Been wanting to do a post on things you guys invented. weather you patented it to sell or just used it. Also modified or reengineered an item. I would say I have been around some genius people that did a lot of it but I was not one of them!! Two that I did lately was welding a tab on bolts so it could be tightened in a slot and building a cam type lobe for pulling parts out of a tube assembly.
- Thread starter JOCCO
- Start date
That sounds like a great idea. About 25 years ago I built a couple of new flat wagon racks for hauling round bales. Wooden and 22? long each. I didn?t make a back rack. I ran a 2x6 along the top side on each side of the racks like most people do. At each end running side to side I nailed a 2x6 on top of those with a short piece in the middle to keep them from snapping under weight. I did that to create a 4? lip to prevent the bales from rolling off. A few people thought it was dumb and wouldn?t work ,built 5 racks like that and never lost any bales and soon after the idea caught on lol.
Fawteen
Well-known Member
- Location
- Downeast Maine
Not an invention certainly, but my homebuilt version. PTO-driven 3PH-mounted string trimmer. Works great for weed-whacking ditchbanks.
Lost the right angle drive on it this summer, debating a couple of options for the Mark II version.
Lost the right angle drive on it this summer, debating a couple of options for the Mark II version.
Goose
Well-known Member
One thing that comes to mind is I build some Camaro stock cars by heavily modifying a Camaro sub frame from the firewall forward and fabricating the rest of the chassis from scratch out of 2X3 rectangular tubing. I had it down to where I could cut a Camaro chassis out of a standard 24' length of tubing and have a 6" piece left over.
'Way back when I was a kid, my father designed and built an adjustable wide front end under a Fordson tractor before the manufacturers thought of it.
'Way back when I was a kid, my father designed and built an adjustable wide front end under a Fordson tractor before the manufacturers thought of it.
In another thread here, I have pics of my roof truss hanger that I made off the front of the tractor loader. It's a pair of pipes that have a channel support to lift the trusses into place while I weld them. Search for my name with "8N" and maybe truss and find the pics.
At work, over the past 40 years I have about 11 patents in my and my company name. I work on networks, and chips which transmit and receive strange protocol signals. They wouldn't mean anything to anyone here. I also designed and patented a reverse-bias chip accelerated aging test chamber. It's made of a huge autoclave, with some connections for electrically biasing electronic chips, in a suspension of saline water under 2-3ATM, which simulates many years of aging outdoors.
At work, over the past 40 years I have about 11 patents in my and my company name. I work on networks, and chips which transmit and receive strange protocol signals. They wouldn't mean anything to anyone here. I also designed and patented a reverse-bias chip accelerated aging test chamber. It's made of a huge autoclave, with some connections for electrically biasing electronic chips, in a suspension of saline water under 2-3ATM, which simulates many years of aging outdoors.
Janicholson
Well-known Member
67 VW microbus 2.9l Opal manta engine between the front seats, 4 speed Getrag transmission into a Ford 3 speed pickup trans (with cable remote shifter) then into a 280z pumkin driving Datsun 510 rear independent suspension on the VW trailing arms. 13 speeds forward, and 7 in reverse. It made heat for passenger comfort, and passed up many "lesser" vehicles whth a shift into a higher gear. Jim
More than half century ago I worked in a Sears Roebuck auto repair and tire center. The company was always tooting their horn about paying employees for ideas. The quarterly company news letter had stories about mid and upper management personel earning vacations,merchandise credit and tidy cash awards. When mechanics were doing state inspections they called out for help and waited until another mechanic came over to watch park,turn,head and break lights or walked back and forth to look as they operated them. One day while installing Baby Moons,the idea struck me to mount one on each corner of the inspection stall. Boss was elated with the possible savings in man hours and helped me write up a presentation and submit it to corporate.The idea was used in every shop in states that required annual safty inspections and in several others as an aid eventhough inspections were not preformed. They gave me five lousy bucks!
Traditional Farmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- Virginia
Amazing work and engineering in both pieces.
PaGlenn
Well-known Member
- Location
- New Milford Penna
Had a handle welded onto a socket to facilitate adjusting the clutch on the 75 HD sportster I had in the eighties. Can't remember why I had it done. Maybe to fit in the toolbag behind the license plate.
Tony in SD
Well-known Member
Back in my younger years when all my friends were getting married, i designed and built an electronic circuit that I would hook to the newly weds car horn. It would honk the horn for 1 second then rest for 1 hour and honk again for 1 second then rest for 1 hour, etc. it took them months to figure out what was cause the horn to honk.
Steve@Advance
Well-known Member
Working at a machine shop, often get jobs that require designing/building assembly fixtures, brazing/welding fixtures. Some of them get quite creative in order to hold the parts together, hold tolerance, get the finished part out.
Another project I'm waiting on the PO to come through, building a machine that tests the breaking point of "pull studs", something for the oil/gas industry. The machine uses a hydraulic cylinder to stress a threaded stud to the breaking point, and records the required force.
The Boss's are always coming up with another toy, something to customize or modify. It gets interesting!
Another project I'm waiting on the PO to come through, building a machine that tests the breaking point of "pull studs", something for the oil/gas industry. The machine uses a hydraulic cylinder to stress a threaded stud to the breaking point, and records the required force.
The Boss's are always coming up with another toy, something to customize or modify. It gets interesting!
jon f mn
Well-known Member
Back in the mid 80s when I was in the welding business I designed and built these trailers. They are copied a lot now, but I was the first to do it and still the only one to do it exactly like this. One sheet of steel or aluminum does all the frame. They are incredibly strong and last forever. This one is the first aluminum one I built and was done in the early 90s sometime. I still use it a lot, when someone hasn't borrowed it anyway. Lol
Another of my favorite projects was this handicap lift I made for a neighbor with diabetes and couldn't climb on his tractor anymore. He got to use his tractor for about 3 more years after I did this. I did do some more modifications later as his health got worse, added safety and grab bars around the seat and fenders and such. He can't use it anymore, but he still thanks me when he sees me.
Been a while now since I've done a project, but maybe I'll get time again now that I have a place to work.
Another of my favorite projects was this handicap lift I made for a neighbor with diabetes and couldn't climb on his tractor anymore. He got to use his tractor for about 3 more years after I did this. I did do some more modifications later as his health got worse, added safety and grab bars around the seat and fenders and such. He can't use it anymore, but he still thanks me when he sees me.
Been a while now since I've done a project, but maybe I'll get time again now that I have a place to work.
I have seen and read about many other guys like you. Not even enough to buy a good size bottle of Vaseline. If you get my drift. Don't feel bad Edison did the same thing with his employees at his lab in nj. They would do all of the development work, he grabbed the patient, and they got a pittance. Look what happen to Tesla. Edison was a total horses south end about DC current as where Tesla after teaming up with Westinghouse did AC and cleaned Edisons clock. Just saying you are in good company. Same with Alexander gram Bell. He got the patient for the telephone because the guy who actually invented it got to the patient office too late. Watch the video and laugh or cry.
Top ten
Top ten
Outside, in one of the yards where the company I worked for, I changed a chevy K-10 transmission from an automatic to a standard transmission. I had never even had a clutch apart before, or replaced one. I got a complete set of parts from a donor truck that rusted out by the time it had 30,000 miles on it. I drove it home from the yard to my place in NJ at the time, sat there awhile, then just slapped plates on it one Saturday and drove it a 176 miles home to where it is now. I was missing a few important things the police would be interested in, and did get pulled over at the beginning of the trip home. I casually talked my way out of it, and made my way home, just beating a thunderstorm. Those were the days. No way it would happen today. It ran perfectly the whole way, just the speedometer was off from the change over somehow ! 270 "prarie" gears, fresh 350 in it too, spent 19 hours straight on that at another time before this, old one out, new one in.
Paul Janke
Member
I used to drive fence posts for a living. We decided to put the driver on a road vehicle rather than a tractor for the sake of transporting between jobs. The driver was on the back, and we learned the fastest way to drive the posts was to straddle the line with the posts parallel to the line with the points where they were to be driven in. These were wood posts, usually about four inches in diameter. It turned out to be FAST. The unit was a 1968 Ford Bronco which had been rolled over in a hunting accident. We started out at about fifty posts per hour. We eventually managed on a couple different jobs to do 180 per hour. We usually averaged about 80 to 100 per hour. The big thing came later when I set it up to operate the Bronco with a joystick at the back. It was then slower, but was much easier to schedule since I no longer had to accommodate both the customers and a part time employee. I also intentionally slowed it down because we charged by the hour and more hours meant more income. As a one man unit I once did 105 posts in an hour. I have a video of it, but I have not been able to copy it because the company which did the DVD from the VHS chose to password protect it.
Paul from MI
Well-known Member
I worked in the spring industry for 45 years, had 8 patents for various products I developed that made it to production status. The most successful was a multiple spring/stamping assembly that releases clutches in automatic transmissions. GM used four of them in every transmission from 1974 on, Ford and Chrysler used them too. Engineers don't get much for patents, but I had a great job for a long time because of it. No regrets on my part. And the product is still being used today, 45 years after I invented it.
I received a Patent for a piece I added to an IH disc back in the early 90's. On the website image 3, the bottom drawing is the piece I invented to add to the Disc lift cylinder. I made all the drawings myself. Patent attorney added the numbers. Cost of the patent was $5k. It allowed the wheels/running gear to float over the field while discing and it allowed the cylinder to be retracted in full when the disc was locked in transport/raised position. Similar to the old John Deere RWA discs. I've built a lot of other projects but this was the only one I pursued on getting a patent for. I had quite a few projects I completed that were published in the Farm Journal Magazine and our local newspapers years ago. I then got married and raised our Daughter and Son and turned to sandblasting and painting old farm equipment.
Patent 5,167,286
Patent 5,167,286
Ionia Ford Man
New User
This sounds crazy but it worked. New hot tub was 720 pounds and I needed to get my straps out from under it and locate in the right spot so I made 4 ice cubes that were 8" square and 1 1/2" thick using a baking pan. I put them under each corner, pulled my straps, located in the right spot with ease and they melted and it made a easy job out of it.
Ultradog MN
Well-known Member
- Location
- Twin Cities
My wife didn't invent marriage but she's heavily modified her husband.
Clarence Slydell
Member
To my knowledge none of those guys were doctors.
I mounted a spring loaded cable to the end of the hydraulic auger on a Gleaner combine, the other end attached to the bin corner. That way, you could leave the auger swung out....provided the field was obstacle free....and the spring absorbed any bouncing by the auger and saved it from eventually cracking the base and falling off.
Ben
Ben
rustyfarmall
Well-known Member
I got tired of wooden spade handles breaking, so I made all steel handles using some 1" emt tubing and progressively smaller diameter pipe to reinforce. Got 3 spades now with steel handles.
To help wash my semi van trailers I have 3 rows of bristle brooms lined up in a 10 foot verticle row. I mounted it to my VAC CASE and after soaping up the side of a trailer, I drive along the side and it does a darn good job cleaning it. We then rinse it off and go to the other side. It saves a lot of hand scrubbing. We have 47 trailers to keep clean.
Millwright
Member
What did you use for the string elements? My father built one but we haven't found anything that will not wrap when trying to cut.
Millwright
Member
I would interested in details about your FWA build, it is always in the back of mind to build a live axle for a Nuffield tractor.
Going to mount a back-up camera and screen on a piece of plywood and mount it to the tractor fender with magnets so I can watch the equipment behind me without getting a crick in my neck. I'll use a cigar lighter to provide power and will be able to move it from tractor to tractor. Have to have tractors with flat fenders.
NHbalerman
Member
Well I dont call it a invention or nothing to get a patent on but I have been chambering a couple of New Holland balers a 1282 and a 1283 where the chamber is 16 x 18 and making them 14x18 by raising the bottom 2 inches and cutting out 2 inches out of the plunger works good and now I can use them with the other 14x18 balers those bigger bales are just too heavy and want stack good with the smaller bales,lot of work and I am not a fabricator or a good welder,but it is a lot of fun
timcasbolt
Well-known Member
For work I developed a hinge that would detent at 90 degrees. It never got patented because the customer went in a different direction.
In my drag racing days, I built a v-belt idler system that allows you to run a high mount alternator on a small block Chevy with a high output electric water pump.
In my drag racing days, I built a v-belt idler system that allows you to run a high mount alternator on a small block Chevy with a high output electric water pump.
dr sportster
Well-known Member
At times throughout life I thought I had new ideas. I thought I was the first to use countersunk allen bolts on a motorcycle until I picked up a magazine or looked at an early milling machine and saw it done. Every good idea I had was already done by some one.
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