Thread: My workshop

Originally Posted by Christos

That does look like a great setup.

Do you mean with or without the extra heating...

Jan

Originally Posted by BobL

Waiting for my breakfast to cook - I solved your space and heating problem

Attachment 267668

Basically a great idea, but.....
Who's gonna pay that fuel bill????

Cheers, Jan

Originally Posted by shedhappens

Great shed Jan

I think I might follow your lead there...... "but honey my shed is too small so we need one lathe in the kitchen, 2 in the lounge room and 1 in the toilet"

Well,
My honey draws a line:
There may be some small machines in my workroom upstairs, but everything else stays in the workshop.
No parking any machines outside, not even under a nice tarp!!!!

I have to know my limits..........

Cheers, Jan

Originally Posted by eskimo

I now know I have too much crap in my workshop..its 10times bigger and i cant move in it...( well maybe not 10 but it is 6 x 8 m)
but a spare band saw, a spare lathe, 1 deep freeze and two fridges and lots of crap (rubbish) do take up some room

mmm I need to get my act together and follow your example of a neat tidy efficient setup

I started the workshop by moving the deepfreeze to the garage.
Maybe that's an idea for you??

Cheers, Jan

Hi Jan,
I too am amazed at the level of organization in your workshop, well done!
You have a nice collection of lathes but its the shaper that i really like. Especially since you can still see scrape marks on the ways in some of your pics.
I put a wood stove in my shed for winter this year, after a bout of pneumonia last year i was told not to get too cold this winter.....i couldn't let that stop me from getting in the shed! Mind you it has to heat a fair bit more space than you have....and yes, like eskimo's mine is a mess too.

What sort of things do you make?

Cheers
Ew

Originally Posted by Ueee

Hi Jan,
I too am amazed at the level of organization in your workshop, well done!
You have a nice collection of lathes but its the shaper that i really like. Especially since you can still see scrape marks on the ways in some of your pics.
I put a wood stove in my shed for winter this year, after a bout of pneumonia last year i was told not to get too cold this winter.....i couldn't let that stop me from getting in the shed! Mind you it has to heat a fair bit more space than you have....and yes, like eskimo's mine is a mess too.

What sort of things do you make?

Cheers
Ew

Hi Ew,

There are many times that I have a mess in my workshop, but then I am forced to clean up a little, because I really run out of working space. I'm normally not so organized, but I have to be here, to be able to get things done....

The kerosene heater can get the temperature to a reasonable level if I keep it on night and day.
But, even though I use diesel fuel the heating costs go up to € 4,= a day.
With two teenage kids money is a bit tight sometimes, so I have to restrict my activities in the workshop when it's really freezing outside.

The things I make with my tools are mostly parts to fix other tools and machines.
I have never got a technical training, so I have to learn on the job.
I am glad that there are forums like this one and the internet is a great source of information.

I try to find manuals and instruction books about every machine and tool I have.
I've got a quite large collection either as pdf's or as "real books" and I keep studying those all the time.

The videos from the late Rudy Kouhoupt were, and still are, very instructive.
This info has kept me from making too big errors until now.


Last year I made a new topslide for a Perfecto lathe. The original topslide broke and the owner put an ad on Marktplaats asking for help. I took it as a learning experience and the owner was very happy with it.

Right now I am tinkering around with something like a drill holder for mounting on a wood lathe.
The owner of the lathe has described me what he wants and now I'm figuring out how to make it.

Maybe I will make some pictures of the process, although I don't consider myself able enough to make things that are of the level of what I'm seeing on this forum

Cheers, Jan

Jan, you are making me - and probably others - feel lucky to live in a warm country with lots of space. But you seem to be coping pretty well.

Now I'm waiting patiently for the rest of the machine descriptions.

PS: Please don't be shy about posting your work. We can't all be "Anoraks".

Jan, congratulations on your fantastic setup and your incredible organisation. I shudder to think what sort of chaos would ensue if I had that much stuff in that floor area.

Hi Jan!

Please excuse my late contribution to this thread. I like your shed and your efficient use of space. Every shed tells a story of their owner.
I feel lucky having one lathe! One day I will spy an old bargain and be able to sport multiple lathes in my shed!
Good work. I can't wait to see further threads in the future!

Cheers,

Simon

Originally Posted by Bryan

Jan, you are making me - and probably others - feel lucky to live in a warm country with lots of space. But you seem to be coping pretty well.

Now I'm waiting patiently for the rest of the machine descriptions.

PS: Please don't be shy about posting your work. We can't all be "Anoraks".

Hy Bryan,

Thanks for your positive words, I think you're right.

This is one of the jobs I have done:

Since english isn't my native tongue, it isn't easy to find the right words every time, but I'll try my best, so be patient with me.

I read an ad on Marktplaats from somebody who had a problem with his lathe:

Attachment 267812

The topslide was broken and he was looking for a new one.
Since he had no idea which lathe he had, this was going to be difficult.

After studying the site of Tony Griffith, we came to the conclusion that it had to be a Perfecto lathe. Obviously it was not very likely that a new topslide could be found soon.
The lathe was unusable without the topslide, so I offered to try to make him a replacement.

He sent me the complete crosslide, and I started the job. I figured it would be a good learning experiment for me.

I did make some pictures, but I haven't recorded every step.

Because it is a hobby lathe, with relative light use, I chose for using a methode I read about one time on an american forum.

Two separate dovetails bolted on a flat plate could make a reasonably usable topslide.

Everything was made from scrap material, using my mill, a hacksaw and a lot of elbow grease.

Step one, the dovetails:
Attachment 267813 Attachment 267815

Once this was milled to the right size, I just had to saw it in two and I had the two dovetails...

Step two, this angleplate had to be sacrificed to make the flat top of the topslide.

Attachment 267814

One of the sides was big enough to make the top-plate from (sorry, I don't have pictures of the different steps of the job).

I drilled a row of holes and finished it off with the hacksaw.
The flat piece of steel was then milled and drilled to receive the two dovetails.

I used a piece of flat brass strip as a gib. Three setcrews were put in to be able to adjust the gib.

The original top slide feed screw and nut were still usable:
100_0502.jpg

This was the final result:

100_0505.jpg

It ain't pretty, but it gets the job done.

The owner was very satisfied, he can use his lathe again and has been working with it since April 2012 without problems.

Cheers, Jan

Jan its been great following this thread and to see this work around done especially many thanks.

Did the fellow make his own mounting points on the top slide as I don't see any

Originally Posted by wheelinround

Jan its been great following this thread and to see this work around done especially many thanks.

Did the fellow make his own mounting points on the top slide as I don't see any

There are some pictures that have disappeared from my last post.

I'll try to show them here:

1: the original broken topslide
6.jpg

The mounting point was a M10 stud.
All I had to do was drill a hole and tap a M10 thread in the new topslide. He mounted his original toolholder on the new topslide.

This is the steel strip,milled in the correct angle as used for the dovetails:

2.jpg

Test fit:

3.jpg

The rest was explained in my last post.

Cheers, Jan

Originally Posted by Jan Nieuwenhuis

There are some pictures that have disappeared from my last post.

I'll try to show them here:

1: the original broken topslide
6.jpg

The mounting point was a M10 stud.
All I had to do was drill a hole and tap a M10 thread in the new topslide. He mounted his original toolholder on the new topslide.

This is the steel strip,milled in the correct angle as used for the dovetails:

2.jpg

Test fit:

3.jpg

The rest was explained in my last post.

Cheers, Jan

Thanks Jan for clearing that up I couldn't see anyway of mounting to the top slide.

It took a little longer that expected, but here is the next part of the description of my workshop.

In #7 of this thread you can see the overall view of my shop thanks to the beautiful contribution of BobL. (Thanks again).
I have described all the machines on the left, now we start at the rear.

Here in Europe we are going from the cold to the hot season, so I have moved the kerosene heater to the right, switching places with this beauty:



100_1218.jpg 100_1216.jpg

100_1215.jpg 100_1213.jpg

It is a hydraulic laboratory press, that I rescued out of an old chickenshed.
After taking out the feathers and other non-mentionable items the chickens left behind, I found that the only real problem was, that the glass was missing.

I discovered that a cheap chinese wallclock, picked up at a second hand shop for fifty cents, had a glass of exactly the right size.
(what are the odds????)
I refilled the pump with hydraulic oil, cleaned it a bit, and it works like it was new.

Even yesterday I used it for pressing out an old bearing in a piece of machinery I am tinkering with at the moment.

To the far right is another machine that is just the size for my shop, and that has a far greater versatility than what you would expect at first sight.

It is an AI-Hembrug mill type D. (Also known as the FR1)
This little machine weighs about 300 kilograms and can be used as a horizontal and as a vertical mill:

100_1210.jpg 100_1195.jpg

The table is quite small,only 405mm x 140 mm with one central t-slot.
The x-travel is 200 mm, the y-travel is 100 mm and the z-travel is 210 mm.

Despite the size the possibilities are impressive:
This machine has four different sizes 3-step pulleys, which are interchangable between the motorspindle and the main spindle.
This gives 12 possible speeds for horizontal milling between 178 and 4750 rmp.
The horizontal spindle uses a MC3 taper.

The vertical milling head, using a MC2 taper, has slightly different speeds, between 137 and 3650 rpm.

100_1202.jpg 100_1211.jpg

There is an extra pulley available, with a planetary gear system, which has a further 3:8 reduction ratio. It took me a lot of time to find it, but I succeeded!!
100_1198.jpg 100_1200.jpg

The mill has a coolant system, with the reservoir and the pump nicely tucked away:
100_1197.jpg

It has got a 0,5 hp threephase motor, and I have added a VFD, so I can use any speed I like.
Despite its small dimensions, it's a very capable machine.
It was made for medium to small size precision work and it's more than adequate for my workshop.
100_1196.jpg 100_1205.jpg

Both the press and the mill can use a good cleaning, and one day I will strip them and start a full rebuild, but for now they are doing their job, and doing it well.

Next time I will continue with the rest of my machines.

Cheers,

Jan

Thanks Jan. If you need to have small machines they might as well be cool ones, and you seem to have a talent for finding those. That press is sweet. But do your back a favour and put it on a stand. I had seen the little mill in your earlier pics but wasn't sure what it was. I thought it was maybe a tool grinder. Never seen a mill with the motor mounted like that. Does it get in the way sometimes?