A lot of the things we spend big bucks on can be fabricated at home, with a few simple tools, if we have the time and patience.

A mig welder costs less than a single item, in many cases. Add a table-top drill-press, a portable oxy-acetylene rig, a decent air compressor and air tools, a good bench vise, proper safety gear, a fire extinguisher or two, and we're well on our way.

Personally, I have to get the rest of my wife's junk out of my garage (she left me a while back, while I was stuck at home recovering from a medical condition), and get my welding and fabbing equipment in the garage where they belong.


So what do you all think of a thread where we post home-shop fabricated items, and/or ideas for such things? I see them scattered about, here and there, but would like to see such things posted in a single place.


My ideas for right now:

*Custom sissy bar side-plates for the Wide Glide which will work with my detachable bag mounts and also allow me to mount both the bags and a removable sissy bar.

*A little luggage rack for the sissy bar, whichever bar I happen to use at any given time.

*A lockable box which will mount on the outside of the battery cover. A place to store POI, registration, gloves, important tools, etc. Gotta be better than the fork-mounted bag I have now.

*Front turn signal relocation brackets which will mount to the lower triple-tree. I saw some cool ideas for these in the "Under Fiddy Dolla" thread, and my favorite so far is using some of those clutch/brake lever thingamajigs. However, I think I may be able to expand upon that idea for something a little better.

*Mounts for various and sundry items. Things like auxiliary lamps, aftermarket headlamps, license plates, tachometers, etc.

*Exhaust mods. Things like 8541's 2-1 job with the stock tommy gun head-pipes and collector. Hell, it would even be fairly simple to cut and weld baffles in different configurations. I pulled the baffle from one of my OEM mufflers the other day and could only think of how easy it would be to weld a normal baffle up to that mounting ring and screw or rivet it back in place. This way the OEM slip-ons can be made to sound "right" on the bike.


I've spent the past nine years working a job which gave me no time for my '68 El Camino, hunting, fishing, or most anything else. I've been on call 24/7 the whole time, unless I took vacation days. When I did take vacation days, I only wanted to sit and relax, play guitar, and surf the internet.

Now, my company has finally come up with a rotation plan, so I will be on call 24/7 still, but only three weeks out of every four (once I get done with this Iraq job). I'll have time to do things, once again, and I plan to start fabbing a few small items.

I haven't decided where I'm gonna start, yet, but I will probably start by simply cutting a window in the collector on my spare Tommy gun head-pipes, removing the catalyst, and welding it back together.

I've also just ordered a used battery cover from ebay, on which I plan to mount some sort of box. I may even chop that cover and use it to make an extension on my existing cover, which will serve as a tool/glove/papers box. A little front to rear taper would be nice, just to keep interference with my leg to a minimum.

It's a good feeling when someone asks where you got something, and you can respond, "I made it myself". It's an even better feeling to spend the money on more tools, while others are giving it all to the aftermarket manufacturers. Tools can work for you forever, but that $400 item will only work for you until you get tired of it or get another bike.




So post up your ideas, opinions, tools, jigs, etc., and let's see how we can use some simple shop skills to beat the high prices of aftermarket "custom" parts. Oh, and we don't have to worry about keeping them under "Fiddy Dolla".

 

I've made saddle bag brackets for an older Harley and a few other things for it. For my Dyna I've made the front turn signal relocation mounts, cig lighter mount, horn area mount for my ignition and fan toggle switches, tank lift, speedo relocation mount and brackets, sissy bar medallion and windshield extensions. My next project is narrowing and trimming a new rear fender blank, frenching in a license plate and LED strip tail light, plus of course painting it to match.

I have about all the air tools, spray guns, huge air compressor, 3 welders, oxy/acc set up, bead blast cabinet, grinders, belt sander, floor drill, plasma cutter, hydraulic press, bead roller, band saw, vices etc. in my shop. For car building I have a lube pit, overhead monorail chain hoist, cherry picker, Portapower, sandblaster and filtered/exhausted paint booth.

I like tinkering, too.

 

i cut my rear fender off with a metal blade on my band saw and a set of tin snips, then took the grinder to it, and covered it in rubber trim that i took from my dogs water bowl, everyone thinks it was store bought..

took a piece of angle iron and cut a chunk of metal off an old lawnmower hood grinded it smooth and cut it to size, welded it to the angle, then took it to the drill press and tapped the bolt hole, then used the epoxy paint and mounted it to the bolt that holds the belt guard on, home made side mount plate, looks store bought also

being a master welder fabricator, i pretty much have every tool one would need to build harley parts

 

I needed to mount a Heritage Classic front fender to the new 49mm forks. I took 1/8" thick aluminum mounting plates for school clocks and started stacking them until I found the right dimensions. Cut them to size, welded together and they work perfect. They are in my sig pic.

 

Aside from the MIG, TIG, and arc welders, plasma cutter, torches, drill press, band saws, and all that good stuff, my favorite toy is the vertical mill and rotary table. Makes it easy to make the different covers, like my AC, derby and timing covers.

I would much rather make my parts than buy them. I had a guy actually ask me if my pipes were Bassanis, have to admit I got a cheap thrill telling him no, they were Andersons....

 

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/dyna-...fifty-bux.html

already have that thread

 

Nope. That's the under fiddy dolla thread. This one has no such bounds. Nor is this necessarily a "how to" thread.

Hell, toss up some ideas, I don't care how much they cost. Cheap or spendy. Things that might be available in the aftermarket, or perhaps things no one has yet considered. Anything goes, so long as it can be done at home. Hell, I dig it when I see people chop up expensive things, too.

 

Home made floorboards and sissy bar.

 

Perhaps it could be a place to barter services as well, just a thought.

 

I like this idea. Simple and functional. The boards don't hang out too far or sit at an odd angle. They also cover from mid to front. Nice. Did you mount them to stock pegs with rubbers removed?

While I like the boards I installed on my bike, I'm still not 100% pleased with the looks or the fact that they can't be put exactly where I want them, which would be pretty much exactly where you have yours.

Sure, I'd go with a somewhat different design, but this gives me a new idea.


Regarding the sissy bar: Is it welded directly to the strut?