My Home Machine Shop

[Noxx]

I'm still not sure if I'm offended or not by the gear upgrade to that '48 Craftsman.

 

[geologist]

That's a really amazing shop you've got there. I'm jealous. =)

 

[A_Pmech]

Hi Glenn,

Great shop and machines, you have a nice setup there!

Your posts were caught up in the new spam filter. I approved them last night so you should be good to go. Although, the photo links from PM still won't work. That's a problem with Practicalmachinist.

Oh, and A Pmech, you inspired me to get the very bandsaw.

Cool! A large vertical band saw is a very useful tool to have, as I'm sure you've found out. I use mine once a day at least.

 

[scab]

I'm a bit of a classic guitar hound as well, so I have an amp under the work bench and after I finish cleanup on the weekends, I have a few cold ones and let the neighborhood hear my latest rendition of purple haze.

THat SG is the designated shop guitar.

That's cool, it just seemed too nice to be on the wall of a shop. I figured it was a beater Epiphone or something.

 

[gdavis2265]

I'm still not sure if I'm offended or not by the gear upgrade to that '48 Craftsman.

Yea, I can understand that, but for me, I wanted a dedicated machine for the operation that can last 20 years of working and Chinese equipment would simply not cut it.

Seems I have purchased my shop at least two times over, always giving in to the lower offshore price, then evetually selling it at a loss to spend even more on the old amarican iron made unit(s). I know there is a lesson in there somewhere.


Glenn

 

[gdavis2265]

Hi Glenn,

Great shop and machines, you have a nice setup there!

Your posts were caught up in the new spam filter. I approved them last night so you should be good to go. Although, the photo links from PM still won't work. That's a problem with Practicalmachinist.



Cool! A large vertical band saw is a very useful tool to have, as I'm sure you've found out. I use mine once a day at least.

I can't tell you how excited I am to have the saw. Once I started using it, I immediately realised how useful it could be. I have had it only one week and I ordered 1/4" 3/8" and 1/2" blades (M42 Bi-Metal) in 6 - 10 - 14 TPI for each size. Thinking back, I didn't actually realize how I constantly used other operations to get stuff done that the bandsaw excells at. I'm truly excited about contour cutting. I keep referring to it as my poor-mans CNC plasma table. I just need to find a blade welder for the thing. I have been reading a bit on them and it looks as if they will indeed actually weld the new bi-metal blades if you give it a few extra annealing cycles. Not really sure, do you happen to have any thoughts on the subject?

I love the new bi-metals. I'm glad I finally found Sawblade.com, the best service I have seen so far and one of the best products. The 601 Haltbar blades seem VERY good. Honestly, I'm not affiliated with these guys in any way, but I got the blades shipped for $36 each to my door in like 1.5 days from ordering. Basically 1/2 price from what I have been paying for years. Didn't mean much until last week when I wanted to kit out my saw with like 6 or 8 blades.

I have also made a bandsaw quick-type vise for it (similar to the Whalstrom Float Lock or the Heinrich ones). I re-porposed it from the one that I built when I bought my Sarber drilling machine - I think you can see it in one of the previous photos. I have used it a bit and seems to work excellent.

I'm planning on building a workjaw similar to the one that you built, thanks for the inspiration.

I'm also looking for tips on neat ideas / tips on using a vert saw in general, ie.. like using a DP vise upside down to cut round stock.

Any wisdom that you may be able to pass on would be much appreciated. Unfortunatly, I have this mechanical sickness that once I get into a new shop toy I NEED to know every possible thing about it. I call it attention deficite Reverse disorder

Glenn

 

[gdavis2265]

That's cool, it just seemed too nice to be on the wall of a shop. I figured it was a beater Epiphone or something.

Yea, it really is a nice guitar, I bought it off ebay but somebody gave it a very bad paint job and I think they added a third middle pick-up, sorta like Ace Freely's tripple pick-up one, but its a real Gibson SG. I generally prefer the thin necks of Strats, but after years of playing this out in the shop, I'm getting accustomed to thick basball type necks. The thing plays wonderfully though. Guitars and vintage amps are another love of mine. A few years back, I built a copy of a Marshall 18watt, amazing amp, but that's another forum alltogether.

Glenn

 

[gdavis2265]

Very nice shop. No such thing as "pic heavy" when it comes to machine tools! How do you like that Glacern vice? I'm looking forward to owning one.

I LOVE the Glacern vise! It is very high quality, and smooothe.

I basically threw away the clunky handle that came with it and built a very heavy duty speed handle that stays on the unit nearly 100% of the time. This made the vise wonderful to use. You can really crank down the parts with this and also easily rotate it when the Y handle gets in the way.

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For the speed handle, I essentially tig welded a 12 point socket inside the unit to mate up to the vise hex shaft.

On the bottom of the vise, I cut keys to fit the machine slots in the base, this really speeds up indicating the vise in each time.

The thing about the 6" Glacern vise is that it opens up over 9 inches, so allows for a broad range of parts. Kurt and Glacern are the only two I would even look at.

Now talking drill press vises, Heinrich is it for me. I can't even tell you what a pleasure they are to use. Expensive, but worth every bit.



Glenn

 

[gdavis2265]

I can't tell you how excited I am to have the saw. Once I started using it, I immediately realised how useful it could be. I have had it only one week and I ordered 1/4" 3/8" and 1/2" blades (M42 Bi-Metal) in 6 - 10 - 14 TPI for each size. Thinking back, I didn't actually realize how I constantly used other operations to get stuff done that the bandsaw excells at. I'm truly excited about contour cutting. I keep referring to it as my poor-mans CNC plasma table. I just need to find a blade welder for the thing. I have been reading a bit on them and it looks as if they will indeed actually weld the new bi-metal blades if you give it a few extra annealing cycles. Not really sure, do you happen to have any thoughts on the subject?

I love the new bi-metals. I'm glad I finally found Sawblade.com, the best service I have seen so far and one of the best products. The 601 Haltbar blades seem VERY good. Honestly, I'm not affiliated with these guys in any way, but I got the blades shipped for $36 each to my door in like 1.5 days from ordering. Basically 1/2 price from what I have been paying for years. Didn't mean much until last week when I wanted to kit out my saw with like 6 or 8 blades.

I have also made a bandsaw quick-type vise for it (similar to the Whalstrom Float Lock or the Heinrich ones). I re-porposed it from the one that I built when I bought my Sarber drilling machine - I think you can see it in one of the previous photos. I have used it a bit and seems to work excellent.

I'm planning on building a workjaw similar to the one that you built, thanks for the inspiration.

I'm also looking for tips on neat ideas / tips on using a vert saw in general, ie.. like using a DP vise upside down to cut round stock.

Any wisdom that you may be able to pass on would be much appreciated. Unfortunatly, I have this mechanical sickness that once I get into a new shop toy I NEED to know every possible thing about it. I call it attention deficite Reverse disorder

Glenn

Found a better pick of the speed vise that I made up originally for the drill press, but since found a better home for it on my new vertical bandsaw.

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Best Regards,

Glenn

 

[gdavis2265]

Ok guys,

Sitting in a hotel room overseas at 2:00 am (can't sleep due to time change) and bored, I'm uploading a few more pics. Actually found these on a friends website. So, these should be a bit better than my crappy phone photos. My friend keeps bugging me to buy a camera.

You asked for pic heavy.


Homemade tramming indicatior

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[gdavis2265]

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Yea, that's my fat ugly mug, with long sleeves on the lathe, no doubt - sorry about that.

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I can post build pics of this project when I return home, if you like.

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[Falcon67]

I LOVE the Glacern vise! It is very high quality, and smooothe.

For the speed handle, I essentially tig welded a 12 point socket inside the unit to mate up to the vise hex shaft.

On the bottom of the vise, I cut keys to fit the machine slots in the base, this really speeds up indicating the vise in each time.

The thing about the 6" Glacern vise is that it opens up over 9 inches, so allows for a broad range of parts. Kurt and Glacern are the only two I would even look at.

Glenn

Thank you! That speed handle / socket deal just gave me a pregnant idea. I have an Enco 4" on my mill/drill that is a good fit on the table. I do need to make a couple of keys for it, but tramming it isn't that much trouble. It works fairly well for a cheap import 4". I'm saving for a Glacern so I can move the Enco to back up status. And thanks for the pic of the tram indicator - I need to find a piece of material I can use to build one.

My drill press got real lonely after I bought the square column mill.

My what a big chuck you have there.

 

[gdavis2265]

I have a coolant system on the Bridgeport, but often just use sulfer oil on an acid brush when not heavy milling

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I run the Bridgeport off of a VFD and ususally keep it in low gear, allows for nice smoothe speed changes, I also added an Esson DRO with glass scales. I just need to fit it with powerfeed boxes. Man those are expensive, can't bring myself to pull the trigger on those.


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[gdavis2265]

I can't tell you how excited I am to have the saw. Once I started using it, I immediately realised how useful it could be. I have had it only one week and I ordered 1/4" 3/8" and 1/2" blades (M42 Bi-Metal) in 6 - 10 - 14 TPI for each size. Thinking back, I didn't actually realize how I constantly used other operations to get stuff done that the bandsaw excells at. I'm truly excited about contour cutting. I keep referring to it as my poor-mans CNC plasma table. I just need to find a blade welder for the thing. I have been reading a bit on them and it looks as if they will indeed actually weld the new bi-metal blades if you give it a few extra annealing cycles. Not really sure, do you happen to have any thoughts on the subject?

I love the new bi-metals. I'm glad I finally found Sawblade.com, the best service I have seen so far and one of the best products. The 601 Haltbar blades seem VERY good. Honestly, I'm not affiliated with these guys in any way, but I got the blades shipped for $36 each to my door in like 1.5 days from ordering. Basically 1/2 price from what I have been paying for years. Didn't mean much until last week when I wanted to kit out my saw with like 6 or 8 blades.

I have also made a bandsaw quick-type vise for it (similar to the Whalstrom Float Lock or the Heinrich ones). I re-porposed it from the one that I built when I bought my Sarber drilling machine - I think you can see it in one of the previous photos. I have used it a bit and seems to work excellent.

I'm planning on building a workjaw similar to the one that you built, thanks for the inspiration.

I'm also looking for tips on neat ideas / tips on using a vert saw in general, ie.. like using a DP vise upside down to cut round stock.

Any wisdom that you may be able to pass on would be much appreciated. Unfortunatly, I have this mechanical sickness that once I get into a new shop toy I NEED to know every possible thing about it. I call it attention deficite Reverse disorder

Glenn

Thank you! That speed handle / socket deal just gave me a pregnant idea. I have an Enco 4" on my mill/drill that is a good fit on the table. I do need to make a couple of keys for it, but tramming it isn't that much trouble. It works fairly well for a cheap import 4". I'm saving for a Glacern so I can move the Enco to back up status. And thanks for the pic of the tram indicator - I need to find a piece of material I can use to build one.

My drill press got real lonely after I bought the square column mill.

My what a big chuck you have there.

No worries mate, I still have my Enco 4 or 5" vise as well and its a very nice unit.

For material, I usually go down to the recyclers (they take cans, copper wire, all kinds of things) and dig through thier big bins. Most people are dropping stuff off, I'm digging in the big cardboard boxes buying big chunks of aluminum. Put it on thier scale and they charge me $1.25 a pound. I will do this ever few weeks or so. Also, my steel supplier sells drops at .50 a pound (.40 cents if I buy over 100 lbs, which I often do) - I get strange looks all the time, and coments like, what are ya building. I just say 'a boat'.

But seriously, I just built my pressbrake out of scrap and probably paid $10 for the material. Go try and buy a piece of 1" by 3" hr or cr and see what it costs. Plus I have drops from clients projects. That stuff is gold to me!

 

[gdavis2265]

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I'm going to ditch this euopean toolpost (its too sloppy and I have to build each toolpost holder from scratch because I can't find them anywhere) - I have a line on a large Aloris with a buch of holders.

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Couple of boring bars I made out of hydraulic cylinder rods and the toolpost holder I mentioned

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[gdavis2265]

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This is a large chunk of something like 4340 or something. Bought it from work as scrap, think I paid $40 if I remember. I'll find a use for it one day, it's too nicely machined to beat on, so for now it holds my two quick clamps that thread into the top of my welding table

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[Nealcrenshaw]

that is impressive.

 

[SiGmA_X]

Nice shop sir. I like the OCD cleanness.

 

[nine4gmc]

I could seriously make stuff in there... not sure what, probably a mess or fire or something, but I could make something in there for sure!! Thanks for posting!

I really like that intermediate pulley setup you made for the auto tapping machine you also made...nice work!

 

[A_Pmech]

Hi Glenn,

Once you have one all kinds of cool ideas pop up. They're far more than a basic flat contouring machine like a plasma table. I suggest reading DoAll's book "The Contour Sawing Handbook" for ideas.

I mostly use carbon blade stock. I've run carbon blades long enough that fatigue cracks developed in the blade back at places other than the weld.

Cutting out the work jaw will provide you with lots of contour sawing practice.

 

[gdavis2265]

Thanks Paul,

I also just ordered some 100 ft rolls of Morse carbon blade stock in 1/4" x 3/8" - Also just picked up a cheap welder for a song. I think I will use this blade stock for interior cutting and the bi-metals for the majority of exterior work.

Thanks for your help!

 

[luvit]

hey, glenn.
i'm really interested in knowing more about your blades, welder process, and results.
i do much less than you, but i know that i have sharp blades that just need re-welded..
.

 

[ormachine]

A Pmech, any sources for the book you reference? ( I checked Amazon & Ebay with no luck )
Ron

 

[gdavis2265]

Guys,

I'm searching for that DoAll book as well.

As soon as I return home, I'll try and post a report on blade welding. I know Paul has a nice video of it on his YouTube channel.

 

[ImLow78]

*Subscribing*

Shannon

 

[gdavis2265]

Question on using carbon blades:

What speed do you run these, I'm guessing very slow?

I generally run the bi-metals at 175 FPM dry, just curious on if the carbon needs to be around 100 FPM or slower.

Also, I find using the wax sticks VERY messy, what, if any, do you use to lube the blade?

Thanks,

Glenn

Hi Glenn,

Once you have one all kinds of cool ideas pop up. They're far more than a basic flat contouring machine like a plasma table. I suggest reading DoAll's book "The Contour Sawing Handbook" for ideas.

I mostly use carbon blade stock. I've run carbon blades long enough that fatigue cracks developed in the blade back at places other than the weld.

Cutting out the work jaw will provide you with lots of contour sawing practice.

 

[gdavis2265]

Guys / Gals:

Just posting build pics of my H-Press.

Glenn

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[gdavis2265]

Just some random pics of a new project I'm building.

2hp belt grinder running at 4500 SFPM, sorta a copy of the KMG model.

I'm building it entirely out of my scrap pile (at least trying too )

Kinda working on it as I go, when things get slow - It's nice to have a project you can go to and make a part here and there. I'm usually rushing to finish stuff, so this is a change for me. I seem to make better parts this way, who would-a thunk?

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Crowning the idler roll

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Crowning the drive roll

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[gdavis2265]

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Ordered the contact wheels from KMG - Excellent Quality (no way I could build these things)

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Man- I love this bandsaw!

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Finding more and more uses for this surface grinder

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[gdavis2265]

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I'm designing this thing with the motor overhead to be more compact, also the contact wheels will be able to be rotated in any position to contour sand when I cut radius shapes on the bandsaw. Truly a poor-mans cnc plasma table.

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[gdavis2265]

I originally purchase 20 ft of this 1.5" square bar for a project years ago (bandsaw speed vise) - I really only needed 12" of the stuff, so I bought 20 ft. I seem to use the heck out of it and it's almost gone.

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[gdavis2265]

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[gdavis2265]

Hey guys and gals - made a bit more progress on the 2 x 72" belt grinder. Got the 3hp motor mounted with the tensioner. Nobody really follows this thread, but me so here's some pics anyway.

Cheers,

Glenn

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[Vernmotor]

Nobody really follows this thread, but me so here's some pics anyway

O I would not say that.. I am keeping a eye on ya ! LOL

 

[enginenine]

Tool Envy!!!!

 

[MetalMangler]

Hey guys and gals - made a bit more progress on the 2 x 72" belt grinder. Got the 3hp motor mounted with the tensioner. Nobody really follows this thread, but me so here's some pics anyway.

Cheers,

Glenn

You got me! I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes together since I've had one of these on my "to-build" list for a while. Since I don't have a lot of experience (and just enough knowledge to be dangerous) I can't wait to see how you engineer it.

MM

 

[cnc-me]

Love your shop and the work you do in it.
Will be following this thread.

 

[A_Pmech]

Glenn,

Your grinder project is coming along well, I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product. I may just ask you for a set of drawings.

I'm following your thread, you do great work!

 

[930dreamer]

Great work, you've got some skills.

 

[Zengineer]

I'm watching too. Keep going!