# Anyone Getting Much Shop Time Lately?



## projectnut (May 24, 2021)

Now that the weather has broken, and many of the pandemic restrictions have been lifted shop time seems a thing of the past.  Since early March I can count the number of minutes spent in the shop on one hand.  Most days it's just a pass through to pick up some tool needed for an outdoor project, or to set something on the bench.

Somehow lawn mowing, landscaping, and maintaining the gardens and shrubbery have replaced the hours I was once spending in the shop.  Mowing and weed eating have become a routine every 4 to 5 days.  4 days is best, but if it goes over 5 bailing is almost a necessity.  It seems kind of strange in that the weather man keeps saying we're several inches behind on the rain, and in a mild drought getting closer to severe by the day, but the grass is growing so fast it's hard to keep up.

Maybe it's just that time of year and it's taking me longer to do these things.  Hopefully things will settle down a bit. Maybe I got a bit spoiled with all the time on my hands, but I really enjoyed last year's shop time.  Instead of catching up on projects I have another half dozen or so in the partially completed stage.  Hopefully I'll remember where I was on each one should I find the time to revisit them.

Anyone else having the rude awakening that the extended time in the shop may be a thing of the past?


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## RJSakowski (May 24, 2021)

Just back from a six day fishing trip in northern Wisconsin so no shop time there.  This morning, I made a new cover for a battery charger that had been savaged by a truck.  I pulled the guts out and hammered the lower case back into a semblance of square, repaired a busted ammeter and made the new cover from a panel from an old IBM word processor.  Total shop time, around four hours.

Now that I'm back, time to get back on my lathe controller.  I am short a few connector housings and still have to test out the circuit boards.  I had hoped to do that before the trip but I ran out of time.  The basement shop is cool and with the dehumidifier and central a/c running it's a nice place to be.


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## Ischgl99 (May 24, 2021)

Business is finally picking up again, so between that and all the kids activities, I’m finding it harder to get much time in the shop.  I still have a son home to cut the grass, but I spend a couple hours reminding him to do it lol.


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## tjb (May 24, 2021)

For the last couple of months, I've been so busy with other stuff, I've barely had time to even look at my shop.  Equipment repair, tractor work, clearing a section in the front pasture, fence repair, etc., etc. etc.  My wife and I had a discussion this afternoon: we are not allowed to add any projects to our respective lists until at least one has been completed and removed.  For several weeks, it seemed that even going wide open, the lists just got longer and longer.  One project came off - two more went on.

Things are calming down a little.  I did manage to finish the model tractor for my soon-to-be grandson (there's a thread on it).  And the real biggie:  I got my shop completely cleaned up from all the other projects and can now at least imagine doing some machining work.

I feel your pain.

Regards


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## mmcmdl (May 24, 2021)

Shop time ? No . Grass time is more like it .


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## FOMOGO (May 24, 2021)

Lots of time working on the shop, not nearly enough just working in it, on the things I really want to be doing. I have moved most of my welding equipment into that area of the shop, so that's something. Mike


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## hman (May 24, 2021)

I've equipped my shop with a heatpump (used to be swamp coolers), and can enjoy shop time year round.  Lots of fun projects out there.  My normal sleep hours are 4AM to noon, and I spend a lot of nights (after midnight) out there having fun and making chips.  I'm currently working on a trade show demo for a friend who owns a local pet door company - mechanical and electrical design, control panel wiring, Arduino software, and metal and wood fabrication.  Don't want to send out pictures until I get an OK from them.  

Among the recent infrastructure work is a compressed air de-watering loop.  The shop came with an elaborate dewatering system which, unbeknownst to me, had developed a small leak.  My compressor was running every couple of hours.  I'd tried soaping all the new connections I'd made, but couldn't find the problem.  Then a couple nights ago, I was standing next to the manifold and heard a telltale hiss.  Ripped out the old system, bought a couple lengths of pipe, and built anew.  There's a drain under each of the vertical pipes, with tubing leading outside.  Obviously this ain't as good as a "real" dehydrator, but OK for my needs.  And it's delightfully leak tight!

The old:



The new:


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## westerner (May 24, 2021)

I had a nice project rebuilding the carb, and resealing the lower unit on my 'new to me' 25 hp Evinrude. 
It took at least one day longer than I thought because I needed to build a bunch of seal and bearing drivers.

Sure did enjoy my lathe during the job


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## erikmannie (May 24, 2021)

My only opportunities to work in the shop are Saturday mornings, all day Sunday, legal holidays & vacation weeks (from work).

I always take FULL advantage unless there is a clear family obligation (e.g. date night, birthday party, Mother’s Day lunch).


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## vtcnc (May 24, 2021)

If I get a few hours in during the weekend I’m lucky in the summertime.

But during weekday evenings I can get two to three hours in if I want while everyone is doing homework or sleeping. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## DavidR8 (May 25, 2021)

This past weekend was long weekend for us Canucks. 
I spent Saturday and Sunday doing yard stuff but today was all shop. 
Got the table built for my CNC router build and prepped the forks from my NT650 for a rebuild.


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## Eddyde (May 25, 2021)

I finally got some paying work to do in the shop, its more metal fab than machining, but I'm happy to get it.


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## Braeden P (May 25, 2021)

projectnut said:


> Since early March I can count the number of minutes spent in the shop on one hand


Now that school is letting out in 2 weeks there will be way more time to work out in the garage and when I come home I go and use my tools for about 3 hours. now I have a job that needs done in a few weeks and it 24 long, small  diameter parts so hard to do.


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## jwmay (May 25, 2021)

One hour per weekday and a few hours on the weekend. About the same as always. Not any machining, but a lot of setting up shop, rearranging, woodwork, blah, blah. I think it's called piddling actually.


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## Janderso (May 25, 2021)

NO!


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## derfatdutchman (May 27, 2021)

Yup, I got a hour in the shop last night because it was raining, other than that the only time I go in is to get tools to work on stuff around the house. When the weather turns cooler and the nights get longer it will be shop season again.


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## Braeden P (May 27, 2021)

I've spent about 3 hours each day working on a boring bar riser and holder and that takes lots of guess work !


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## Ken226 (May 27, 2021)

Every day after work, and most of my days off have been out in the shop.

Converting both lathe and mill to 3 phase / VFD power  using a Siemens motor for the lathe and Helmke motor for the mill,  complete with new control panels for each.
Both motors got a new set of FAG bearings and new seals.

The lathe motor housing had to be machined and mounting brackets fabricated.  A challenge, but not too difficult.

The mill motor was a pain in the butt.  Adapting the 100l b5 flange to fit my PM935 involved several hours Tig welding the cast aluminum flange to build up enough metal that I could machine and drill/tap the appropriate screw pattern.   Tig welding cast aluminum sucks by the way.

I'm never one to do things the simple, easy or cheap way.  The control panels were fabricated from 1/8" aluminum plate, cnc milled, blasted, cerakoted and engraved.  They needed fairly substantial wiring harnesses be built, to get all of the features that I wanted.  Tachometers, power LEDs, Estops, potentiometers,  relays and contactors.

Of course, the 100l frame designation on the original PM motor nameplate means jack squat.  Nothing on it was even close to 100l spec.  100l uses a 28mm shaft, and the PM motor has a 22mm shaft.   That meant boring the PM pulley to 28mm on the lathe, and broaching a new keyway using the motorless mill with a boring bar and a 1/4"  hss cutter.  That worked better than I expected.

Everything is coming together quite well though.  The lathe is finished, and the mill is only lacking the VFD input terminal connections and final testing.  I should have everything wrapped up by Monday.



The Siemens 3 phase motor made a stunning difference in the lathes overall performance.  Significantly more than what I expected.   The surface finish is better on everything, and on many materials several times better.  Vibration and noise are about a third their previous amount.

I'm not sure how much of the improvement can be attributed to the 3 phase power vs the quality difference between the Chinese motor and the German motor, but the difference is drastic.

I'm hoping the German Helmke motor gives me a similar improvement on the mill, but I'm doubtful.  The Taiwanese single phase PM motor was quite good.


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## rabler (May 27, 2021)

I'm behind on shop time.   Friends coming this weekend for memorial day weekend, which means getting some firewood cut, mowing at least part of the pasture.  Some remodeling on the house, with too much time in the crawl space under the house replacing plumbing  (polybutylene).  Working on fencing.  Trip out of town next week.  Just lots of little things, but I prefer to do as much outdoor work as I can in Spring and Fall, the mid-summer temps will be much less friendly, or much more conducive to shop time.

I did get the base of what will be a new workshop rough leveled.  It'll have some time to settle, by which time I'm hoping lumber prices come down some.  I doubt we'll see $2 for 2x4's again, but I'd be delighted to go from $8 to $5.

The K&T mill runs, so I *really* want to put that through it's paces to get comfortable with it.  Work on the 10EE has completely stalled.  The big 2516 lathe needs the QCGB remoted and apron hung.


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## jwmay (May 28, 2021)

If I worked that hard when I wasn't at work, I'd have to quit one or the other. 

I glued four 1x6's together yesterday, and today I took off the clamps.


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## Larry$ (May 28, 2021)

I'm salvaging the control cabinet from a CNC I'm junking out. I got the Air conditioning unit loose but it is too heavy for me. Will have help in the morning. I tried wiggling the empty cabinet by hand, couldn't move it at all. Got setup to use the forklift in the morning. There are 4 lifting eyes on top of the cabinet. 4 x 2 x 7' high, nice doors. It will become dust free storage for large or less used tooling, rotary table, chucks, gage pins & blocks, boring head etc. Just two or 3 steps from the lathe & mill. I've got plenty of "stuff" to put on the open shelves vacated.


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