The Shop > Our Shop
24' x 35' Workshop Project
ieezitin:
Your work bench should be stout! If you compromise everything will be flimsy and it will just turn to dust, the effort you apply in making a substandard work surface/ bench will bite you in the ass tenfold, use the same energy in making a correct one, just resting something on a sub-standard surface while you’re trying to hand file something and it moves will destroy your day.
Marking out is where you scribe your machine lines and Blue your jobs, machining is where you have a part in the vice and the cutter is coming close to the strike line you can visually see it, after that the indicators or DRO takes over, it’s the visual sign of your math, its hard to explain but once you get into the hobby the penny will drop.
Marking out is paramount in a machine shop and should be given allot of thought, but i am old time.
PS………………….. for those who have CNC with in-line Computer access to machine control a layout area is not necessary.
Anthony...... god bless.
Anthony…
vtsteam:
--- Quote from: rockknocker on September 24, 2013, 04:29:14 PM ---
I would like to use the larger side of the building as a combination wood/machine/fabrication shop if that is practical, at least until I can figure out which of my hobbies I'd like to focus on. The problem is, I have no idea how to lay the building out to make it the most useable. Does anybody have suggestions on the best way to lay out a shop?
I took some measurements and made a simple floor plan in DraftSight.
--- End quote ---
Well no shop is perfect, and mine is at the opposite end of the list. So take what I say with a grain of salt. First of all, you have a shop. That's better than no shop.
And it is relatively large. That's better than a small shop.
Sounds like you don't have a lot of money to spend. My own take: don't spend it on the shop as much as what goes into it, in that situation. You're going to want a lot of things to complete projects that you don't have. So try to re-use what materials and facilities you have, what you can find, and put up with imperfection.
It's true you can draft things out. But a lot of times you're going to find you didn't take some things into account in the drawing, that show up in reality.
For instance feeds of materials into machines. Will you have a table saw? Will you want to rip a 12 foot board -- you need about 26 feet in the clear for that. Well there's ways around that -- but you get the gist of what I'm saying: machine positioning is important to being able to use them. And in my opinion, the best way to locate them is by actually trying them out for position in the shop, not by drafting.
Here's an example why. Suppose you plan for a mill-drill machine. I happen to have just moved mine, so pardon the emphasis on it. So not owning one, but planning you look up the dimensions of the stand for the one you want to own. That's the footprint, and you allow say 4 inches all around that to fit it in. Then you get one. Haul it with frinds into the shop and.....
Oops -- the motor hangs way off the back well past the stand, plus you have to be able to move the motor in and out to tension belts. So it's going to hit the back wall. Okay change that location. Oops that will put it too close to a floating bench you squeezed into the drawing. Well the bench certainly can be moved. But not to as convenient a spot. All set right? You crank the X table handles. Oops! That 24 inch table extends off the mill and hits the side wall in the corner -- again way past the footprint dimension. Another oops -- cranked the other way it passes in front of your machinist drawers. One of them won't open with the table extended. Well okay you can always close it.
Nah, odds are one day, it will be open, and you won't notice as you crank that table over. Suddenly you're getting a lot of resistance.....etc.
That never happened to me, by the way.
So I say unto you, do your planning on the computer if you want, but give everything maybe 400% of the area that your best estimate allows -- it won't be too much. Better than that, start putting things into the shop and using them and form an idea of what the physical and feed requirements are through practice. Be able to shift things around. Try to avoid built in cabinets and benches until you know what you want for machines. Instead, as suggested earlier, make them unitary and moveable.
But above and beyond all of the above, just have fun. Make mistakes. Don't sweat it. Be flexible. You have something already many would envy. And buy machines before carpeting..... :)
Brass_Machine:
--- Quote from: vtsteam on September 24, 2013, 10:01:11 PM ---... just have fun. Make mistakes. Don't sweat it. Be flexible. ...
--- End quote ---
That is a great quote...
vtsteam:
Wait, this one is actually more important:
Buy a come-along.
dsquire:
--- Quote from: vtsteam on September 24, 2013, 10:13:39 PM ---Wait, this one is actually more important:
Buy a come-along.
--- End quote ---
Steve
In years past Mr. Come-along was the best (and only) employee that I had. Never complained, didn't need no smoke break, Just kept coming 1" at a time. Lot of jobs I could never have completed without him. :D :D
Cheers :beer:
Don 2000
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