# Starting to get my workshop together



## gbus (Jan 25, 2017)

Hi all. I joined the forums a couple of years back when I started a job as a trainee precision engineer. I'm no longer doing it as, sadly, it was 100 miles travel each way to the workshop (was going to move closer but it never happened). I'm still interested in using my own lathe and doing metal work, so I hope you see some more posts of my work on here in the future.

I'm currently getting my feet clear to start my own business doing bicycle repairs and whilst I'm at it, I'm going to get my viceroy lathe up and running to make my own tools and possibly make some to sell on.

At the moment I have a wood built garage that's quite damp on the inside. Started working on the outside today and found some rotten wood that's going to need replaced and I'm going to put some vents on far away walls to try ventilate the place to get rid of the damp on the inside.

I thought I'd start a post on here to keep a record for me and others to see whilst I do the work. Wouldn't mind any helpful hints and advice as I go on.
Currently I need to dry out the inside of the garage as it's quite damp and the concrete floor has started to crumble on the surface. I'm hoping it's not too far gone and I can, when it's dried out, go over the top of it with some concrete repair.
I don't have any electricity in the garage and it's too far from my house to get any lines to it (across the road) so I'm going to wire up a 12v system with LED lights and a generator to run my lathe and other power tools.
Anyone had any experience of doing this and know good ways to keep the 12v battery topped up? I'm thinking of using a leisure battery for a caravan and possibly some solar panels. Only problem is that there isn't much sunlight on the west coast of Scotland.

I'll get some pictures up soon so you can see where I'm starting from, and hopefully some more as I progress to a finished workshop.


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## brino (Jan 25, 2017)

Hi gbus,

You might check out this recent thread for some ideas of drying out your building. 
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/garage-floor-water-need-suggestions.54749/

Drainage of the surrounding terrain is critical. 
Do you have eave troughs that empty a good distance from the exterior walls? 
Does it slope away from the building in all directions?
If it is as wet as it sounds, is it possible you have a roof leak?

Certainly the price of solar panels is becoming more reasonable.

Best of luck getting the building dried out. Please do post your progress.

-brino


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## LucknowKen (Jan 26, 2017)

gbus said:


> I'm going to get my viceroy lathe up and running to make my own tools and possibly make some to sell on. I'll get some pictures up soon so you can see where I'm starting from, and hopefully some more as I progress to a finished workshop.


Pictures of a Viceroy lathe would be great.
Welcome to the HM forums.
lk


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## gbus (Jan 26, 2017)

Thanks for the welcome.
Here's some pictures of the Viceroy. I got it a couple of years back from someone my father-in-law knows. He said it was "a good one ready to work". Turned out it wasn't and I still need to get round to finishing the work on it.
The first thing I had to do was correct the direction switch. The previous owner changed the motor form a 3ph to 1ph and used a directional switch from something else. The lathe only turned in forward direction when I first got it. I realised that he had actually tried to reverse AC. So, I found the correct way to get the motor to change direction and sorted that out.
I then had an issue with the belt being out of line to the motor. So it was pulling the v-pulley off the motor spindle. The grub screw holding it onto the spindle has nothing to actually grab onto so keeps moving.
I've had to "mill" a slot into the motor mounting plate to try and correct the alignment issue. It's not done the job 100%, so I'll have to make another mounting plate I think.
Another little issue I had with the lathe is that the gearbox wasn't working. It would work in one selction only, but only that one. After opening up the gearbox I found that the splines inside the selection lever had worn off and they weren't gripping anything any more. So as a quick fix, I drilled and tapped a hole then placed a pointed grub screw in it to make it work.
After opening up the gearbox I had done quite a bit of research into what oils and lubricants to use. I got quite a bit of help from the denford data website. Thankfully there are a few people still using these lathes around the world. One guy has done quite a bit of work to his in New Zealand, and is quite happy to offer advice.
I was told that the best oil to use for the gearbox was some hydraulic jack fluid. So I put that it and got it to the correct level. The problem I had after that was that the sump bolt is in quite an awkward position, So I'm not sure if I haven't tightened it up correctly or if I should just use some PTFE tape when I fill it up again as it leaked out rather slowly.

Being an older English lathe, it's put together using imperial bolts and screws. It is however a metric lathe.
I would like to be able to cut both imperial and metric threads, as some bicycle components are still imperial and probably wont change. This is difficult however, as I'd need to get a bespoke cog made up for the gearbox to convert it. It's not a pressing issue so, I'm not too bothered with it at the moment.







The Garage is needing a little more work on the outside before it gets painted. I noticed that between my garage and the next one, there is a lot of damp ground. I was wondering what would be best to get rid of that.
Digging around it and putting in sand? I am clueless as I've never had to deal with it before. My last garage was attached to the house and the boiler kept the whole place a nice temperature.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!


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## Joncooey (Feb 12, 2017)

Hi gbus;  welcome to HM.  A method that is quite often used for drainage is trenching, back-filling with 3/4 stone and installing a big-o pipe, more 3/4 stone and then back-fill with soil.  Of course ensuring that everything is graded to the lowest point, following the rule that Sh_t flows down-hill.  Getting the water away from the building and following Brino's points are key.  Next, as you mentioned previously, your old shop was heated.  Here in Canada we get some pretty damp weather.  Perhaps not as damp as Scotland.  The air is damp and your concrete slab is probably saturated.  I find the best thing to dry things out is a wood burning stove.  Takes the moisture out of everything.  Maybe where your from an oil, Kerosene or propane furnace would be simpler.  Other wise you may see condensation developing on your equipment.  I also use covers on my lathe, etc. to keep the condensation to a minimum.  Hope to hear how you make out. 
  Jon.


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## gbus (Feb 26, 2017)

So, it's been a while since I started this topic. I thought I'd Go get something done to the workshop.
In the time between this post and the previous one I have built myself a bike shed , so that I could get all my bikes out of my Garage/Workshop. I have a fair few...Bikes are my thing.
I Tried out my battery operated lights and it seems to be doing the trick. I've not got anything other than a motorbike battery charger for charging it so far, but I'm thinking of wiring up a little gauge that tells me the voltage and amps when I turn it on. This should help me from draining the battery too far. I do Hope to wire up some type of renewable (read: free) charging device to this shed and also to my workshop. Hopefully I'll have some posts about that on here in the future.

As For the main garage/workshop, I have finally got around to putting vents into two of the walls. I bought 4 vents (currently lost two of them) and installed them on two opposing walls to draw the air through the building (as is the thought). I done a little reading up about it and read that it's a good idea to have one of the vents low down to draw the air from the bottom of one side to the top of the other. Thus moving more air through. I'm not sure how effective that'll be in my old wooden garage, but that's what I've done.
As I mentioned in my first post, I don't have any power in the garage yet, So I had to cut the holes in the walls with hand tools that I have available to me. I don't even have a battery operated drill any more as I never had the need for one. So I set about with a hand drill that was left in the house by the previous owners, A hacksaw blade, a pencil, a claw hammer and a block of wood with some sandpaper nailed to it. It did the Job, not very neatly, but it did the job.
Having build my bike shed and done this work, I've realised just how little wood working tools I have. That shall have to be remedied!

Anyway. Here are a few photos of the garage and the work that I done to make the rough holes for the vents. The good thing is, I can feel quite a bit of air moving through the vents with my hand in front of it. I'll see how much of a difference that makes and I will consider if I should put the other vents on the walls too (If I ever find them).



	

		
			
		

		
	
 The Before Pictures


	

		
			
		

		
	
 The Damp walls, It was a particularly rainy day today, but it shows how much I need to paint the outside








	

		
			
		

		
	
 The very rough "cut" hole in the front.




	

		
			
		

		
	
The Vent in the back nearer the ground. This end appears to be the driest of all the walls.


	

		
			
		

		
	
 The tools I used to do the work.

I hope you have a good giggle at the wonderful work that I achieved. The straightest lines in the world!


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## Silverbullet (Feb 26, 2017)

You may need to have some dehumidifier put inside with the hose outdoor to drain. Again like the others have said heat will dry out the building . Plus you can try to seal all around the lower part of the building and concrete. Humidity and rain are killers with rust as there cause. 
Now glad to see your lathe and welcome to you . Lots of good people on here will do there best to help out. Your lathe looks like a nice one , with a little patience she will be put right. If the environment wasn't so wet I'd suggest a fan blowing out the vent to help dry it. But I just don't think it would help.


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## gbus (Feb 26, 2017)

Thanks for the welcome. Unfortunately I can't put a dehumidifier in the garage as I don't have any power in there.
I'm having a look at a small wood burner but I'm not sure how I would install it.
The one I've found is really quite small, but I doubt i'd need a larger one. it's pretty much a 100mmx100mm (4"x4") and 600mm (2') tall box section with a 60mm (2.5") flue.
I'm thinking a sheet of stainless on the wall of the garage behind the burner to prevent any fires. Not quite sure what to do with the flue. Out the wall will be the easiest option as the roof is corrugated steel.
There's a place close by that makes Stoves, so I might pop by and see them. Pick their brains and see if they have anything that would do me.


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## brino (Feb 26, 2017)

Hi @gbus,

I have found you do what you need to do in the circumstance with the tools you have.
No giggling here, but respect for getting it done with minimal tools.

I did notice that the bottom row of siding has lost it's water protection, probably from the splash back from water falling off the roof.
Perhaps some eave trough and downspout would help keep some water away from the siding and foundation.

Good work, please keep posting your progress!
-brino


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## gbus (Feb 27, 2017)

The bottom row of wood that's no longer protected is going to be getting replaced as it's started to rot. I'm sure that's not helping the damp any!
I'll be giving the garage a good few coats of shed paint once I've replaced the wood and it's dry enough to do so. Hopefully it makes the garage look better and stops the water from seeping through.

I was thinking about putting some guttering up, but I'm not sure where to make the water run to as the garage is at the edge of a block of garages and next to someone's garden.


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## gbus (May 15, 2017)

Hi all.
It's been a few months and I've done very little to my workshop until recently. I spent quite a bit of time getting rid of many projects that have been sitting waiting on me gathering motivation. Trying to concentrate on one project at a time.
After creating a good bit of space and more areas to work in, I'm looking at how to power my lathe seeing as the garage has no power. I was looking at generators, but I'm not sure what power I'd need. The motor is 500w .75hp 230v.
Has anyone made an off grid system where you're able to power a single phase motor powering a lathe or mill etc?


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## tq60 (May 15, 2017)

Batteries.  

Would need lots with solar if plenty of light.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk


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## Joncooey (May 16, 2017)

A generator will run it no problem but most are noisy and expensive to run.  I'd be seriously thinking about burying a line to the house for 220v.  You might need forklift batteries to get 220v off of a solar/wind setup.  If you really want to go off the grid, maybe you should think about installing a boiler and run your lathe off of belts and a central shaft like they did back in the day.  If wood is scarce around where you are there are scrap oil burners that run on used motor oil too.


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## gbus (May 30, 2017)

Hi all.
So I've spent more time cleaning up and organising in the workshop. It's looking quite good now.
I had something that needed machining the other day and thought it was a good opportunity to see how I could power the lathe. A neighbour had told me that he had a big generator and that we could try it.
He wheeled out a 3kw 6.5hp machine and I thought it would run my 0.55kw 0.75hp lathe motor no problem.
The generator bounced about like mad and was really struggling to operate when I turned the lathe on.
I understand that the start up is much larger than normal running power, but surely it cant be over the 3kw?
I'm no electrician, So I have no idea how these things work.
Anyone any other ideas?


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## Joncooey (May 30, 2017)

Were you running 220?  A lot of those mid range generators are a bit low on amperage at 220v; but they should still put out 20A.   On 110 you should have no problem running a lathe.  I can run a 5HP compressor with mine.  'Course, where you are everything is 220, right?  Are your hertz correct for your area?  Just grasping at straws, really.  Being North American I don't understand completely how your electrical system is calibrated.  If the generator works on something else comparable, or larger, say an air compressor, then you may have an issue with the lathe's motor.  You should try process of elimination to find where the issue lies.  Also, make sure that you are not drawing too many amps over too long of a distance with a small gauge extension cord.  Nothing worse than having a new toy and no batteries.  Good luck.


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## gbus (May 30, 2017)

The motor is a 230v single phase (3 phase here is 440v). I might see if I can find a 110v equivalent.


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