Bicycle Mechanics - Show us your home made bike tools

Over the years I've built up a reasonable collection of shop-bought tools, but sometimes I'm just too mean to spend the amounts that shops charge when I can improvise a perfectly usable tool myself.

My favourites are these two:

The first is a bit of bent spoke that I use to hold the RD cage close to the chainstay to make re-assembling chains easier.

The second is to hold the BB removal tool in firmly when getting off the BB on a square taper system. Just take the nut off one end and screw the bolt into the end of the axle through the BB extractor tool. The Two large washers and springs provide the necessary pressure to hold the tool tightly while exerting pressure via the spanner. ( with a 4 foot length of scaffold pole as leverage even the most stuck BBs become an easy one-man job )

I made an awl out of a bent and sharpened discarded spoke from the co-op. I'll post a pic when I get home.

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The oddly-shaped hunk of 1/2" plywood is a 'third hand' to hold an ancient center pull brake caliper in the mostly-closed position while attaching a brake cable on a bike with minimum adjustability at the bridge and brake lever.

The repurposed knife is a 10mm (well, 10mm-ish) wrench to hold that skinny nut that backs up the thicker nut when reassembling an old side pull caliper I was refurbishing for an absurd fixie i bought last week. That was a dollar-store-knife-meets-dremel-tool emergency wrench, and with so many 10mm nuts on my old bikes, I'm sure it will see use elsewhere. And yes, I do have a proper 10mm wrench, but not a skinny enough one to work the two nuts together. in this case. I'll probably end up cutting 11mm, 9mm and 8mm slots along that blade as well.

281151All my hand made tools are for frame building like the braze on holder attached. Andy.

281151All my hand made tools are for frame building like the braze on holder attached. Andy.

Same here. Tool for holder the seat post binder while brazing onto the sesat tube:

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/finger/binder.jpg

Tool for holding cantilever brake bosses while brazing:

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/finger/canti-2.jpg

Tools for holding BB cable guides while brazing (this one hasn't been used in a while):

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/finger/guide-2.jpg

Tool for holding lug points down while brazing:

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/finger/points2.jpg

Tool for maintaining chainstay and seatstay alignment while brazing:

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/do-tool1.jpg

Here's a cone wrench I made to service a Bendix 2-speed "kick-back" hub:

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/bendix.jpg

Over the years I've built up a reasonable collection of shop-bought tools, but sometimes I'm just too mean to spend the amounts that shops charge when I can improvise a perfectly usable tool myself.

My favourites are these two:

The first is a bit of bent spoke that I use to hold the RD cage close to the chainstay to make re-assembling chains easier.

The second is to hold the BB removal tool in firmly when getting off the BB on a square taper system. Just take the nut off one end and screw the bolt into the end of the axle through the BB extractor tool. The Two large washers and springs provide the necessary pressure to hold the tool tightly while exerting pressure via the spanner. ( with a 4 foot length of scaffold pole as leverage even the most stuck BBs become an easy one-man job )

I've made nearly the same tools.

My bent wire is used to hook the ends of a new, sized chain overlaping a bit so I can fit the master link or joining pin.

My bolt-and-washer tool are used to clamp a loose bearing bottom bracket's fixed cup tool in place so I can use huge torque or even a mallet to get the fixed cup loose without the wrench slipping off. Mine is a 4" long 5/8" bolt, two big washers and a nut. It goes through both cups after the spindle and bearings are removed. I Place the wrench over the cup flats, add the outside washer and nut, tightened the nut finger tight and back it off as soon as the fixed cup breaks loose a few degrees.

Repair stand....shelf and closet rod hanger from the hardware store.....works well.



http://i47.tinypic.com/29ndqtg.jpg

Chain whip and sawed off pickaxe handle. Pickaxe handle is used for setting headset cups and smacking the end of a 15mm wrench to remove pedals.

I made an awl out of a bent and sharpened discarded spoke from the co-op. I'll post a pic when I get home.
Well, here it is: http://i736.photobucket.com/albums/xx1/igesundheit/37F11E51-D562-4DA2-BAF8-946C2B2DAAAF-8336-000002A6BB94A39D.jpg

http://bostonbicyclemechanic.blogspot.com/2012/10/rim-wrench.htmlhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v138/reptilezs/DSCF2607.jpg

Hoop straightener, AKA the Cookie Monster.

Great topic, keep 'em coming. thank you for sharing your creations. Brian

Over the years I've built up a reasonable collection of shop-bought tools, but sometimes I'm just too mean to spend the amounts that shops charge when I can improvise a perfectly usable tool myself.

My favourites are these two:

The first is a bit of bent spoke that I use to hold the RD cage close to the chainstay to make re-assembling chains easier.

The second is to hold the BB removal tool in firmly when getting off the BB on a square taper system. Just take the nut off one end and screw the bolt into the end of the axle through the BB extractor tool. The Two large washers and springs provide the necessary pressure to hold the tool tightly while exerting pressure via the spanner. ( with a 4 foot length of scaffold pole as leverage even the most stuck BBs become an easy one-man job )

You can also use a bent/shaped spoke (like yours) to just hold the two ends of a chain.

got home shop help from My Dad, [1920-2000] a steel bar , threaded with a pedal tap on each end.
clamping a pedal in the bench vise and spinning the bar, you could see the bent pedal spindle,
and lean on the bar to reduce the bend..

I made a C Spanner for a motorbike headset once - used an angle grinder to patiently cut it out from a chunk of ~4mm mild steel plate. The motorbike is long gone. I left the spanner when I moved house - so I guess it's like the fisherman's "one that got away".

Not Rocket Science, chain whip
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/pp216/Holedigger_photos/Chaintool.jpg

I carry this on my touring bike kit. It goes against the rules on replacing pins but when you are stuck road side you do a lot with it fixing a chain up in a pinch. Last year I came on a guy whose chain came apart and was able to get him going, but when inspecting his chain he had a bunch of loose links. We went link by link just snugging them down a little. Told him new chain as soon as he can.

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o716/bud16415/chain1_zps42d457a9.jpg

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o716/bud16415/chain2_zpsd38d9de1.jpg

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o716/bud16415/chain3_zps4f195897.jpg

.

For the disassembly of Shimano brifters.

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u143/cale_kat/Kuota%20Ksano/Kinesis%20Decade%20Tripster/DSCN7251.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u143/cale_kat/Kuota%20Ksano/Kinesis%20Decade%20Tripster/DSCN7252.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u143/cale_kat/Kuota%20Ksano/Kinesis%20Decade%20Tripster/DSCN7253.jpg

So when are you going to put the short section of chain on that incomplete chainwhip?

These are three tools I've made to work on Vintage Campy. The first is to loosed the stop pin on a NR/GS/SR rear derailleur. The center is to remove the dust covers on a front C-Record track hub. The last is a little plug I can slip under the dust cover on a NR/N Tipo hub. Once inside I can center it so I can tap the dust cover out from the other side; used when replacing bearing cups or cannibalizing pieces from a damaged and non-repairable hub.

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For the disassembly of Shimano brifters.

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u143/cale_kat/Kuota%20Ksano/Kinesis%20Decade%20Tripster/DSCN7251.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u143/cale_kat/Kuota%20Ksano/Kinesis%20Decade%20Tripster/DSCN7252.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u143/cale_kat/Kuota%20Ksano/Kinesis%20Decade%20Tripster/DSCN7253.jpg
Ha! I've got one of those I made out of a 1/4" drive 8mm socket. Initially done with a cutting disc on an angle grinder but it was a bit too rough to last so I tidied it up with the cutting disc on a dremel FTW.