Homemade Nelson Velocity Adjustment Tool (I made a thing!)

[glaman5266]

I don't often get into the basement to do stuff, but I made a thing today. I'm sure some of you have done something similar before, but I just wanted to share. This is how I made a velocity adjustment tool for adjustable Nelson-style bolts. I did this because I simply didn't want to pay for a ready-made tool (plus shipping...) and I get a discount on stuff through work.

Parts (can vary, this is just what I used):
16" spade bit, 1/4" drive
3" #3 threaded rod
2x #3 lock washers
2x #3 standard nuts
2x #3 locknuts

Spade bit. I wanted a 16" so I can accommodate multiple barrel lengths. The only one I could find in that length was a 3/8", so I went with that.




I used my bench grinder to grind off the sharp tips and chamfer the resulting square corners a bit.





Depending on the diameter of the threaded rod or screw/bolt you want to use, you may have to drill and/or file out the little hole in the end of the spade bit. This material is very hard (I messed up a drill bit learning this), so I used a rat tail file to make it just large enough for the #3 threaded rod. You could maybe use some #2 threaded rod to avoid that step, but I wanted a tighter fit and #3 was close enough to not require much filing. You could also use a machine screw instead of threaded rod, but I'm OCD and wanted things symmetrical. I then threw on the locknuts & standard washers and tightened them. In hindsight I could've used some loctite to really keep them from moving, but it seems solid enough for the intended application anyway. To finish, I put the locknuts on the ends just for more grip & to so it looks a little more finished.





I am debating if I will Plasti-Dip the handle, use heat shrink tube, or apply some other grippy surface to it to make it look nice. But anyway, this is what I ended up with. Hopefully this will be of some use to folks.

Thank you for reading.

[DocsMachine]

I would definitely sleeve the shaft with heat-shrink, to reduce the possibility of scratching the barrel. One other old trick is to slide the foam discs from an old pull-thru squeegee onto the shaft, especially near the tip, so that it 'self centers' into the bolt.

Other than that, bright idea using the long drill. I like that.

Doc.

[glaman5266]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll put heat shrink tube on the shaft. But I don't have a pull-through, so I'll just give it a go as it is.

The spade bit was a suggestion from a co-worker. I work at a small-town hardware store, so I was looking around for long T-handles, hex stock or whatever, and we didn't have any of that length. He said to try a long bit of some sort, as it was already 1/4" drive. And sure enough, we had a 16" spade bit.

[The Inflicted]

I would definitely sleeve the shaft with heat-shrink, to reduce the possibility of scratching the barrel. One other old trick is to slide the foam discs from an old pull-thru squeegee onto the shaft, especially near the tip, so that it 'self centers' into the bolt.

Other than that, bright idea using the long drill. I like that.

Doc.

The quick and dirty version of this is to just wrap a bunch of electrical tape around one section until it's the correct thickness. I used colored tape so that the rod would be easier to find in the weeds if dropped.