Home Made Tool

[Peter Blair]

Greetings everyone.

Usually at Christmas time I get a little more 'shop" time and like take some of that time and make myself a special tool.

What I am wondering this year, is what 'home made' tool do you USE, that you just can't do without?

I would suggest that each response is limited to just one tool. I know how hard this will be for some of you and you know who you are!!!

I have a lot of 'stuff' I have made over the years, but MOST aren't my "GO TOO Tool.

I'd love to add one more that I would actually use, so any suggestions are appreciated.

Here are a few pictures of the one I use the most.
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It's a fine detail tool very loosely based on one that C Drozda uses and sells
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The business end as you can see it was tempered and I have not yet ground all the 'color" off.
Thanks for looking!

[Curt Fuller]

I don't have a photo but my go to tool this time of year when I'm doing a lot of small spindle work on ornaments is use a small homemade skew. It's just basically a 1/4" dia 6" long piece if 1/4" HSS drill rod in a homemade handle and ground to a skew. But I love it for fine detail work.

[Peter Blair]

Thanks for the idea Curt. I used 1/4" round drill rod to make the tool above and have some left over so I'll probably try to make a small skew like you did. Do you actually use it as a skew or more like a scraper or ????. What angle did you grind the skew to?

[Harry Robinette]

247991 This is probably my most used homemade tool Peter, like you said I'm one of the guys who has allot of them.

[Bob Bergstrom]

i use old planner blade and convert them into skews and parting tools. The steel is quite good and will hold a edge for longer than standard high speed turning tools.

[Curt Fuller]

Thanks for the idea Curt. I used 1/4" round drill rod to make the tool above and have some left over so I'll probably try to make a small skew like you did. Do you actually use it as a skew or more like a scraper or ????. What angle did you grind the skew to?
Peter. I'm not one to measure or fuss with things like angles. I don't use sharpening jigs but hand grind and sharpen all my tools to what looks like it will work well for me. And sometimes I modify them for a specific task. But yes, I use this one as a skew. It works well on small spindles because the "catches" are smaller and less damaging. And the fact that a piece of drill rod is just a couple bucks means you can do a lot of experimenting without ruining a $50 tool.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Good looking tool Peter. I am like Curt and use a 1/4" skew on most small stuff. Great on small finials, etc.

[Peter Fabricius]

My home made "Go-to tool" is a parting tool made from a Sawsall blade and set in a Bocote wood handle. I use it all the time.
Currently working on a point tool using a high grade steel from a Engine valve guide reeming steel rod. (the rod has carbide blades on the tip for precisely reeming the valve guides). I will bury the carbide inside the handle.
Currently making a little triangular wood block to hold the tool for precisely grinding a triangle shape. I hope to achieve the pointed version like Cindy uses.
Your tool shown above looks very precise. Well done.
Peter F.

[Rick Vincent]

I like 3/16 oland tool

[Terry Quiram]

I use these carbide tipped hollowing tools and handle.248095248096248097

[Thom Sturgill]

Peter, mine is about the same as yours. I bought a 3' section of 1/4" and 3/8" annealed 'O' steel and took it to a club function - we cut it up into lengths and several people took point tools home. We ground one and heat treated it and tested with a magnet until it lost magnetism and quenched it. We then had it put in an oven to temper - preheat the oven to 450, IIRC and then after an hour let it cool down slowly in the oven. Takes and holds a good edge.

[Michael Mills]

It’s more of a tool for tools…
About a foot long to be able to tuck it under your forearm. Easy to chuck up your three pointers, small skews, allen wrench hollowing tools, …….without having a ton of handles.
This is the ¼” chuck but I have a ½” also.
I use these folks for the “high speed ground round” or “ground square” under “tool bits”
ie In the round HSS 1/2X8 is $6.95 and 1/4X6 is $2.10
http://tool.wttool.com/search?w=tool+bits (http://tool.wttool.com/search?w=tool+bits)

[mark ravensdale]

My favourite homemade tool has to be my 3/8 (10mm) round ended scraper made out of round bar, my dad used to work for a steel mill that supplied a lot of "special steels" to the nuke power industry and this scraper is made from a piece he was allowed to take home, and this stuff is tuff, I made it around 5 or 6 years ago and use it very often and in those 5 or 6 years I have only sharpened it a handful of times, my dad says it had a lot of cobalt in it as well as other things, it's a great tool and always kept within arms reach.

[Peter Blair]

Hey Mark. I bet you can find it in the dark!!!!

[Kyle Iwamoto]

My input to tool "design" in my box lid lip finisher. I simply sharpened the left side on my 1/2" flat scraper. Using the tool, I can get a 90 degree lid lip in 1 attempt. I only use it for that 1 application. I modified one of my old Craftsman chisels.

[Peter Blair]

Hey Thom. Do you quench in oil or water or does it matter?
Would this process work with drill rod or other high carbon steels as well?

[Dale Winburn]

My most used home built tool is my bowl lathe. I've use this lathe to make every bowl I make. It's been a real work horse. That's a 17" cherry salad bowl on the lathe.

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[jared herbert]

are you talking about the blue tarp chip shield? Ha Ha

[Darrell Feltmate]

Most of my tools are shop made. My favourite for bowls would be my 1/4" Oland tool and for spindles my skews. I have a 1/4" round in HSS, a 3/4" I reground from a flat parting tool, a 1/2" straight that began life as a bench chisel and am making a 3/8" from a drill bit. Making tools is a good part of the fun of turning. Nice to be back on the site. I have not been here for a year or two.

Darrell

[Thom Sturgill]

Hey Thom. Do you quench in oil or water or does it matter?
Would this process work with drill rod or other high carbon steels as well?

I think I mis-stated the steel type - it was A2 the O refers to Oil quenched while the A is air quenched which is why I bought that steel. It was drill rod, but in a softened or annealed state which made grinding and shaping (or bending) much easier. Hardening and tempering was as I described and we used a MAPP gas torch. A2 classifies as a HSS and is a stainless alloy. (ie it has chromium in the mix I believe). I am not an expert in these matters, but there are several sites that have good info (including SMC). There is a discussion and chart on crucible.com (http://www.crucible.com/eselector/general/generalpart2.html) that gives the heat ranges for different steel types. A2 has a low preheat temperature that can be obtained with MAPP gas, but gets almost as hard as 10V, probably nowhere near as good an abrasion level though.

[Thom Sturgill]

I know you said one tool, but I just thought of two others that I use constantly. I bought a length of 3/16" aluminum rod from the borg and cut it into two lengths and rounded and polished the ends. One was bent into a circle as a thickness gauge while the other is a sighting stick for measuring the depth of the bowl, box, or HF. The polished ends keep it from marking the piece I'm working on.

[Peter Blair]

Dale, I think you win!!! Some of the other Creekers are sneaking in more than one home made tool.

Your bowl lathe looks fantastic!

[Peter Blair]

I finally finished my "Christmas Tool".
I went with Curk and Berni and made a small skew.
I am anything but a polished Skew user but this little guy works great.
Sorry for the phone photos but I left my camera at my daughters at Christmas and haven't had a chance yet to retrieve it.
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I spent a lot of time thinking and researching a 'sphere' making jig but just couldn't get my act together for this Christmas so I am planning to build it over the next few months.

[Mike Peace]

One of my favorites is a chatter tool I made. The shaft is a piece of conduit with a 1/4" hole. The blade is a replacement chatter tool blade which cost about $6. An alternative that has worked well is a 1/16 x 1/2 x 4.25 HSS cuttoff blade from Grizzly for about the same price. I have a 1/4" bolt that goes thru the conduit held inside with a 1/4" nut. The bolt presses the chatter blade against a small half round dowel section with the same contour as the inside of the conduit.
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[Dick Mahany]

Most of my tools are shop made. My favourite for bowls would be my 1/4" Oland tool and for spindles my skews. I have a 1/4" round in HSS, a 3/4" I reground from a flat parting tool, a 1/2" straight that began life as a bench chisel and am making a 3/8" from a drill bit. Making tools is a good part of the fun of turning. Nice to be back on the site. I have not been here for a year or two.

Darrell

Not to hijack this thread, but good to see you posting Darrell ! I've visited your website and made several tools when I first started turning from your excllent info. Inspiring.

Now........back to the regularly scheduled postings :) And to stay on track, my favorite and most used tool, (more like accessory) is my home made twin bed tail stock pivot.

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[Mike D Harris]

I'd like to grind a pointy scraper that I don't use into a bowl scraper profile. What's the procedure? It seems like taking off that much material would screw up the hardening/tempering.

[Dick Mahany]

I'd like to grind a pointy scraper that I don't use into a bowl scraper profile. What's the procedure? It seems like taking off that much material would screw up the hardening/tempering.

If the tool is HSS, then you can reshape it without loosing hardness. Just take it slow and a little bluing won't hurt it. If not HSS, then heat treating would be required.