Mountain Home Machine Shop

[MacTexas]

Nice looking shop. I need to follow this thread.

 

[Woz]

Thank you for sharing the details of your move and creation of your new shop. Your planning resulted in layout that looks very neat, fictional and adaptable your projects. I am looking forward to your future posts.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Any updates?

 

[bnbswrth4]

Sorry for the delay in posting. It's been a busy summer!

Continuing where i left off.

In order to mount the casters I counter sunk nuts into the bottom of the tubes and fusion welded a nut inside flush.

When cleaned up, the nuts are flush with the bottom of the tube allowing the casters to sit nicely on the frame.

One completed corner

Table saw being slid into place and the casters being bolted on.

The old shelving units were cut in half and mocked up in place on the frame. I think they fit nicely and will add a lot of storage to the shop.

Torn back down again for a coat of acid etching primer and paint

The shelving also got painted with the intent to match the rest of the shop cabinets. The grey is lighter than i would have liked, but i'm not unhappy enough to repaint them.

I installed a row of 1/4-20 rivnuts along the front face for the shelving units to be connected to each other.

The rear of the cabinets also had a row of rivnuts installed along the bottom edge. Using some plywood to finish off the top of the frame and some aluminum L extrusions the cabinets are finally finished and bolted to the frame.

Cabinets complete with the library card drawers (assorted bolt containers) which will be refinished at a later date.

 

[bnbswrth4]

I also found a great deal on a Wilton C2 vice at an estate sale. From a serial number lookup I can tell that it's from the mid 70s. I've always wanted a Wilton bullet vice and feel very lucky to finally have one in such great condition without spending an arm or a leg. It weighs in at just shy of 100 lbs.

 

[teamlo]

Awesome!! Keep it going

 

[bnbswrth4]

The shed/compressor storage construction has started and the new foundation has been poured.

Completing this process will free up the needed room for the new mill and as a bonus keep the shop noise to a minimum.

Completed forms with 1 ton of gravel to level out the new location.

Fifty four bags of 80lb concrete mix later.

 

[dittle fart around]

Now that's a manly way to do things. 54 bags, one wheelbarrow, a hoe and one tired old man.

 

[readhead]

Looking good. Are you going to use Tuff Shed for the compressor room also?

 

[bnbswrth4]

Looking good. Are you going to use Tuff Shed for the compressor room also?

The Tuff shed was here already when I bought the house. The current plan is to raise it 2x3 ft off of its metal foundation and build crib walls to support anchoring directly into the concrete slab. The compressor room will be a 4ft extension from the rear of the tuff shed.

I've been going back and forth between starting from scratch, or using the existing structure of the tuff shed. Hoping that reusing it is the path of least resistance, but we shall see.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Thanks for posting. Enjoying your build.

 

[Mike.ASC]

Nice work all around. I especially like your bright floor and lighting.

 

[BikerDad]

Looking really good, color me envious. Probably too late to ask this, but where's the router table? Had you reversed the table saw and black shelf units, so the shelves are to the left of the saw, you could have replaced the TS extension wing with a router table.

One thing I'm wondering is why do so many people put the mill in a corner? As a woodworker, putting a DP into a corner is usually a bad idea, because it makes working on long pieces more difficult.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Subscribed!

 

[stioc]

I rarely subscribe but this one I did because I too am a cubicle chained engineer who enjoys working on actual projects that involve tools, machining, welding, automotive diagnostics and some woodworking too. My plan/hope is to move from the big city home to a less busy/populated place in retirement, build myself a decent shop and enjoy fixing/building/fabricating stuff. Basically what looks like you're doing, congrats!
BTW, a few pics aren't showing (e.g. the Logan pic).

 

[bnbswrth4]

Looking really good, color me envious. Probably too late to ask this, but where's the router table? Had you reversed the table saw and black shelf units, so the shelves are to the left of the saw, you could have replaced the TS extension wing with a router table.

One thing I'm wondering is why do so many people put the mill in a corner? As a woodworker, putting a DP into a corner is usually a bad idea, because it makes working on long pieces more difficult.

To be honest a router table never even crossed my mind. The unisaw has cast iron wings on both left and right side, so if I ever did want to integrate one, I could do a fold out extension on the left wing.

As far as the mill placement in the corner, it's just the most efficient use of space having the body of the mill backed into a corner. 99% of the time i'm never working on parts that exceed the size of the table. Of course there are always exceptions to that, and you have to get creative when that happens.

This is a old picture from my Formula SAE days where I fixtured the entire chassis on the milling machine to post machine the suspension rocker mounts. Excuse the poor image quality, this was the pre-quality cell phone era.

Here's the same frame on the rotisserie mid finish welding

 

[bnbswrth4]

I rarely subscribe but this one I did because I too am a cubicle chained engineer who enjoys working on actual projects that involve tools, machining, welding, automotive diagnostics and some woodworking too. My plan/hope is to move from the big city home to a less busy/populated place in retirement, build myself a decent shop and enjoy fixing/building/fabricating stuff. Basically what looks like you're doing, congrats!
BTW, a few pics aren't showing (e.g. the Logan pic).

Thanks for following along, happy to share with like minded individuals! I fixed the broken images, thank you for bringing that to my attention!

 

[zmotorsports]

Subscribed.

You had me a "home machine shop".

 

[rattle_snake]

I see your engineering induced OCD has resulted in a very clean and nice looking shop, not to mention you have researched and done things the right way. Keep up the good work.

 

[bepjrfan]

Very cool setup, like what ya are doing with the woodworking island, planning on doing the same with my shop as well. What are you running for a welding rig? What got you into bike frame building? Looking into doing that as a hobby here when time frees up, maybe checking out a frame course at UBI to learn some of the basics.

Overall, liking where this is headed! Pretty awesome

 

[bnbswrth4]

Big item off the check list finished. The shop has heat now! All that is left is to finish hard mounting the gas line and wire in a new programmable thermostat. Hoping to blow insulation into the ceiling within the next couple of weeks.

The heater is an older 25,000 BTU unit. It may be a tad undersized for this space, but with how well the shop is sealed it heats up quickly.

I spent a long time figuring out the cleanest way to run everything I needed here and make it look professional.

Everything is ran off a 100 lb propane tank located in the rear of the building. This tank surprisingly last a very long time. Eventually, I will switch to a two tank regulator setup.

The 3" stove pipe and roof flashing. In the background you can see the amount of wood we stacked and split this year. It should be enough to get us through at least a couple of winters heating the house. The pine beetle kill in this area is terrible. This is only half of the wood that needs to be chopped and split, in addition to seven more trees that need to come down

 

[Finallygotit]

Definitely subscribed to this one.

 

[skrap metal]

nice

 

[Matt Matt]

Subscribed . Definitely a follow thread for me....

When I set up my machine shop, I put it as a five-year plan. It is amazing what you can do in a small amount of space.

I love your addition for the compressor/Storage shed. (I’m still trying to plan for this.)

So what is your end goal with machine shop? Hobby tinkering, Business, or mix of both? Are you running any three-phase machinery? I found a three-phase was my biggest hurdle, but it was nice once it was finally set up. I’m glad to see that you skipped some of the stepping processes that I endured.

Anyway, amazing thread! I’ll be following.

 

[bnbswrth4]

Very cool setup, like what ya are doing with the woodworking island, planning on doing the same with my shop as well. What are you running for a welding rig? What got you into bike frame building? Looking into doing that as a hobby here when time frees up, maybe checking out a frame course at UBI to learn some of the basics.

Overall, liking where this is headed! Pretty awesome

Thank you!

I got into bike building after graduating college with a mechanical engineering degree. I have always been into fabrication and bicycles. Combining the two passions felt like a natural progression.

I use a Miller 200DX machine and I absolutely love it. I bought it used with extremely low hours on. I will eventually add a water cooler, but for now it gets me by as 90% of the things I weld are thin walled. Having a cooler would be very nice for some of the aluminum projects I've done in the past.

I built the welding table when I was still in Michigan. The top is a 5/8" plate of mild steel that is countersunk and bolted to the frame with flat head cap screws. There is a slight bow front - back by .03" so it's not perfectly flat unfortunately. I use a 3' Bridgeport table for when tasks require more precise fixturing.

 

[bnbswrth4]

So what is your end goal with machine shop? Hobby tinkering, Business, or mix of both? Are you running any three-phase machinery? I found a three-phase was my biggest hurdle, but it was nice once it was finally set up. I’m glad to see that you skipped some of the stepping processes that I endured.

Eventually there will be a small home business run out of the shop. I am still in the planning stages of what that will be. Until then, I plan on doing the small odd fabrication jobs/machining jobs. The plan is to have enough income from the side business to support my growing tool collection/addiction.

The only 3 phase machinery I have in the shop currently is my 3hp Unisaw. I use a Teco FM-50 VFD. Once I purchase my mill (early spring), that too will be run from another VFD. I really like VFD's over a rotary phase converters. The rotary phase converters take up too much valuable space and I don't like the additional noise of having one running. Being able to wire external controls and control the variable speed on each machine is also a nice benefit.

 

[bepjrfan]

Thank you!

I got into bike building after graduating college with a mechanical engineering degree. I have always been into fabrication and bicycles. Combining the two passions felt like a natural progression.

I use a Miller 200DX machine and I absolutely love it. I bought it used with extremely low hours on. I will eventually add a water cooler, but for now it gets me by as 90% of the things I weld are thin walled. Having a cooler would be very nice for some of the aluminum projects I've done in the past.

I built the welding table when I was still in Michigan. The top is a 5/8" plate of mild steel that is countersunk and bolted to the frame with flat head cap screws. There is a slight bow front - back by .03" so it's not perfectly flat unfortunately. I use a 3' Bridgeport table for when tasks require more precise fixturing.

Very cool. Seems like quite a few people run the Dynasty 200DX's for frame fabrication. Been on the lookout for the last 6-8 months for a nice used unit, no luck yet! The aluminum extrusion in the background your frame jig?

 

[Cris B]

To be honest a router table never even crossed my mind. The unisaw has cast iron wings on both left and right side, so if I ever did want to integrate one, I could do a fold out extension on the left wing.

As far as the mill placement in the corner, it's just the most efficient use of space having the body of the mill backed into a corner. 99% of the time i'm never working on parts that exceed the size of the table. Of course there are always exceptions to that, and you have to get creative when that happens.

This is a old picture from my Formula SAE days where I fixtured the entire chassis on the milling machine to post machine the suspension rocker mounts. Excuse the poor image quality, this was the pre-quality cell phone era.

Here's the same frame on the rotisserie mid finish welding

Looks interesting! Any more pictures on this build?

 

[Trey T]

looks like it's gonna be an awesome thread

 

[bnbswrth4]

Picking up where I left off. The past few months have been incredibly busy starting a new side business and a new full time engineering position in Downtown Denver.

I'm finally getting to the point of where I feel that this is a functional shop. Most of the clutter has been discarded or organized to a point where it doesn't feel like clutter anymore. I'm still missing a few key pieces of machinery like my milling machine, but that will have to wait until the shed is finished and I can move the compressor outside to make room.

First order of business was finishing up the final bits of the center island.

I picked up a 500 lb lift table from harbor freight to test fit my miter stand lift. To make if fit, I cut away the majority of the frame structure and removed all of the wheels. I stacked plywood until I had it shimmed to the correct height and built a box to permanently fixture it to the cart's base.

The next step was building all of the remaining cabinets for the cart. I used 3/4" baltic birch. The construction of these cabinets consisted of 90% pocket screws.

Here is a picture with all of the cabinets mocked up in place on the cart.

I then stained the plywood and did a coat of poly. I then painted the front of the cabinet matte black to add a bit of contrast which I think helped pull everything together.

Here is the miter saw tucked away in its resting place.

Part of the table top is removable to allow the miter saw to rise through.

A removable foot pump for the hydraulic jack is cut through the bottom cabinet wall.

Here the miter saw is in the full raised position.

 

[Finallygotit]

Nice idea on the miter saw. Good job on that island too.


Boy it looks bright in there.

 

[rattle_snake]

Nice solution with the saw lift. Don't let that day job interfere with your shop projects.

 

[jesse72]

Great work!

 

[bnbswrth4]

A couple more shop updates on the way. Here are some current shop pictures.

I finally got the frame jig and welding area setup the way I like it. I've added some wall control pegboard behind the welding table. This has been a big upgrade in quick grab tool efficiency.

I also picked up this import shear/bender/roller combo from an estate sale down the road. It's proven to be incredibly handy.

Been having a lot of fun on this "adventure" bike. A mint condition 2001 VFR800 with only 10,000 original owner miles.

 

[bnbswrth4]

I've finally made some big progress on the air compressor storage shed. Last year we poured the slab and the project has sat stagnant until recently.

Because this project has been so long in the making, I'll make this post a full recap of the construction.

This is how the shed looked when we first purchased the house.

The shed was moved out of the way and the slab foundation form was constructed.

Using four 6" bottle jacks, we carefully jacked up each corner and blocked in place along the way. The bottle jacks were essentially in making sure that everything remained straight and level.

Once the shed was lifted into its finally resting place, I built 2x4 crib walls with 7/16" OSB sheathing.

Here is a view of the inside. The crib walls are bolted to the existing structure using 1/2"-13 bolts. The crib wall is then anchored to the concrete with expanding anchors.

Plenty of room for full size shelves now. No ducking required while walking into the shed.

Next I started framing out the compressor storage extension.

Building the frame for the door.

I still have a few more pieces of trim left to add but this project is finally nearing completion. Next will be wiring and plumbing airlines for the compressor.

Before and after

 

[bnbswrth4]

The garage hasn't been the only thing getting some attention. With the help of my wife we've slowly been redoing each bedroom in the house. I don't have many progress pictures but here is a before and after that I'm pretty proud of.

Before

After

As for garage related content, the counter shaft and bronze bushings of my lathe have been pushed far past their need replacement date. A new shaft and bushings have it running back in tip top shape.