My Shop

I can't sit in my office 24 hours a day, there isn't always enough time after work to go on a caving or climbing expedition, and sometimes the weather just isn't safe to go flying, so I needed a hobby to give myself something to do in my spare time. Something different. I always liked making things, so I've been making a machine shop for myself. Along the way, I'll build this part of the web site. All I have right now are a few pictures, so this is definitely what you could call, "under construction."

My experience suggests that good tools find their own uses. I've used mine for many projects, including the following:

Making caving gear for my collection.
Fixing my garbage disposal.
Making new parts for my father's brush hog.
Making new gears when old ones break.
Making parts to fix the seat in my sister's minivan (15 minutes can save you $750).
Making more tools so that I can make more tools.
Various projects for my neighbors, gratis.

My first large machine was a Grizzly G3617 horizontal/vertical milling machine. Having both a horizontal spindle and a vertical spindle in one machine gives me a lot of capability in a small package that weighs little more than a ton. Yes, I would like to have a large Bridgeport vertical mill and a large Cincinnati horizontal, but what I have is a tight fit in my 9 by 18 foot garage. There simply isn't much room left over.

For my mill, the dividing head, rotary table, and rotary cross slide table are essential accessories. I use the rotary cross slide table for making caving equipment. The dividing head has more uses than I can imagine. Here is one of them, making a double gear:

Gear cutting with the dividing head

I started with a cast iron blank, turned it to shape on the lathe, then set it up on the mill, using the dividing head.

Here is an end view of the dividing head setup. I am cutting a double gear. Here, I've cut about a quarter of the first gear.

Another view of the dividing head setup.

Almost finished with the first gear.

Cutting the second, smaller gear.

The finished gear, with bronze bearing added.

Gear cutting with the dividing head
I started with a cast iron blank, turned it to shape on the lathe, then set it up on the mill, using the dividing head.	Here is an end view of the dividing head setup. I am cutting a double gear. Here, I've cut about a quarter of the first gear.	Another view of the dividing head setup.
Almost finished with the first gear.	Cutting the second, smaller gear.	The finished gear, with bronze bearing added.

Along the way, I got got interested in metal shapers, so I bought a small Atlas 7. I use the Atlas for small, coarse jobs because the setup and cleanup time is sometimes faster than for my mill.

I enjoyed watching the Atlas run so much that only nine days later, I bought a 20 inch G&E. The GE is no toy. It weighs 5400 pounds, not including the 7.5 HP motor. Watching it run is truly mesmerizing.

I use the G&E for large roughing jobs that require removing lots of metal rapidly. With a 7.5 HP motor, the ram can take huge cuts. At slow speeds, the ram generates tremendous forces. I've shattered one-inch square tool bits, and I've nearly sent the 300 pound vice flying. The chips come off smoking and quickly turn blue. The G&E deserves a lot of respect, since it would crush bones and sever limbs if I ever made a mistake with it.

The vise is holding a mounting plate that I made to let me clamp small jobs as if they were on the table, without having to remove the heavy vise. Each hole is tapped for 1/2-13 UNC. There are clamps at the shaper end to keep the plate from being ejected from the vise. Set screws along the edge allow me to create a precisely level surface for mounting the work piece.

I don't have much room in my shop, so I have to open the garage door to use the shaper. Don't let this picture fool you, I took the flat belt lathe out and loaned it to a friend, and then removed the workbench so that I could put a large lathe in the back. Now that the new lathe is in and everything else is back in place, the place is crowded.

I've had a small craftsman metal lathe for many years, and a few years ago I got a Wards (Logan) flat belt lathe from my father. The flat belt lathe worked and I was able to make some nice things with it like the dive lights shown here, but it did not have the power that I wanted. In 2006, I bought a PM-1640 for myself as a Christmas present. It has a 7.5 HP motor and a built in cooling system, and weighs 4200 lbs. I took the picture before I installed the splash guard.

I quickly learned that a spinning chuck and a coolant system were highly efficient means of throwing soluble cutting oil throughout the shop, so one of the first modifications that I made was to rig a splash guard.

Dive Lights made on the Wards Lathe

Well that's all I have for now, but there is more coming...