My 24 x 30 in SWPA

[philb86]

Well guys, I figured it was about time that I made a thread of my own after searching and looking through everyone elses awesome garages.

My names Phil and I am a Mechanical Engineer for a Titanium manufacturer by day. During the evenings I do a little bit of everything from working on and maintaining mine and my wifes daily drivers and my 4 wheeling buggy, and small metal fab.

I have been getting ready for a few months for the arrival of a new piece of equipment that I would like to start a metal art business for my wife and to allow me to expand my fabrication abilities. I purchased a CNC plasma table and have had to upgrade power in my shop to a 100 amp service, get a new compressor after a bad decision to buy one off of craigslist and figuring out what to do about material handling in my little shop.

The garage started out a little over 2 years ago when we bought the house with bare studded walls. I began by rewiring and insulating the entire garage and covering all the walls and ceilings with OSB board. I upgraded the lighting with some 4 ft 2 bulb fixtures with what i call daylight bulbs ( cant remember what rating they are).

Anyways, here my garage is in a few steps along the way, mostly finished off and still alot in progress. Along with a couple projects Ive done for some friends, my wife and my daughter. Im not the best with taking pictures along the way.

Phil

 

[philb86]

A few more...

 

[philb86]

Just a couple more...

 

[1971 f100]

Nice work! Looks great.

 

[big_bake]

Nice looking shop. Can't wait to see the CNC plasma in action. Do you have anymore info on the belt sander? It's looks custom.

 

[philb86]

Nice looking shop. Can't wait to see the CNC plasma in action. Do you have anymore info on the belt sander? It's looks custom.

It was a custom design that I did for a good friend of mine that is getting into making knives. I browsed around the internet and boy are there a ton of different designs. I just went with what I thought would be the best solution to ensure all the components would work together. Im not sure what specs youre looking for, but its similar to most 2 x 72" belt grinders. He wanted to put a VFD to have variable speeds. He had a 3 phase 1 hp motor that just doesnt have enough torque at high speeds, in the ball park of 4500-5000 surface feet per minute, so I am going to retrofit a 2 hp motor on it for him when he gets it. The platen and wheels were purchased from a manufacturer of of belt grinders, simply because i could have the platen cut and wheels machined for the price he got on them.

I was considering making a weld together DIY kit once I get my CNC plasma table up and running.

If you want any more details just let me know, I know one thing i would change is to use a jack shaft with a 3 step pulley set up for speeds, i just dont see the benefit trade off per price of putting a vfd on the system.

 

[philb86]

Some pictures of the failed craigslist compressor. I checked this thing over quite well, bore scoped the inside, didnt really expect to find a pin hole from the looks of it when I did so. Checked it for leaks when I was at the guys house, just bad luck. The pin hole that i found after I had it at my house and hooked up, started turning int a crack. Now I have a good 5 hp 220v motor and a two stage pump that builds air really quick, that I cannot find a single marking on.

 

[philb86]

Been awhile since I have been able to get time to sit down and post some updates of how things are going in my garage.

Since last time, I made the 1100 mile round trip to pick up my CNC Plasma table from Dan at LDR Motion Systems.

I have been at it learning, cutting and tweaking things, and let me tell you, what an experience it has been. The table itself that Dan manufactures, is absolutely a great piece of equipment.

I have cut everything from 16 GA - 3/8" in steel so far, up to 3/16" SS and 1/8" Aluminum. Almost all things turning out great, unless I make some sort of mistake, which I have done quite a few times.

The table is a 4 x 4 unit, and I am running a Hypertherm Powermax 65.

But enough talking, I know yall like to see some pictures.

 

[philb86]

Made a custom wall mount setup for the computer so I didnt take up any floor space with any tables. Came out pretty decent I thought, even mixed the paint to come out close to the factory paint on the table.