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My compact home shop.....

Ooh, me like tapper! I think I may be pirating the tapper design in the very near future! A very neat and well organized shop. Nice 'tour', too! Thanks for sharing.
GsT
 
Gene,
Thanks for the compliments! I like your shop as well... you are the only other person I have met who has as much quick change tooling for his lathe! (Seriously though - I think quick change tooling was designed by the tooling companies SPECIFICALLY for compulsive personalities as a never-ending money making scheme!)
Anyway, if you are really interested in stealing the tapper design, please email me ([email protected]) and I'll give you the details in order to make your theft as easy as possible (*GRIN*).
Best regards,
Bawko
 
That is one of the most efficient use of space that I have ever seen. Congratulations, it must have been alot of work. I have a garage about 12X29 space to work with. It is all full of my dads old lumber and misc. stuff(junk). He is a general contracter and accumulates alot of stuff from jobs. Just had the electrician over to give an estimate to run a 220 volt 100amp service line from the house to the garage. That should be enough power for a 15 inch lathe, 3 HP mill, AC unit, and small air compressor I figure. Thanks for the pictures, helps me to figure out the design for my shop.
 
Bawko,
That's a great looking shop.Noticed you have what looks to be a door for small critters in your basement door too.

One thing I didn't see,but you may have it hidden somewhere considering how everything is well organized.A fire extinguisher and smoke detector would be nice in case some hot chips catch some of your combustables on fire.

Nice job,
cool.gif
Barry
 
Wayne and Barry,
Thanks for the great compliments! My shop did not start out being as compact and efficient as it is now, it was a "work in progress" for several years as I accumulated more and more tooling. The process went something like "I have very limited space, so do I purchase this new tool and make it fit - or pass it by". Being irresistably drawn to new tooling, the answer was always "find a way to make it fit, of course!".
As for the small critters door, it is true - the cat box used to be in the same room as the rest of the shop, but eventually there just wasn't enough room to accomodate everything and the catbox had to go (which didn't hurt my feelings at all!).
Fire alarm is in the room, up high. It didn't get caught in any of the photos because of the angles of photography. Fire extinguisher is also in the room, behind the water heater next to a remington 870 12 Gauge shotgun (so that fire emergencies and unwelcomed "guest" emergencies can be taken care of from the same centralized area of the shop!).
Best regards,
Bawko
 
Bawko:

Great looking shop, very well thought out use of space, I've got close to 3,000 sqft and my place is a complete mess. Spend more time looking for tools and stuff than I do making stuff. Got to clean it up one day. ( been saying this for over two years now).

I'd love to have any plans or dims. of your tapping station too. I could really use a better method. You can e-mail me at:
[email protected]

Thanks

Jack Fisher
 
Oh my Goodness, it's a GHOST!!

The Great Bawko Bawkorian...my first mentor (and a damned fine one at that).

Welcome back to the fray my friend. It's good to have you around.

Sean
 
Gene, Jack, and Sean...

Gene and Jack, thanks for the interest in the tapping machine, I am VERY busy right now but I will get back to you later this week with some details on how the machine was made. Please be patient, I will get back to you, I just need to take care of some work first before I can detail the machine construction methods.

Sean - thank you VERY much for your kind words, I have never thought of myself as a mentor or teacher of any kind, I just try and pass on the few things I have picked up along the way... hopefully the knowledge will be put to good use. Keep up your machining, and your collecting of fine machinery!

Best wishes all,
Bawko
 
Bawko, thanks for the tour, nice shop, and I really like the idea about using the chuck for a vise. I have an inaccurate one that I have cursed and moved several times, always knowing that it was good for something. Mike
 
Mike,
Thank you for the positive feedback!

Yes - the chuck for a vise idea struck me one evening while considering workholding of round objects in a normal vise, then I started thinking... Hmmmmmmm.... the best thing to use for holding round objects is... A CHUCK!!!!

Anyway, it's a very handy device, almost unbelievably useful. Surprisingly, I have never seen another metal shop where a chuck was being used in that way - but I guess that never stops me from trying something a little different!

My only modification (if I had the room) would be to mount the chuck on an adjustable hinged metal plate, which in turn would be securely fastened to the workbench. That way, I could use the chuck to hold things vertically, horizontally, or any angle in between - depending on the type of work that needed to be done on it.

Best regards,
Bawko
 
Bawko,
A 3 jaw is also quite useful on a mill, just clamp it down on the bed, makes a useful workholding device on the odd occasion where a dividing head is not suitable...
Have worked in a place where a flat-backed chuck was kept just for this.
 
Peter,
I am aware of the chuck on a mill table trick, I have a rotary dividing head that has a threaded split section on the end which all of my lathe chucks will screw onto, then a bolt tightens the split part to keep them from rotating off when machining. This dividing head mounts to the mill table horizontally or vertically.

I have considered, in the past, making a threaded nose (without the dividing attachment, for low clearance when I don't need indexing) which would simply bolt onto the surface of the milling machine table, then I would be able to screw the chucks onto the table surface. Haven't had the time yet to build such a thing - but I think it would come in very handy for use with a 4 jaw chuck to hold irregular small workpieces, as well as with my 3 jaw and 5C collet chucks. I think I would also incorporate onto this jig the same split threaded section with tightening bolt as is currently built into the dividing head, in order to keep the chucks from unscrewing during heavy machining.

Best regards,
Bawko
 
When I bought my lathe, one of the goodies was a round flat metal plate with a threaded spigot on it to fit my chucks and a couple of t-nuts on bolts to hold it to the milling table.

I haven't used it yet (except as a nice flat plate to tram my milling head, but I see its utility. And it also gives me a copy of the spindle thread that I can use as a check when I need to turn a new backplate. (And I'll be needing to soon, since I only have a 4inch 4jaw when I really want an 8.)

grace & peace
will

[This message has been edited by willjordan (edited 09-18-2002).]
 
Greetings everyone!
As promised, here is a link to more information on the tapping machine which was featured in my recent posting about my machine shop:

http://www.zionnationalpark.com/prism/tapomatic/tapomatic.htm

This should give enough information for you to make a tapping machine of your own - it includes all of the relevant design features. The page does not have dimensioned drawings for any of the parts - just a few of the dimensions for the main parts like the collets and shaft. Be creative - there is plenty of room for improvement and changes to the design. Remember, none of the dimensions are fixed in stone anyway - this is just what worked for me based on the materials I had to work with.

Best regards,
Bawko
 
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