The Shop > Our Shop
The end is in sight
Darren:
Having visited Johns shop I must say I found it truely insparational....
I just hope some of it rubs off on me....
Oh, John and the family were cool too.....made me feel very welcome :thumbup:
Stilldrillin:
We had three or four workshop reorganisations/ rebuilds during my 34yrs with my last employer.
He would stand quietly beside me & tell how the outcome would be, "a little meccano workshop". ::)
He never really got one......
BUT, you have John! :thumbup:
That`s blummin well done mate! :clap:
David D
Brass_Machine:
John,
Very nicely organizes shop! You seem to have placed what you want, where it will be best used. :med: there is some harmony in there! :med:
More pictures would be nice. I think most of us feel this isn't gloating. Showing what you have, as nicely as you have done it... is not gloating.
Well done sir!
Eric
SPiN Racing:
Awesome Shop John!
I am getting back in the garage myself, and am going to get the mill stop done, so I can get the tool holders done, and then make up one of the Bogs Tool holder dowel boards finished. Also SWMBO came by and was looking at the pics there and said "Ohhh you could do that with all your tailstock thingeys too couldnt you?" ::) Of course honey. The thingeys I have for mine are the same.. and yes its a board with holes in it. :smart:
SO yeah... very informative John.. Its nice to see how others who know what they are doing are doing the organizing of the shop.
I was helping a co-worker out 10 or so years ago who was our backup guy. He needed to teach me to install backup tapes, and change the old ones out of the 6 changers we had. I asked how to do it.. he told me, and said it should take 15 minutes........
It took me a HOUR to get the changers loaded and going.
I went in with him the next day and asked how the heck he did it... He then showed me how to load the tapes on the cart.. in what order. And how to PICK THEM UP.. so you could make one fluid movement of picking them up, opening the box, pulling the tape out, closing and putting the box back, while bringing the tape up, opening the tapes door with one hand, checking the leader, closing it, and then pulling the old tape out with the hand that just put the box down, and then putting the new tape in place.
After practicing I could change one tape accurately in about 3 seconds.. 4 tops. There were 30 in each of the 6 changers.
The methodology working in a factory environment, or someplace where you need to do repetitive movements accurately and precisely.. is something those of us without any real toolroom experience are missing.
Seeing things like the rack to hold a load of tools is a good thing.
Most of us grew up with a tool box with a load of tools poured into it. We would rummage around for the proper tool, and go from there. Changing the basic thought process of where to place the tools when done, and always knowing it is in that place.. thats a HUGE time saver.
And my boys wonder why I get annoyed when they take a 14MM wrench and leave it someplace odd.
bogstandard:
Before I go any further, I will just explain something. I was going to repaint all the walls before rebuilding the shop, but because I was naughty, and was caught doing work in there when I should have been resting, the comment for being disobedient was, "if you can't do as you are told, you are not going to paint those walls". SWMBO was obeyed, and the walls never did get painted.
I was going to do a bit of machining this morning, but really didn't feel up to it, so I took a few walkaround piccies for you to look at.
The main shop is about 15.5 ft long by 8.5 ft wide, while the metal prep and storage area is 4 ft by 8.5 ft. So almost everything in the shop had to be fitted to inch precision to get it all in, and still allow me to get around without bumping into things, hence the walkway straight down the middle.
This is the view as you enter from the main door. Notice the two rows of full workshop length lighting. Couple that with light coloured walls and ceiling and mainly white shelving gives brighter than daylight conditions in there. Auxilliary lighting is very rarely required, and because there is more than one strip light, stroboscopic problems don't occur.
The bottom LH corner contains the buffing spindles (converted 8" offhand grinder) and the old surface grinding machine (it will be getting a major overhaul early next year if all goes well), both with their consumables on shelves above, within easy reach of each machine. In the foreground is the great die filing machine, kindly donated to the shop by our own Stew. There will be major projects earmarked for that machine later in the year.
Also notice the black roller blind attached to the ceiling. This is rolled down to the floor when I am surface grinding, preventing contamination of the buffing area with grit particles.
You have already seen the lathe, so this is a shot looking back up the shop from the back wall.
And another looking up the other side.
Notice how much wall space has been used, especially on the lower levels. Lots of things within easy reach when sitting at the bench.
Under the bench are lin bins containing all sorts of general hand tools, and under those are my roll out boxes containing my internal metal storage stash.
The top shelf has all my tap and die sets plus misc boxes of o-rings, circlips etc.
Between the lathe and the mill, I shoehorned in a 1 metre wide el cheapo kitchen cabinet. The drawers and cupboard house all my real precision instruments (I say that because I have rough and ready mics, calipers, squares etc dotted about the shop for general rough measurements and setups).
The top drawer houses all my drill sets and drilling related items.
On the top of my cabinet is what I call my projects benchtop. All laid out in the order they are to be processed.
From left to right, a S.T. engine that a chappie has sent to me, he built it, he wants me to put it right and get it to run. In front of that are a load of blank 0.5mm plates, they are for a contract job making miniature stoking shovels for garden rail locos. Next, a set of large drills to make a stand for, followed by the metal to make a retracting toolpost, and behind those, a lump of cast steel to modify to make a pressure weight for my power hacksaw.
If that isn't enough, next comes a blank R8 arbor. A friend last week gave me a 'few' thin slitting saws in both HSS and solid carbide. The problem being, they are 5/8" bore, so I need to manufacture a good quality slitting saw arbor for me to hold or gang them correctly. Following that is a little box containing all the consumables for making 5 Liney Halo rotary engines. Next are the part finished bits to make a super sized ball turner. The big blue machine on the end is a horizontal, water cooled lapping machine, that was used by opticians to grind the glass lenses to fit the shape of whatever frame was required. That will eventually become an all singing, all dancing tungsten carbide lapping machine, to allow me to resharpen or reshape the tips of tipped tooling.
I think that is enough to keep me going for a week or so.
Onwards and downwards. This was a cabinet that used to support an old type of photocopier. If it could stand the weight of one of those, it can easily take the weight of my milling table accessories.
Onwards and upwards brings you to the shelf that holds v-blocks, clamps, parallel sets etc, next to the rack which holds my collection of large tungsten milling cutters.
The shelf above has air tools, assorted machine reamers (individual, not sets) plus all sorts of assorted knick-knacks. The very end of the shelf has all my machine manuals, charts, plans and collection of suppliers handbooks and old reference books. I am never short of something to read in my shop.
There are blank wall spaces around this area. They are for R8 collet sets and racks, when eventually the ones I require come back into stock.
The other side of the mill houses all my 'working' tooling for the mill. These consist of collet holder, flycutters, a range of hand tight drill chuck plus all sorts of other bits that are used each time you turn the mill on. Below that is my tooling rack that contains all my smaller milling cutters and saws. If you notice, all within easy reach of the mill, no groping around for anything.
There is another ceiling blind mounted at the side of the mill. When I am flycutting, this is normally dropped down to prevent chips going all over my tooling.
So now we enter the 'back room' or the metal processing area as I call it.
In here, I had the benches made to perfect height for myself when standing in an straight upright position (no pain position). The main item is a powered hacksaw, and if the door is opened, I can operate it from outside if it is a real nice day, or if I have really long bits to cut up. With the door closed, I am limited to cutting about 9" lengths.
In between the hacksaw and bandsaw is a very rarely used scroll saw (you will have to believe me that it is there). The bandsaw has been part of various workshops I have had, being a birthday present over 20 years ago. This is what I cut most of my non ferrous materials on, even a 5" diameter bar of ali it took in it's stride, and it has never let me down except for when it needed a blade change.
A little further down is a 3 in 1 metalworker. A great idea, crap design. It can bend, guillotine and roll, but it does none of them exceptionally well. I just wish I had the space to put in dedicated machines. The last item is a little press for assembly, disassembly or punching.
On the far wall you can see that I mounted up plastic guttering, this holds all my small long length stock.
This shot shows just how high I have gone with the shelving. I store all sorts of consumables and very rarely used items, and some things not directly related to the workshop.
This is the thing that nearly gives me a heart attack every time it kicks in. Hopefully, in the future this will be mounted outside, on the other side of the wall. The neighbours can then have all the noise, I don't mind sharing that with them.
So thats it. A shop that is designed and made specifically to fit me. Nothing special needed, just a bit of thought, ingenuity and luck.
Bogs
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