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The end is in sight

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bogstandard:
I have been rebuilding my workshop for twelve months now, new machinery, tooling and a good clearout of many years of garbage collection.

During this time I have had to return machines that weren't up to spec, wait for months for delivery of another machine, still carry on making bits that people want and also making the odd bits and pieces for myself, and over six months of illness that has stopped me working in the shop for days on end.

Now after spending a few hours at a time over the last few months, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, still a little to do, but that is because the tooling I require has been out of stock for over 3 months, so that will have to wait until it eventually arrives. So you will see little blank patches, that is for the expected tooling.
I am a firm believer in keeping the tool for the job close to where it will be used, and within easy reach, the most used nearest, the least further away. To achieve that, I will make special little holders and brackets so that I can get it onto the usually most underused part of the workshop, the walls.

So this is the last shot of the lathe area that you saw, just after I had finished making the toolholder rack.




So this is what it looks like now. I will not dwell on the lathe too much, just to say that in between the two cabinets on the stand, I fitted a very heavy duty shelf, and on that is stored all my chucks and heavy equipment for the lathe. The top shelves in my shop are used for little used items, but are easily reached. Anything that doesn't fall into that criteria is stored in the back metal prep area. Namely consumables and spares.




So this is the headstock end of the lathe. I use most of the time two types of chuck, ones with soft jaws that I bore to fit the component, or the most used one which is my collet chuck. As you can see on the LHS, the collet chuck is very well supported. At the bottom of the bottom rack are specials such as machineable mandrel collets, emergency collets etc, up from those is a set of square, both metric and imperial, then a full set of full size metric collets. The middle rack contains a set of imperial collets in 1/64th stages. This setup allows me to hold in my collet chuck almost anything of standard shape up to 1" diameter, very accurately.
The top wooden rack hold sets of expanding mandrels to hold things with holes thru them, plus two types of backstops for c5 collets (both in use).
A bit further round you will see my tool holder rack, which you have seen before. Above that is a dowel with four grades of emery rolls on it, and the change gears for the machine. You will also notice, I have piped air around the shop, using braided airline and quick release couplings, and have droppers and extensions at convenient places, plus air blowers on the lathe and mill. There are also droppers installed for when I make my spraymist units for each machine I have.
Notice the little red circle just below the wall socket. This was sighted thru the spindle and a mark put on the wall in line with the spindle bore. If ever I get a very long job, it will be just a matter of using a hole saw to go thru the stud wall and that will give me four more feet to play with by going into the metal prep area, so that should give me just over 6 feet in total (there is designed clearance to load from the tailstock end of the lathe). Any length over that, they can spin on it, because no way am I going to drill thru the outer wall.




Around the corner on the middle shelf I keep grinding dresser for my toolpost grinder and a DTI for those special little setups, followed by machine reamers and all sorts of little doodahs that need to be kept close to hand. The top shelf is just a few engines and in each basket is a project either started or waiting to be started while materials are gathered.
A point to note is the machine lamp, this was attached the the saddle and was a PITA, always getting in the way. So it was moved to a fixed position on the backsplash. At the same time, I also lifted all the DRO cables out of the swarf on the drip tray and clipped them up to prevent damage to them.
Also notice the power driver hanging above the headstock. This is supported by a balance unit that allows the tool to be moved to a position and it will stay there. All my main key chucks on this lathe use 3/8" drive, so this is fitted with a 3/8" extension so that it can be used on any of them. But it won't be. It was fitted because of my collet chuck, because it takes about 30 turns to fully extract or fit a new collet (that is 30 turns to get the old one out, 30 to screw the new one in). So with me having a bit of a duff right arm and hand, this will save further wear and tear on them when it comes to changing collets.




Carrying on along the middle shelf you come to the oil rack. Each can containing the correct oils for lubricating the machines, which I do religiously, to such an extent, I usually have oil dripping off my slideways and spindles. Behind those, are all the chuck jaws for the chucks, usually covered in oil where the cans have dribbled a little. Also there are my tapping oil bottles.
You will also notice an adjustable spanner hanging down. About 25 years ago I purchased four Bahco adjustables, 3 small ones and a middle sized one. Despite being used continuously since I bought them, I still have them all, and all are as good as the day they were bought. They were the original designers of this style of much copied 'shifters', and to me they are the best in the world of the type. I have them hanging at strategic places around the shop.
There are also two redundant scriber stands on that shelf, one is going to be used for a little project, and if successful, the other will be disposed of to whoever wants it.




This is my tailstock rack, and is situated, would you believe it, just behind the tailstock. Most on here are fittings that are used in the tailstock, but also a few headstock pieces, purely because it was easy to store them on the same rack.
On here are tapping holders, die holders, rotating chuck, solid and live centres etc etc, plus a full set of hand tightening chucks, from 8mm to 16mm.



So that is it for now. The rest of the shop is finished, just needing a good clean down with soap and water followed by an oily rag.
I will show you some more if you are interested when that is done.

I would just like to say that this is NOT a boast post or tool gloat. It is just what I have achieved over the years thru hard work and thought, coupled to trying to get a workshop that feels like a pair of slippers, where anyone is welcome. I managed that feeling with the 'old' shop, I won't know about this one for a while yet.


Bogs

Bernd:
John,

That is one very well orginized "lathe area". I'm a bit enveious.

Can't wait to see the rest of the shop when finished. I always liked when in the modeling magazines they had some modelers shop presented. Never know what you might find that one can use to equip your own shop.

Carry on.

Bernd

DeereGuy:
Ditto on what everyone else has said John,  looks like a great place to work in.

ozzie46:


 Man, The things I could do with a setup like that!  :dremel: :dremel: :dremel: :dremel:  Oops forgot knowledge and experience. :( :(
Still it would be nice to have. :thumbup:
 
  Ron

rleete:

--- Quote from: bogstandard on June 18, 2009, 05:45:28 PM ---I would just like to say that this is NOT a boast post or tool gloat.
--- End quote ---

Nothing wrong with a bit of boasting.  You said straight off that you'd been working on it for a year.  Lots of time, money and thought put into it.  Looks good, serves the intended purpose and makes things easier for you.  That deserves it's own fanfare, just as much as a well tuned engine or any other completed project.

Not to say I'm not jealous of all the nifty tooling...

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