Shop Bead Breaker

[wadeamca]

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.