The further you start getting stuck into big tasks in the shed, the more you’re going to have to deal with heavy lifting jobs. There’s only so much you can lift yourself. Ask anyone who has suffered through a back injury; it’s the last thing you’d wish on your worst enemy. Every major component of your 4WD, from your barwork through to your transfer case, has the potential to inflict serious pain if it isn’t supported correctly when being removed or installed.
And that’s why a quality engine hoist isn’t just a good idea for your shed; for those keen on doing the bigger jobs themselves, it’s deadset essential. Of course, an engine hoist comes into its own when removing an engine, but a dead motor’s not the only reason you’d use one. Half the time, it’s easier to disconnect the wiring loom, cooling lines and mounting bolts and pluck the entire motor than it is to remove the gearbox for a clutch swap!
Stick the boom through one of the front doors and the chain down through the transmission tunnel, and you’ve got an easy way of support gearboxes and transfer cases. Think smart about how you attach it to the vehicle, and you can slightly raise a corner of the body at a time to fit bodylift blocks. You can even use the hoist to support barwork whilst removing, fitting or modifying it to suit your vehicle – anyone who has struggled to fit a bullbar will know just how useful that is!
However, like all tools, there’s much more to an engine hoist than what’s apparent at first glance. If there’s one man who knows what it takes to shoulder a serious load, it’s Hare and Forbes’ own Rick Foster. We found him down in his shed, working on his favourite lathe. Here’s his take on engine hoists!
“Where do all these mates come from?” That’s the question you’ll be asking yourself once you own an engine crane. Don’t despair; look it as an investment in beer. My fridge is constantly stocked from my “mates” that want to borrow my engine hoist. As the ads say, the economy runs on beer!
There are a few considerations before purchasing an engine hoist. The first being how heavy is the motor or motor and gearbox combined, as the weight rating on the engine hoist must be greater than the object that you are going to lift. It is important to have a look at the markings on the boom, as most manufacturers market their hoists at the capacity of the boom when fully retracted. As most of us are working on our pride and joy that’s had a suspension lift or body lift (or most likely both), we need to make sure the boom has the required capacity at the height required to remove the engine.
The next decision you need to make will depend on whether you own a compressor. That is, do you buy the hand pump model or the air operated model? I prefer the later as it allows me to stand close to the engine bay and watch as the engine is being lifted.
There are not many options available in an engine hoist, but one of the most useful items I have is an engine tilter. This is a must have item – for around $40, it will save heaps of time when removing an engine. It allows you to shift the centre of gravity on the crane hook, thus tilting the engine to allow it to be manoeuvred out of those tight spaces. It also comes in handy when refitting bullbars. The only other question you need to answer for yourself, is do you buy the fixed or fold up model? That decision will depend on how big your shed is, and how often you intend to use it.
As always, safety is your number one issue – don’t lift more weight than the crane rating. Make sure the legs of the hoist are extended to the correct position. When attaching lifting chains or slings, make sure the fasteners have a tensile strength greater than the weight of the engine. The last thing you want is that new trick engine meeting the concrete with a rather expensive thud! Follow these simple rules and you should fi nd engine removal an uplifting experience.
(4WD Custom Guide Magazine issue #45)
Suspended Animation
Engine Hoists
For us as 4WDers, few DIY projects rival building custom barwork. Whether it’s a tube front bar, sliders or even a rear bar, a custom project allows you to create a product tailored to your exact needs and tastes. The fact is though, that an angle grinder and a welder will only get you so far, and barwork joined at 45° and 90° angles will only ever end up looking amateurish. If you’re serious about building barwork, then there’s one piece of Essential Shed Gear that will increase the quality of your job ten-fold – the mighty tube bender!
Essentially, a tube bender uses a set of dies of various shapes, and either a mechanical or hydraulic advantage to allow tube to be formed into neat arcs around those dies. The applications for 4WD use are nearly endless – think beautifully sculpted rock sliders, trick tube bullbars customised to your exact specifications, and rear bars that perfectly follow the lines of your rear quarter panels.
A tube bender is a funny piece of equipment, largely because it’s extremely useful for finding long-lost mates you never knew you had, who ‘just want to knock up a quick pair of sliders’. In all seriousness though, it’s the kind of tool that will make even the most frustrated metal-melter look like a trade-hardened professional boilermaker.
Speaking of professionals, there are few who know metalworking tools better than Hare and Forbes’ own Rick Foster. We caught him in a rare quiet moment (he was changing the wire roll on his MIG) and asked him to spill the beans on what to look for when buying a tube bender. Here’s his take on the subject;
“The biggest question you need to answer before you run out and buy your new best mate magnet is to work out if you are actually trying to bend pipe or tube,” says Rick.
What’s the difference?
“Tube is measured on the outside diameter, pipe is measured by bore size referred to as Nominal bore. A 32mm pipe would have an internal bore of 32mm, whereas a 32mm tube would have an external diameter of 32mm.
Now you know what you are trying to bend, you can make the decision on whether it’s worth investing in a new machine. Pipe benders start from around $200, which usually includes 5-6 pipe formers, which are the important part. To bend the thinner medium wall pipe successfully, the former needs to have a shape that often resemble a cathedral-style roof. You may find the budget models still come with the older style formers, which are round – you can use this type but may find the bend tends to flatten out. If you have this type of bender, don’t despair – aftermarket formers are easy to source, and you can usually purchase the one former you require, not a whole set.
Tube benders on the other hand, are usually considerably more expensive due to the construction of the unit, and most have machined formers. Something to bend 38mm (1.5in) tube will set you back around $950, so you need to have a considerable amount of barwork planned to do before rushing out to purchase one.
The main two methods of bending tube are rotary compression bending or rotary draw bending.
Rotary Compression Bending involves wrapping or wiping the material around a stationary grooved former. Either a formed roller or grooved slide block assists in the control of the material flow.
The outer third of the bend will stretch and the (majority) inner two thirds will compress – hence the term. As a result the material tends to want to wrinkle in the inside of the bend – yet produce less flattening and reduced risk of breaking on the outside of the bend than other methods such as draw bending.
Rotary Draw bending, as its name suggests, involves drawing the material to be bent into a rotating former. With this method, it is the outer two thirds of the material that stretches or elongates, and the minority inner third that compresses. With this method, inner bend wrinkling is less likely to occur in comparison to compression bending.
There is also the advantage of being able to introduce extra tooling such as internal mandrels and wiper dies, adding more control to the fl ow of material. This allows you to bend thinner-walled material on a tighter bend radius.”
(4WD Custom Guide Magazine issue #44)
Bending Metal
Tube & Pipe Benders
Metal fabrication is nothing short of an art form. The ability to contort, twist, melt, join and cut pieces of tube, SHS, RHS, angle and plate together is – at least to our way of thinking – as highly prized a skill as any.
Fabricators generally fall into three categories: the ‘oh man, what have I done now?’ category (that’s us), the guys and girls who can competently stick pieces of steel together and cut them apart again, and the masters of metal with the hands of heart surgeons. For these chosen ones, the ability to craft accessories like tube barwork is born most likely from a lifetime in the trade and plenty of hard-earned experience.
For us mere mortals, however, all is not lost. Metal fabrication is an exercise that’s made substantially easier with the correct selection of tools, and by that we don’t mean choosing which mates you let raid your beer fridge!
While an angle grinder is a versatile piece of equipment that will indeed get the job done, it’s not exactly easy to control, and it doesn’t always lead to a high quality job. When you’re hanging off the end of a grinder, ‘precision’ isn’t a word you’re concerned about. That’s where the mighty cut-off saw in its many forms comes into play.
Cut-off saws aren’t rocket science. They’re big, circular blades that are fixed into position via a frame and base. The blades are almost always interchangeable, and are drawn down to the job you’re cutting on a spring-loaded hinge. Via smart use of clamps and setting up of the job, you can guarantee the perfect cut through any metal, regardless of the angle required. It’s quick, it’s clean, and it’s a whole lot safer and more accurate than trying to eyeball the dodgy texta mark you made on that 42NB tube while you hold it with your feet. What’s not to like?
Universally useful, the best part is being able to swap out the discs for various uses. Fit an abrasive cutting wheel to grind your way through metal, or swap to a masonry blade to cut bricks and pavers. Discs are available for various grades of wood too, which makes projects like a custom drawer system infinitely quicker and more accurate.
If there’s ever a bloke who knows what it takes for a saw to make the cut, then it’s Hare and Forbes’ Rick Foster. We took five with him this month to talk shop, and get his opinion on what you should be looking for in an electric cut-off saw. Don’t forget to check out this month’s insane deal to help fill your shed with the best tools and score a freebie in the process!
“The things I look for in a cut-off saw are fairly simple. Again, I go with the power option – the bigger the motor the better! Next, I take a close look at how easy it is to change the blade. I like a machine that has a spindle lock so that you only need one tool to remove the blade, preferably one that’s easy to get hold of such as an open-ender.
“Next on my list would be the vice system. Does it have a quick-action nut so that you’re not there for half a day winding when you change material size? If another thing that you do quite regularly is cut different angles, the scale on the vice must be well marked and quick to operate.
“The biggest consideration to be made when using a cut-off saw is the environment in which it’s going to be used. Working in the shed and around 4WDs can turn out to be quite dangerous. How many of us have been grinding away only to look up and find that bit of oil-soaked rag we left on the bench beginning to smoulder? These machines throw out some serious sparks, so you need to take care when using them.
“You only need to think back to the recent fires in Western Australia started by a bloke fixing his trailer with an angle grinder to be reminded of how a simple task can turn into a disaster. If you need to work in a confined space where sparks can be a problem, you might want to consider an alternative machine such as a metal-cutting bandsaw or cold saw.”
(4WD Custom Guide Magazine issue #42)
Saw Winner
Cut Off Saws
We’ve all been there before – bodging up jobs at 1.30am on the morning that you’re supposed to leave on the trip. Maybe it’s the worn suspension bushes you only picked up on during the pre-trip inspection, or your wheel bearings started that deathly groan, or any number of other tricky, precision jobs.
So you use whatever cutting tools you’ve got handy to remove the old stuff, no doubt damaging a few threads or surfaces along the way. Then comes the job of fitting the new components – away goes the grinder and reciprocating saw, and out comes the B.F.H. And all’s going well, until tiredness kicks in, and that next swing misses its mark, crashes down on the outer bearing race and shatters it into a thousand pieces. Guess that trip might have to wait a while...
A proper hydraulic press is another of those tools that you wonder how you ever did without, once you’ve had ready access to one. They’re multi-use pieces of equipment that will allow you to work much slower and with a much greater degree of precision, at the same time as reducing the majority of the physical effort required for the job. They do so by using the physics involved in squeezing hydraulic fluid from one chamber to another, producing a mechanical advantage.
There are essentially two types of hydraulic presses – manual ones that use lever-operated bottle jacks in the same fashion as the one you keep in the back of your 4WD, and powered presses that use an electric motor to pressurise the hydraulic fluid. Few shed experiences rival using a full electric press for jobs like sheetmetal bending and breaking, but for the average home DIY 4WDer, a manually operated press is a deadset godsend.
There are multiple uses for a hydraulic press in the average shed. The obvious ones are removing and replacing any bearings or bushes – especially radius arm bushes, which are nearly impossible to use otherwise. With the use of a pressbrake you can bend sheetmetal for custom drawers or other projects, and even with the right dies form dimple die holes in the sheetmetal for your sliders. At a pinch, they can be used to straight bent arms, and you can even use them to perforate sheetmetal, or just to convince your mate to return your good 1/2in socket driver.
A man who’s up-to-date with all the most pressing issues is Hare and Forbes’ own Rick Foster. We managed to catch him in the middle of welding up some pieces on his latest project, and got the low-down on his hot tips for selecting and using your own hydraulic press. Make sure you give him a ring too, because he’s sorted a beaut deal if you want your own!
- “Talk about putting me under the pressure Brendan! Presses are a relatively simple device that don’t come with too many bells and whistles. One of the important features I look for is a frame that has open sides. This allows you put longer items through it, very handy when you want to put a bend in something long or straighten something already bent.”
- “Another nice feature I like to have is a pressure gauge. This gives you an idea of just how much pressure you are applying on your job, not that you will take much notice of it if you really need to remove a stubborn bearing etc.”
- “If my budget would allow it, I’d shell out my hard-earned for a press which has a moveable head that can be offset, and a ram with a screw thread operated by a hand wheel which allows you to bring the ram down onto the job. This makes the positioning of the job really easy, but as they say beggars can’t be choosers. All in all any press is better than no press at all!”
(4WD Custom Guide Magazine issue #41)
Pressing Issue
Presses
There are tools that make the job easier, and there are tools that produce a higher quality job. And then in some cases, there are tools that do both, which is where this month’s piece of Essential Shed Gear comes into the picture.
Sure, a hand drill will get you a fair way when it comes to metal or wood fabrication projects. However, the biggest limitation that a hand drill has is the loose nut on the end of the handle. No matter how good an eye or strong a hand you’ve got, it’s next to impossible to drill a perfectly straight hole without any external support. That’s not a slight on anyone’s skills – that’s the plain truth. For any drilling jobs that require a measure of precision, there’s only one real solution – a drill press.
If you don’t think too hard about it, it’s all too easy to lump a drill press into the ‘occasional use’ basket. But in reality, a drill press is a piece of equipment that’ll you’ll keep reaching for time and time again. Whether it’s drilling holes in sheet metal so you can spot-weld, quickly knocking out a whole heap of pilot holes around the edges of the plywood you’re building your drawers out of, or notching the end of a piece of tube for your custom bar work, a drill press will ensure a high-quality result every time.
But the benefits don’t just stop at the overall quality of a job. Using a drill press is a lot safer than using a hand drill, because once the material is clamped in place, it’d take something going drastically wrong for it to move. Drill presses also drastically extend the life of your drill bits over a hand drill, and especially so when drilling through heavier-gauge steel.
If there was ever a bloke who knows the drill (pun intended), then it’s Hare and Forbes’ own dedicated, certified tool man Rick Foster. We dragged him away from his latest workshop creation to get his hot tips on what you should know about buying and using a drill press. -
Like anything in our game, the bigger, the stronger and the more horsepower the better! These same qualities apply to a drill press. I would recommend a minimum motor size of 3/4hp (550W). This would normally drive a stepped pulley system giving 12-16 speeds. Couple all this up to a good quality chuck and you have my ideal drilling machine! -
Look for a decent depth stop – there is nothing as frustrating as drilling a hole in a part worth a couple of hundred hard-earned bucks to find you have gone a couple of millimetres too deep.
- Another must-have is a wind-up work table. This will take the hard work out of the set-up, and most manufacturers have this as a standard feature now days.
- Once you have your new machine, do yourself a favour and set it up so it’s ready to use at the drop of a hat. Hang a pair of safety glasses nearby and keep some cutting fluid in a squirt bottle. Mount a speed chart next to your drill, so it’s easy to see the correct speed for the material you are drilling and the diameter of the drill. This way your drill bits will stay sharper and last longer. One of the most common ways to damage a drill bit is to run it at a higher than recommended speed.
- I don’t want to be boring (pun intended), but safety is paramount when using a drill, so before you start to drill make sure you are wearing your safety glasses. Have the job securely clamped into a vice or onto the table. It’s amazing the force that can come from a 6mm drill bit when it jams. If you are holding it by hand and there’s a sharp edge, it’ll probably mean a trip to the doctors for some stitches!
(4WD Custom Guide Magazine issue #40)
Drill Formation
Drill Machines
Hands up if – like us – you get some sort of strange kick out of re-fitting a part of your 4WD and watching it go back into place perfectly. Yep, thought so! There’s something strangely cathartic about removing a part, disassembling it, thoroughly cleaning and inspecting it and putting it all back together – or maybe we’re just weird.
Either way, fitting an old dirty part without properly going over it to check for damage is akin to asking for trouble. It’s that hairline crack in the body, or slightly distorted thread, or any number of other problems that can be hidden by a layer of track grime and grease that will inevitably come back to bite you on the arse when you least expect it. That’s why it’s so essential to properly clean everything before it gets refitted – and that’s where this month’s bit of Essential Shed Gear comes into the picture!
Sure, you can fill up an old bucket with the rest of that two-stroke sitting in the mower jerry can, and use an old scrubbing brush to get the grease off your axles, CVs and hubs. And then you break your back hunching down to use it, before inevitably spilling the entire contents over the floor, the tent and the dog. Oh well, saves emptying the bucket...
Or you could do it the smart way, and invest in a proper parts washer. These things are beaut – simply fill the solvent reservoir, flick the switch and you get a steady stream of the good stuff out of the tap and over your parts. Fill the tank and you can let parts soak overnight, before giving them a proper scrub, or just use the solvent to wash away the grease as you go. A bit of a towel off to dry things up, and you’ve got nice, shiny parts ready to re-grease, re-oil, re-thread lock and re-fit!
We caught up with Hare and Forbes’ very own toolman Rick Foster recently, to get his take on parts washers, with instructions to limit it to a maximum of three bad puns. Here’s what he had to say...
“Choosing a parts washer doesn’t seem like a hard decision, but there are a few things you should consider. Now ,you won’t hear me say this too often but this is one of those times where bigger is not always better. Reason being, the bigger the parts washer, the more it costs to fill and the more room you need to store it. So before you run out and buy the biggest unit you can get your hands on, give some thought to how much use you are going to give it and how big the parts you usually want to scrub are. If you are regularly dismantling engines then you should probably go for one of the larger units on the market but remember they also take up precious room in the workshop.
Another thing to think about is the type of cleaning fluid you are going to use – solvent-based or water-based. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Solvent-based cleaners tend to work better, but they can also be quite harsh on your skin. The other point is that they aren’t suitable for use in a lot of parts washers on the market that have a plastic pump. I made this mistake with my first washer – I took it home, threw the instructions in the bin (who needs them?) and proceeded to fill the unit with some mower fuel. It worked okay the first time but when I went back the second wouldn’t work so I removed the cover of the pump, only to find it had become a piece of plastic mush. It was only then I dug the instructions out of the bin and read the bit that said “DO NOT USE PETROL“. So before you go to fill your new washer up with that drum of petrol in the corner, check the manufacturer’s recommended cleaning solutions.
Water-based cleaners don’t quite work as well but they have quite a few advantages. The first is that they are not flammable, and the second is that oil floats on water. When you get a layer of oil on the top of the cleaning solution, grab some paper towel from the kitchen and lay it on top. The oil will soak into the paper towel, leaving the fluid cleaner for reuse. Thirdly, water-based cleaners are more cost-effective .You can buy 5L for around $40, and this will make 50L of cleaning solution. The cost of filling it with kero or diesel would be around double.
One thing I do know is once you own a parts washer you’ll be amazed at how much you use it!”
(4WD Custom Guide Magazine issue #43)
Its Time to Come Clean
Parts Washers
