Soliciting Ideas For The Machining Corner Of My Shop!

I'm a fan of steel sheeting either roofing or siding what ever is cheaper. I also prefer either plain galvanized or light colors to help with light. Very easy to clean and resistant to oil.

Hello, my name is Brian and I'm a toolaholic
 
Chris, One of the things witht he QCTP holder is that it is normally just within arms reach, Where overhead cabinet would be reaching up and over, Where you are more likely to lean over the lathe than just reaching over it. Again just my 2 cents.
 
If you can, I would prefer to be able to have complete access all the way around the machines. I don't think that I would have any type of cabinet above the lathe. If the cabinet is of nice reach height, chances are it would be bump head height. Raise it higher, can,t see height. Worse, if you get the dropsies, the whatever could fall on the ways. Ouch! Anyway, that is my 2 cents worth of what I vision.
 
My dad did a job for his neighbor a few years ago where he covered their garage with that "shower board" stuff. (Everyone calls it shower board because it has the same satin finish as some shower enclosures, but it's actually a hardboard product and should not be used in wet environments.) It's $12 per sheet (barely more than sheetrock) and you can buy strips to tie multiple together as well as strips to terminate a wall. It's quite attractive, VERY bright, and requires no finishing work. I helped him with the last stage of the project and it came out really nice.

If you have a budget for even better materials, a very cool option would be roll-formed steel wall panels. I used to work in architectural sheet metal and we had a machine like this one:

http://www.zimmerman-metals.com/roll-form/products/ws-1000-wall-soffit-panel-machine/

The final result is beautiful, and it's used for walls and ceilings. It's like a much more durable and rigid version of soffit. We used it for spans up to 150 feet (continuous, formed on-site). I've actually used some leftovers as a cool white board for a project at one point, and it's obviously also a great magnetic board. And it's very strong, so you can attach things to it with sheet metal screws, such as cabinets, shelves, lighting, etc. For a residential-appropriate lengths you could find a shop with one of the machines and have them run it at their shop and you can install it yourself (using steel-to-wood wafer screws from any fastener supplier) to save money. And there are many color options from many suppliers, such as Firestone and ABC:

http://firestonebpco.com/technical-information/colors/

https://www.abcsupply.com/BranchLocator?state=New Jersey

Just an idea, as long as you're open to suggestions. :)
 
Due to a small shop situation my dad built shelving over his lathe that I grew up with, consequently there are shelves over both of my lathes. I must admit that I have 10 tons of stuff in a 5 ton area so space is at a premium. The chuck wrenches for the Enco were moved last fall towards the tail stock end, my fear is something falling on a rotating chuck and getting "launched". Most of my measuring tools are over the headstock and the other accessories near the tail stock, chucks etc. are stored under the lathe. I try to keep my head about me when working and use the stop switch frequently, the power company loves me.
If you have the space common sense say avoid the shelves, otherwise plan your storage and work to maximize safety.
Have a good day!
Ray
 
silence dogood said:
If you can, I would prefer to be able to have complete access all the way around the machines. I don't think that I would have any type of cabinet above the lathe. If the cabinet is of nice reach height, chances are it would be bump head height. Raise it higher, can,t see height. Worse, if you get the dropsies, the whatever could fall on the ways. Ouch! Anyway, that is my 2 cents worth of what I vision.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the dropsy comment. just the thought of that nixed the idea of cabinets for me.

Chris
 
intjonmiller said:
My dad did a job for his neighbor a few years ago where he covered their garage with that "shower board" stuff. (Everyone calls it shower board because it has the same satin finish as some shower enclosures, but it's actually a hardboard product and should not be used in wet environments.) It's $12 per sheet (barely more than sheetrock) and you can buy strips to tie multiple together as well as strips to terminate a wall. It's quite attractive, VERY bright, and requires no finishing work. I helped him with the last stage of the project and it came out really nice.

If you have a budget for even better materials, a very cool option would be roll-formed steel wall panels. I used to work in architectural sheet metal and we had a machine like this one:

http://www.zimmerman-metals.com/roll-form/products/ws-1000-wall-soffit-panel-machine/

The final result is beautiful, and it's used for walls and ceilings. It's like a much more durable and rigid version of soffit. We used it for spans up to 150 feet (continuous, formed on-site). I've actually used some leftovers as a cool white board for a project at one point, and it's obviously also a great magnetic board. And it's very strong, so you can attach things to it with sheet metal screws, such as cabinets, shelves, lighting, etc. For a residential-appropriate lengths you could find a shop with one of the machines and have them run it at their shop and you can install it yourself (using steel-to-wood wafer screws from any fastener supplier) to save money. And there are many color options from many suppliers, such as Firestone and ABC:

http://firestonebpco.com/technical-information/colors/

https://www.abcsupply.com/BranchLocator?state=New Jersey

Just an idea, as long as you're open to suggestions. :)
Click to expand...


Thanks for the shower board idea, I see it is pretty inexpensive at home depot, and i will definately check it out.

Chris
 
rock_breaker said:
Due to a small shop situation my dad built shelving over his lathe that I grew up with, consequently there are shelves over both of my lathes. I must admit that I have 10 tons of stuff in a 5 ton area so space is at a premium. The chuck wrenches for the Enco were moved last fall towards the tail stock end, my fear is something falling on a rotating chuck and getting "launched". Most of my measuring tools are over the headstock and the other accessories near the tail stock, chucks etc. are stored under the lathe. I try to keep my head about me when working and use the stop switch frequently, the power company loves me.
If you have the space common sense say avoid the shelves, otherwise plan your storage and work to maximize safety.
Have a good day!
Ray
Click to expand...


Thanks for sharing your experiences with having shelves over the lathe. I decided not to do that idea after thinking about dropping stuff onto my lathe.

Chris
 
silence dogood said:
If you can, I would prefer to be able to have complete access all the way around the machines. I don't think that I would have any type of cabinet above the lathe. If the cabinet is of nice reach height, chances are it would be bump head height. Raise it higher, can,t see height. Worse, if you get the dropsies, the whatever could fall on the ways. Ouch! Anyway, that is my 2 cents worth of what I vision.
Click to expand...


I would love to be able to pull my lathe more away from the wall more to get access to the back but I really like the space that it is in now. I put the lathe in the corner two years ago and ran it there to see how that position would work out. I do have the headstock angled out slightly from the wall which gives me more than enough access to the motor pulleys and also allows me to have plenty of room for rod to stick out of my headstock without interfering with anything.

I didn't have any problems with it in this configuration for two years, so i'm running with it. I can always pull it away from the wall temporarily to fix something if needed.

Thanks,

Chris
 
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