Shop Bead Breaker

Here are photos of the bead breaker I McGyver’d over the last couple of days from parts/scrap laying around the shop. I took Phil Gaukroger’s idea of using a part of a trailer hitch and jack, but instead of a screw jack, I used one of my old hydraulic jacks.

Since I wanted to use this in my small shop and not take up much (if any) room, I needed a way of semi-attaching it to my wall. Looking around (and remembering Phil’s idea of using his receiver hitch), I remembered I an old receiver from my truck that was laying against the wall back in the corner. (This receiver was on my truck, but one day a lady in a Jeep tagged the ball and bent the receiver-to- frame mounts. The 2” square hole and the rest of the receiver was still in perfect condition so I cut off the frame mountings and saved the rest).

I stood the receiver on the left end (where the frame mounting brackets had been) and did some measuring. I cut off the right end so I basically had the 2” square hitch hole and the left end. I then slid some 2” round pipe into the hitch hole and welded that into place and then welded two pieces of 3/8 (or so) angle iron onto each side of the pipe. I had some 1” square tubing so I cut about an inch-long piece, capped one end and welded this piece to the underside of the pipe to accept the screw end of my hydraulic jack. I also needed some way of keeping this bead breaker from rising when I tried to break down a tire so I took about a 4” section of the piece I had previously removed from the receiver and welded it to the bottom of the left end. I lag-bolted a 2’ piece of 4x4 fence post into the wall frame about 3 ½ inches above the floor. And then brush-painted everything with gloss black Rustoleum.

Now I slid the breaker into position, put the tire in place, put screw from the hydraulic jack into its receptacle and started pumping. As you can see, it worked on a 15” Lincoln Continental rim that’s from my 1936 Hudson Terraplane. And when finished, I can lay it in a corner or hang it from the shop wall. I like it and it's so much faster and easier than a crow-bar and 4-lb sledge hammer.

The photos give a much better visual description than my words.

Great job wadeamca. I like the non-obtrusive design.

Thanks wadeamca! I've added your Wall-Mounted Bead Breaker to our Metalworking category, as well as to your builder page: wadeamca's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="/wall-mounted-bead-breaker"><img src="/uploads/92836/wall-mounted-bead-breaker.jpeg" alt="Wall-Mounted Bead Breaker" /></a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="/wall-mounted-bead-breaker">Wall-Mounted Bead Breaker</a> <span> by <a href="/builder/wadeamca">wadeamca</a></span> </div> <div class="tags"> tags: <a href="/tag/bead-breaker">bead breaker</a>, <a href="/tag/jack">jack</a>, <a href="/tag/welding">welding</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>

An unusual design, using the jack itself to press down on the bead. I like it!

Just scrapped a couple old hitches. Now to find another. :)
Well done!

Thanks for the words of encouragement. But I can't take all the credit for this idea - I took the jack and trailer hitch idea from Phil Gaukroger at Tech: Cheap bead breaker easy to use.. Since I needed to use it in my shop, I just used an old trailer hitch rather than the back of my truck the way Phil did.

Had to make a minor modification --- when I was trying to break down a tire, this kept pulling away from the wall. I drilled a 3/8 hole in the 4x4 support, inserted a carriage bolt through a short chain wrapped around the bead breaker and reattached it to the other end of the carriage bolt. No more problems.

That'd make a pretty strong reinforcement, wadeamca. Much better than a plate at the back which is what I would have probably considered.