Here's some pictures of mine
http://home.earthlink.net/~jk426/shop/shop.html
It's a 9x8 corner in a 20x40 ft garage packed full. It took me almost a month to clear out enough space for it and build the walls. Idea was to keep it small and well insulated for northern Ohio. I use a small oil filled electric heater to keep it 50F in winter. Takes about 15 minutes for electric heater to warm it up to 65. Vent pipe through room is for oil furnace I use to heat rest of garage when I'm working there, but shop heater is on all the time.
I've been working on it for about a year now. Still trying to get things organized. You can see VFD in corner. Converted lathe from 1/2hp 1ph to 3/4 3ph. Switch next to converter switches between mill and lathe. Have air compressor, gas & electric welding, grinder and many other hand tools outside in garage, but to embarrassed to show the mess.
My dad wondered why I was wasting time putting 2 doors on shop. He understood when I bought the mill and moved it in. Table with cranks removed cleared by .25"!
I have a friend who does flat roofing and often brings me left over sheets of rubber. Hence all the home made way covers. Works great for protecting mill table surface. Chip pans around lathe tool post were made out of old heavy aluminum siding. The back edges are open so you can sweep them out into paint can. They work well to keep chips off ways. Any one of them can be removed with 1 thumb screw if in the way. Since it's just hobby stuff, they don't get in the way much.
The last pics show an air bearing I came up with. Of course I put the shop in the furthest corner from the garage door and had to move the mill through a winding path of junk. I came up with the grand idea that I could make my own air bearing. So I welded up a 1" square thickwall frame. I took a piece of 3/4" plywood and screwed/glued a 1/2" cutout 4" smaller than frame to one side. I then attached that to the frame with the rubber trapped in between. Another piece of 1/4" plywood was then screwed on trapping the rubber and creating 4" wide "bellows". When done, I really didn't think it would work as well as it did in my mind's conception, but when I first cranked up the air the mill started vibrating across the floor! AT 80 psi, if you kept it perfectly level, I could easily push it across the rough concrete floor. Unfortunately, I only got it a 1/4 of the way there before floor cracks and unlevel spots did me in. I had to roll it on pipes the rest of the way. But once in the shop area, I turned on the air again, spun it around and slid it back into the corner slick as anything. The lathe and bench were already there.
[This message has been edited by joel (edited 10-10-2002).]
http://home.earthlink.net/~jk426/shop/shop.html
It's a 9x8 corner in a 20x40 ft garage packed full. It took me almost a month to clear out enough space for it and build the walls. Idea was to keep it small and well insulated for northern Ohio. I use a small oil filled electric heater to keep it 50F in winter. Takes about 15 minutes for electric heater to warm it up to 65. Vent pipe through room is for oil furnace I use to heat rest of garage when I'm working there, but shop heater is on all the time.
I've been working on it for about a year now. Still trying to get things organized. You can see VFD in corner. Converted lathe from 1/2hp 1ph to 3/4 3ph. Switch next to converter switches between mill and lathe. Have air compressor, gas & electric welding, grinder and many other hand tools outside in garage, but to embarrassed to show the mess.
My dad wondered why I was wasting time putting 2 doors on shop. He understood when I bought the mill and moved it in. Table with cranks removed cleared by .25"!
I have a friend who does flat roofing and often brings me left over sheets of rubber. Hence all the home made way covers. Works great for protecting mill table surface. Chip pans around lathe tool post were made out of old heavy aluminum siding. The back edges are open so you can sweep them out into paint can. They work well to keep chips off ways. Any one of them can be removed with 1 thumb screw if in the way. Since it's just hobby stuff, they don't get in the way much.
The last pics show an air bearing I came up with. Of course I put the shop in the furthest corner from the garage door and had to move the mill through a winding path of junk. I came up with the grand idea that I could make my own air bearing. So I welded up a 1" square thickwall frame. I took a piece of 3/4" plywood and screwed/glued a 1/2" cutout 4" smaller than frame to one side. I then attached that to the frame with the rubber trapped in between. Another piece of 1/4" plywood was then screwed on trapping the rubber and creating 4" wide "bellows". When done, I really didn't think it would work as well as it did in my mind's conception, but when I first cranked up the air the mill started vibrating across the floor! AT 80 psi, if you kept it perfectly level, I could easily push it across the rough concrete floor. Unfortunately, I only got it a 1/4 of the way there before floor cracks and unlevel spots did me in. I had to roll it on pipes the rest of the way. But once in the shop area, I turned on the air again, spun it around and slid it back into the corner slick as anything. The lathe and bench were already there.
[This message has been edited by joel (edited 10-10-2002).]
