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12 Tools Worth BuyingGood tools produce good work From the April, 2012 issue of Street Rodder By Gerry Burger
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Duplication made easy When... Duplication made easy When it comes time to duplicate a contour using just poster board, a pencil, and scissors you can go through a lot of paper before you get it right. All that hassle is eliminated with a simple contour duplication gauge. Simply press down on the contour you wish to duplicate and the gauge gives you both an internal and external duplicate shape. It just doesn’t get any easier than this. You can find these tools from Eastwood and other tool suppliers; we found them in the $10-$30 range. Chances are if you’re a car guy you’re also a tool junkie. Let’s face it, few things are more fun than working on your own car, and while it takes skill to produce great work, it also takes great tools. Luckily for us there are more tools available today than ever before, and tools that were once considered completely out of reach for the backyard shop are now affordable. Specialty companies are building tools scaled down to fit in your home shop, things like shears, brakes, and sandblasting cabinets are all available in sizes that will fit the confines of your shop. Sure, if you have the room there is nothing like a big commercial sheetmetal brake that will bend a full 8-foot sheet but realistically most of the sheetmetal work done in the home shop is under 3 feet, so a smaller brake will do the job just fine—and that’s just one example. Likewise tools that were once considered exotic equipment are now affordable and that fit in a home garage. Things like plasma cutters and TIG welders were once reserved for high-end fabrication shops but are common fare in home shops today, but this is hardly big news. The trick is to find cool tools that will help you build a hot rod. To find quality tools, think about the people who do great fabrications, custom automotive shops and the entire aircraft industry. If you spend even a little bit of time around any aircraft you will be blown away by the quality of work and design that is incorporated in the aircraft. We already utilize a lot of things that came directly from the aircraft industry, things like tie-wraps, Adel clips, and even synthetic oil all came from the aircraft industry. So it is no surprise that shopping for tools from aircraft tool suppliers will net you some very cool tools. We thought it would be fun to go shopping for some tools that are not the common garden variety stuff, tools that would have your hot rod friends saying, “Where did you get that?” We think these tools are well worth buying and when you get them you may wonder how you ever built a hot rod without one. So, “What’s in your toolbox?” Better than measuring tape Any hot rodder who has ever been near an airplane has seen the long lines of rivets. We always marveled at how straight and perfectly spaced the rivets were and now we have discovered the secret. It seems there is a tool that will evenly space holes without measuring a thing. Simply locate the first hole and then expand the accordion-style hole marker to the desired spacing. Then mark or center punch through the holes and you have perfectly spaced holes every time. We found this for sale at Airparts for under $40. www.airpartsinc.com Oftentimes repairing sheetmetal requires compound curves, like wrapping around a radius on a curve, making a patch panel for a ’40 Ford fender comes to mind. Unfortunately, no one makes a dolly to match your particular repair but you can easily make a curved T-dolly with simple bar stock and flat stock welded together. And how do you get the proper radius? With that Contour Duplication Gauge you just purchased, of course.  Working all the angles When...  Working all the angles When it comes time to fabricate accurate angles you need quality tools. We’ve seen way too many plastic squares and cheap protractors in fellow hot rodder’s toolboxes. If you want an accurate measurement, square line, or angle you need to step up to a more precise tool. We found these at our local Sears store and the Craftsman quality is apparent in their machinist square and the steel protractor.  It’s time for the shake and...  It’s time for the shake and break No seriously, that is the name of this tool, and oh what a tool it is. Frozen screws and bolts loosen at the very sight of this tool. Simply install it in your impact gun using low air pressure. Shake-N-Break is an air impact screw and fastener removal tool that uses standard, changeable, 5/16-inch hex insert bits that fit any or all fasteners and screws. The tool will loosen rusted, corroded, undercoated, painted, dirty, and overly tightened screws fast and efficiently. Vibration shakes the screw loose while you turn the screw with the attached handle.  It’s simply riveting Installing...  It’s simply riveting Installing a rivet involves drilling the holes, inserting a rivet, and then holding a “bucking bar” under the rivet. Then the rivet driver is placed on the head of the rivet and the impact of the driver mushrooms the rivet until it is squeezed tight, holding the two pieces of metal together. Remember to wear ear protection as this is a very noisy operation. Beyond the great mechanical good looks of a rivet, they also have the advantage of being an incredibly strong way to join two pieces of metal. You can buy a rivet driver gun, the assortment of drivers, bucking bars, and rivets to drive from ATS (Aircraft Tool Supply). www.aircraft-tool.com  It’s time for the shake and...  It’s time for the shake and break No seriously, that is the name of this tool, and oh what a tool it is. Frozen screws and bolts loosen at the very sight of this tool. Simply install it in your impact gun using low air pressure. Shake-N-Break is an air impact screw and fastener removal tool that uses standard, changeable, 5/16-inch hex insert bits that fit any or all fasteners and screws. The tool will loosen rusted, corroded, undercoated, painted, dirty, and overly tightened screws fast and efficiently. Vibration shakes the screw loose while you turn the screw with the attached handle.  It’s simply riveting Installing...  It’s simply riveting Installing a rivet involves drilling the holes, inserting a rivet, and then holding a “bucking bar” under the rivet. Then the rivet driver is placed on the head of the rivet and the impact of the driver mushrooms the rivet until it is squeezed tight, holding the two pieces of metal together. Remember to wear ear protection as this is a very noisy operation. Beyond the great mechanical good looks of a rivet, they also have the advantage of being an incredibly strong way to join two pieces of metal. You can buy a rivet driver gun, the assortment of drivers, bucking bars, and rivets to drive from ATS (Aircraft Tool Supply). www.aircraft-tool.com  Finding the center every time...  Finding the center every time You have a hole in one panel and you want to find the exact center on an overlapping panel. There’s a tool that will make that very simple. It’s called a Strap Duplicator and it comes in different hole sizes and depths. The most popular size is No. 40, 12-inch working length. On the bottom of the piece a peg slips into the hole, and then the overlapping panel slides between the forks of the duplicator. A light blow with a hammer or just the spring-loaded snap will accurately find the center every time, providing perfect alignment with the existing hole. There is a variation of this tool that permits drilling directly through the tool if you prefer. Either way this is a great problem solver. They are available for less than $20 from ATS (Aircraft Tool Supply). www.aircraft-tool.com  It’s simply riveting Installing...  It’s simply riveting Installing a rivet involves drilling the holes, inserting a rivet, and then holding a “bucking bar” under the rivet. Then the rivet driver is placed on the head of the rivet and the impact of the driver mushrooms the rivet until it is squeezed tight, holding the two pieces of metal together. Remember to wear ear protection as this is a very noisy operation. Beyond the great mechanical good looks of a rivet, they also have the advantage of being an incredibly strong way to join two pieces of metal. You can buy a rivet driver gun, the assortment of drivers, bucking bars, and rivets to drive from ATS (Aircraft Tool Supply). www.aircraft-tool.com  It’s simply riveting Installing...  It’s simply riveting Installing a rivet involves drilling the holes, inserting a rivet, and then holding a “bucking bar” under the rivet. Then the rivet driver is placed on the head of the rivet and the impact of the driver mushrooms the rivet until it is squeezed tight, holding the two pieces of metal together. Remember to wear ear protection as this is a very noisy operation. Beyond the great mechanical good looks of a rivet, they also have the advantage of being an incredibly strong way to join two pieces of metal. You can buy a rivet driver gun, the assortment of drivers, bucking bars, and rivets to drive from ATS (Aircraft Tool Supply). www.aircraft-tool.com  Finding the center every time...  Finding the center every time You have a hole in one panel and you want to find the exact center on an overlapping panel. There’s a tool that will make that very simple. It’s called a Strap Duplicator and it comes in different hole sizes and depths. The most popular size is No. 40, 12-inch working length. On the bottom of the piece a peg slips into the hole, and then the overlapping panel slides between the forks of the duplicator. A light blow with a hammer or just the spring-loaded snap will accurately find the center every time, providing perfect alignment with the existing hole. There is a variation of this tool that permits drilling directly through the tool if you prefer. Either way this is a great problem solver. They are available for less than $20 from ATS (Aircraft Tool Supply). www.aircraft-tool.com  Better than measuring tape...  Better than measuring tape Any hot rodder who has ever been near an airplane has seen the long lines of rivets. We always marveled at how straight and perfectly spaced the rivets were and now we have discovered the secret. It seems there is a tool that will evenly space holes without measuring a thing. Simply locate the first hole and then expand the accordion-style hole marker to the desired spacing. Then mark or center punch through the holes and you have perfectly spaced holes every time. We found this for sale at Airparts for under $40. www.airpartsinc.com  A shapely dolly Oftentimes...  A shapely dolly Oftentimes repairing sheetmetal requires compound curves, like wrapping around a radius on a curve, making a patch panel for a ’40 Ford fender comes to mind. Unfortunately, no one makes a dolly to match your particular repair but you can easily make a curved T-dolly with simple bar stock and flat stock welded together. And how do you get the proper radius? With that Contour Duplication Gauge you just purchased, of course.  Driving me Nutserts We’re...  Driving me Nutserts We’re totally hooked on rivet nuts, also known by the trade name Nutserts. These simple-to-install threaded inserts grip metal (and some plastics) like a pop rivet but in the process they leave you with threads. This is the perfect solution for a blind fastener and once you use these inserts you’ll cut down the use of sheetmetal screws by 90 percent. Nutserts can be installed with an installation tool that is larger than the average pop-rivet gun. They will install both the aluminum and steel-type Nutserts. That’s the good news; the bad news is the tool often doesn’t fit in the confines of a hot rod build and the installation tool generally cost around $70. We were real excited when we found a rivet nut installer that works in tight spaces and it only cost $17. The design is incredibly simple and ingenious. Basically two wedges are pulled together by a draw bolt and in the process the rivet nut is compressed and expanded to hold in the sheetmetal. We bought this tool from Aircraft Spruce a  Punching pipe Finding the...  Punching pipe Finding the center of a piece of tubing is tricky stuff, and keeping those holes all on the same plane is particularly difficult. However there is a very cool tool available that will permit you to find the center of a piece of tubing every time. This centering head from Curve-O-Mark is a simple way to locate the center or any preferred angle on a piece of tubing. Then with a light blow of a hammer you can center punch the location accurately every time. www.jacksonsafety.com  Driving me Nutserts We’re...  Driving me Nutserts We’re totally hooked on rivet nuts, also known by the trade name Nutserts. These simple-to-install threaded inserts grip metal (and some plastics) like a pop rivet but in the process they leave you with threads. This is the perfect solution for a blind fastener and once you use these inserts you’ll cut down the use of sheetmetal screws by 90 percent. Nutserts can be installed with an installation tool that is larger than the average pop-rivet gun. They will install both the aluminum and steel-type Nutserts. That’s the good news; the bad news is the tool often doesn’t fit in the confines of a hot rod build and the installation tool generally cost around $70. We were real excited when we found a rivet nut installer that works in tight spaces and it only cost $17. The design is incredibly simple and ingenious. Basically two wedges are pulled together by a draw bolt and in the process the rivet nut is compressed and expanded to hold in the sheetmetal. We bought this tool from Aircraft Spruce a  Driving me Nutserts We’re...  Driving me Nutserts We’re totally hooked on rivet nuts, also known by the trade name Nutserts. These simple-to-install threaded inserts grip metal (and some plastics) like a pop rivet but in the process they leave you with threads. This is the perfect solution for a blind fastener and once you use these inserts you’ll cut down the use of sheetmetal screws by 90 percent. Nutserts can be installed with an installation tool that is larger than the average pop-rivet gun. They will install both the aluminum and steel-type Nutserts. That’s the good news; the bad news is the tool often doesn’t fit in the confines of a hot rod build and the installation tool generally cost around $70. We were real excited when we found a rivet nut installer that works in tight spaces and it only cost $17. The design is incredibly simple and ingenious. Basically two wedges are pulled together by a draw bolt and in the process the rivet nut is compressed and expanded to hold in the sheetmetal. We bought this tool from Aircraft Spruce a  Cutting the curves When it...  Cutting the curves When it comes to cutting curves in sheetmetal, the best tool just might be an open-throat rotary shear. Using a 1/2-inch drive ratchet you can feed the sheetmetal between the cutting rollers and produce a curvaceous piece of metal with no crimping or distortion from the cutters. It’s small enough to fit on your workbench and big enough for your sheetmetal needs. We found them at Woodward Fabrication.
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