Lets See Your Shop!

Rapscallion · Apr 27, 2014

Marco Bernardini said:
That mitre saw is pretty good for high precision woodworking, for example to cut firewood… or small green branches for the goat! :lmao:
Also, it's a good stand for the cell phone, since it's close to the door.
I don't know how power companies work in .za, but couldn't be an idea to install some solar panels and use the main line just as "backup" when you need some more power?

Thanks for the mitre saw lessons

Solar panels are something to think about. Don't know what area coverage and battery system would be sufficient enough. I would also imagine that the setup would be quite expensive although savings may be gained in the long run. It's one for future research but, thanks for the thought.

JohnG · May 12, 2014

I built my retirement workshop in 2000-2001. It’s probably the last building I’ll frame.

The SE corner houses my surface grinder and engine lathe. I was trained on a “War Finish” Monarch during my undergraduate days at MIT, which set the bar pretty high right from the start. I remember a Logan, a couple of South Bends, and a Jet during my career. Then I bought this 1950 vintage Pratt & Whitney the year I retired, and it was just like old times.

The machines came out of an industrial arts shop after years of neglect. It took about a year to assemble chucks, rests, centers, dogs, tool holders; bootstrap the collection into a working whole by turning a number of missing parts; and finally use the lathe for parts needed to rebuild the grinder.

The other tool making area is the NW corner. There’s a Delta drill press and a piece of Blanchard ground 1” steel plate, recycled from a scrapped assembly machine, as a surface plate. A tool and die maker would turn up his nose at it, but a lot of guys in millwork maintenance shops work with these just fine. I made the cabinet above with a gasketed glass door to be dust tight, and I keep precision layout tools in it.

[FONT=&amp]I build tools so I can build woodwork. The saw aisle is where the heavy work of stock preparation goes on. There’s a Beach table saw, [/FONT][FONT=&amp]Northfield[/FONT][FONT=&amp] 12” jointer, Yates American 18” planer, Black and Decker industrial radial arm saw, stroke sander, Oliver hollow chisel mortiser, Davis and Wells 20” band saw. The half round fan window on the back wall is typical of the ornamental windows I made at one point in my career.

[/FONT][FONT=&amp] [/FONT]My main shaper is this Whitney double spindle which I rebuilt in 1987 or so. The motorized spindles are electrically switched to be direct driven at 3600 rpm off line frequency 3 phase or 9000 rpm off a GE 5kw 150 cycle inverter. The right hand spindle has a standard shaper fence. The left hand spindle has a shop built fence that turns it into what we would have called a side head sticker in the millwork trade.

The SW corner has my workbench for hand work, a small Delta shaper for detailing, and a Yates American shaper used mainly for endwork operations.

[FONT=&amp]
[/FONT][FONT=&amp] [/FONT]Here we are, derelicts from the last century brought together on an abandoned farm outside a backwater town in the North woods for one last go around freed from the obligation of having to earn a living by what we do. Now and then a piece like this serpentine front dresser in walnut veneer leaves the shop.

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Sanctifier · May 12, 2014

JohnG said:
Here we are, derelicts from the last century brought together on an abandoned farm outside a backwater town in the North woods for one last go around freed from the obligation of having to earn a living by what we do. Now and then a piece like this serpentine front dresser in walnut veneer leaves the shop.
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That is some fine workmanship. Can you post some more detailed pix? Thanks.

One day ($$$ permitting) I'll have my ToyRoom finished and equipped with most of the toys I want.

JohnG · May 17, 2014

Thanks, Sanctifier, for your compliment. I found 2 more photos you might enjoy.

I found the design for this chest in The Encyclopedia of Furniture Making by Ernest Joyce and the walnut veneer on ebay. I think the swirling grain pattern perfectly compliments the curved front.

For my contribution, I’m most pleased with the cock bead moulding on the drawer fronts. It’s a tiny 1/10” wide bull nose edging of solid wood let into recesses in the edges of the drawer fronts. It was very fussy work to tailor it exactly to the serpentine curve on the top and bottom with fine mitered joints at the corners, the culmination of fine tuning of the shop machinery to work to precision tolerances. It’s common in contemporary work to do these in a contrasting wood so they call attention to themselves, understandable given the time involved; but I thought that would detract from to overall effect of the grain matching. I’m pleased it’s almost invisible.

In my neck of the woods I can get walnut from the bottom lands in Iowa and birch from the northern forest in Michigan. Bits and pieces of your Caribbean woods make their way here--beautiful, exotic, very hard, expensive. I don't get to use them much.

Sanctifier · May 17, 2014

Thanks for the feedback... and the pix. EXCELLENT craftsmanship.
Learning both professional joinery & machining (in proper Technical Training Courses) are both on my bucket list.
Just have to finish my ToyRoom and get my 1st love (three auto rotisserie restoration projects) done properly first.
Then restore my South Bend 13"... and my late Dad's DeWalt 10" Radial Arm Saw. (So many projects... so few $$$... & so little TIME!!!) :talktogod:

tailwind · May 18, 2014

That is a very nice piece.

Andre · Jun 4, 2014

Here is my shop:

Closeup of CH compressor and 1948 BP M head milling machine.

Kennedy rollaround and another (forget brand) rollaround and homemade disk sander bought for $20 at a garage sale. The thing must weigh 60 pounds with no weight at the bottom

Jet 4x5" horizontal bandsaw, RR track anvil, grinder, vacuum.

Benches, note the dremel drill press to the right. I have not used it yet.

So that's it, no Abom79 shop though!

Still have to make a shop press......hmm.

JimDawson · Jun 4, 2014

Nice setup!

It looks like you still have enough room to move around in there, you must fill it with more tools.

)

ddmunroe · Jun 4, 2014

Pantograph.
View attachment 75624
Nothing like the feel of how the metal is actually cutting. I say that as a CNC programmer with over 20 years experience.

Rapscallion:
Is it just for engraving or do you make / mill parts on it ...
Thank's for posting.
dd

PUREROCK RACING · Jun 5, 2014

zmotorsports said:
I am new here and although not a "machinist" by any stretch of the imagination I thoroughly love machining and fabricating parts. I am an industrial maintenance mechanic as my full time job for the past almost 26 years now (started right out of high school) and my wife, son and I have a small performance oriented motorsports business at our home.

I built the 1150 square foot shop in the back yard in 1995 after purchasing our home new in 1991. I originally built it to take on side work after my normal 10+ hour day job for extra money to support my racing and tool addiction and also be the support center for my cars and motorcycles while spending some quality time with my son when he grew up. I would pretty much work on anything I could get my hands on to earn money, from small engines to hi-performance engines and transmissions and it quickly turned into doing mainly general repairs. I quickly became overwhelmed with customers and started to shift more towards work on race cars, motorcycles, sandrails, sand quads and more of the "custom" side of the industry.

I bought a Smithy CB1239 in the late 90's to support our business and have the ability to put more of my "custom touches" on various projects that I would work on for customers as well as my own projects. I purchased it not knowing exactly how much I would be using it but I did have the need for lathe/mill but not the best budget and DEFINITELY not the floorspace to give up.

Over the past year and a half or so more customers have been having me do small machining jobs knowing that I have that capability. I am 100% self taught so far from expert status or even novice for that matter. I have simply applied common sense and ingenuity to the many items that I have machined. I am sure many I did not do the "proper way" but I got the job done and satisfied my customer.

My wife and I started discussing our retirement more and more lately as we are nowhere near retiring but we are also not getting any younger. I told her that I would love to be able to do more machining and less crawling around under cars and trucks during retirement. To do that I felt like I needed to upgrade my little Smithy to something a little more suited for more full-time use and a bit more rigid to ensure accuracy, not that I haven't been able to get accurate work on the Smithy, it is just a lot more time consuming to creep up on dimensions.

Here are a few pictures of my shop from a few years ago right after installing my Ammco 10k pound 2-post lift. I will definitely take more as I am having to completely rearrange the entire one side to change placement of my motorcycle lifts and having to make room for two new machines where one machine resided. I have always prided myself on purchasing the best tools and equipment I could so they would be a true investment in my future vs. just something to get the job done. I would have loved to have a large full-size Bridgeport and large name brand American lathe but again, budget and floorspace are my limiting factors. I recently ordered a Precision Mathews PM 1340GT and a PM 932PDF which from my research seem to be good quality yet in fairly small packages to fit into my tight little shop.

Mike.

Picture of the south side of my shop. The small Snap-On toolbox near the corner is my son's. The bead blasting cabinet is MAC tools and Nugier 20-ton hydraulic press.

My Snap-On toolbox and part of the west wall workbench area.

My toolbox looking towards the other west workbench.

The motorcycle are of the shop. The small room houses my 60 gallon dual stage Quincy air compressor. My solvent tank and the other west work bench.

Welding equipment.

Machining area of the shop. Smithy lathe/mill, Wilton 20" drill press, Wilton 12" disc/6"x48" belt sander (probably the most used tool in the shop) and the Baldor bench grinder/wire wheel mounted on pedestal.

Welding table that I fabricated about 10 years or so ago.

And stuffed with bikes and work.

dude, this is a sick shop you have... plus lots of toys too. I like all the cabinets above the benches too, I'm going to do that same thing soon hopefully. Floor space is prime realestate as you know lol

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Lets See Your Shop!

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