S
SCLead
Forum Guest
Register Today
Hey folks,
Looking for a little advice from those who have set up their home shops in the past.
Long version: I bought my first house in the last year. More accurately, I bought myself a 30x30 shop, and there happened to be a pretty decent house standing out front. I'm not exactly starting from scratch, though I'm now able to organize much better, and add some more substantial tools (i.e. machines) to the mix. I started machining in college about eight years ago, and have been behind mills and lathes at pretty much every job since that point, though I'm far from being a machinist. Thanks to this, I've gradually collected most of the basic individual stuff - 0-1" mic, 6" calipers, a good machinist square, small hole gages, etc. Far from "all inclusive," but I've been collecting stuff as I find deals too good to pass up, or as I need them to complete a job. Now, since I've got a lathe and am on the short list to picking up a mill, I'm looking for the bigger "shop items," which would normally be provided by the employer/shop, as opposed to "individual items" one might keep in their personal toolbox in the shop. I'm curious what everyone finds (trying to keep this on the "metrology" topic) getting a lot of mileage in your home shops? Things that fit this category that are already on my list are things like a good medium-to-large surface plate and height gage (I'm pretty sure I've worn holes in our Rahn plate at work, I use it so much), some larger angle plates and V-blocks, etc. I'm kind of all over the map in the "type" of work I do in the home shop - gunsmithing, automotive stuff to include boring/honing bearing races and the like, random "custom fab" stuff like bumpers, spare tire carriers, etc., and I'm recently taking a keen interest in "tightening up" my work - striving for tenths accuracies on things instead of thousandths. Tool & die work very much interests me, but I've missed that boat professionally, so I expect I might dabble finer and finer in the home shop - unsupervised and unafraid. Obviously a lot of this is "as needed" type things - no point buying tiny pin gages if I never work with small holes, so I'm just kind of curious what I might be overlooking.
Short version: What metrology tools do you find yourself using constantly?
Looking for a little advice from those who have set up their home shops in the past.
Long version: I bought my first house in the last year. More accurately, I bought myself a 30x30 shop, and there happened to be a pretty decent house standing out front. I'm not exactly starting from scratch, though I'm now able to organize much better, and add some more substantial tools (i.e. machines) to the mix. I started machining in college about eight years ago, and have been behind mills and lathes at pretty much every job since that point, though I'm far from being a machinist. Thanks to this, I've gradually collected most of the basic individual stuff - 0-1" mic, 6" calipers, a good machinist square, small hole gages, etc. Far from "all inclusive," but I've been collecting stuff as I find deals too good to pass up, or as I need them to complete a job. Now, since I've got a lathe and am on the short list to picking up a mill, I'm looking for the bigger "shop items," which would normally be provided by the employer/shop, as opposed to "individual items" one might keep in their personal toolbox in the shop. I'm curious what everyone finds (trying to keep this on the "metrology" topic) getting a lot of mileage in your home shops? Things that fit this category that are already on my list are things like a good medium-to-large surface plate and height gage (I'm pretty sure I've worn holes in our Rahn plate at work, I use it so much), some larger angle plates and V-blocks, etc. I'm kind of all over the map in the "type" of work I do in the home shop - gunsmithing, automotive stuff to include boring/honing bearing races and the like, random "custom fab" stuff like bumpers, spare tire carriers, etc., and I'm recently taking a keen interest in "tightening up" my work - striving for tenths accuracies on things instead of thousandths. Tool & die work very much interests me, but I've missed that boat professionally, so I expect I might dabble finer and finer in the home shop - unsupervised and unafraid. Obviously a lot of this is "as needed" type things - no point buying tiny pin gages if I never work with small holes, so I'm just kind of curious what I might be overlooking.
Short version: What metrology tools do you find yourself using constantly?