Situating Fixed Tools in New Shop

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SteveHGraham
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Situating Fixed Tools in New Shop

Post by SteveHGraham »

The process of getting out of South Florida is underway. Thank you, God. I'm submitting an offer on a place with two 900-sq.ft. facilities. One is a 3-car garage attached to the house, and the other is a detached frame building with two garage doors and a concrete slab. With any luck, I'll be able to make a deal.

Based on feedback on an earlier post, I've already decided I should put my metal stuff in Shop 1 (garage) and the wood stuff mostly in Shop 2 (outbuilding). Wondering if anyone can give me tips on locating tools in Shop 1. The dimensions are about 25 x 33. The garage doors are on the front, which is 33, not 25.

I feel like the big lathe needs to be near a wall with the tailstock toward the garage door, so I can open the doors to get clearance for long parts. I'm tired of having my BP-size mill in a corner, because it kills the space on either side of it. I'm thinking maybe I should put it along the back wall, far enough from a corner to allow me to run the table out to the right. That way, I could put a cart behind it along the wall, for my heavy rotary table and so on.

I could put the mill along the same wall as the lathe. Maybe that would result in keeping most of the chips near that wall.

I'm not sure where to put the big compressor. I feel like maybe it should be in the center of the rear wall so it won't be too far from anything.

I don't like putting workbenches against walls, because you can't get around behind them. I was thinking maybe I'd put mine close to the center of the garage, with a wheeled base.

The items which won't be mobile are the mill, big lathe, and compressor. Everything else can be put on wheels, so it's less critical.

What do people think of my ideas on locating these three items? Is there a pitfall I'm missing here?

I'm not thrilled with the idea of having my big table saw and vertical band saw 100 feet from the main shop, but I hate clutter, and I don't want to keep mixing sawdust and metalworking. I have a smaller table saw on a cart, and I also have a sliding miter saw, so maybe I could put one of those in the garage for occasional use.
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warmstrong1955
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Re: Situating Fixed Tools in New Shop

Post by warmstrong1955 »

I have my lathe set up like you are thinking. Been several times I've had 20' pieces of material on rollers out the big door.
It's about 10' from the big door. There's a walk in door there to my tool room, and a tool cabinet between the walk in door & the lathe.

My knee mill is on the opposite wall of the lathe, about 10' from the back wall to the spindle. My press is alongside it, between it and a wooden bench which goes all the way across the back wall. My TIG area is in that corner.

I have my welding bench, towards the big door, more toward the lathe side, so my pallet lift can pass by it. Trying to keep sparklers & things off the mill & the lathe.

I moved my compressor to the other added on garage. I don't have to listen to it that way.

My bandsaw, and tablesaw are in the metal working area. Both on wheels, like the 3 welders.

I need one more garage....then I could have a separate wood working area.
;)
Bill
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warmstrong1955
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Re: Situating Fixed Tools in New Shop

Post by warmstrong1955 »

Oh....and I built a plywood top that slides on the table saw. Makes it a nice bench for mic's & measuring things, tooling and parts when I'm turning or milling.

Bill
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Situating Fixed Tools in New Shop

Post by SteveHGraham »

I keep forgetting how much junk I have. It goes like this: "I just need to plan for the mill, lathe, and compressor. And the table saw. And the press. And the band saw. And the other band saw. And the jointer...."
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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warmstrong1955
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Re: Situating Fixed Tools in New Shop

Post by warmstrong1955 »

SteveHGraham wrote:I keep forgetting how much junk I have. It goes like this: "I just need to plan for the mill, lathe, and compressor. And the table saw. And the press. And the band saw. And the other band saw. And the jointer...."
Tell me about it.....

My design..... is fifty pounds of 'stuff'....in a two pound box. Wheels is what it's about!! Other than the lathe & the mill, and the welding bench.
(And if I need to move the welding bench, I grab the pallet lift)

:)
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SteveM
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Re: Situating Fixed Tools in New Shop

Post by SteveM »

Consider having the mill in line with the lathe - you can make a roller or steady rest, mount it to the mill table and use the x/y/z to adjust it.

Be sure to leave enough room at the headstock end for when you have a long piece of bar stock from which you are going to turn and part a small piece on the end and then move in for the next one.

I will be re-arranging my shop and I'm thinking of having the mill and lathe in the middle and benches and cabinets on the walls. I have too many small toolboxes and those things with the little drawers you use for fasteners and they need the wall space more than the mill and lathe. I will have to build a backsplash for the lathe.

Be sure to put all grinding off on one corner to keep the grit off everything. I was thinking of moving all of that into one corner and having a retractable curtain to close it off somewhat when grinding / buffing. Might have an exhaust fan over there too. Anything to keep that stuff off everything else.

Think about ventilation. I have a squirrel-cage fan which has a coffee can attached to it. On that, I have an aluminum dryer vent hose I can move right to the lathe where I am working. The fumes from the cutting fluid go out before they can even get in the room. Works better than a whole-room fan (although you will need one of those too).

My brother did an interesting setup for his hand-held power tools and other tools that are in cases (electric drills, circular saw, sawzall, biscuit joiner, etc...) - he arranged them on shelves then painted matching numbers on the cases and the shelf position on which each belongs. It's easy to see where everything is and what's missing.

Steve
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Situating Fixed Tools in New Shop

Post by SteveHGraham »

I would never have thought of putting a rest on the mill table.

I have thought about putting the machines away from the walls. It may make more sense, since the lathe has to be almost a foot from the wall for access to the rear. That space is pretty much dead when the lathe is by the wall. Given the geometry of the garage, though, it would put the lathe between the 1-car door on the left and the 2-car door on the right, and if I wanted the tailstock to point at the garage door, I would have to have the front of the lathe face the 1-car bay on the left of the garage. Not what I want. I want the lathe to face the other tools.

I guess I could put it there and turn it so the tailstock faces the house. I would still have over 15' of room at the tailstock end. I could put the mill at the tailstock end.

I find that walls are not the best place to put tools, because they throw crap all over, and it's hard to clean behind them. But you don't want your whole shop taken up by a giant lathe in the middle of the room.

As for ventilation, there will be a new air conditioner out there. I am not going to deal with an un-air-conditioned shop in Florida. I guess I'll need a fan for the times when I have to get rid of fumes.

Maybe the grinders should be near the door so I can open it and blow the grit out. I love my belt grinders. They changed my world.
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GlennW
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Re: Situating Fixed Tools in New Shop

Post by GlennW »

SteveHGraham wrote:... and if I wanted the tailstock to point at the garage door, I would have to have the front of the lathe face the 1-car bay on the left of the garage. Not what I want. I want the lathe to face the other tools.

I guess I could put it there and turn it so the tailstock faces the house. I would still have over 15' of room at the tailstock end. .
Normally you would want room on the headstock end for longer lengths of stock, not the tailstock end.

Regardless, you should be welding...
Glenn

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SteveM
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Re: Situating Fixed Tools in New Shop

Post by SteveM »

GlennW wrote:Normally you would want room on the headstock end for longer lengths of stock, not the tailstock end.
He's thinking of hanging parts that are too long off the tailstock end.

I have someone locally that wants to clean up a floor standing drill press column and will be running it on a 9x18 (yes, they made them that small) South Bend lathe, with the column overhanging the tailstock end and rolling on some bearings.

Steve
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warmstrong1955
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Re: Situating Fixed Tools in New Shop

Post by warmstrong1955 »

Just noticed that I missed that.....I have my lathe with the headstock to the door.
I have run long pieces out the tailstock end, removing the tailstock, and replacing it with the steady....but not often. And they weren't that long....like 6-8 feet, and fit over the bench.

Bill
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GlennW
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Re: Situating Fixed Tools in New Shop

Post by GlennW »

SteveM wrote:I have someone locally that wants to clean up a floor standing drill press column and will be running it on a 9x18 (yes, they made them that small) South Bend lathe, with the column overhanging the tailstock end and rolling on some bearings.
I hope he understands perfect alignment, or it's comin' out of the check when it starts spinning!

I'm not sure I would consider that a "normal" lathe operation. :wink:
Glenn

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SteveHGraham
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Re: Situating Fixed Tools in New Shop

Post by SteveHGraham »

Now I'm sitting here asking myself which end is most likely to need more room. I suppose it would be the headstock end, so I am thinking Glenn's way will be more useful. I have never had to hang anything off of this lathe, but as soon as I fix it so the headstock points toward the garage door, I'll need to turn a 40-foot pole hanging out past the tailstock.

As for welding, I decided to MIG the back sides of my TIG practice pieces, in order to avoid having to do a TIG-grade scale removal after welding the front. It turns out TIG practice really improves your MIG skills. I'm finally running some really nice welds (compared to past efforts). Having some issues with brown residue on the work, however. At first, it was caused by the gas line coming loose, but it's working now, and I still have some residue. Someone suggested it could be from the felt luby things I installed on the wire feed.

I will put up a photo. This weld may not look great to anyone else, but it's a vast improvement over what I did the last time I fixed something. I was really having problems for a while. I couldn't see, and I was wandering all over the place, leaving globs here and there. TIG has helped me to see the puddle and work better. This weld makes me extremely happy. I think if I did it again, I would increase the wire speed a little or slow down and apply more filler.

The little zig zag was caused by something or other snagging me and stopping my progress. The mess in the background is TIG from some time back.
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