Stacey

We all know that "Necessity is..."

I had to service my MBT fork, the specs called for a fork oil height with the forks collapsed, instead of oil volume. I remembered back to my M/C service days, a thing we called a fork oil gauge this honkin' big syringe with a graduated tube and slider on the end for sucking fork oil out untill it was at the right level. Trouble was, I didn't have one. I did have a 10cc syringe from medicating the rats, and I had a small parallel clamp. I measured up the syringe, and put the clamp at the mark, snugged it up and removed the excess fork oil. Worked like a charm!

I was inspired by the homemade Bendix nut removal tool thingy to start a thread for a collection of our home made tool that worked.

waterrockets 

Nice solution.

I made my own dish tool with a bandsaw and a scrap of 3/4" plywood. I just spring-clamp my pointer to the middle. Works great on all my 26" and 700c wheels.

I also have an axle vise which is a nut that I cut through one corner. Thread on axle, chuck into bench vise, and it never lets go.

I made a chainring bolt wrench from an wide old slotted screwdriver and careful use of an angle grinder.

HillRider

My fixed cup wrench clamp and headset cup press are both home made from long bolts or all-thread rod and a collection of nuts and washers.

San Rensho 

Homemade chainwhip. A piece of bar stock from home depo and an old chain.

Steev

Done the same thing myself.

MudPie

Waterrockets, great idea! It seems so obvious now, I wish I'd thought of that. One thing I like about it is the threads can't get damaged. I've seen photos of the Park vise and it's basically a rounded pieced of aluminum (flat surface) that contacts the threads. I know the aluminum is softer of the two materials, so the vise itself will get chewed up over time.

orange leader

I made one like that too, but the threaded rod was soooooo long, that I cut it in half and gave one of the halves to the local bicycle cooperative (velocipede) here in Baltimore.

waterrockets 

thx

cyccommute 

Not that you heard it from me but a syringe and a large gauge needle will inject water under mountain bike grips and then you can slide them right off.

Using an old steer tube or a piece of electrical conduit, you can make a very nice headset remover. Slot the tube with 4 slots at 90 degrees, splay the ends and then pull it through the headset. The splayed ends will spring out and catch the edges of the cup just like a professional tool. Tap on the top of the tube and drive the headset cup out.

For removing the crown race, go to Harbor Freight and purchase a bearing splitter for less than $10. Catch the bottom of the race with the sharp edges of the bearing splitter and tap it with a hammer. Race comes right off without much force.

For setting the crown race back in place, get a piece of copper drainage tubing from the hardware store. Put a cap on top of it and use it as a slide hammer to drive the race back in place. If you have to you can tap the cap with a hammer to persuade it I prefer copper tube over PVC because it has more heft and doesn't rebound quite as bad. (PVC can be a little 'jell-oy)

waterrockets 

That's a good one.

I also use my air compressor for this. If you can make a seal with your hand, the air will escape under the grip and work much like the water in your solution. You put the blower in the other end of the bars, and your hand over the end of the grip to be removed. You can make a quick seal around the blower by wrapping a short section of old tube around the nose of the blower, and jamming that into the far end of the handle bar.

You can also install grips this way. It's really easy since they ship with closed ends and a little hole. Just stick the blower tip in the hole, cover the other end of the bars with your hand, and shoot it on there. Makes a cool screaming sound too

HillRider

Well, in my area, all-thread is available in lengths shorter than 3 feet.

waterrockets 

I forgot to list my homemade work stand. I made a variation on this one:
https://www.motherearthnews.com/DIY/1..._Service_Stand

I have an arc welder, so I didn't braze as recommended in the article. Anyway, the design works like a champ, and the whole thing probably cost me $20 or less. I made mine quite a bit taller to get the drivetrain up to my elbow height without clamping the frame. I also welded in some nuts and bolts as splice points so I could dissassemble the stand and quickly put it back together.

If anyone is interested, I can snap a photo or two.

randomgear

I made a simple truing stand from aluminum angle (home depot) and 1/2 of an axle, it clamps into a vise.
It wobbles a bit, but is usable.
For my next homemade shop item, I am planning on cutting a bottom bracket removal tool from a piece of 1 1/4" steel pipe for a VAR bottom bracket.

Retem

here it is a loop chain whip made out of an old cottered crank arm


This is straight out of my junk bin but it looks and works nice here it is

1. old cottered crank arm left
2. spare bits of chain 1/8" is nice
3. 3/32" drill bit and 1/4" drill bit
4. quick links cuz I am lazy


voila!!

cuda2k

My newest home made 'tool' is a round (donut shaped) rare earth magnet (10mm across) attached to a ziptie. What on earth might you ask would I want to do with that? Ever need to pick up a bunch of bearings up at once? (or just one in a tight place!) Used it to pull the bearings out of hubs, BB's and from falling down a sink drain! and picking up about 30 1/4" bearings I dropped on to the counter top in my work area.

Next I plan to make a nipple drive out of an old philips head screw driver.

Steev

Done that too.

operator

Awesome!

twobikes

I made a cone wrench from a good quality 8" adjustable ("Crescent") wrench. I patiently ground down one face of the jaws until the thickness of the jaws was only about 2 mm. This cone wrench works will cones of any size, eliminating the need to buy several wrenches.

I also made an inch pound torque wrench with a bar of steel and a dial indicator fisherman's scale. A long handle 3/8" ratchet could be used in place of a steel bar. The goal was to locate the pulling point of the scale ten inches from the center of the Allen wrench. In reality, my scale reads 6 percent low, which would result in over-torqueing. So, I moved the pulling point 6 percent nearer to the center of the Allen wrench. I made the steel bar version. (To check the accuracy of a fisherman's scale, use it to weigh a known weight, like a package of hamburger. Meat is weighed very precisely on very accurate scales and the exact weight is printed on the label.) I drilled a hole to pass a 4 mm and a 5 mm Allen wrench near one end of the bar. I had previously doubled the bar's thickness where the holes are in order to keep the Allen wrenches straight in their holes. I also added a little fence to keep the Allen wrenches from twisting around and around. Later I needed a larger Allen wrench and welded a piece of 1/2" square steel tubing along the side of the steel bar. Anyway, for 50 inch pounds pull until the scale reads 5 pounds.

Both of these work very well. I did post this on another forum, and a couple of people had a major cow because these were not commercially made and the exact, precisely right tool for the job.

wethepeople

For removing BMX bottom brackets, push the button in and insert where the spindle goes. Then it's hammer time.

cyqlist

I made this tool to tighten or unscrew the screw that holds the head on a Zefal hp pump.

The pump worked fine for about 25 years then the head loosened up and it leaked. I couldn't find a screwdriver long enough to reach through the pump barrel, and the screw slot is wider than a regular screwdriver blade anyway, so I made this tool. Just a square steel rod with the end ground down on two sides. No handle, I just clamp it in the vise and lower the pump over it. I have no idea what is the "correct" tool for this job.

I took the pump head off, replaced the o-ring and reassembled it. Now saving the tool for the next time I need it in another 25 years.

Little Darwin

Not a home made tool, but a different use.

Twice I have had a handy man magazine send me drill gauges to try to get me to subscribe. I don't do a lot of drilling, butt I kept them around anyway.

Since I am not good at estimating sizes visually, a few months ago as I was going to get my calipers I saw the drill gauge and looked... it has all the sizes of common bearings, so now I have a bearing gauge.

This usage may be common knowledge, but it has helped me quite a bit with my confidence level in picking bearing sizes in the last month or two.

San Rensho 

Another trick is to use sockets or wrenches to measure ball bearings and fasteners. If the fastener fits in a 5mm socket, its 5 mil!

San Rensho 

Bar and fish scale work great. I use it all the time. Used a variant to torque a car wheel center nut to 207 ft-lbs. Converted 207 to inch pounds, divided by my weight and the resulting inches was the distance along the breaker bar that I had to apply all my weight. Don't need no expensive click torque wrench.

iNewton

Or smaller.

tonka.toy

Used a length of thick threaded rod with a couple of bolts and a couple of steel plates to pull in the bearing cups on headsets.