Cheap homemade useful tools

Thought this might be interesting. I'm as much a tooloholic as the next person. Thought I'd see what fellow posters have made.

Here is a couple I use when doing wiring work to get the ball rolling.

First is an old speedo cable inner cable piece. I've used this since I worked dealerships in the 80's. Works a treat for running wires into doors (especially through those crappy accordian rubber boots), behind blind panels or under carpeting etc. The speedo cable is squashed hardened at one end to go in the old speedo head gear. Makes it nice to use to push through tight spots as it keeps its shape. Once you have it run then you just tape your wire to the other end tightly making sure to cover the tip of the wire so it does not hang and then with even pressure you pull the speedo cable through dragging the wire through as you go. Has helped in too many areas to count. Just make sure to disconnect the battery if running in areas it might come in contact with power. Can pick one up at your local bone yard.



Other tool I use all the time to run wires through firewall rubber grommets etc. It is a piece of tube about 1/4" inside diameter with one end cut at a slight angle. Not too much of an angle and you need to be sure to sand the edges perfectly smooth so as not to gouge/nick your existing wires.

This tool works very well when trying to get wires run through a firewall grommet as you can typically push it through (angle end first) where the existing wires are so you don't have to cut an additional hole in the grommet. Even if you do have to make a hole in the grommet you can make a smaller hole than usual and then push the tube through which will expand the rubber around the tube. Once the tube is in place you run your wires through it into the interior. Once you have the wires through the grommet you simply pull the tube on through the grommet from the inside to remove it off the wires. The grommet now closes up tight around the wires so less chance of a leak. Makes running wires simple.






I don't have any pictures of the last one as sold the creeper I had it on, but found it super useful. I went to the local hardware store and bought a strip type magnet. Sort you can hang knives off of. I then mounted this to the side of my creeper. Got tired of sockets and other tools rolling off, going under the creeper or getting stuck on the wheels of the creeper etc. I just click the tool to the magnetic strip and when I need it again it is right there at hand.

Okay let's see what tools you've made!

 

I like the small tube as a gromet

 

Back when I had bikes I would use hospital oxygen tubing with some oil in It to sync the carbs. Worked like a champ.

 

Coat hanger cleans out the A/C evap drain perfectly

 

Im sure everyone knows the "old piece of pipe over a wrench as a breaker bar" trick

 

As they say, a pic is worth a thousand words so here is another for you.

Used this tool originally on old Fords to get the dash knobs off as they have a little spring clip inside them. Rather than damage the dash or the controller you hook the small end of the tool onto the lip of the spring clip and pull with the tool and your hand. Pops them off a treat without damaging anything. I've since used it on quite a number of other vehicles with the same sort of attachment.

Just made out of a bent piece of heavy wire coat hanger.

 

Great posts so far! Add some pics as well if you have them. Who knows, might end up with a whole new tool kit out of this post lol.

 

Are you saying that this works better than a regular fish tape?

I really like the tube-through-grommet idea.

 

Made this little guy when I realized my rig didnt come with the jack tool to lower the spare tire one day.








the finished product gridded smooth and pained black

 

Our safety coordinator made it a point that "cheater bars" are not permitted.


So now we use a "torque multiplication adapter"

 

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yeah, I rolled my eyes at that point of orientation. I think it's called a "torque amplifier" at least around here.

 

Cool spare tool!

Have to admit, when I've not had an official pipe torque multiplier I have used the box end of a large spanner to get the same result. Bit tricky to do without skinnned knuckles sometimes though.

Thanks goodness for air tools!

Keep them coming!

 

Is that a cute way to say cheater bar or are you actually referring to a torque multiplier?

I've got a nice 4' long piece of pipe that slides over all my wrenches and ratchets. It's a beautiful thing but just have to make sure the socket or wrench is set well or it pops off and goes flying (sometimes rounding off part of the nut in the process.

 

It's a cheater bar.

No, wait... it's not a cheater bar... we can't use those!

We don't often use them on bolts or nuts. It's normally on a pipe wrench clamped onto a piece of traffic signal framework that was originally assembled some time before the US entered WWII

 

Of course the wife's tools were

 

Not homemade, but I always have them. Different lengths curved and straight

 

If you run wires in suspended ceilings...
Instead of removing so many tiles, get yourself and R/C 4 wheel drive truck and some twine... goes around flouresent lights, up and over small piles of wire and insulation, gives you a good pull line for the bundles of cable.