Greetings from the soggy PNW

[Rheanr4]

Hello All:

I am fulfilling a life-long dream of setting up a formal small machine shop. I have done some fairly serious machine work many, many decades ago, and have done some small projects on my Unimat.

However, I now own an Atlas (branded Craftsman) 618 and a mini-mill (import). I am in the process of collecting the various bits to make the shop operational. I actually found a surface plate on Amazon Prime. Saved me a bunch on shipping costs. I think Amazon made a mistake. The thing must weigh at least 40 pounds. I snapped it up before anybody got wise and took it off Prime.

Actual physical set up of the shop will commence in June. I have some honey-do projects to complete and a vacation between now and then.

My main interest is scratching building model locomotives. However, I intend to start with some simple wobbler steam engines and some projects for the shop. My interests are eclectic, and future projects may include some more complex steam engines, maybe even a clock.

Reg

 

[10K Pete]

Welcome Reg! Nice to see another getting into the hobby. Where are you? PNW is a big area and there are quite a few of us hidden in the trees....

Pete

 

[Herbiev]

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you've got some good machinery. Plenty of info on this site to help you get started.

 

[dnalot]

Hi

Welcome from another wet machinest in the PNW.

Mark T

 

[Rheanr4]

Welcome Reg! Nice to see another getting into the hobby. Where are you? PNW is a big area and there are quite a few of us hidden in the trees....

Pete

Pete:

Definitely hiding in the trees. Shelton, Washington is home.

Reg

 

[Rheanr4]

Shop set up has commenced.

I purchased two of the HF rolling tool chests, 14-drawer. They are very nice for the price. Actually, they are very nice. One for the lathe and one for the mill and Unimat.

The product differs slightly from the advertised. The overall dimensions are 41-3/4" X 18", not the 44" X 16" listed in the specifications.

Which isn't really a problem.

For the lathe, I bolted a piece of 3/4" AC to the top, then screwed and glued another piece on top of that. So there is 1-1/2" of ply on top of, and firmly attached to (eight 1/2" bolts), the steel top.

I checked level with a Starrett machinest level. Overall level is out by .005"/12". End to end level (twist) is dead on. Not bad. I haven't turned a long rod yet, so we shall see.

An observation...get the Starrett level. The 6" is about twice what the "import" costs. But after reading reviews of the "import", in which the folks who gave it five stars expressed the opinion that it was a great level and they only spent a couple of hours in calibration. Really? Get the Starrett. It comes out of the box ready to use.

Reg