Post your home made tools

[fish n chicks]

So as you go through life in the wood shop, you certainly find yourself making jigs as often if not more often than projects themselves. I was just wondering what you guys use in your shop that makes life easier for you. My most recent lil build was turning a laminate top from a kitchen island a buddy gave me for a benchtop into a multi-station. The first was a router table fence:

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[Pat B]

I do have a few simple forms for bending and straightening selfbow staves but mostly I use a draw knife, rasp and scraper when building selfbows. For arrows, on the other hand, I made these (most) to make life simpler...
 
 

[cobbow]

Hey Pat what are the rocks used for?      

[Pat B]

decorations! and to throw at squirrels robbing the bird feeders.

[razorback]

Pat, what do you use the two bottom tools for. My guess is slots for nocks and heads.

[Pat B]

Yes!  One is a store bought needle file I use to round the sharp edges of the nock to protect the string at full draw. The other is a wire impregnated with grit for cutting ceramic tiles. I added the handle for ease of use.

[Roy from Pa]

That last tool is neat Pat..

[scottm]

My Stave vice.  

[Pat B]

Cheap and easy, Roy. Just how I like them. d;^)

[Pennsyltuckey pete]

ScottM

I love your vice!  I will have one very soon just like it!

buy a junk saw for a buck at an auction... Av snips

 

 clean up with a file and sharpen and  voila! I have lots of card scrapers to say the least.

 

Made the handle to fit the $1.99 paint scraper blade.  Nice for wood on self bows.

 

now for footed risers

 

 

what it makes
 

Check out my lam grinder on another thread too.

pennsyltuckey

[scottm]

Thanks Pete.Ive got a whole $26.00 in my vice.You know I was laying in bed last night thinking I have a couple of old hand saws,I wonder if i could cut them down and make cabinet scrapers.Well you answered that question!Thanks for the idea of the snips.I wasent sure if they would cut a saw blade or not.I was going to use the plasma cutter.Snips will be easier for me to keep em square.

[Teagus]

Pete,
 I have been wondering what the term "footed riser" refered to. My brain is on overload since I started hangin here in December. Wish I could increase my ram. Can I ask what the two radius (from pivot to blade)in rough inches are for those two cuts? approx?

Thanks for the lessons,
Mike W.

[fish n chicks]

That's awesome pete!

[fish n chicks]

Originally posted by scottm:
My Stave vice.  

Hey Scott, not to sound totally dumb (when it comes to bowyerism, I totally am still) but what would I use a stave vice for? Laminating?

[4est trekker]

Not to answer your question for Scott, but this type of vice is used to hold the stave while shaping it with hand tools (i.e. drawknives, rasps, files, scrapers, etc.  It serves the same purpose as a shaving horse, but takes up much less room.  

Nice job, Scott.  Those things go for a pretty penny over at 3 Rivers, don't they?

[Pennsyltuckey pete]

Scott,

Don't limit yourself to square or rectangle scrapers.  you can make them curved too.  Convex/concave, long and short.  Also something a lot of people don't realize is that the height of the scraper changes the way the tool works the wood. Also make sure that you radius all of the sharp corners.
 Good luck


teagus

as far as the radius.  on of them is two size 9 kids walking shoes, the other is the length of a babys bottle plus the width of a Lego brick~!                

My point is the radius is whatever you want them to be.  I took  my riser block  and drew a rough pair of radius's on it. I then set the riser block on the floor.  Next step was to take a piece of string with a pencil tied to one end.  I stretched the string away from the block and started moving the end with a pencil in an arc until it closely matched the arc I had drawn on the block.  When I was happy with the match I measured the length of the string from the pencil to the center point of the arc.  VOILA!  Spin the riser block around and repeat the process for the other arc.  

By the way the actual measurements for the block that I showed in the pic are
17" for the large and 6" for the small.

pete

[Teagus]

Thanks Pete,
 I was just fast-tracking what approx. size plywood I will need to build one. Need to think this out as I am also installing a Kreg adjustable fence on 20" band saw for resawing. Also need to look up the blade width for those radius and see if I have any sharp ones left. I will work out my various rads on my autocad model of my riser.

 Mike W.

[Pennsyltuckey pete]

"AHHHHH" Said the blind bowyer as he picked up his hammer and saw!

pennsyltuckey

[NightHawk]

the problem with a stave vice is mounting it?? any suggestions??

 I have a hand sander that I made and use on my selfbows. I took a 2x4 cut it 6inches long.drilled a hole through it, then took my bandsaw and cut the 2x4 about an inch to 1 1/2 from the ends and about 3/4 inch deep then I put a carriage bolt through the block from the bottom.
i took the top piece and used a spade bit and made the hole bigger, so as to accomandate a wing nut. then I glued cork on the bottom over the head of the carriage bolt.

[scottm]

Thanks 4est.They are rather pricy.I had everything in the shop except the 8"c-clamp and the tubing for the mount to build one.If you had to buy everthing it would cost a little more than I had in mine.I built it out of high grade plate steel that I had left from another project.The tubing is a heavy wall industrial conduit.Not easy to come by(Ive got a friend who had a scrap in his shop).Galvanized or black iron pipe are not sized properly for a good fit inside one another.