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My "home" shop

sluppy123

Plastic
Joined
Feb 16, 2008
Location
Nebraska USA
I have been a lurker on this forum for while and decided it was time to post.

I'm 29 years old and have been working for "the man" for the past 10 years in a 7 man in house toolroom as a moldmaker. About 5 years ago I started building the shop and collecting machines. I do a wide variety of work, mostly fixturing and automation work, some bending dies and quick turn around machine work for local manufacturing companies. On my own time I do almost anything from building corn stoves, rebuilding motorcycles, engine swaps, jet-engines.... ect.

The building is 36' X 60' with a wall dividing it down the middle. My shop is is one side with storage and misc machines on the other. I plan to finish the entire building once another storage building is built. Central heat and AC, primary heat is from one of my corn stoves. All Three phase power is produced by a Phase Perfect phase converter. On the "cold" side I have a 52" foot shear, 48" box and pan brake, 24" Rockwell verticial bandsaw, 48" Skat-Blast unit, powder coating spray booth and home built oven.

shop005.jpg

1990 LeBlond Makino RMC-55 3-axis CNC, I use Pro-E and Pro Manufacturing for design work and programming.
shop007.jpg


shop004.jpg

Bridgeport step pulley mill, 15" Clausing Lathe, Miller MIG and Tig welders, Plus a Hypertherm plasma cutter under the table
shop003.jpg

Harig 612 Ballway grinder with "shaker" box vacuum base
shop002.jpg


shop006.jpg
 
Beautifully laid out, well equipped shop. How so clean?? Are you still only working part time in this shop? My shop is very similarly equipped as far as the machining and welding goes, but my machines are much older, and I have the Cnc Mazak lathe instead of the Cnc mill. Also don't have a grinder. Isn't it a pleasure to walk into a shop like this and know that you can do good work on your own stuff. Hard to stay out of the shop. I've been going almost 2 years full time in my shop and I still love being there!!

Thanks for sharing it.

Best regards,

Tony
 
Dust?

Looks great. I've gotta post some pictures of my shop now.
The only thing Id be concerned about is the grinding dust blowing onto your lathe. I see you've got a vacumn system on your Harig's head though, so it might not be a problem.

My grinder is the one machine that I havent found a really good spot for in my shop yet. I wish I had a seperate room for grinding operations.

Nice shop setup though for sure. Enjoy!!

Dennis in Vancouver
 
Thanks for the compliments and concerns about the grinding dust. The Harig has a vacuum built into the base that could suck the paint off a battleship!! Nothing gets past the vacuum head.

How so clean?- The toolroom I work in full time is always kept spotless and in order per managment's orders, we are paid 1/2 hour overtime everyday to ensure it's kept clean. After 10 years of doing this it rubed off into my own shop.

Yes it's only a part time shop, to be honest about 50% of that is screwing around time. I would have a hard time finding enough work locally to go full time, but I would love to someday.
 
Nice job on the shop! You can make money with that setup.
Were did you find the LeBlond Makino RMC-55? I used to run one of those mills where I worked before starting my shop. Been trying to get ahold of one since. Do you like yours?
 
I love the Makino, used to have one at work until they shipped it out to another plant. They replaced it with a new Roku-Roku. I tell people once they use one they will never want to use a Manual mill again. The handwheels make it a great machine to do Manual type of work. It's no machining center but does a great job for what I need. The only downside is the coolant system can be fun, anyone for a shower? I found it for sale online at a plant in Milwaukee, WI. I looked for about 2 years before finding one. The best part is I only paid 4k for it, everything on it is like new. It even has the 6500 rpm spindle.

Brian
 
WOW!!
One of the most well equipped, well laid out, and well kept shop I've ever seen pics of.

My shop is no slouch but my hat's off to you.

David
 
Well done.

You should be proud of that shop. It's quite an accomplishment. Especially since you're only 29. I am the same age and have spent the last couple years cobbling together a mess that is put to shame by that fantastic shop of yours. Keep up the great work!
 
Great shop !!
Can you put up some pics of the blasting cabinet, the powderspray booth and the oven ?
 
jet-car006.jpg

I mostly powdercoat small parts so the spray booth is small. When I do larger parts, wheels, motorcycle frames I just lay down a tarp and spray them. The oven was made using a large metal cabinet, 3'x4'x6', 4 oven heating elements, PID controller, and rockwool insulation. Good to about 700 degrees.
jet-car007.jpg
 
This is the first time I heard/saw of a homeshop powdercoating installation.
It looks good. I guess that's some sort of electrostatic device under the spray booth. where does the powderspraygun and the electrostatic device come from ?
 
Nice shop! I like the vacuum base on the grinder never seen one before. Just have one question. I am in the same situation as you and was just curious what your current boss thinks of the shop you have at home? My boss seems to think I'm leaving at any moment. I'm pretty open with him about my shop and let him know I would not walk out in him. But I'm sure he holds back giving me raises and further training. Sometime I'll probably cross paths with one of "his" customers, hopefully not when I'm working for him.
Thanks
 
My boss knows about my shop and has no problem with it, he has even gotten me work. We do not do any outside work, only internal in-house work. If it was a job shop I could see problems, especially if allot of work came from local sources.
 
Nice little shop. I like the little makino. Slick machines. I used one quite a few years ago. The only thing they lacked was they didn't have enough Z travel.
 
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I agree with everyone here that you have a great shop. Congrats.
You are the first person I’ve heard that uses Pro Manufacturing. I use Pro/E daily and really like it. What are your feelings about Pro Manufacturing? Can you compare it with any other software, or have you used anything else? Rants, raves, etc. Thanks.
 
I really enjoy Pro/e with the Pro/manufacturing modules. I have wildfire 2 in my home shop and use wildfire 4 at my day job. It is great for doing one-offs and prototypes because when you make changes to the .prt or .asm files it automaticially changes the manufacturing files and toolpaths. The only thing I can compare it to is Mastercam 9. Pro/manufacturing is harder to understand at first but once you get the hang of it mastercam seems like a toy.
 
where is your shop ? i have never seen a roof that high in a house . to me it looks like a steel building with a finished room inside the building or such. im guessing thou. man you have great tools for 29 . im 28 and live in south fl and there are no machines to be found, we just cut grass and go to the beach year round i guess.:)
 








 
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