Stuff You Made

[killgar]

One of the things I like most about the internet is seeing stuff that people make (and I enjoy showing off the stuff I make ). I particularly enjoy seeing the useful stuff people have made.

I thought I'd start this thread and encourage people to show-off their creations. So let's see it. Whether it's something big or small, simple or complicated, amateur or professional. Don't be modest.

Here's some stuff I've made.

I had a tire inflator that ran off a rechargeable battery, until the battery finally died. I hate to waste anything useful, and I wanted an inflator that I could run off a wall outlet, so I pulled out the pump, wired it to a power converter, added an on/off toggle switch, replaced the high-pressure gauge with a 60 psi pressure gauge which better served my needs, and mounted it all inside a little ammo can with a generic Walmart handle on top. It's pretty crowded in the box, but it all just fits. It's been serving me well for several years now.

Most of the stuff I've made/make is motorcycle related. Here's a small sample (it's all served me well for many years)-

Leather tank bag.

Leather tool bag.

Leather swingarm bag.

I made the latch on the swingarm bag from scratch (all stainless steel).

Footboards.

Cargo rack.

 

[tiguy7]

View attachment 1499182 Sharpening jig

 

[tiguy7]

View attachment 1499187 Lighted OptiVisorView attachment 1499186

 

[WValtakis]

 

[killgar]

Great stuff guys .

 

[mabrowns]

One of the things I like most about the internet is seeing stuff that people make (and I enjoy showing off the stuff I make ). I particularly enjoy seeing the useful stuff people have made.

I thought I'd start this thread and encourage people to show-off their creations. So let's see it. Whether it's something big or small, simple or complicated, amateur or professional. Don't be modest.

Here's some stuff I've made.

I had a tire inflator that ran off a rechargeable battery, until the battery finally died. I hate to waste anything useful, and I wanted an inflator that I could run off a wall outlet, so I pulled out the pump, wired it to a power converter, added an on/off toggle switch, replaced the high-pressure gauge with a 60 psi pressure gauge which better served my needs, and mounted it all inside a little ammo can with a generic Walmart handle on top. It's pretty crowded in the box, but it all just fits. It's been serving me well for several years now.

Most of the stuff I've made/make is motorcycle related. Here's a small sample (it's all served me well for many years)-

Leather tank bag.

Leather tool bag.

Leather swingarm bag.

I made the latch on the swingarm bag from scratch (all stainless steel).

Footboards.

Cargo rack.

That's some cool looking industrial stuff.

 

[Horsewright]

Lots of stuff. Knives:

Lots of knives:

Leather work too, particularly for the cowboy market, leggings, belts, reins, spur straps, headstalls, gunl eather etc:

Wool vests and silk wildrags (scarves):

Everything leather here except the boots:

Anyhoo just kinda what we do. We also made these racks from elk sheds (lost some knife handles here) and walnut boards from the Depot:

 

[Bigfattyt]

I make my own leather sheaths.

I have made about 6 knives also.

Made this Sheath for a Busse War Train Fusion.

Busse KZII sheath.

Made these two knives and sheaths. One forged 1075 the other stock removal 15n20. (First and second attempt at wood core sheaths. Tbe top one has a 13 lb magnet inlaid in the wood core under the leather.

Forged this one out of 5160 for my dad (only my 2nd attempt at forging).

Made him a sheath.

 

[Bigfattyt]

Found a pic with a few more sheaths.

 

[killgar]

More great stuff guys .


I gotta say, I'm kinda surprised there aren't more posts. I thought there would be more craftsmen on a knife forum.

That's some cool looking industrial stuff.

Thanks mabrowns. "Industrial" is exactly the word I use to describe my style of making stuff, in everything, from motorcycle parts to knives and more.

 

[WValtakis]

Honestly, I spend a lot more time making things pretty than actually making things...lol

 

[bdmicarta]

I thought there would be more craftsmen on a knife forum.

It seems like I make a lot of things but I couldn't think of very many good examples to post here. However "craftsman" is a little bit of a different story- some things I make would certainly qualify such as the little trinkets below, but others not as much.

I did have a hand in making this, on the engineering side, and I just noticed that the building in the foreground that is in shadow is another one that I designed:

 

[eveled]

I made this bumper for my brand new Dodge.........27 years ago

 

[killgar]

View attachment 1508526

I made this bumper for my brand new Dodge.........27 years ago

Nice! Very "Road Warrior".

 

[jmh33]

View attachment 1508526

I made this bumper for my brand new Dodge.........27 years ago

What does that weigh???
John

 

[eveled]

Too much. The nerf bars / running board and rear bumper match. I think the total steel order was about 400lbs. I removed the rear bumper which was surprisingly heavy. So I probably added about 350 lbs. the Cummins didn’t even notice.

 

[bdmicarta]

I've done little bits of woodworking over the years but I decided I wanted to try making more things. I've been watching youtube videos. I haven't made anything big but here are a few little projects. Recently we tore out some oak cabinets and I saved some of the doors for the scrap material. These first 3 projects are cut from some of the oak that I salvaged.

First is a little wooden box. It isn't made for any particular function, I just made it as a test. I resawed the scrap wood to about 5/16 thick. I made a screw drive box joint jig for my table saw to cut the fingers at the ends of my pieces. This box is relatively small, maybe 3" long, and the fingers are only about 1/4". The stain process didn't come out very well, the end grain darkened more than I wanted it to. I gave this box to my wife for her vintage box collection. I should take a photo of the box joint jig but it needs a little more work before I think it is finished.

I made this square to use for building larger projects. I had plenty of wood and I thought this would be easy make.

I thought I would try making some woodworking projects as Christmas presents. I made this trivet for my wife to use in the kitchen. It is basically some of the scrap wood sawed into strips and glued together. It was not hard to build but there was a lot of sanding involved.

I also made a blanket ladder for my daughter for her spare bedroom, but I don't have a photo of it.

 

[killgar]

I've done little bits of woodworking over the years but I decided I wanted to try making more things. I've been watching youtube videos. I haven't made anything big but here are a few little projects. Recently we tore out some oak cabinets and I saved some of the doors for the scrap material. These first 3 projects are cut from some of the oak that I salvaged.

First is a little wooden box. It isn't made for any particular function, I just made it as a test. I resawed the scrap wood to about 5/16 thick. I made a screw drive box joint jig for my table saw to cut the fingers at the ends of my pieces. This box is relatively small, maybe 3" long, and the fingers are only about 1/4". The stain process didn't come out very well, the end grain darkened more than I wanted it to. I gave this box to my wife for her vintage box collection. I should take a photo of the box joint jig but it needs a little more work before I think it is finished.

I made this square to use for building larger projects. I had plenty of wood and I thought this would be easy make.

I thought I would try making some woodworking projects as Christmas presents. I made this trivet for my wife to use in the kitchen. It is basically some of the scrap wood sawed into strips and glued together. It was not hard to build but there was a lot of sanding involved.

I also made a blanket ladder for my daughter for her spare bedroom, but I don't have a photo of it.

Beautiful work bdmicarta. And I like the repurposing of the wood. I enjoy repurposing materials myself. I have a motorcycle cargo rack (not the one I posted) that is partially made from steel flats taken from the frame of an old sofa bed I was throwing away.

Speaking of motorcycles, I needed to adjust the clutch cable on one of my bikes today and remembered that I had pics of the clutch cable adjustment knob I made. I wasn't happy with the stock knob (the short, rough looking one pictured) because due to it's shortness it didn't provide much range of adjustment. So I made my own.

I took a vented stainless steel socket head bolt, drilled out the vent hole to the necessary diameter to accommodate the cable, drilled out the socket head to accommodate the end of the cable housing, then used a dremel with a cutting wheel to cut the slotted opening along the side, then carefully filed and sanded the interior, edges, and opening to smooth them out.

Like I said, anything big or small .

 

[tiguy7]

View attachment 1515968 View attachment 1515969 Got hold of a Slingerland Ukelele Banjo (1920's). It had gut strings and tapered friction tuning pegs. I wanted to add metal strings So turned down the posts on some tuning machines so they would fit in the friction peg holes. Then I made a plate to hold the hardware. I calculated the proper dimensions of the metal strings based on material, cross sectional area, pitch, and tension and cut them to length. The thing is much louder now. Tiny Tim watch out. Quite suitable for playing while riding a bicycle no handed. The plate is not screwed to the head so the Uke can be returned to its original configuration.

 

[jaseman]

I don’t ‘make’ anything specific, rather I’ll make almost anything. Whether by necessity, curiosity, or just because. I’m a designer/artist by trade, so it’s just part of my nature. If I dug through my photo files, I could come up with all sorts of stuff, but here is just a smattering....

Old Estwing framing axe I found cleaning out a relatives house and decided to make ‘tacticool’. Cleaned it up with a wire wheel, sprayed on a few coats of primer and flat black, and wrapped the handle with about 50’ of cord.

The stock license plate assembly on my bike was a big, honking eyesore (like most bikes), so I made my own swingarm mount for it. Removal of the bracket also forced me to make new rear turn signal brackets, so I replaced the big, ugly, 4” round lights with some micro, 1” arrowhead lights. Of course, I then had to make the fronts mach

I cut the plate bracket out of 16g steel I bought at Home Depot, then painted it and bolted it together (eventually I’ll weld it, but it’s held for over 10 years so far...)

Had to do a bit of rewiring, as originally, the plate ligh came right off the harness for the brake light. It’s hidden pretty well, but if you look, you can see it peeking out from the bottom of the shock

Overall, the micro-turns, and the relocated plate really clean up the tail end

Of course, the fronts had to match, so I took some scrap from making the rear mounts and made front brackets

All tucked in and tidy, nice and matchy-matchy with the rear

And just because I can’t resist a glamour shot . Lots of things done to her that you wouldn’t really notice unless you parked a bone stock one next to it. Including the plate and turn signals, all reflectors and helmet locks have been shaved off, stock air intake removed and replaced, performance 3” pipes, and all sorts of other other mods. But the biggest difference is the 3” drop on the rear shocks which is really noticeable when parked next to almost any other bike!

Lately, I’ve been making things out of cigar boxes. Right now I’m making some watch cases for my growing collection, but I started off by making a presentation box for my father’s Colt Gold Cup as a Christmas gift. My Taurus isn’t as pretty of a 1911, but made a good stand in for mock-up

After cutting the foam insert, I grabbed some nice red velvet from the fabric store to really give it a pop of color.

And just to make the whole post knife related...