This is a list of DIY hand tools that I use for tinkering with making my ultralight stoves and related small projects. I will add to the list as I bump into these old workshop friends.
Introduction
“A good tool makes the difficult easy and the impossible possible”– Mothy the elder. My late father taught us, as kids, to make our own tools and most have gone on in faithful service for many years.
At my previous workplace of many years, I had the pleasure of having a talented mechanic/engineer occasionally make specialised hand tools for my research projects. He would listen well to understand the purpose of the tool and without fail would embellish the tool to make it better, safer, easier to use and more smooth to the hand in its use. The finished item would be painted distinctly with silver frost paint so that it would be recognizable as ‘Tims valuable hand tool’ to be added to my collection, and not just an odd bit of scrap metal. Thanks, Tony, you are a treasure.
Hot knife cutter welder
This is my latest addition to my tool kit. It makes fabric cutting easy and also can be used to cut and weld synthetic fabric edges together. This can make the sewing of simple or complex seams very easy. Please see Hot knife cutter welder for more details.
Mini vice grip
Vice grip hand tool for working with metal foils and thin sheet metal. Unlike a bench vice, this gripping device is smooth and allows a long strip of metal to pass through the throat while working on one end.
Fine awl
Weld-on hinge forming
This application combines the above two tools and converts a folded strip of metal into weldable articulated pined joints such as hinge or clevis.
Weld-on’ hinge clevis that had been held in grip jaws while an awl was used to open up the pin channel to allow final channel shaping with a portion of the hinge pin to be used in it.
[Photo of clevis made the same way]
Prick punches and fine scribes from concrete nails
Concrete nails are made of very good quality steel and if ground slowly with suitable cooling, by frequent dipping in water, can easily be ground to a fine point without loss of temper. After sharpening they make excellent centre punches and prick punches and also scribers for marking out fine metalwork. If the point is made very long, it can be driven right through metal foils and sheet metal to make a pilot hole that is easy to start drilling of a larger hole.
Drilling and tapping lubricant
I went looking for a drilling/taping lubricant paste for working with titanium and stainless steel that is rather harsh on drill bits. When my search failed I asked my engineering friend for some advice and he gave me his recipe that he has used for many years. It works very well. Even better, it costs almost nothing and smells like dinner cooking when the machining gets tough and hot. Thanks, Lou.
Recipe. Mix vegetable oil (used oil is OK) into lard/dripping to make the mixture soft. Store in a squat, wide neck jar with a screw cap jar, so that it is easy to dip cutting tools into it without the need to remove the drill or tap from the chuck.
The paste generously sticks to a cutting tool and melts down onto the cutting zone as the tool heats up and lubrication is most needed.
Foil and sheet metal roller
This tool is a thick steel bar that can be used bare as a rolling anvil for flattening foil and sheet metal and dressing edges after sheer cutting.
When the anvil is covered with a 3 mm thick foam pad it can be used with a hard round rod or tube to roll smooth curves in foils and sheet metal.
Padded rolling bed for rolling smooth curves in metal foils and thin sheet metal. This hand tool made of a thick, flat bar that has a 3mm thick sealed cell foam padding strip fixed to one end by packing tape. When a strip of flat foil or sheet metal is rolled against the pad (rolling pin action) with a strong tube or rod of about 10mm diameter, it can form smoothly curved tubes that are ready for welding. The tape holds the foam in place under tension. If not held this way the foam will move off the anvil. The bar and pad are deliberately narrow because with a wide pad it is difficult to provide enough pressure down on to the foil to progress the curling.
This tool is so versatile that it deserved its own post. So for more details please see Rolling curves in titanium and stainless steel foils.
Metal foil folder
Hand tool for precision long folding of metal foil and shim stock according to predetermined widths (5 and 10mm). Various layers of the ‘sheet metal sandwich’ have long spacers set at different depths for gauging folds of different widths. The strength of the folder comes from the outer structural jaws that are made of 3mm galvanized steel and these support the 1mm thick colorbond jaws that protrude a further 5mm out beyond the structural jaws. This transition from thick to thin sheet provide adequate strength at the bending line and importantly allows sharp bend angles to be made at much less than 90 degrees. This hand tool was geared to doing long folds of 5 and 10 mm depth, by chance the tool has many other slots in it on various other surfaces that make other bends possible, including corners. Multiple bolts pass through the centre of the tool and the depth gauging shims have enlarged holes in them to allow for movement in or out to finely adjust the respective fold widths. After width adjustment, the bolts can be done up tightly to lock in the fold width settings.
Silicon rubber ‘whip wizzer’ mixing tool
A small cup for mixing silicon rubber with turpentine. It is used with the rotary ‘whip wizzer’ tool that is fitted in a Dremel tool. It makes mixing quick and easy. It is made from a small medical solution bottle with the neck cut off. The lip around the top helps to keep the spinning liquid contained.
Circle gauges
These simple circle tools that are cut from scrap sheet metal can be useful for marking out circles and forming welded rings of metal foil. They can form very precise and repeatable circumferences, and therefore diameters, in foil bands, cylinders and cones prior to welding.
Stretching cones
Stretching cones are hand tools for dressing and curving the edges of a hole in foils and thin sheet metal. Machined steel cone (left), strong SS drinking cups (centre) and small strong cups (right).
Locking forceps
Discarded surgical forceps make wonderful hand tools that provide ‘a spare hand or two’ for microengineering with thin stainless steel and titanium foils. ‘They don’t; accidentally let go, get tired or complain.” Forceps from left to right: straight, curved (can provide good clearance for tack welding), curved and ground down to a finer point (can provide more clearance for tack welding of very small joints), curved and one jaw lightly padded with masking tape (provides a softer grip), curved and heavily padded with masking tape (provides a soft grip of the surface of an object with a thickened edge. “Find a friendly nurse who can salvage some these for you before they go in the rubbish.”
Sanding cones
A DIY sanding cone made by turning a piece tree branch into a cone after threading and glueing a 9mm dia stud/spindle into it. It is covered with discarded, but high quality ‘cloth-backed belt sander abrasive’ (it appears to be aluminium oxide grit). It is glued in place with contact adhesive. “It is showings signs of wear at~30mm diameter (a popular hole size for me) where the sanding cloth joins, but has had years of use and still functions well. I use it in a drill press for dressing and enlarging holes in foils and sheet metal.
Quite to my surprise, I found that the cone can also be used as a hand tool to delicately enlarge and shape holes in foil by hand. I place the foil over the end of a piece of suitable solid pipe for support. The metal edge can be systematically ground away by repeatedly rubbing the cone downwards with gentle force against the trapped edge. The cutting action although gentle is quite quick and satisfying and can allow a finish that can precisely follow a curved line that has been scribed on a metal sheet.
Sanding board
A sanding board made from two pieces (coarse and medium grit) of discarded cloth-backed belt sander abrasive. They are glued to a piece of 7-ply packing case wood. It makes a safe effective and long-lasting tool for dressing, smoothing and rounding edges and corners of metal foils and much more.
Precision forming rings
These insignificant ring made from bands of welded stainless steel foil make a very light but strong tool for setting precise and repeatable circumferences, and therefore diameters, when forming and welding rings, bands, cylinders, and cones from metal foils.
These simple rings are formed from thin (~0.1mm thick) hard stainless steel ribbon. They are spot welded with a precise circumference that can be subsequently used as a hand tool to repeatedly form tubes with a particular diameter or a small standardised taper using rings of slightly different circumferences.
Table/butter knife flaring hammer
Close-fitting pipes formed from metal foils and light sheet metal can benefit from having external flaring and or internal lips formed on their ends. The flare provides easy docking of close-fitting tubes and also the lip can improve the docking and also prevent close fitting components falling through. “On a dark night, these finishes also clearly indicate which end goes where.”
Initially, I used a short length of 10mm steel rod as the hammer for forming such flares and lips. However, I found that a selected stainless steel table knife with a solid handle can make a superior metal flaring tool to ‘finish’ the ends of foil and light sheet metal tubes. They cost almost nothing at opportunity shops (usually as bundles of 10 knives).
The weight and range of round profiles found on a typical knife handle makes them excellent hammers to progressively deform the metal against an anvil made from a suitable piece of pipe.
Different parts of the handle can be used effectively on tubes of different diameters. I form external flares by putting the tube inside a pipe anvil. For forming an inward-facing lip on tubes I place the tube over an anvil made from a smaller piece of pipe. A close fit between tube and anvil is better, but not essential.
Table knife flaring hammer. The variety of curves on the heavy handle makes an excellent tool for flaring ends of foil and thin sheet metal pipes. From left to right; (1) a tapered flue pipe to stove adaptor with an ‘easy docking’ flange formed on the top and a ‘drop-through blocking’ inward-facing lip on the bottom, (2) a piece of pipe, that fits over the adaptor, used as the anvil to form the flare and (3) a smaller diameter pipe, that fits inside the adaptor, to form an anvil to form the lip.
I finish with an ode to the DIY tools for DIY;
A good DIY tool is worth its weight in gold,
The work to wrought and safely hold,
Its short time to rend pays an endless dividend,
As friends, worth their weight in feathers when old.
Tim
Thanks for share this article it’s quite helpful to me.
Best regards,
Demir Griffin
I would say this is one. You nailed it 8, from beginning to
end. To write this you might have worked hard for study.
King regards,
Harrell Raahauge
Oops, Banjo Patterson, not Henry Lawson!
Not thinkin’ straight today!
S
Hi again Tim,
I just nostalgically visited Tim Tinker web, and wow, it just gets better and better! So cool. Really liked the DIY tools section.
Not too much telemarking shown – I wonder if your fan base knows about 10% of your life is spent in tele turns, albeit with a bit of tinkerin’ on the side.
I’ve seen reports of the early snow. Just now, I’m picturing you waxing your skis, and stepping out on the St Gwinear summit trail for skiing with friends this weekend. When you do, I could benefit from a photo of the snow gums on St Gwinear.
Thinking of turns amidst the trees,
Steve
…and with respect to Henry Lawson, and Clancy of the Overflow…
And I’m somehow rather thinkin’ that I’d like to change with TimTinkerin’,
Like to take a turn at skiing where the snow gums wildly grow,
While he faced the round eternal of the KL trafik jam infernal
But I doubt he’d suit the office, TimTinker, of `The Overflow’.
Hi Steve P, A comment is welcome anywhere, especially if it is a nice one. Maybe I should make a ‘Totally Random’ post page for poetry, songs, exclamations, wise sayings and such.
I will also try to subliminally embed some telemark sking stuff. We could feature our makeshift ski binding repairs while out on trips.
Tim
Hi Tim, This comment not necessarily for posting. I just found your brilliant website whilst doing a couple of posts about tent stoves and a DIY tipi I am working on. I would like to do a post about your website and would like to use some of your photos to illustrate it. Look forward to hearing from you. Cheers, Steve.
Hi Steve, Thanks for your kind comments. I am glad that you have enjoyed my posts. Very happy for you to do a post on my website and for you to use any of my photos. I had a quick look at your website and remembered that I had visited it to get information on the Upper Yarra track. I did the Warburton to Wallhalla section with friends and it was very enjoyable and worth doing again. Regarding your Tyvek sleeping bag/quilt cover, how well does it work? I must look in more detail at all your stuff.
I will approve your comment to make it public if that is OK with you but can delete it if you would prefer that.
Keep in touch.
Best regards and keep up your tinkering,
Tim