Your most useful homemade tool?

**kbalch** · Mar 23, 2015, 01:16 PM

We're all builders, users, and fans of homemade tools, right?

So, what's the most useful homemade tool you've built?

**headless pellican** · Mar 23, 2015, 05:31 PM

my latest project was to build an air dryer fore my compressor.
I used a coil of 1/2 i.d. copper tubing 5/8 for a/c guys has about 8 coils about 18inches n diameter that feeds in an old oxy cylinder at bottom then out at top to storage tank my issue is still getting some water in main tank. not sure why

**Workshopshed** · Mar 24, 2015, 11:16 AM

The ones that get the most use are definitely the furniture ones, drawers, benches etc. The drill light and soft jaws get a lot of use and the sealant beading tool has had a couple of outings now.

But my favourite and most used has to be the bottle opener.

**DIYer** · Mar 24, 2015, 09:13 PM

Indeed, Workshopshed, a bottle opener is a very useful tool!

**jere** · Mar 25, 2015, 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by headless pellican

my latest project was to build an air dryer fore my compressor.
I used a coil of 1/2 i.d. copper tubing 5/8 for a/c guys has about 8 coils about 18inches n diameter that feeds in an old oxy cylinder at bottom then out at top to storage tank my issue is still getting some water in main tank. not sure why

Find a way to get the copper tubing below ambient temperature. The lower you get the temperature the less water you will have.

So for example ,I have a free craigslist mini fridge that I turned sideway ( door up opens up). It has two five gallon buckets full of water. Once I have a need or get some spare cash I will run some copper coils though the ice water buckets. Some people just use buckets and dump ice water in with the coils.

**jere** · Mar 25, 2015, 02:54 PM

Recently this is my most used tool/jig. I have been doing a good amount of work with the wood lathe. My lathe doesn't like off centered chunks of wood ( I don't have a way to reduce the speed enough yet either). I have added a slap of rusty plate and some railroad track to the under side of the lathe to add some weight and reduce the shaking but its still not enough. So I made a jig to hold a router to the tool rest. I turn the log by hand feeding it into the router. This eventually gets the log balanced enough to turn under the lathes power.

The router interchanges with a long neck die grinder to hollow out the bowls. As I only have a few chisels and they are too short and don't like turning the inside out deep bowls.