Shop made jigs, tools and gear modifications

[JayZeus]

'Shop made' - I felt uneasy writing that for some reason. Something tells me it's an Americanism I might get away with, or else I'm just spending way too much time listening to the Fine Woodworking podcast these days.

I like making tools, fixing tools, using tools and as arguably counterproductive as it might seem given I spend way too much on tools generally speaking, often get a kick out of avoiding spending a few euro on something simple when I can just make something similarly functional myself. I can't be the only one here that does this, right?

Anyway, here's a first offering for a discussion I'm hoping everyone will join in with, to share simple and effective DIY hacks in the workshop.

I have a Dust Commander DLX, referenced on another thread recently, fitted to a big blue barrel. It works really well and it's great value for money too. But I just couldn't bring myself to pay them for a bypass or pressure relief valve. Theirs is a couple of bits of 3D printed plastic, a couple of crappy little springs and a bolt and nyloc nut.

I'm sure it works fine, but I like to overbuild things, so I went with an M8 hex head machine screw, a knurled hand nut to allow for easy adjustment of the spring tension and a matching spring for the assembly. I used a 64mm hole saw to cut a disk of perspex on the pillar drill, bored out the centre hole to 8mm and set about mounting it on the drum lid. 8 x 8mm holes bored through the lid and plywood reinforcing disk serve to let the drum breathe when the intake hose is blocked off, which happens very easily when using the hose to clean up after running a tool.

Works great. Ignore the breakout on the underside of the plywood and the overlength screws nipped off with a bold cutter. I was rushing, but no harm done and it's on the uglier side of the whole setup anyway!

Bypass Complete.jpeg

Bypass close-up.jpeg

Bypass Assembly.jpeg

[kadman]

Hows that working for you. I needed a vacuum for the workshop recently. Something small and handy that could be used for small power tools, and the general tidy up. Foolishly bought an aldi/lidl jobbie as I thought it would be ok for occasional use. Even though I have a big electra beckum one, that I could of made connections for.
I went for the quick fix, and bought one. Piece of crap lasted about 4 hours in total on a few tidy ups. And of course lost the receipt, so couldb't be arsed arguing with someone on a til, so fekked it out to the dump.

The most recent McGyver tool I have made was a roof ladder top rung hook. I needed to hook over a straight ladder on an A roof to fix box profile cladding. I had 2 old weight benches, so I fixed one to the top of the ladder, and it worked a treat. And I also had to raise up the scaffolding to keep my dad from getting up on the roof to help, and he is 90 years old, and mad keen to help. But very strong minded, and had to be told to stay away from the ladder

Great idea for a thread, I must rack the brains and see what I cobbled up over the years. I will have to put me water cracking unit on the classic car thread tho I dont want to get the timber wet.