From: none@none.com99   
      
   On 1/20/2026 4:27 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:   
   > "Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:10kokgj$11d6g$1@dont-email.me...   
   >   
   > On 1/20/2026 5:48 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:   
   >> "Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:10kll6q$sq3g$1@dont-email.me...   
   >> I'm pretty functional, often making square drives that will fit a   
   >> particular 12 point wrench or socket, but there is certainly an elegant   
   >> look to a well made hex with a nice chamfer.   
   >> Bob La Londe   
   >> -------------------------   
   >> A hex head fitted fairly closely to a 6 point socket holds up better   
   >> than alternatives when cut from mild steel.   
   >   
   > I am aware, but a square drive is faster and easier to machine for often   
   > single use tools.  A year ago I made a brake caliper tool with two pins   
   > and a square drive for my son's Malibu.  You have to turn the caliper   
   > back in when installing new rotors and pads.  He parked it a couple   
   > months ago and will be getting rid of it.  I won't even remember what   
   > that tool is for a few years from now.  Okay, I'll probably remember,   
   > but it only got used once, and with the ever growing web of self repair   
   > denial in the industry (all industries) its unlikely it will ever get   
   > used again.   
   > Bob La Londe   
   >   
   > ----------------------------   
   > The quick fix is two or more axial drill holes in one end located by eye   
   > for an HF adjustable pin spanner wrench. Cross-drilling for a rod is   
   > quick if the center can be blocked. Neither can stand as much torque as   
   > flats. The best high torque driver I've found for a square is a large   
   > pipe tap wrench which balances the forces. Two bars or square tubes with   
   > the ends overlapped and joined by bolts can work well too, as long as   
   > the bolt holes don't weaken it much.   
   >   
   > The two bars can also be recessed with the two halves of a hex, with   
   > opposing points on the parting line. There is just enough clearance   
   > above to mill the angled faces with an end mill. Instead of a complex   
   > and hard to measure layout I cut a square notch the width and depth for   
   > one hex flat and milled the angled faces to meet it in the corners. It   
   > was done when the two bars would close tight on the hex. I made it to   
   > break loose and reshape distorted 3/8" brake line flare nuts, it works   
   > on 7/16" as well.   
   >   
   > Usually such tools are small enough for my sample kit so after using   
   > them I clean them up neatly enough to show to engineers.   
   >   
   > A couple of years ago we used a disk parking brake screw retractor in   
   > auto shop night school. The students wanting to learn maintenance all   
   > drove older cars.   
      
      
   I'm old school that way.  I still have a flat piece of bar stock with a   
   hole drilled and tapped through it for a long bolt in my tool box  for   
   compressing brake calipers.  I also have home made strut spring   
   compressors mde from two pieces of all-thread with two pieces of pipe   
   slid over each piece.  Then a couple lightish tie down hooks welded to   
   the piece of pipe.  I laughed when my brother in law tried to tell me   
   (former GM/Delphi guy) you had to have a ten thousand dollar hydraulic   
   machine to work on struts.  I think I surprised him a few times.   
      
   Still speaking of the BIL.  When he went on about how only people with   
   lots and lots of money could do CNC machines I walked him out to my shop   
   and showed him my Taig.  He showed real surpise at that one.  Another   
   time I had a starter go out on an old Force Outboard and he tried to   
   convince that the chances of one from another motor working were between   
   slim and none. I walked him back out to the shop an hour later and fired   
   up the motor in front of him.  Brilliant guy in some ways.  An actual   
   educated engineer, but outside of his scope he couldn't see it...  Or   
   maybe he just took what some other engineer told him at face value.  He   
   left Delphi around the time of the big Government Motors fiasco with GM   
   and went to work running a plant that had CNC machines you couldn't fit   
   in my building making jet engine parts.  Maybe Boeing?  I forget.   
   Somewhere up in the Pacific Northwest.   
      
   I am not particularly neat or fancy about one off tools.  I have a lot   
   of them I made and a fair number I bought that I literally only used   
   once.  Driver for the head bolts on the 1.7L VW engine they but in the   
   Dodge Omni.  Offset open end wrench for the carburetor mounting bolts on   
   a Ford Grenada with the little six cylinder (not the 300, but the same   
   design smaller one).  Similar offset wrench for fire sprinkler heads.   
   Various brake tools.  A couple different clutch alignment tools.   
      
   The brake caliper unscrewer was just a piece of stainless round bar with   
   two holes for press fit pins drilled in one side, and a square milled on   
   the other.  It worked, and didn't take long to make.  Less time than   
   driving to the store to buy one.  I do have a Harbor Freight adjust able   
   spanner.  Actually both types, although I am not sure they both came   
   from harbor Freight, but the made for purpose tool worked far better.   
      
   --   
   Bob La Londe   
   CNC Molds N Stuff   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)