My little shed

Hello, just started here and thought Id say hello and post a few pics since I just tidied up my workshop. I have just a very small workshop that I use to make parts for my custom bikes. Not harleys or choppers but more of that later..

My lathe is a harrison L5 mk2 circa 1950 but with metric conversion wheels on the controls, to which Ive since fitted a tee slotted crosslide. I still have some alignment issues with the chuck and between headstock and tailstock to resolve (I think the headstock has shifted since I know that it has been dismounted from the bed), and its my resolve to sort these out properly in time, but for now I generally turn up a plain mandrell for precision work rather than relying on the chuck. I also do my milling in the lathe and to that end have a vertical slide etc set up. At the moment it is single phase, but I have a nice motor waiting in the wings to convert it back to 3 phase once more..

Also can be seen dead ahead is my meddings pacera pillar drill, which dates from ww2, since they changed brand names after. It is very robust and runs nicely on 3 phase, but sadly lacks a morse taper quill instead having the small external jacobs chuck taper, something that I hope one day to rectify. I believe they could be obtained in mt variants, so I will keep a eye out in the interim..

I recently picked up this small cinncinati drill press from the local salvage shop attached to the local dump, it has a t slotted base and a rise and fall head, which upon turning a 10mm square fitment that protrudes out the top turns a square acme thread which rises and falls the entire head. I plan to turn up a handwheel for this and calibrate it and buy a decent robust xy table and use it as a small miller. Someone had converted it to a single phase motor and made a hash of it, using belt pulley adaptors cut from 4mm alloy which have smashed up. I have another 3 phase motor to go on and need to obtain a big stepped pulley for the drive or a big billet to turn one from
Also in the pic is my homemade compressor, made from various peoples junk piles, but its 3 phase and the nema valve is set to 130psi so it can be excused its bitza appearance. Also there is my arc and a mig, which is set up for alloy welding mostly. I do want a tig, but it will have to be a proper one so requires saving funds to obtain it.
And to the right is the lovely woodburner that my wife insisted we removed out the house after it attacked her and covered the kitchen in soot a few times (turned out the house had a blocked flue when we removed it all), which ends up getting used for more than just warming things up, currently building a add in section to put in the firebox to use for smelting alloy for small castings and the oven is great for hardening up coatings and stuff, just let the logs burn out gradually and it slowly cools. All the comforts of home, it runs a few radiators too dotted through the rest of the sheds.

Then moving to the right is a small bench playing host to a small wire wheel grinder, a small vice and a small buffing machine fitted with taper screw noses to take a variety of mops. Various other tools and a small chinese drill press that is a hangover from when we used to live in a flat and it was all I had..


Then finally to the last bench, which hosts the obligatory big vice and small grinder, a homemade wooden leg vice and the shed computer and oscilloscope. I find the shed computer invaluable for both nipping online and finding snippet of info out, keeping active on various bike forums without stopping to come in, and it has access to the local lan, which holds a local store of various manual scans and info's so I dont destroy the originals.

Although it doesnt look it, it is quite light although I plan one day to paint the celings all white, theres 5 big flourecent tube lights inset into the celings, and another 3 smaller ones as highlights for various places. A couple of well placed spots (bench lighting etc) and I tried when I install a new machine to make sure it has its own light that is only on when the power is made as a telltale and lighting too (I throw the isolators on every machine when its not in use to avoid possible accidents). Trouble is, if I turn on all the lights, the camera flash doesnt work and it comes out dim, and if I dont it looks dingy, I cant win!

Theres other bits n bobs, but apart from the homemade sandblasting cabinet (using a gutted dishwasher ) and stuff is mostly just bike orientated or handtools so I wont go on any further here. Its all modest and packed into a tiny space, but for a living I work in computers so this is just my hobby..
On the go at the moment ive got a few projects as usual, two turbo bikes, a xt500 supermotard, various cars and my long term baby, this :-

It started life as a suzuki '77 gs750, so far its been taken out to 840cc, built a new frame, different forks, swingarm, rear suspension, and a sc12 supercharger along with homebrew electronic fuel injection. It has been turbo'd in a previous existance too. At the moment I am machining up a new inlet manifold. And every single one off special bit has been made in my workshop, which makes it my bike more than the contents of some shiney bolt on catalogue. I suppose I enjoy the journey as much as I do the adrenaline afterwards

I think I see an airhose-unit under the bench and some airdriven tools hanging on the ceiling.
Are they for for platemetalworking on the bikes ?
What do you use the oven for ?
Arjan

The airtools are sort of half biased towards car sheetmetal as I have a few projects on the go and that air reel reaches to my garage, and half are usefull full time on bikes/in the workshop in general and I use air to clean a lot of stuff down and of course run the sandblaster etc.

For the oven, its handy to bake things in or on top (under the cover its always too hot to touch) , for example if you coat a exaust with vht paint, putting it in the oven for a hour or two afterwards to "fire" it makes it much more durable and the fumes go up the chimney instead of into the workshop. And if I anneal something I tend to put it in the oven or on the hotplate to cool. Its also usefull to preheat big things that will fit in the oven before I try to weld them. Also good to warm up castings etc to fit bearings (which of course go in the workshop fridge next door!) and sweat out oil from things before repairing etc.
Of course its good to warm the sheds and a kettle will boil slowly on top stopping tea breaks from holding the job up too much
At the moment I am making a small refactory to go inside the actual burner section (it is a combined stove and oven, the door to the left is the firebox) that I have a propane burner for, and a crucible that can be lifted in from the access hole above. I am trying to keep it removeable so I can just push it in when I need to smelt and keep my burner the rest of the time. And I have a nice surface to the right to pour straight onto, and a chimney to take any fumes away. A chminey that I can remove all the sections and make sure its clean before the burn I might add..
And its a lot easier than having to store big drums of paraffin round and having to pump it into heaters in the middle of winter all the time. Cords of wood are cheap and easy to get hold of in this region since its still very rural and the shops are geared up towards it too, you can order cords of seasoned wood from the supermarket although my friendly farmer neighbour sold me mine...

A chimney on the melting oven sounds good. I want to make one myself. Because all tools started to rust when I did some melting in my homeshop.
Arjan

Hey Mr Fluffy - looks like we went to the same school of 'Neat & Tidy' but you learned a little bit more than me !
Mark

Its not always that tidy, when I go away for work, I accidentally leave everything bulky out so nobody else can find anything, especially my father in law. When he complains that he couldnt do anything when he came round to help my wife sort something I just have this little secret sigh of relief that I dont have to work out which tool he abused and how...

This time Ive accidentally forgot to leave my keys home while I work in the uk for a few months