Cheap Homemade Oil Filter Cutter + FRAM TG3614 Cut

[HX520W]

I had to replace a garage door opener and thought it would be a shame to throw away all the metal so, I decided to try and build an oil filter cutter with the scraps. Every piece of metal including some of the hardware is from the old door opener and all the other nuts and bolts had been sitting around unused for years. The total cost of materials and hardware was $0.00 the only thing it cost me was some wear on tools.

It isn't the nicest looking filter cutter but, I designed it as I built it based on what scraps I had laying around and the tools I have.

I made the wheels on the front using a hole saw and then spinning the cut outs on a drill press while filing them. The handle was also turned on a drill press.

The blade is made out of a piece of an old carbide reciprocating saw blade.

And best of all, it works!

The filter was used for six months and 3,000 miles on a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan 3.8L V6. It was changed a little early but, the van sees a lot of short trips (frequently less than a mile) and I want to see if 5W-30 full synthetic MaxLife will help reduce oil consumption on some road trips coming up.

 

[JC1]

Nice job, can you post a pic of the bottom of the filter cutter?

 

[ZeeOSix]

Cool ... looks like it cuts filters open pretty well. Filter looks good too.

 

[SumpChump]

I honestly cant envision how it operates or cuts so cleanly. Video?

 

[HX520W]

The frame is made out of some pieces I cut off of the old door track. I just cut a slot in the sheet metal so the bolts that go through the block holding the blade will ride along the track that the frame creates.

 

[53' Stude]

Very cool and the Tough Guard looks a LOT better than mine did

 

[HX520W]

Originally Posted By: SumpChump
I honestly cant envision how it operates or cuts so cleanly. Video?

I don't have a video of it in operation and I'm out of filters to cut open. There are plenty of videos on YouTube of filter cutters in operation. Mine works basically the same way.

I'll look around and see about making a video. It may be hard to cut something without an intact filter.

 

[beanoil]

Excellent job on the filter cutter. Quite ingenious.

 

[Kira]

You used your hands to make a tool. That means you extended your mind in using tools to make the cutter.
You're using your mind whenever you use your new cutter.
I swear I'm serious. This is one (far from the only) avenue to keep your (our) brains alive.

Now think of all the slobs who don't even know what "1/4-20" means. Kira

ps "slobs" refers to their condition....not intended as a pejorative. k

 

[JC1]

Thanks HX520W for all the pics I'm going to have to build myself a version of that.

 

[KCJeep]

Nice to both!

 

[ThirdeYe]

The cutter and the filter seemed to have worked nicely!

 

[WellOiled]

I would change the title to Effective Homemade cutter if I could. Well done.

Tough guard looks good too.

 

[HX520W]

Originally Posted By: JC1
Thanks HX520W for all the pics I'm going to have to build myself a version of that.

Awesome! You should be able to build a pretty nice one.

As you can probably tell from the pictures, I didn't spend the time to give the non critical pieces a nice finish or worry about how square a few of the cuts are. I honestly didn't know if it was going to work or not and didn't want to sink a huge amount of time into finish work on something I may have had to scrap and start over on.

I might experiment with different blades in the future. I tried a utility knife blade at first which looked promising on the first test cut but I couldn't get the blade attached very well without drilling holes in it and I didn't want to risk damaging a drill bit on such a hard steel. The carbide blade I'm using now seems to work quite well, but the kerf is wider than it needs to be and the bolts holding the blade block to the track have to ride perfectly along the track without any play or else the blade binds. A rolling blade would probably avoid any binding issues. Using some longer bolts to hold the rollers up higher may make the filter more stable as well.

Anyways, good luck on your filter cutter build. It would be great to see pictures when it's done.

 

[HX520W]

I've been testing different blades over the past few days and decided that buying a rolling blade would be worth it. Now, the total cost is about $10.

The new blade cuts much faster than the old hacksaw blade and is much easier on the wrists.

I also replaced the rollers with some old bearings I found and mounted them higher to make the filter more stable. It greatly reduces cutting effort in conjunction with the rolling blade.

 

[HX520W]

Originally Posted By: SumpChump
I honestly cant envision how it operates or cuts so cleanly. Video?


I finally got a video made for you. I found an old filter in the garage to test blades on. This was the first attempt at using the rolling blade. The scrapes at the bottom of the can are from failed blade tests.

https://youtu.be/VwHrnNaariM