4X4 Hub Unlock Tool

My wife doesn’t have the finger strength to lock and unlock the hubs on her 4X4, so I made this little doo-dad for her last night.

Seeing that I was out of the country for the house move I couldn’t supervise or even pack my old workshop, and I haven’t been able to find most of my stuff. With no marking tools, square, or even a ruler to help in this endeavour, I’m quite chuffed with the way it turned out. I couldn’t measure the required distance between the dowels, so I knocked some charcoal off a burnt piece of bamboo, and made a rubbing of the hub on an old receipt.

I used an inverted beer mug and a screw to scratch a circle on the board, and a piece of wood from my off-cut bin to draw 3 lines going approximately through the center to mark out the 6 hole centers. I used this same screw to transfer the necessary hub detail to the board to position the dowel drill points.

I then drilled the 6 holes with one of my never-used-before Forstner bits, and drilled the dowel holes with a brad point bit. A quick scoot through the bandsaw around the beer-mug outline, and a quick but careful edge detail on my router table, and it was ready for sanding. Then a 5 minute visit to the upside down belt sander, and whack in the 2 dowels, and my wife can now lock & unlock the hubs by herself.

A splash of BLO (not shown) and one project completed within 40 minutes including setting up the machines.

Oh yes, the Eucalyptus board was from the off-cut bin as well.

btw, My wife has just informed me in a snooty tone of voice that this is NOT a doo-dad, it is her cool-tool.

-- I may be schizophrenic, but at least I have each other.