Franko's Whatever Works

This is the sort of thing I build for money. My client is a scientific skin product testing firm. This rig is to photograph latex castings of blemishes. The rig is a modified copy stand and uses a microscope stage to position the special holder for the latex castings. Fiber optic lights project raking light to accentuate skin texture. The box is to block extraneous light.

Nice set up, I hope to get mine reorganized in the next few weeks so I will have a place to set up my lathe.

Hang in there Catskinner. You'll get 'er done.

Franko--very nice shop and tools--wish mine was that organized--I too have my favorite old country & western music playing in my shops most of the time to relax me--I sure like to listen to my favorite old singers---your project item that you build for money looks very impressive----your temp outside is probably a lot higher than the 15 below zero here--it only got up to zero by noon---I like your belt sander-they are so handy and I also have used my hands on the backside of the belt to form to a shape--my belts are 6" wide and about 5' between the pulleys----I use the old crepe soles off old shoes for pressing on the backside so I don't heat my fingers up--I also use them to clean the front of the belt------thanks for showing your nice shop-------Dave

Thanks for the nice comments, Dave. We don't get to -15º but it does get hot as hell in the summer in Dallas. That was my main motivation for making the machine shop, as my garage is impossible to insulate and cool. We've had some pretty cold days and my insulation is apparently efficient. It also deadens sound well so I don't bother my neighbor's baby during its naps.

In the summer, machining was difficult because I drip salty rust drips on my tools. Also, when the shop was unheated, warm fronts after cold spells would make all the cast iron sweat and rust.

I listen mostly to our Public Radio music station. My taste leans toward the eclectic. I loves me some Pink Floyd, too.

I have a little 4x24 belt sander that I want to convert similarly as yours. I just wear a cotton knit glove when I press the back of my belts.

I'd like to come up with some sort of pad to put over the platten. As it is, it is useless. I have the best belts money can buy, but they still have a bump at the taped seam. I was thinking of a 2-ply pad. Felt under a thin sheet of steel to soften the the bumps but maintain squareness. If I can get that figured out, I have plans to put a rest on the 2x48 grinder.

I have several types of belt grinders. One is a 1x48 that I've stepped down the speed. The belt I use on it is completely worn out, but it does a perfect job of deburring and lightly chamfering small aluminum parts, and polishing rough ground radius.

For rough shaping, I use a 10" disk sander. It has a good flat plate guide so I can grind square edged curves with it, but the cut is course and requires smoothing. I also modified flap wheels to use on my bench grinder.

The finer slow belts do a great job of polishing the grind marks out. Sometimes it is easier than chucking a part on a rotary table on my mill which makes nice round-overs and radius's but still have to be de-burred and set-up time is a bit tedious.

I have a good horizontal band saw that cuts very square, but i also have a non-ferrous fine toothed carbide blade I use in my table saw with a very accurate slider to cut small parts perfectly smooth and square. The runout on my Powermatic 2000 is about 2-3 thousands at the teeth of a 10" blade, so cuts are very smooth with almost no teeth marks.

who needs a house
my workshop is nowhere near that organised, but I still love being there. (I have a similar radio setup as well, never seen anyone else do it)
looking at your pics I can tell I joined the right forum
people must think we are nuts

Thanks, Kwikfab. Using a car radio in the shop makes a lot of sense. It is very compact, versatile and relatively inexpensive. There are no home components I know of that will play the variety of media. None of the bookshelf or boombox types had pre-amp outputs so I could drive the powered studio monitors and sub.

The big chair gets in the way sometimes, but it is good to have it so I can rest my back without having to go inside.

I am using LED light strips now as supplimentary lighting, they run off the same supply as the car stereo , good when you just have to pop in quickly to grab something (better than turning on 8 fluro lights

I put a couple incandescent ceiling fixtures on a separate switch for just that reason.

I just bumped into this thread. Kudos to Franko on putting together a well thought out and organized work space. I especially like the custom built organizer on top of the two file cabinets. Having a well organized assortment of raw stock on hand is a pleasure.