.

[DrmCa]

Must be defective. Bridge rectifiers in square packaging should pass 50A w/o breaking a sweat.

[Leescustomleather]

If you were to use mild steel instead of grade 8 , you could use a jewelers saw to cut lines or cross hatching. some of the finer blades have a 1/64th" kerf so you can do very detailed work. I just use brass rod and the tools I have made have lasted for years

[Hairic]

21 minutes ago, Leescustomleather said:

If you were to use mild steel instead of grade 8 , you could use a jewelers saw to cut lines or cross hatching. some of the finer blades have a 1/64th" kerf so you can do very detailed work. I just use brass rod and the tools I have made have lasted for years

Thank you, I almost went with brass rod myself and got lazy , didn't want to cut them, definitely give it a try next

[chuck123wapati]

great job!!! i make some of my own tools also, i would suggest useing stainless bolts as  the steel can sometimes stain the leather black. regular small or jewlers files will cut stainless bolts just fine if you want to cross hatch and such.  These are easy to make also lifters, modeling tool and stylus made with stainless all thread and brass nuts, i used leather washers  for handles.

i chuck them up in a drill and turn them against my grinding belt to get the nice taper. 

[Daffy]

I have 3 2x72 grinders that I made. sounds excessive huh...

for the roller wheels get some skateboard wheels with ABEC9 bearings (longboard wheels) a lap or two of masking tape down the center of 3 of them helps with tracking especially the one that is used for tracking adjustment.

 

Here's a great video for the motor controller, I've found it to work great on any dc motor 1hp or lower, It will not power my beast as it has a 3hp motor.

for making the tools, yours look great, using stainless steel bolts instead of grade 8 is a better option as described above.

making textured tools... experimentation and patience.

[Frodo]

brass tumbler #3 001 - video Dailymotion

 

KUDOS on the sander.

 Check out my brass tumbler