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DIY: Homemade Motorcycle Tools

Discussion in 'General' started by caferace, Feb 6, 2017.

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  1. homemadetools

    homemadetools New Member

  2. ryoung57

    ryoung57 Off his meds

    Skynet has become self aware :eek:
     
  3. homemadetools

    homemadetools New Member

    Man, tough forum! I can prove I'm not a bot. Here's a selfie:

    [​IMG]

    Also, while I'm on a roll here, we've indexed 441 homemade motorcycle tools from forums all over the web. Don't click if you hate homemade motorcycle tools.
     
  4. Venom51

    Venom51 John Deere Equipment Expert - Not really

    We are going to need to see your last tax returns, two valid forms of identification and a report card from a prominent university.
     
  5. sbk1198

    sbk1198 Well-Known Member

    I know it's an old thread and old post, but since this thread was revived, might as well...I can see both sides of the story. You're totally right that most people want something made for dirt cheap, and the reason for that is because 1) they have no clue what it actually takes to make, and 2) they compare with something that equivalent but not quite exactly the same that's already available on the market (mass produced). For example...a few years ago, I designed a shift lever for my Ducati because I wanted reverse shifting and I already had a QS, and didn't want to spend over $200 to get the opposite sensor (pull vs push). A typical shift lever from any known brand is usually around $50-75. I designed mine as simple as I possibly could. It was but ugly, only 2 parts, just the bare minimum needed. Gave the drawing to a local machine shop for a quote which I've worked with many times at my job and the owner said that for me, he'd give me a discount and it would be around $300-350, but normally it would be close to $500!!! Yeah...no thanks! For that money I can just buy a whole new rear set assembly from Woodcraft or Vortex with GP shift. It's no wonder the average Joe won't pay for machining services. Who in their right mind would pay that much for a shift lever??

    With that said, I took a machining class because I was interested in it and it would also help me design more efficiently at work, and in the class we had to make a mallet (aluminum handle, steel head). I think it took me like 15-17 hours to make it. I asked the instructor how long it would take him to make it if he could focus on it without teaching students...he said he would likely be able to do it in about 8-9 hours. So at a modest rate of $60/hr which is probably as low as you'll see a machine shop charge, that's a pretty freakin expensive mallet! lol...so now I get why the costs of machining are so high. Very time-consuming work.

    BTW, a friend ended up machining that shift lever for me for a $20 bottle of bourbon! :D
     
  6. CB186

    CB186 go f@ck yourself

    The moral of your story: have a cheap drunk machinist friend to make you stuff. :D
     
    RM Racing, pscook and sbk1198 like this.
  7. Dan Dubeau

    Dan Dubeau Well-Known Member

    Funny. I get people want me to make them stuff for beer all the time. Like I'm too poor to actually buy myself beer. It usually a case of silver bullets, or budlight too. "can you make me this, or weld this up for me? I'll get you a case of beer" WTF am I an 18yo kid who can't get beer for the weekend party or something?

    A case of beer is ~$40, and if you told these people you'd rather have the $40 instead, they'd say "whoa, I was thinking this would only cost about $20"
     
  8. panthercity

    panthercity Thread Killa

    Show usss your PApers...
     
  9. cha0s#242

    cha0s#242 Ignorance and prejudice and fear walk hand in hand

    Like, in a bar ? :D
     
    G2G likes this.

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