3 useful homemade products from old valves

The steel used to make valves is highly hard but not brittle. Therefore, the old valves remaining after engine repair can be used as blanks for the manufacture of various tools.

Option 1: Core

For this homemade product you need to cut off the valve head.

The remaining rod needs to be turned into a cone, preferably of the correct shape. The easiest way to do this is on a lathe. If it is not there, then the workpiece can be clamped in a drill and sharpened while it rotates in its chuck. This will make the shape of the tip more correct than simply turning it by hand using sandpaper.

A heat-shrinkable tube is put on the resulting core and heated.

As a result, after shrinkage, an almost factory-made instrument is obtained.

The hardness of the valve is sufficient not only for core punching non-ferrous metals, but also steel blanks.

Option 2: Chisel

To make a chisel from a valve, you need to cut off its plate, leaving the central part with the thickest metal.

Then, by placing the cutting disc at an angle relative to the valve head, it is necessary to form a blade.


Next, the cutting edge is trimmed with a cleaning disc and sharpened. Heat shrink is applied to the rod.

The resulting chisel is very convenient for fine work. It can be used for cutting soft metals, steel bars, bolts, etc. As the test shows, the valve chisel copes well with rods with a diameter of 7 mm without deforming the blade.

Option 3: Hex key

To make a hex key, you need to weld a small piece of rod to the valve plate.

The excess part of the plate is cut off and sharpened to obtain a handle that is easy to rotate.

Then at the end of the rod a hexagon groove is made to the groove.

At this point the valve is very well hardened, so the resulting edges have a very high resistance to licking. A homemade key can be comparable in durability to branded ones. It is much stronger than the tools from Chinese kits. If the diameter of the valve stem allows, it can be machined into 4 faces and used to rotate the socket heads.


You can also make other tools from valves, for example, wide screwdrivers, drifts, etc. Due to their hardness and corrosion resistance, they are no worse than store-bought ones. In addition, this tool is free.

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