Here is my 4th entry for the Build-A-Tool Campaign. This is another idea that I got from the Shepard Paine book "Modeling Tanks and Military Vehicles". It is a jig for making tie down cleats, and I thought grab handles as well, from wire. The plans are shown on page 44 in the book. I used his basic idea and made my own version. It only took a few minutes to build it out of craft wood and it works pretty good. It gives you a basic shape however some of them need to be fine tuned a little. It is an easy way to make several handles at once. I made six at one time. I just cut the wire, place it in the jig, press down with the top piece, lift it back off and trim each one to size, pretty simple. If I was going to make another one I wouldn't use wood. I would make it from aluminum or something like that. After a few uses it starts to get a gouged up and therefore you won't be able to keep the handles a uniform size.
Here are some pictures of it.
Here are the two pieces separated.
Here they are as one unit.
Here are the before, during and after pictures.
And here is the end product. Sorry for the picture not being very clear.
This will probably be my final entry unless I find something else I just have to build.
Thanks for the campaign idea Matt, I have really enjoyed it.
HARV
