My garage shop

[DickDastardly40]

Once I'd struck floor the rest was 'easy', here is my Garage after tidying and spruced specially for you, my guests; Welcome.

It measures about 6m x 2.6m (19'6" X 8'6") and has a roller shutter door at one end and a door to the utility room and downstairs loo at the other.

My machinery is a Myford Super 7B with imperial box, a BCA Sigma Allen Jig borer, a chinese drill press, a combination wet/dry grinder, and a 2.5HP compressor which gives 9.5 CFM output

Storage comprises some substantial racking won from work and a roll around toolbox and some p;astic drawer units which work well. The benches were kindly left by the previous occupant of the house.

In case of a 4 pic limit per post I'll continue on another pane

 

[DickDastardly40]

 

[DickDastardly40]

 

[doubleboost]

Your shop is very much like mine , i find the downstairs loo especially handy for cooling recently welded parts ,
I will have a tidy up and post some pictures
John

 

[Bogstandard]

Al,

I was actually given a BCA Mk II jig borer a few years ago. It had only ever been used once.

I went to visit friends at a place I used to work at, and while having a cup of coffee I asked what the crappy old machine was under a pile of junk in the corner of the workshop. I was duly told that it was a milling machine, but the buyer had bought the wrong type, was tried once, not good enough to do the job and they went out and bought a Bridgeport.
You can have it if you can cart it away, he told me. Twenty mile round trip to pick up my trailer in super record time. Fork lifted it on (complete with original base cabinet and all tooling). It was in my workshop about three hours after he told me it was mine. A quick clean down, a lot of the original packing grease was still on it, and was swapped out for my Herbert surface grinder and a big roll of cash. Best visit I have ever had anywhere.
Absolutely fantastic machines, but a little too small for what I needed.

John

 

[Alphawolf45]

Wow that Myford lathe is beeee-u-tiful......I have 8 lathes so far and you can bet your last dollar I am willing to buy another couple or three more..None I got now look half as purty as that Myford....I am drooling.. Hehheheh

 

[DickDastardly40]

Wow that Myford lathe is beeee-u-tiful

Thanks very much Alpha, I wasn't fishing for compliments, however gratefully recieved. I hadn't even cleaned it up as a job is in progress.

A couple of differing views persist regards to Myfords, some think they are overpriced and over-regarded; they certainly hold their value well. Some think they are the best thing since sliced bread and no self respecting model engineer shouldn't be without one.

The amount of quality work knocked out on them over the years (not by me) shouldn't be disregarded, however they have both good and bad points.

Mine is accurate and repeatable, it offers flexibility for all manner of milling tasks with the slotted cross slide. The company offers spares support and there is a big market for both new and used spares & accessories on Ebay and elsewhere.

It is a little under powered, mine is 3/4 HP, fastest speed is 2200 RPM but not for long and not with any sort of cut. It has no powered cross feed (available on later expensive models), the tailstock does not sit on a vee giving potential accuracy issues and the chucks are screwed on allowing potential unscrewing if running in reverse.

I wouldn't pay the premium they have sold for recently however I would have another. If someone asked me should they buy one, I'd get them to try one first to see how it measured up to any preconceived ideas.

I like mine although others may not have a similar opinion.

John,

I'd have liked a gander at the original condition BCA especially the manual. Mine had some big marks on the table, but I bought it for £220 with several collets so not too bad I didn't think. I've surface ground the table now and it looks nice. The biggest collet I have is 5/16, at least 3/8 would perhaps be more pragmatic, perhaps they don't come bigger. It needs a bit more work on bits and pieces like a screw for the pulley tensioner but it works as is so on a back burner.

i find the downstairs loo especially handy for cooling recently welded parts ,

I dread to think if too much thermal shock caused the pan to crack! I don't weld, though I am considering doing some silver soldering so I may yet have recourse to quench in the thunderbox.

The drill press was BNIB Ebay special for £5 which a mate in Plymouth collected for me so no delivery. I couldn't believe my luck. OK it's not wonderful but sometimes all you need is to push a vertical drill through bit of material with not too much accuracy.

Thanks for your interest

 

[SignalFailure]

Three cups of tea in the 4th photo - must've been an intensive drilling operation!

I wish I had that much space in my garage/workshop.... still with your recent addition you'll soon find out how much kids eat up your space (I have 4 kayaks, loads of wet-gear, 6 bikes, a newspaper trolley, a tent, kites, body-boards, a telescope, bird feeders etc etc in mine).

 

[ksouers]

Hmm, where do I start...

Hello. My name is Kevin, I'm a new member having signed up in the last week. I think I've read (almost) every post here just this past weekend. What a wonderful group of talented, creative and friendly people! I usually lurk around a place before I decide if I want to join, but this place needed no such snooping around. I knew immediately this was "my place". Reminds me of a quiet neighborhood pub where you can order a pint and just relax in comfortable surroundings.

A bit about me:
I'm 48, married, live in St. Charles, MO USA. That's the next county north of St. Louis. I started machining fresh out of high school in various job shops then spent a couple years working in the engine room of a steamship (an old WWII oil tanker) seeing the world while someone else paid the bills. Main power for the ship was a turbine-electric set up (biggest damned electric motor I've ever seen!), 6800 horsepower. But we also had many piston steam engines powering pumps as backups of electric-powered systems. After that I got into computer programming in the early eighties, been there ever since, except for a period I got tired of "cube-burbia" and owned a small trucking company. Since getting married I had to settle down to a paycheck and so went back to programming.

Ever since that stint on the ship I've had a love of the sea and an interest in steam power and it's history. Though I've had a Sherline lathe for many years I never really had time to do anything with it. It seemed there were always too many more urgent things to be done. I then found people making some very fascinating model engines. I was hooked. I bought a Seig X2 mill and started to learn how to use it, then came a Seig C2 lathe. Slowly, I'm starting to remember some of the things I learned way back when. I still had some of my tools from my earlier shop experience but I'm starting to acquire more.

Now, on to the shop. It's a corner of a detached garage, about a 6 foot by 8 foot space. The garage is 24x24, so it's quite large. It'll roughly fit 3 mini vans side-by-side with plenty of room in front and behind. And my wife's stuff takes up most of it

The Sherline.

The C2.

The X2.

My Black & Decker bandsaw. I need to replace this badly!

Tool boxes.

And my wife's closet!

Current project. X axis DRO for the mini-mill.

 

[CallMeAL]

Welcome!

I haven't been here long myself. Looking at your photo's, I wonder to myself, does anyone actually use their garage anymore as a place to park a car? ???

My little one car garage hasn't seen a auto in it since I moved to this house 13 years ago!

Anyway - enjoy this group, I know I do.

 

[Brass_Machine]

Heya Kevin!

Welcome to the club. Got those 2 machines myself, except I have the HF version of the lathe. I have actually been able to accomplish a lot with those 2 little machines.

Do you have a first engine planned? If not, you may wanna jump on one of our team builds.

Eric

 

[wareagle]

Welcome aboard Kevin! We are very glad you joined us!

It looks like you have a nice place set up to make chips! You said that the wife's "stuff" has an encroachment in your place; I have found that that is an everlasting ongoing battle for myself, as well as those who I know. If you, or anyone else, figures out the answer to peacefully take back the shop, let us know!!!! :big:

 

[ksouers]

Thanks for the welcomes, everyone.

CallMeAl:
I doubt both cars have spent a total of 12 hours in that garage. Certainly not both at the same time!

Eric:
I've got bits and pieces for small Stirling. I'd be interested in helping in a team build at some point. It looks like fun, and certainly help build camaraderie among the membership. Right now I'd just like to get the machines tuned up and dialed in. The owner needs it, too

wareagle:
Thanks. It is a pretty comfortable place. As you can see the place is quite a mess. I used to keep up with it but I noticed the more I cleaned up, the more "things" started appearing on my benches and in my cupboards. I've also noticed that as long as swarf remains on the floor, boxes and things stay outside my little corner. Funny. So now I tidy up a bit but leave just enough stuff laying around that my co-dictator avoids encroachment
Kind of like home security, make your place less attractive and the vermin will go elsewhere.

 

[CrewCab]

Hi Kevin, welcome from another newcomer ........... the Sherline is a nice piece of kit, I hadn't realised quite how small they are, seeing it alongside your C2 puts it into perspective, thanks. I've recently acquired an X2 mill and a small lathe and am also trying to remember past skills, so your not alone.

As for your shop, it looks just right to me, well used, you just need to work on expanding into the "other area" ........... good luck with that one

I wonder to myself, does anyone actually use their garage anymore as a place to park a car? ???

Novel idea Al, I doubt it will catch on though

Dave

 

[ksouers]

Thanks Dave.

Yes, the Sherline is nice. And quite small. It's very well finished, much better than the Chinese stuff, and holds it's accuracy well. But it does have shortcomings. The three jaw chuck is getting worn and no longer holds "large" parts reliably. I haven't had anything come out yet, but it will loosen up. I no longer turn anything larger than about 1/2 inch on it, though I have turned 1 3/8 aluminum and 3/4 inch steel when it was newer. And the attachments are quite expensive! Still, it has it's place in the shop and I do use it.

And I do have plans to annex some of the other areas. I'm desperately in need of a layout and quality control area so I plan to add another bench or small desk somewhere.

 

[ksouers]

I finished my DRO for the x axis on the mill. Finally.
It was a simple project, the hardest part was getting the time to work on it. So it was done in 10-15 minute chunks over the course of a week.

The only thing that was critical was keeping the caliper parallel to the table, so the rest was all "calibrated eyeball" engineering. Layout the marks and start cutting. Except for a small piece of angle aluminum and screws, all materials came from the scrap bin. Actually, cut-offs from an ingot I had cast a couple years ago. The ingot had been cast from soda cans, so it was also a recycling job.

I checked it against a dial indicator and it's dead on!

 

[Brass_Machine]

Hey Kevin...

I just noticed you clamping method for your vise. You might want to give these PLANS a try.


Eric

 

[ksouers]

Eric,
Thanks. I've been intending to make those for some time. Just haven't gotten "a round tuit" yet. So far clamping on the ends has served me well. I've only had one job I had to set up on an angle and did a little head scratchin' till I figured out a way to get it clamped down.

I will make a pair though, eventually. I've been considering it recently, perhaps this summer.

 

[AllThumbs]

Nice DRO. I think you should cut those "daggars" off the calipers tho. Could bite you. Use a cutoff wheel on a dremel or angle grinder.

Eric

 

[CrewCab]

I've been intending to make those for some time. Just haven't gotten "a round tuit" yet.

;D :big: ;D

Glad our UK sense of humor is getting a foothold 8)

CC