I'm Fabricating My Own Manual Tire Changer. UPDATE 7/31/2012

Keith · Last edited by Keith on Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:23 pm; edited 3 times in total

Hello everyone. I'm in the middle of fabricating my own tire changer and thought I'd share some pics of where I'm at as of today. I love fabricating and especially love making things out of scrap I have laying around, and this is no exception. The only things I've had to buy so far are a 20" x 20" square of 1/8" steel and a 58" length of 1" schedule 40 pipe. Total so far is $25.

I refuse to pay people to do stuff that I can do myself. And since I no longer work at a dealership I no longer have access to a tire changer. Shops around here want $10 to $15 a tire to mount and balance and to me thats money I dont want to pay when I can do it myself.

I wanted to make this as compact and sturdy as possible. I chose to make the table top 20" so that I can do rims up to that size. 17" inch rims are most likely the largest that I will ever have and or do, so that leaves me plenty of working room. I left 22" inches of pipe from the table top up. I intentionally made it a little long until I see what holes I use on different rims. Most rims I measured are 7" to 11" wide so I will most likely only use 18" of the pipe and cut off 4" later on if I see its not being used.

This is what I started with. A frame from a generator, a pole that was cut down and used for a grinder pedistal and a dining table base.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

I cut the generator stand up and welded it back together to make a subframe for the tire work table. The motor from that generator is on a gokart now.

I then used the top portion of the dining table to mount the tire work table to the pedistal. The base I used for an oscillating fan I got out of the garbage......recycling at its best.

The schedule 40 pipe is run straight through the pedistal from the bottom to the top. Its welded at the bottom, through the table piece and then to the tire work table and became the backbone of the whole tire changer. I drilled 1/4" holes every 1 1/2" from the tire work table up. These will be used for a pin that will hold the bead breaker and tire removal/installation tools in place when in use.

I had to cut the top off the pedistal and reweld it. Whoever put that on didnt use a straight edge as it was VERY crooked.I then welded the 1/8" steel to the subframe and rounded the corners. I cut a hole in the center with my plasma cutter and ran it down the pipe and welded it all up.

I also have a Snapon wheel balancer in my garage and will use the wheel centering adapters on my tire changer to center the rims and hold it in place.

Luckily it has the wide 5 adapter as well !!!

The pipe in this picture is to show what happens next. I still need to find the correct pipe for my needs. The bead breaker tool and the tire removal/installation tool get built off of the pipe and the pin keeps it from walking up the pole as its being used. Break the beads and then pop the tire up on the perch and walk around the tire with the pipe as it rotates on the main pole and off comes the tire. I will be making the tool so it has a soft rubber wheel that rolls on the rim edge to keep rims from being damaged. I still have to fabricate the tools . I will also be making a slot in the table top to run a carriage bolt that will be used to lock the wheel down through a lug hole. It will be able to slide and adjust to any lug pattern. The table top will be covered in a rubber mat as well to protect the rim.

Thats where I'm at. Hope you like what I'm doing. I have fun making this type of stuff. Sorry theres some missing pics of things I described. I need to take more pics of things as I fabricate them, I'm pretty bad at remembering to take pics along the way.
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Formerly known in the forums as "OVALTEEN"

"I firmly believe that some villagers from Botswana could probably build a better road than PennDot."- Splitty

"If you do anything to your car someone will hate on you for it. People absolutely love to complain and find fault with others. Don't let it bother you. Just live and have fun."- Lind

oldskool7_11 · Samba Member Joined: February 17, 2006 Posts: 213

nice work. i have a harbor freight tire changer and love being able to easily do it myself.

norcalmike · Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 6:06 pm Post subject:

nice! i just passed on a tire machine for 25o local and im kicking myself. great tool to have!

jeremyrockjock · Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 5:52 pm Post subject:

Here is the one I made and couple of years ago

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Why buy what you can build.
Step away from the fiberglass and no one gets hurt!!

drscope · Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 9:44 am Post subject:

There are a few things we have found here with manual tire macines.

First they need to be securely fastened to the floor or the leverage from your tire tools will work against you.

And the tire tool itself is the weak point on the Harbor Freight machine. The machine did fine, but the tire tool included folded up very early in its life. After cutting the end off and welding it to a more suitable handle, we were back in business.

What do have for a bead breaker?
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Mother Nature is a Mean Evil Bitch!

KTPhil · Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:33 pm Post subject:

I used the Muir method of using the car's weight and the Bilstein jack to break the bead. Then two spoons, aka BFS (big screwdrivers), and voila!

Keith · Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:48 pm Post subject:

O.K. Sorry for the delay, I've been a little busy. I have finished the bead breaker part of the tool. Here is how I made it using scrap I had laying around.

I cut up two 1 1/2" x 1/4" straps I found laying in my yard when I bought my house, a piece of pipe, and a Polaris UTV six seater drive shaft.

The bead breaker part of the tool is made up of the 1 1/2" x 1/4" strap and a piece of curved angle iron. In this pic there is another bead breaker tool waiting to be made (on the right) I will make a few that have the foot of the bead breaker at different angles for different applications. I drilled three 3/8" holes for adjustment.

This is the beginnings of the tool. The part where the bead breaker tool will attatch. The handle has yet to be attatched. I drilled three 3/8" holes in this as well for adjustability. I will drill another to the right closer to the handle.

I disassemble the U-joint of the UTV drive shaft.

I then opened up the inner diameter to weld it to the bead breaker tool. This allows me to have a solid steel handle that comes apart for storage. It is held in place with a hitch pin.

Here is a few pics of it in "action" I already broke the beads on this rim with the tool.

Here is the tool broken down for storage.

I still have some final finishing to the tool but it works great. I have broken the beads on 7 rims from spares to truck tires and it performed flawlessly. I will be making some bolt on feet for better stability, I knew I would have to when I started this. Even without the feet it didnt really want to tip , but the feet will definately make it totally stable. The feet will unbolt so I can remove them when I finally have a space to bolt this down to the floor.

The next part after making a few more breaker attatchment tools is to work on the tire removal/installation tool. I think it will be pretty slick. I still have to make a slot in the deck for the adjustable clamping rod. This will be able to adjust for different bolt patterns and keep the rim from spinning while the tire is being removed/installed. I will be laying a rubber mat on the work table to protect rims from being scratched by the table surface and the breaker tool will get rubberized as well to protect the rims incase of contact.

Some people may say why bother? I love to fabricate and this tool will fit my specific needs and not be a junk harbour freight one. It only cost me $30 so far.

Oh and this is what happens when a 3" cutting wheel explodes. Luckily I was wearing my welding sleeves and it hit right where my T-shirt sleeve and the welding sleeve overlapped. This pic was taken a few hours after it happened.

_________________
Formerly known in the forums as "OVALTEEN"

"I firmly believe that some villagers from Botswana could probably build a better road than PennDot."- Splitty

"If you do anything to your car someone will hate on you for it. People absolutely love to complain and find fault with others. Don't let it bother you. Just live and have fun."- Lind

Major Woody · Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 4:37 pm Post subject:

You are a clever fabricator.
Glad you weren't hurt worse.

drscope · Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 4:40 pm Post subject:

Your bead breaker looks a lot better then your arm does!

Nice work. On the tire machine - not the arm.
_________________
Mother Nature is a Mean Evil Bitch!

mgamike · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 7:32 pm Post subject:

Don't add bolt-on feet. Add collapsable, hinged stabilizers, about 2 feet long each. They can fold up under the machine and you just drop them and attach a strut arm to them to hold them down.
An fyi-Cutting wheels have an expiration date on them. I didn't know this, but a fellow was killed when an expired wheel blew up in his face at some auto plant. I saw the safety report.
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77 Convertible

jeremyrockjock · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 7:36 pm Post subject:

Ouch that looks painful

I love the way you rolled the angle to the radius of the wheel. My bead breaker is not that pretty.
_________________
Why buy what you can build.
Step away from the fiberglass and no one gets hurt!!

Keith · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 8:42 pm Post subject:

63Ragtop NZ · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 9:56 pm Post subject:

Nice work ovalteen, it's a great feeling building something out of nothing.

also, are there any road signs left in your town?!
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If you can't join them, beat them!

chickengeorge · Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 7:16 am Post subject:

Great fab skills, but I have a question...

What's the bolt pattern on that narrow slot mag and do you have two? Very Happy

Keith · Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 5:29 pm Post subject:

Semper_Dad · Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 7:38 pm Post subject:

Ok,...somebody's got to say it Laughing

"That'll buff right out"

Glad you're OK. Wearing protective gear does pay off
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Walküre Restoration Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=737492

sixfootdan · Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 7:46 am Post subject:

I got a nice crack in my faceshield at work which I think came from an exploding wheel. Glad you are ok, I like all the road signs.
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homebrewin · Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 9:43 am Post subject:

Excellent work. You do definitely have some good fabricating skills. I know you built it with random & "one off" parts, but if you could find a way to build them en masse, you could probably make some dough selling them.

And that cutoff wheel injury looks familiar. I worked in a shop for a while where the owner had bought a case of those shitty, no-name cutoff wheels from some phone sales boiler room outfit. After several of them blew up in similar fashion, we refused to use them anymore. I had one rip through my jeans and leave a nasty tear on the top of my leg. There's still a scar there.
Cheaply built garbage+high speed=bad news.
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[quote="Mario Gavazzi"]And my first shop was in Germany.[/quote]


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