Show us your Shop and Equipment

[BadDog]

it doesent all fit so i have a smaller garage for some and the quonset for the rest.

Love the garage! And I did I see the floor project on Garage Journal? Looks familiar. But my favorite part is the pinups. I've got a few old school antique-ish looking plaques with Betty Page pinups (gift from my wife), and some "dad's shop" plaques from my kids, but that's it.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

My father in law said once, "Its tough getting old. All your friends die."

Gotta recommend, "Proof of Heaven" by Dr Eben Alexander. I just finished his second book, "Map of Heaven" and liked it as well. Ties it all together.

 

[BadDog]

If wildfire post's we all loose,,lol

Aint that the truth! But then if we had commercial shops making decent bank we could all have a lot more toys and room. I have a rule for my shop that helps keep me from going too far. Normally, I don't take pay work. But when I get a new machine, I do force myself to make it pay for itself. I'm a bit flexible, and don't always cover it 100%, but in general I hate doing that sort of "must get it done now" work, and sometimes it's hard to find work suited to applying the machine. Other machines can and do help out, but it HAS to sort of showcase the desired machine. If I can't make it happen, then I don't get the machine. So that helps keep the bills down (or rather mostly offset), keeps the wife reasonably happy with it (and not expecting tit-for-tat spending sprees), and keeps me from needing an aircraft hanger to hold it all! It also naturally lends itself to waiting out the deals.

I've only waived the requirement one time on a major purchase (anything over $500, under is usually somewhat exempt on a sliding scale), when I got my 12k 2 post asym Bend Pack lift. That I bought to try to offset my failing knees on some projects I really wanted to work on. But the knees went down too fast resulting in 2 replacements this summer and the lift hasn't really been used but a few times. It was a really good deal, but so far that lift has been a bit of an albatross, proving that I should have stuck to my guns.

 

[BadDog]

My father in law said once, "Its tough getting old. All your friends die."

Gotta recommend, "Proof of Heaven" by Dr Eben Alexander. I just finished his second book, "Map of Heaven" and liked it as well. Ties it all together.

Yeah, I've heard that (in one form or another) before too. A painful truth no doubt. Sad to say it seems I've buried more than my share, with the rate increasing.

And sincere thanks for the recommendation. But based on the titles I doubt they are right for me. My family provides a lot of similar recommendations, but my views align better with Dawkins. But I mean it when I say thank you for the recommendation...

 

[Lil Foot]

I neglected to post my "oddest" piece: I also have a Servo Micro Mill; essentially a Servo Ultra Sensitive drill press factory altered into a small vertical mill, complete with collets & .0005 dials. It will hit 20,000rpm, and is fantastically accurate on suitably sized parts. I used it extensively on a research project years ago, making fast turn around prototype vacuum metal deposition masks out of SS & BeCu. I once made a series of gas orifice ports by drilling .006 & .013 dia holes in SS. I also have an R8 arbor that will allow me to mount the head in my mill for sensitive drilling operations. Not useful for most things, but indispensable for some things. Last two pics show the last thing I made with it.

 

[Yooper]

That looks like a fun piece of equipment! Solidly built!

 

[Yooper]

Sachs single cylinder sa340ss with a factory tune pipe. Rattled out about 65 mph.

Those were the days. Ride for an hour, and then work on it for three!

Looks like you have some nice square footage to work with!

 

[Yooper]

Starting out with my lathes. First one is a Craftsman/Atlas 12 x 36. This is the first lathe that I bought from a gunsmith and it started me on my path of machining. Some people look down on these as hobby lathes with their aluminum gears and flat ways, but I've done some very accurate work with it. Handy for certain jobs.

The second is my Enco 15 x 60 built in 1978. Pretty much a Colchester clone, but it does have hardened ways and is very tight. Pretty much my 'go to' lathe for most jobs.

Last is a Lehmann 27 x 120 that I intercepted before heading to the scrap yard. The ways were in very good shape as it was used mostly for facing. Still can get parts for these so I rebuilt the carriage and had the cross feed scraped. One of the many things that are unique to this lathe is the hydraulic drive clutches for spindle speeds. You can actually shift speeds on the fly. It also has replaceable ways. The last picture is what it looked like when I bought it.

 

[BadDog]

Very nice machines! And a HUGE congrats on the Lehmann, that thing is a beast! I would love to have big lathe like that to leave setup just as you have it, including what looks to be a big oil field 4 jaw.

 

[Lil Foot]

I have to agree, I especially like the Lehmann, nice job on the rebuild & paint job.
I love big, rigid machines, but they also bring back bad memories of my production days.
The tater-headed buffoon who ran the shop insisted on making us run tiny, fragile, gyro gimbals (picture a .040 wall rectangular cage 1" x 1.5", with a .090 dia shaft at each end, open in middle) on a #5 Warner & Swasey Turret lathe. It held 1 1/2" tool bits, had 28HP, & was meant for turning railroad wheels.

 

[Corney]

Those were the days. Ride for an hour, and then work on it for 3

That is still the deal with sleds where I live.

Those 700, 800 sleds are less reliable than my old Yamaha Ovation. They are always blown up, and need a bunch of time!

 

[Tooljunkie]

Bad dog mentions his hoist/bad knees. My knees arent great, neck is worse. Reason i bought the four post drive on. No getting on my knees. Zero setup time and its an adjustable height workbench. I use it for any welding/fab jobs. Its close to level and the
Decks are a good base to clamp parts onto.
Raise all the way up and i hang parts on it for painting.
May not be pretty but will break a bead on a tire pretty easy too***128077;

 

[Yooper]

Very nice machines! And a HUGE congrats on the Lehmann, that thing is a beast! I would love to have big lathe like that to leave setup just as you have it, including what looks to be a big oil field 4 jaw.

Lehmann lathes are known primarily for being oil field lathes. Large spindle through holes for turning pipe and some even have chucks on both ends of the spindle. Mine only has a two inch hole through the spindle, though.

 

[BadDog]

Yeah, I'm familiar, and I was surprised to see the small hole on the back of the spindle in one of the earlier pics. In fact, I've never seen one with a small hole before. Some sort of ultra duty version or something? The wall on that spindle must be 2" thick (everywhere except the back).

And TJ, yeas, I also considered the 4 post. But just didn't have the room for it. I can barely get lined up on my 2 post. My buddy with the Mori has a 4 post, and it is quite nice as an adjustable work surface just as you describe. I've been thinking of building a heavy welding table to mount on my 2 post for use when it's empty (most of the time), but the heavy tables with 1" thick steel tops going for scrap prices seem to have all dried up. As usual, shortly before I want one, story of my life.

 

[Yooper]

My milling and drilling machines. First is an old, used up Ellis that I got for nothing. I like it for tapping.

Second is my Taiwanese mill that I bought brand new about ten years ago to replace my worn out South Bend. Dressed it up with a DRO, power draw bar and power feeds on X and Y plus the knee.

Third is a bench top drill press that I installed a three phase motor and a VFD so I can control the speed plus having the option to reverse rotation.

Last is my Milwaukee mag drill. Picked this up at an auction for a good price. Don't use it much because that sucker is HEAVY!

 

[Lil Foot]

Nice, clean mill, nice DRO. Wish I had the drawbar & power feeds on mine. I love those mag drills, had an older version of yours at work. If you have a flat steel surface for the mag, they can't be beat.

 

[Yooper]

Compared to the Servo feed that I had on my South Bend, these leave a lot to be desired. Very touchy and not real consistent.

 

[Lil Foot]

I know what you mean about that import stuff. It's usable, and likely all I'll ever be able to afford. But it is a major step down after running a Hardinge Super Precision Toolroom lathe with all the options, a Hardinge AHC, a nice 2J Bridgeport, or a Cincinnati ToolMaster mill. Sigh.

 

[Yooper]

Never had the pleasure of operating any of those machines, but the names say it all. If a Hardinge HLVH or Monarch 10ee popped up for sale in my neck of the woods, I know I would have a hard time falling asleep thinking about it.

 

[skeets]

Lots of neat stuff to be sure, I havent a clue how to run or use any of them but day sur am neat