Toolbag Tales-Homemade and improvised tools

[myglaren]

Veering somewhat off topic, a couple of months ago my Bosch hammer drill gave up the ghost and I replaced it with a deWalt one.
Have been fitting ground anchors in my son's garage, he was recently broken in to and two mountain bikes and a motorbike were stolen.
He has had a high security roller shutter put in place of the up-and-over door but as added security wanted to chain his other motorbike and the two replacement mountain bikes to these ground anchors.
An SDS drill would have been a better prospect but used the DeWalt.
Quite disappointing. The bits kept coming free in the chuck, vibrations loosening it presumably.
It is a keyed chuck, another strike against it, and it seems unpossible to tighten it up enough to prevent it coming loose.
Then my son suggested using his cheap Ryobi drill that may other son gave him. Keyless chuck.
Sad to say it was far better than the DeWalt.

[bobins]

I've found proper security chains along with decent ground anchors are the only things that have actually put off dodgy scroats from stealing things. We used to get broken into at work - once every 18 months to 2 years - and they weren't put off by having to spend 5 minutes cutting through the door or the Master Blaster* that triggered on entry. They were mainly after the quad bikes, the owner used a 'mickey mouse' chain..... but that did nothing, so I got a couple of very heavy hardened chains along with the ground anchor. The last time they broke in they discovered the chains and left the site and haven't been back since - that was a good few years ago now.

* - If you've ever experienced one, you'll know what they're like !

[myglaren]

The ones he bought were £90 each and weigh about 20 kilos each. Four of them.

[bobins]

That should slow them down !

[MattBLancs]

Open the chuck wide and look down the inside - if a screw head visible (usually Philips but sometimes Torx) then it's possible to unscrew the chuck and change it for new.

They do wear and coming loose even flipping two seconds is often symptom.

Screw is anticlockwise thread. Chuck is conventional thread and normally very reluctant to unscrew.

Two or three sizes of chuck thread.
Screwfix, Toolstation, etc have replacement chucks.


But SDS is better for hammer drilling overall

[MattBLancs]

And the screw can get mangled by drill bit rubbing against it, so might be impossible to remove, unfortunately!

[myglaren]

The DeWalt is almost new, only had it a few weeks and only used once before to drill some holes in wood for coach bolts.
The Bosch lasted twenty years and had a hard life.

[MattBLancs]

The DeWalt is almost new, only had it a few weeks and only used once before to drill some holes in wood for coach bolts.
The Bosch lasted twenty years and had a hard life.

Ah, sorry missed that bit! That's pretty poor going.

Do you think it's faulty or just poor quality? Too late to take it back and swap it?

[myglaren]

Well within warranty. There was a three year warranty with it but I didn't jump through the hoops (have to telephone them) within the time limit.

[Gibbo2286]

I'm still using two Wolf drills I bought in the 1950s one with a 3/8" chuck and a low speed one with a 1/2" chuck, I've used the low speed one to reface valves for all that time as well as drilling thousand of holes.

[myglaren]

Not homemade but could be of interest, if only, as he mentions in the beginning, for shifting corroded on nuts.

[thorter]

That might work OK, but will likely spoil the spanner heat treatment. What does work very well is a portable spot welder (if you are lucky enough to have one). You just scrape two opposite flats to get contact, then the welder can heat the nut red hot in a second or two. The bolt does not heat much at all, and the nut easily unscrews. This technique can work for corrosion that at first sight looks hopeless.

[CitroJim]

Maybe a little OT for this thread but maybe not...

Last time Mick attempted to use his little torque wrench, the head fell to bits and exited the body... In doing so, a small spring and ball bearing went ping and successfully made a bid for freedom.

These components form part of the head ratchet assembly...

Replacements were sourced although the reassembly job had to wait until I was in the right mental place to do the job. It's incredibly fiddly and there's only one chance to get the spring and ball back where they belong along with a massive risk of 'pingfukit' occurring

Anyone who's rebuilt a baulk-ring synchromesh hub will fully appreciate...

Success was achieved and as the last part of the job, I checked its calibration using my test gauge.

The new spring and ball... The spring length is critical.

Testing and checking calibration.

Interestingly, this particular example of the breed is designed to only act as a torque wrench on RH threads. Turn the ratchet to L and it acts as a small breaker bar!

[mickthemaverick]

Following on from the tale of my low range torque wrench is a subject which resulted from that issue. During the time the wrench was with Jim I was using my 3/8" ratchet and 'muscle memory'. However that ratchet has started to irritate me by generally wearing out so I thought I'd look for a replacement. I came across this on the bay of evil and wondered 1) if anyone has one and can comment and 2) does the torque rating seem ambitious to you?

BFTW

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/286009093540 ... R6rE44jkZA

[myglaren]

Looks an interesting tool and suspiciously inexpensive. May buy one for my son for his mountain bikes. I bought him a Teng one that was three times that price, for his motorbike, but the range was too high for the mountain bikes so he bought a low-range one that was twice the price of those.

My torque wrench was £15 from Aldi