Omphaloskeptic
Well-known member
machine_punk, thanks for the reply; I'll check out that title.
The Aerodrome Studio - Machine_Punk
- Thread starter machine_punk
- Start date
Red Leader
Well-known member
I'm glad you enjoy the 3D modeling thing. I tried Sketchup and it is incredible and cool. I just don't have the time to do it...
I just grab a notepad and start scratching idea onto it.
Regarding the camera...I agree, don't cheap out there. You can actually find some pretty decent SLR cameras for $300 or less. Also, check out the Micro 4/3rds market. They don't have the single lens reflex system, but they use interchangeable lenses and can take some stunning photography:
There was a guy that took some incredibly stunning pictures using a $250 Panasonic GF1 + $100 Canon FD macro lens, but it looks like the pictures were removed from the 'net.
I just grab a notepad and start scratching idea onto it. Regarding the camera...I agree, don't cheap out there. You can actually find some pretty decent SLR cameras for $300 or less. Also, check out the Micro 4/3rds market. They don't have the single lens reflex system, but they use interchangeable lenses and can take some stunning photography:
There was a guy that took some incredibly stunning pictures using a $250 Panasonic GF1 + $100 Canon FD macro lens, but it looks like the pictures were removed from the 'net.
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
OMPHA: You are welcome!
RL: Great pic! I'm sure there are other cameras which will take good pics...I'm just used to the SLR format. Just like vises, though, I'd recommend picking up a higher-quality, used unit, over a new one. In this case, it will save you money, if you don't need a gagillion megapixels.
I'm enjoying the bench build! I've been looking forward to you completing that, since I first saw your plans. (I absolutely love Art Deco).
M_P
RL: Great pic! I'm sure there are other cameras which will take good pics...I'm just used to the SLR format. Just like vises, though, I'd recommend picking up a higher-quality, used unit, over a new one. In this case, it will save you money, if you don't need a gagillion megapixels.
I'm enjoying the bench build! I've been looking forward to you completing that, since I first saw your plans. (I absolutely love Art Deco).
M_P
Red Leader
Well-known member
You and me both. Can't wait to finish it. Seeing the shelves out there as they are now gives me hope that I can come close on the the design of the workbench. Also, it has been a fluid design. While it is taking quite a while, along the way I'll come up with a new idea or tweak the existing idea. I went through about 5 or 6 major designs to pick the best one to me, and then I totally changed it half way through...and now I've changed it again. The last change is more of refining and enhancing the last idea though instead of changing it completely.
I am a huge deco fan. It is my favorite type of art. I read up on it and what is fascinating to me is that it apparently started not from a political movement, protest, knee jerk reaction, or anything else like that, as so many art/design movements do. It simply started from a design to create beauty from symmetry. Instead of holding a lot of messages or angst in its execution, it simply exists to be beautiful. I love that.
Wingnut65
Well-known member
M_P, Good Luck in the enhanced photography venture. Like you, I've been brought up on the 35mm SLR cameras. When I got a pocket digital, I used it the best I could for what I needed them for. But I could only go so far and splurged when Santa brought me a Nikon D5000 back in 2009. I really love that camera and the capabilities, from macro to changing ASA to mimic 3200 speed film. I still am working on f-stops and depth of field variations. A good D-SLR is a major step up from the pocket digitals that I carry to my construction projects.
I envy your abilities in the 3D modeling. I have been on AutoCAD for over 20 years that it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I have Sketchup on my laptop, but I haven't even gotten into it. I also have AutoCAD's big brother, Revit, on my machine that is desiged for 3D. I've had a couple classes with it and know enough to be dangerous. But that may be my best option for learning how to create workbenches and such. But, like RL, I find it easiest with a pencil and paper. I guess some things don't need to evolve any further to work well.
I envy your abilities in the 3D modeling. I have been on AutoCAD for over 20 years that it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I have Sketchup on my laptop, but I haven't even gotten into it. I also have AutoCAD's big brother, Revit, on my machine that is desiged for 3D. I've had a couple classes with it and know enough to be dangerous. But that may be my best option for learning how to create workbenches and such. But, like RL, I find it easiest with a pencil and paper. I guess some things don't need to evolve any further to work well.
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
OMPHA & RL: I really did mainly work from sketches until very recently. The problem I found was that design is a very fluid thing, like RL says...three major changes between drawing and building. While I still enjoy the practice of hand drafting projects, it is also really cool to go back and make adjustments to the 3D model and instantly print out a new set of shop drawings with the new plan. I still strive to meet all of my design standards in my mind, before ever drawing the project, but as an analytical thinker, I am bound to come up with major refinements in the elegance of the design, before actually building the project.
It is amazing how quickly I've picked up 3D modeling, but ONLY after just forcing myself to sit down and figure it out...spending a few minutes a day. I figured I'd have a better chance of learning meaningful stuff, if I worked on modeling objects I am intimately familiar with...such as the last couple of projects I fabricated. I tried Sketchup a while ago...and while I have seen some fabulous results, I never really got anywhere with it. I am, however, very pleased with the interface for Alibre Design.
Have fun with your projects!
M_P
It is amazing how quickly I've picked up 3D modeling, but ONLY after just forcing myself to sit down and figure it out...spending a few minutes a day. I figured I'd have a better chance of learning meaningful stuff, if I worked on modeling objects I am intimately familiar with...such as the last couple of projects I fabricated. I tried Sketchup a while ago...and while I have seen some fabulous results, I never really got anywhere with it. I am, however, very pleased with the interface for Alibre Design.
Have fun with your projects!
M_P
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
It's Finally Here!
Those of you who have been following this thread are probably wondering if I really bought this Baileigh combination shear/brake/roll, or if I've just been making it up. WELL, IT IS FINALLY HERE! Got a call yesterday morning that it was sitting at the local Yellow (YRC) freight depot, and waiting to be picked up! (Good thing it was one of my normal days off).
So, I stop by Home Depot for a couple of final items:
- 2K ratcheting load straps (to keep this 1200-pound behemoth from sliding around in the truck and causing general mayhem)
- A 15-foot 5K tow strap with hooks on each end (not sure what prompted me to get that...maybe just thinking about that huge shrub I wanted to pull in the front yard, just a general, manly, I ought to have one of those, or just foresight into what was about to happen...turns out it was lucky I did)
I stop by my local U-Haul dealer at around 1:30 in the afternoon, to pick up a small truck. As a part of my 'Moving the Baileigh' plan, I wanted the smallest (cheapest) truck, which had a ramp (a way to get heavy things on the ground, from waist high). EEEK. REALLY!?!? $30/day AND 89 cents a mile??? And I have to pay for gas??? Good thing this was only a 30-mile round trip, from the truck rental place to the freight depot, to my house, then back to the rental place. Actually my normal van, an E350 15-passenger van, would have been big enough...if I had a forklift at the house...I wonder if A_PMECH can bring his over?
Here it is...all packaged, sitting on huge pallets, and ready to go to its new home in The Aerodrome Studio...
View media item 19703
EEEK! Look at the size of those pallets!!! How am I going to get my engine hoist around that thing to pick it up??? Oh well...first problem is to get it home. Let's take this one step at a time.
First, I had to clear out some room in the garage to put the machine, the bench and the hoist...
View media item 19699
When I got it home and started putting the hoist together, it was clear that there was NO WAY I was going to get the legs of the hoist around these pallets. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to put the hoist together. OK, back to the worrying. How am I going to get the crane legs under this thing?
I went inside and called a few tow truck companies. This was plan 2 for me. The new flat-bed tow trucks wouldn't help me much, but the older style with a crane would be just the ticket. As I've been researching how to deal with heavy objects 'on the cheap,' I've noticed that stuff for cars is the answer--hence the car engine hoist and the wheel dollies as part of my plan for dealing with the machine.
After a few calls, it was clear that the local tow truck companies just weren't that interested in my little project. So much for plan two. Back out to the truck to sit and look at the machine and situation, until something pops in my head. Hmmm...the pallets are thick...if I could get the center part out, I could roll the legs of the hoist under the machine, while leaving the ends (where the machine actually sits on the pallet) to support the machine.
Well, several hours later, with lots hand-sawing, power sawing, prying, muttering, and sweating...here we go...a hole large enough to scoot the legs of the engine hoist under the machine...
View media item 19701
Oh, and while I was muttering and sweating, the boys were playing a game called, "Can I tighten the vise enough that you cannot loosen it?" Hee hee...
View media item 19700
After Much Ado About Something...here it is...the hoist and spreader bar, lifting the combo machine, pretty much exactly as designed, for the first time. Notice that instead of attaching the spreader bar directly to the engine hoist, I put the bolt through the 'slightly mis-aligned holes' and used the hoist hook to support the spreader bar. This actually puts a little freedom in the system (thanks for the concern, SHOPNUT). The hoist chain was too long, so I ended up cutting the chain down, with an angle grinder, to give me just two links and the hook...
View media item 19702
The lifting straps I bought, which were 6 feet long, were pretty much exactly one foot too short...so, I improvised, by using the 2K ratcheting straps, at their shortest, as mini-lifting-straps, over the top of the bar, and attached to the loops on the real lifting straps (this is a cell phone pic)...
View media item 19704
From there, it was pretty easy to lift all the cribbing out from underneath and lower the machine onto 4 wheel dollies (the things you put under car tires on your project car, since it isn't actually going to move under it's own power for ten more years, when you sell it to the next guy, who will leave it on wheel dollies for another few years, before selling it on). Thanks to the wife, for thinking it would be possible to just lift the whole pallets away at one time, instead of having to cut them out at this point).
Here is where I wished I had a few more pictures, but I got in the 'work mode' and only thought to take pictures at the most-critical moments. Of course, the CF card on my camera filled up, so I had to finish up with the cell phone.
Here's the final photo. I am taking the picture from the front of the cargo box, looking through the frame of the hoist, with the Baileigh combo machine on wheel dollies, and looking down the ramp to The Aerodrome Studio. It was a very anticlimactic moment, actually. I pushed the machine up to the ramp, and over the tipping point. Oddly enough, while I had visions of the machine barreling down the ramp, the rough surface on the ramp provided enough friction that I could stop a 1200-pound machine just by holding it and start it again just by pushing gently. There we go, the machine is in the garage...and it only took 10 hours to make it happen.
View media item 19705
So, while I had plenty of time to plan, there were a LOT of unknowns, like exactly how the machine would be packaged, and exactly what date it would show up. Also, there were a lot of unknowns just from the size and weight of the machine...much larger than I've ever dealt with before...
PLAN: build a spreader bar to pick this thing monster up with an engine hoist. SUCCESS, with a work-around for messing up hole placement when drilling (using materials at hand) and a last-minute workaround for lifting straps which were about 1 foot too short (using materials at hand).
PLAN: use an engine hoist to lift the machine. SUCCESS, with a last-minute workaround for huge pallets I didn't plan for (using tools I already had), with a modification to the hoist chain to shorten the overhead height of the hoist.
PLAN: use the smallest U-Haul available which has a ramp. SUCCESS--worked even better than planned.
Overall Cost for moving the machine:
- $130 for a used (third owner) HF 2-ton engine hoist, which I will keep for future projects.
- $100 for steel to make a spreader bar, which I will keep for future projects. (of which I have just under half the steel left for another project)
- $100 for two sets (four total) 1500-lb wheel dollies, which I will keep for moving the bench around in the future.
- $80 for misc. straps (6-ft, 6400 lb lifting straps, 8-ft 2K ratcheting straps, 15-ft tow strap)
- $75 for the rental truck (rental, mileage, and fuel).
So, overall, I'm pleased. I'm also sore in place I didn't even know I had places. But, after 10 hours, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! The Baileigh SBR 5216 is now home in The Aerodrome Studio.
I work the rest of the weekend, so I'm going to have get the machine up on the new bench whenever I get the time. I'm pretty sure that will be as effortless as lifting the machine in the truck.
M_P
Those of you who have been following this thread are probably wondering if I really bought this Baileigh combination shear/brake/roll, or if I've just been making it up. WELL, IT IS FINALLY HERE! Got a call yesterday morning that it was sitting at the local Yellow (YRC) freight depot, and waiting to be picked up! (Good thing it was one of my normal days off).
So, I stop by Home Depot for a couple of final items:
- 2K ratcheting load straps (to keep this 1200-pound behemoth from sliding around in the truck and causing general mayhem)
- A 15-foot 5K tow strap with hooks on each end (not sure what prompted me to get that...maybe just thinking about that huge shrub I wanted to pull in the front yard, just a general, manly, I ought to have one of those, or just foresight into what was about to happen...turns out it was lucky I did)
I stop by my local U-Haul dealer at around 1:30 in the afternoon, to pick up a small truck. As a part of my 'Moving the Baileigh' plan, I wanted the smallest (cheapest) truck, which had a ramp (a way to get heavy things on the ground, from waist high). EEEK. REALLY!?!? $30/day AND 89 cents a mile??? And I have to pay for gas??? Good thing this was only a 30-mile round trip, from the truck rental place to the freight depot, to my house, then back to the rental place. Actually my normal van, an E350 15-passenger van, would have been big enough...if I had a forklift at the house...I wonder if A_PMECH can bring his over?
Here it is...all packaged, sitting on huge pallets, and ready to go to its new home in The Aerodrome Studio...
View media item 19703
EEEK! Look at the size of those pallets!!! How am I going to get my engine hoist around that thing to pick it up??? Oh well...first problem is to get it home. Let's take this one step at a time.
First, I had to clear out some room in the garage to put the machine, the bench and the hoist...
View media item 19699
When I got it home and started putting the hoist together, it was clear that there was NO WAY I was going to get the legs of the hoist around these pallets. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to put the hoist together. OK, back to the worrying. How am I going to get the crane legs under this thing?
I went inside and called a few tow truck companies. This was plan 2 for me. The new flat-bed tow trucks wouldn't help me much, but the older style with a crane would be just the ticket. As I've been researching how to deal with heavy objects 'on the cheap,' I've noticed that stuff for cars is the answer--hence the car engine hoist and the wheel dollies as part of my plan for dealing with the machine.
After a few calls, it was clear that the local tow truck companies just weren't that interested in my little project. So much for plan two. Back out to the truck to sit and look at the machine and situation, until something pops in my head. Hmmm...the pallets are thick...if I could get the center part out, I could roll the legs of the hoist under the machine, while leaving the ends (where the machine actually sits on the pallet) to support the machine.
Well, several hours later, with lots hand-sawing, power sawing, prying, muttering, and sweating...here we go...a hole large enough to scoot the legs of the engine hoist under the machine...
View media item 19701
Oh, and while I was muttering and sweating, the boys were playing a game called, "Can I tighten the vise enough that you cannot loosen it?" Hee hee...
View media item 19700
After Much Ado About Something...here it is...the hoist and spreader bar, lifting the combo machine, pretty much exactly as designed, for the first time. Notice that instead of attaching the spreader bar directly to the engine hoist, I put the bolt through the 'slightly mis-aligned holes' and used the hoist hook to support the spreader bar. This actually puts a little freedom in the system (thanks for the concern, SHOPNUT). The hoist chain was too long, so I ended up cutting the chain down, with an angle grinder, to give me just two links and the hook...
View media item 19702
The lifting straps I bought, which were 6 feet long, were pretty much exactly one foot too short...so, I improvised, by using the 2K ratcheting straps, at their shortest, as mini-lifting-straps, over the top of the bar, and attached to the loops on the real lifting straps (this is a cell phone pic)...
View media item 19704
From there, it was pretty easy to lift all the cribbing out from underneath and lower the machine onto 4 wheel dollies (the things you put under car tires on your project car, since it isn't actually going to move under it's own power for ten more years, when you sell it to the next guy, who will leave it on wheel dollies for another few years, before selling it on). Thanks to the wife, for thinking it would be possible to just lift the whole pallets away at one time, instead of having to cut them out at this point).
Here is where I wished I had a few more pictures, but I got in the 'work mode' and only thought to take pictures at the most-critical moments. Of course, the CF card on my camera filled up, so I had to finish up with the cell phone.
Here's the final photo. I am taking the picture from the front of the cargo box, looking through the frame of the hoist, with the Baileigh combo machine on wheel dollies, and looking down the ramp to The Aerodrome Studio. It was a very anticlimactic moment, actually. I pushed the machine up to the ramp, and over the tipping point. Oddly enough, while I had visions of the machine barreling down the ramp, the rough surface on the ramp provided enough friction that I could stop a 1200-pound machine just by holding it and start it again just by pushing gently. There we go, the machine is in the garage...and it only took 10 hours to make it happen.
View media item 19705
So, while I had plenty of time to plan, there were a LOT of unknowns, like exactly how the machine would be packaged, and exactly what date it would show up. Also, there were a lot of unknowns just from the size and weight of the machine...much larger than I've ever dealt with before...
PLAN: build a spreader bar to pick this thing monster up with an engine hoist. SUCCESS, with a work-around for messing up hole placement when drilling (using materials at hand) and a last-minute workaround for lifting straps which were about 1 foot too short (using materials at hand).
PLAN: use an engine hoist to lift the machine. SUCCESS, with a last-minute workaround for huge pallets I didn't plan for (using tools I already had), with a modification to the hoist chain to shorten the overhead height of the hoist.
PLAN: use the smallest U-Haul available which has a ramp. SUCCESS--worked even better than planned.
Overall Cost for moving the machine:
- $130 for a used (third owner) HF 2-ton engine hoist, which I will keep for future projects.
- $100 for steel to make a spreader bar, which I will keep for future projects. (of which I have just under half the steel left for another project)
- $100 for two sets (four total) 1500-lb wheel dollies, which I will keep for moving the bench around in the future.
- $80 for misc. straps (6-ft, 6400 lb lifting straps, 8-ft 2K ratcheting straps, 15-ft tow strap)
- $75 for the rental truck (rental, mileage, and fuel).
So, overall, I'm pleased. I'm also sore in place I didn't even know I had places. But, after 10 hours, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! The Baileigh SBR 5216 is now home in The Aerodrome Studio.
I work the rest of the weekend, so I'm going to have get the machine up on the new bench whenever I get the time. I'm pretty sure that will be as effortless as lifting the machine in the truck.
M_P
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flybefree
Well-known member
Wow....that looked like fun, should be a great upgrade to your studio.
Shaun
Shaun
GirlnAgarage
Well-known member
Impressive MP. 
I was waiting for this monster to arrive. You handled it with ease...least it looks like ease from here
I was waiting for this monster to arrive. You handled it with ease...least it looks like ease from here Re: It's Finally Here!
Glad no harm was done to anyone or anything during the whole process of unloading!
Now take a moment to organize your garage to clear a nice big spot so working with that machine is much more enjoyable.
I might have to cut a couple of links out of mine - its easy to add a second chain if needed, but there have been times when I wanted the hoist to go up a few inches more.
Glad no harm was done to anyone or anything during the whole process of unloading!
Now take a moment to organize your garage to clear a nice big spot so working with that machine is much more enjoyable.
Wingnut65
Well-known member
Congrats, M_P in finally getting that puppy home. What an experience! Glad you recorded all the events of the day to share with us and keep it here for good laughs. Come back next year and read this and it will all be a distant memory, but you will have a lot of cool alumni mum projects finished by then.
Job well done!
Job well done!
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OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
Thanks! This will definitely increase what I can do in the studio. There are a lot of things I know how to do, but don't have the equipment to do...this will help a lot.
Impressive MP.
Thanks! It didn't feel easy at the time, but the significant amount of planning for the move made it much easier. I even planned to have materials to play with...I recently bought several 4x8 sheets of aluminum, to have on hand when the shear/brake/roll arrived...nothing stinks more than having a new toy which you cannot play with!
Even the difficult parts were fun in their own way...just for the challenge. It's kinda funny...when I showed the machine to my wife, she pretty much immediately said, "You need help to unload that," to which I replied, "But I don't have any...so I'm going to have to figure it out myself."
Now, GIAG, I need a little "Reorganization-its-like-Renovation" for my garage...
YEP...a good, general, throwing Stuff away (capital "S" stuff) is in order.
The cutting the chain just came to me, when I considered how to get a little more headroom on the hoist. Chain is relatively cheap...I can have several lengths available in the future, for different applications. Or, I could just get carabiner or removable link to give me different lengths now.
Your thought about adding a little freedom to the whole setup is what gave me the hint on how to deal with the misaligned holes on the spreader bar...just put the bolt through and used the hoist hook.
Congrats, M_P in finally getting that puppy home. What an experience! Glad you recorded all the events of the day to share with us and keep it here for good laughs. Come back next year and read this and it will all be a distand memory, but you will have a lot of cool alumnimum projects finished by then.
Job well done!
This will be fun to look back at in about a year. I got on a roll and I had to consciously stop and take pics at major events of the day.
I'll get the machine settled in early next week and then I can get down to business with some of the projects I have waiting.
Thanks! I'm sure this would have been an easy unload at your shop, but I am pleased with how well the planning paid off. The actual act of getting the machine from the truck to the ground was pretty uneventful...which is a good thing, when you are dealing with a heavy machine.
EVERYONE: Thanks for the kind words and taking the time to post! Stay tuned for getting the machine set up and the next few projects on the list.
M_P
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OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
Baileigh 5216 Install, Part 1
Well, that was a crazy weekend in the E.R. (my day job). I got a couple of hours this evening to continue the install of the Baileigh 5216 machine I recently purchased for The Aerodrome Studio.
I usually drill holes to pretty tight tolerances, but it tends to make aligning thing pretty tough (unless you are very exact). I figured here that I'd drill the holes in the bench a little larger (5/8" for a 1/2" bolt). The goal here is to make sure the machine doesn't tip over. Here you see the 1/2" socket head cap screws I picked up to fasten the machine to the bench. (why socket head cap screws, you ask? Because they are the COOLEST fastener in the world!)
View media item 19817
Here you see where we started today. I left the machine on wheel dollies, with 2x4 cribbing, to elevate the machine enough to get the legs of the engine hoist under the machine. You can also see the shear's table and adjustment screw, which reduced the clearance for the front bolts (I'll talk about that in a moment)...
View media item 19818
Remember how your high school shop teacher told you to ALWAYS use the forstner bits in drill press? The largest regular twist bit I had was 1/2". My set of forstner bits pretty much starts at 5/8", so I threw caution to the wind and tried one in my handheld air drill. It worked beautifully!
View media item 19820
I didn't have any good closeup pictures of the machine lift in the truck from the other day, so I thought I'd take some today, with the new camera. Here is one of the lifting straps, looped over the top of my custom spreader bar. The lifting straps were just a smidge too short, so I used the 2K lifting straps, in their shortest configuration, to extend the straps...
View media item 19821
Here, you can see that this was my first lift, and the engine hoist was in the 2-ton configuration (shorter arm extension). This did not give me enough lifting height, so I put the machine back down and moved the arm and legs out to the one ton configuration. Each time I lifted the machine, I had to do a test lift of just a couple of inches, then move the straps to balance the machine as level. This picture gives you a better view of the way I ended up attaching the lifting bar to the engine hoist. I cut the hoist chain down to just two links, to give me more headroom. The hook of the hoist is hooked around a grade-8 1/2" bolt...
View media item 19822
Just a pic of the machine hanging in the air by the hoist...
View media item 19823
A pic of the machine, finally fastened to the bench. This is a pic of the of the holes on the back of the machine, which had plenty of clearance. The front bolts didn't have enough clearance to go into the holes, due to the shear's table and adjustment screws, so I ended up cutting the bolts down shorter, until they fit the clearance I had. Fortunately, there was enough left to screw on the washer, lock washer, and nut...
View media item 19824
Here is a picture of the sort of damage this machine had. It is brand new, but had shipping damage, when shipped to the first owner. They sent it back to Baileigh, who sold listed it as a used machine, even though it has never been used in anyone's shop. The roller cover was trashed and they didn't even send it to me (not too big a deal to me...this machine is designed to do exactly this sort of thing...shape sheet metal.)
I got it for about 1/2 price, plus freight. They checked the machine for problems before shipping it and one of the main gears broke as they were testing it. That was the reason for the delay. I gather that the replacement gear went around the world a couple of times, before making it to Baileigh to be installed on my machine. Even though it was an 'as is' machine, Baileigh took care of me, which is why I picked them in the first place. Cool!
View media item 19825
Here it is...up on the bench, bolted down, and ready for me to clean it up, grease it, check the alignment, and get it into its final position. Here, you see the way I plan to move it around the shop, on the few occasions I will need to do that. This is nowhere near its final position...just where I parked it, until I can get to it tomorrow. My plan for using the 20-ton, air-over-hydraulic jack to lift the legs of the bench worked perfectly to get the bench up on the wheel dollies. WHEW. That's a big load off my mind. The machine is here, it is in the garage, and it is up on the bench. We are almost 'making parts.'
The funny thing is that there was a little bit of 'twist' in the bench (diagonally opposite legs were up in the air a fraction of an inch). I assumed the table would settle in, with the weight of the machine. Sure enough, the 1200 pounds of the machine did the trick...all four legs are now on the ground. It also loosened a LOT of bolts...I had to go back and tighten every bolt on the bench...some of them quite a bit. Once I tightened down the bolts, the bench was rock solid. I still plan to put a piece of 3/4" plywood across the back legs, to give it a little more support from end to end. I hope to get that done tomorrow. Tonight, it was a little late to cut that piece of plywood and use the drill...
View media item 19826
I finally got to use my new (to me) Wilton vise...which is mounted on the right corner of the Baileigh Bench. I got this off CL for about $65. I extended the length of the bench, to give me room to mount a vise. That will keep my small bench top clear, for fabricating and assembling parts. I don't particularly like the logo/nameplate on the new Wiltons, but it is a Wilton...
View media item 19827
That's where I ended tonight.
M_P
Well, that was a crazy weekend in the E.R. (my day job). I got a couple of hours this evening to continue the install of the Baileigh 5216 machine I recently purchased for The Aerodrome Studio.
I usually drill holes to pretty tight tolerances, but it tends to make aligning thing pretty tough (unless you are very exact). I figured here that I'd drill the holes in the bench a little larger (5/8" for a 1/2" bolt). The goal here is to make sure the machine doesn't tip over. Here you see the 1/2" socket head cap screws I picked up to fasten the machine to the bench. (why socket head cap screws, you ask? Because they are the COOLEST fastener in the world!)
View media item 19817
Here you see where we started today. I left the machine on wheel dollies, with 2x4 cribbing, to elevate the machine enough to get the legs of the engine hoist under the machine. You can also see the shear's table and adjustment screw, which reduced the clearance for the front bolts (I'll talk about that in a moment)...
View media item 19818
Remember how your high school shop teacher told you to ALWAYS use the forstner bits in drill press? The largest regular twist bit I had was 1/2". My set of forstner bits pretty much starts at 5/8", so I threw caution to the wind and tried one in my handheld air drill. It worked beautifully!
View media item 19820
I didn't have any good closeup pictures of the machine lift in the truck from the other day, so I thought I'd take some today, with the new camera. Here is one of the lifting straps, looped over the top of my custom spreader bar. The lifting straps were just a smidge too short, so I used the 2K lifting straps, in their shortest configuration, to extend the straps...
View media item 19821
Here, you can see that this was my first lift, and the engine hoist was in the 2-ton configuration (shorter arm extension). This did not give me enough lifting height, so I put the machine back down and moved the arm and legs out to the one ton configuration. Each time I lifted the machine, I had to do a test lift of just a couple of inches, then move the straps to balance the machine as level. This picture gives you a better view of the way I ended up attaching the lifting bar to the engine hoist. I cut the hoist chain down to just two links, to give me more headroom. The hook of the hoist is hooked around a grade-8 1/2" bolt...
View media item 19822
Just a pic of the machine hanging in the air by the hoist...
View media item 19823
A pic of the machine, finally fastened to the bench. This is a pic of the of the holes on the back of the machine, which had plenty of clearance. The front bolts didn't have enough clearance to go into the holes, due to the shear's table and adjustment screws, so I ended up cutting the bolts down shorter, until they fit the clearance I had. Fortunately, there was enough left to screw on the washer, lock washer, and nut...
View media item 19824
Here is a picture of the sort of damage this machine had. It is brand new, but had shipping damage, when shipped to the first owner. They sent it back to Baileigh, who sold listed it as a used machine, even though it has never been used in anyone's shop. The roller cover was trashed and they didn't even send it to me (not too big a deal to me...this machine is designed to do exactly this sort of thing...shape sheet metal.)
I got it for about 1/2 price, plus freight. They checked the machine for problems before shipping it and one of the main gears broke as they were testing it. That was the reason for the delay. I gather that the replacement gear went around the world a couple of times, before making it to Baileigh to be installed on my machine. Even though it was an 'as is' machine, Baileigh took care of me, which is why I picked them in the first place. Cool!
View media item 19825
Here it is...up on the bench, bolted down, and ready for me to clean it up, grease it, check the alignment, and get it into its final position. Here, you see the way I plan to move it around the shop, on the few occasions I will need to do that. This is nowhere near its final position...just where I parked it, until I can get to it tomorrow. My plan for using the 20-ton, air-over-hydraulic jack to lift the legs of the bench worked perfectly to get the bench up on the wheel dollies. WHEW. That's a big load off my mind. The machine is here, it is in the garage, and it is up on the bench. We are almost 'making parts.'
The funny thing is that there was a little bit of 'twist' in the bench (diagonally opposite legs were up in the air a fraction of an inch). I assumed the table would settle in, with the weight of the machine. Sure enough, the 1200 pounds of the machine did the trick...all four legs are now on the ground. It also loosened a LOT of bolts...I had to go back and tighten every bolt on the bench...some of them quite a bit. Once I tightened down the bolts, the bench was rock solid. I still plan to put a piece of 3/4" plywood across the back legs, to give it a little more support from end to end. I hope to get that done tomorrow. Tonight, it was a little late to cut that piece of plywood and use the drill...
View media item 19826
I finally got to use my new (to me) Wilton vise...which is mounted on the right corner of the Baileigh Bench. I got this off CL for about $65. I extended the length of the bench, to give me room to mount a vise. That will keep my small bench top clear, for fabricating and assembling parts. I don't particularly like the logo/nameplate on the new Wiltons, but it is a Wilton...
View media item 19827
That's where I ended tonight.
M_P
Last edited:
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
One of the things I want to do in my garage thread is to share tips on things which work well for me. I'm relatively new to air tools (been using them about a year now) and couldn't imagine how different fittings and hoses could make much of a difference in the air tool experience. I readily admit I was wrong.
Here is a combination I just switched all of my air tools to (well, OK, my air saw has a built-in whip hose and I put a whip hose on my rivet gun. Other than that, all my air tools have been switched to this configuration)
Here it is. A FlexZilla 25" hose (25-ft, 3/8" hose, 1/4" aluminum ends), which is used with all my tools. Then each tool has a new swivel on it (I happened to get the Campbell Hausfield model, from HD, for about $7 each, but there are many different brands out there, some with a pressure regulator built in)...
View media item 19819
I am telling you, wherever you point your air tool, the swivel and air hose follow...no more fighting with a stiff hose which gets in your way. With the super-light and super-flexible FlexZilla hose, it feels like you are just holding the air tool, without any hose attached. I have been very pleased with this combination.
M_P
Here is a combination I just switched all of my air tools to (well, OK, my air saw has a built-in whip hose and I put a whip hose on my rivet gun. Other than that, all my air tools have been switched to this configuration)
Here it is. A FlexZilla 25" hose (25-ft, 3/8" hose, 1/4" aluminum ends), which is used with all my tools. Then each tool has a new swivel on it (I happened to get the Campbell Hausfield model, from HD, for about $7 each, but there are many different brands out there, some with a pressure regulator built in)...
View media item 19819
I am telling you, wherever you point your air tool, the swivel and air hose follow...no more fighting with a stiff hose which gets in your way. With the super-light and super-flexible FlexZilla hose, it feels like you are just holding the air tool, without any hose attached. I have been very pleased with this combination.
M_P
Last edited:
GirlnAgarage
Well-known member
malibu101
Well-known member
I have been using Legacy's FlexZilla hose for a few years and it is great. If anything happens to this one I will buy another without thinking twice. I highly reccomend it to anyone needing an airhose.
The swivel is good and bad.
I've tried one on a few different tools and they do swivel allowing the hose to usually not be in the way.
The swivel has pinched my fingers enough time to not use one an any tools anymore. Plus I don't like the added bulk on the bottom.
But that's just my take on the swivel.
The swivel is good and bad.
I've tried one on a few different tools and they do swivel allowing the hose to usually not be in the way.
The swivel has pinched my fingers enough time to not use one an any tools anymore. Plus I don't like the added bulk on the bottom.
But that's just my take on the swivel.
mdbeck1
Well-known member
Re: Baileigh 5216 Install, Part 1
The bench and equipment look pretty good.
I still say that spreader bars about halfway up the base would be a big help. I use them for shelves on my workbenches and it just so happens that my HF scissor table fits under the bench and lets me rearrange the garage fairly easy.
The bench and equipment look pretty good.
I still say that spreader bars about halfway up the base would be a big help. I use them for shelves on my workbenches and it just so happens that my HF scissor table fits under the bench and lets me rearrange the garage fairly easy.
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
Re: Baileigh 5216 Install, Part 1
I do plan to add more diagonal bracing on the bench. In this case, it is going to be about a 1/3rd sheet of 3/4 plywood, lagged to rear legs. I have a hard time seeing how a spreader bar and a shelf are going to add near the rigidity of a diagonal brace of some sort (at least in the directions I am concerned about. The leg units are way over-engineered and I have absolutely no concern about the bench collapsing to the front or rear. My only concern is strength from side to side...and diagonal bracing is the most efficient way of dealing with that. A horizontal brace with a shelf doesn't usually add significant bracing against collapse). The horizontal members in my bench do give a lot of rigidity, but only because they are 8" wide...kind of like having 'built in' corner bracing.
I am very comfortable with the configuration of the bench right now, as far as strength. Now that the machine is on it and all the bolts have been re-tightened, it is absolutely rock steady. I also went with all 'through-bolt' construction for the major structural connections (i.e. I am not relying on a lag bolt's grip on wood...I have a bolt head or nut and washer on each side of the fastener, in a hole which goes all the way through the wood).
I know that spreader bars and a shelf under the bench are pretty normal. I don't usually want 'normal.' From the very beginning, I actually specified that the area under the bench should be free of braces and shelves. That is where I am going to store rolling chests of drawers, stools, chairs, short storage cabinets on wheels, etc. Eventually, this machine will get its own, custom aluminum bench and I will use this wooden bench as a fabrication and assembly table.
As far as shelves for tool storage, I have a whole shelf unit of shelves for tool storage in my garage...
View media item 17635
I suppose that if I had a scissor table, that would have been an option for me (I don't know everything HF has available, but the biggest lift table I see is only rated at 1000 pounds...this machine itself is 1200 pounds, plus the massive bench). I used what I have available, which is the HF 20-ton, air-over-hydraulic jack (which I got for $35 on sale) to get the bench up on wheels for the very few times I'll ever need to move it.
I am pleased that your system works for you. It is always cool when someone can use the equipment at hand to do what he needs done. The plans I have made for my garage may be a little different than the way others tend to do things, but it seems to be working well for me so far.
Thanks everyone, for taking the time to stop by and post! I should be back to building aeroplane-inspired aluminum projects soon.
M_P
I do plan to add more diagonal bracing on the bench. In this case, it is going to be about a 1/3rd sheet of 3/4 plywood, lagged to rear legs. I have a hard time seeing how a spreader bar and a shelf are going to add near the rigidity of a diagonal brace of some sort (at least in the directions I am concerned about. The leg units are way over-engineered and I have absolutely no concern about the bench collapsing to the front or rear. My only concern is strength from side to side...and diagonal bracing is the most efficient way of dealing with that. A horizontal brace with a shelf doesn't usually add significant bracing against collapse). The horizontal members in my bench do give a lot of rigidity, but only because they are 8" wide...kind of like having 'built in' corner bracing.
I am very comfortable with the configuration of the bench right now, as far as strength. Now that the machine is on it and all the bolts have been re-tightened, it is absolutely rock steady. I also went with all 'through-bolt' construction for the major structural connections (i.e. I am not relying on a lag bolt's grip on wood...I have a bolt head or nut and washer on each side of the fastener, in a hole which goes all the way through the wood).
I know that spreader bars and a shelf under the bench are pretty normal. I don't usually want 'normal.' From the very beginning, I actually specified that the area under the bench should be free of braces and shelves. That is where I am going to store rolling chests of drawers, stools, chairs, short storage cabinets on wheels, etc. Eventually, this machine will get its own, custom aluminum bench and I will use this wooden bench as a fabrication and assembly table.
As far as shelves for tool storage, I have a whole shelf unit of shelves for tool storage in my garage...
View media item 17635
I suppose that if I had a scissor table, that would have been an option for me (I don't know everything HF has available, but the biggest lift table I see is only rated at 1000 pounds...this machine itself is 1200 pounds, plus the massive bench). I used what I have available, which is the HF 20-ton, air-over-hydraulic jack (which I got for $35 on sale) to get the bench up on wheels for the very few times I'll ever need to move it.
I am pleased that your system works for you. It is always cool when someone can use the equipment at hand to do what he needs done. The plans I have made for my garage may be a little different than the way others tend to do things, but it seems to be working well for me so far.
Thanks everyone, for taking the time to stop by and post! I should be back to building aeroplane-inspired aluminum projects soon.
M_P
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
Thanks for the input on swivels and taking time to stop by and post!
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
Whew...a lot of work in The Aerodrome Studio, but not a lot to show. I had hoped to be much further along tonight (clear out part of the garage, put the bench and machine in their final location, install the diagonal stability panel on the bench...and actually bending and shearing metal). Well, that was not to be.
I decided, instead, to work my way through the Baileigh owner's manual and do all the cleaning, lubricating and adjusting that it recommends for the SBR 5216. The machine was theoretically tested at Baileigh, but a quick check of the brake showed that it wasn't anywhere near where I wanted it.
There was much elbow grease expended this evening. Let me give you a hint: COSMOLINE. There's really ONLY one good thing about cosmoline, and that is that if you are cleaning it off of a machine, you just purchased a brand new machine (well, OK, two things...it keeps your brand new machine from rusting until it arrives at your doorstep.) It is icky, it is sticky, and just not a lot of fun.
The first part of the owners manual was not very helpful. It says 'use a degreaser or solvent, but do NOT use acetone.' It didn't say what to use to get all the cosmoline off the machine. Later in the manual, however, they mention 'mineral spirits,' so I did a quick search and found that mineral spirits are what I want to use for this purpose.
After the cosmoline comes off, the manual recommends coating the plain metal surfaces with 10W30 oil. I cannot imagine why you need the '10' part of that...that is just to reduce the viscosity of the oil in the engine before the oil warms up. So, I went to the auto parts store and found the most basic oil I could. It was pretty tough to find NON-synthetic oil on the shelf. I ended up with a very basic 'real' petroleum oil at 30W. Oh...I also had to stop by HD for a stick of 1/2" EMT tubing...used to set up the brake part of the machine.
I guess this is as good a time as any for the one picture I have. Here is a picture of the removable roller, from the slip roll part of the machine. I pulled it off to make it easier to wipe down and oil all three rollers. I did think ahead on this part of the project. I knew the roller would be pretty heavy, so I wanted a safe place to keep it, while it was off the machine. I grabbed a 4x4 piece of cribbing, which came under the machine, drilled a couple of two inch holes through it, then cut it in half with the band saw, to give me a cradle for the roller, when it is off the machine. This gives lets me keep it from rolling off the table top and getting dinged up. This roller wasn't just 'pretty heavy,' it was shockingly heavy. I had turned the release lever and backed off the roller adjustment knobs and tried to pull the roller out. It didn't budge...it took a LOT of ooomph to pull that thing out! I see why they recommend using two people to remove that roller...
View media item 19972
That was pretty much the rest of my night. Taking parts off, scrubbing them down with mineral spirits. Wiping the part with a thin coat of oil. Putting the part back on. I've only made it about half way through the machine so far. The Baileigh is 'toothless' right now...all the leaves of the brake are out. I have all the leaves clean and oiled, but having them out gives me better access to the rest of that area for cleaning.
Well, not many pictures to show tonight, but I am making progress. As much as I was not looking forward to cleaning all this cosmoline off, it has been a fairly therapeutic process. Not to mention, it looks MUCH better after cleaning and lubricating. And, once I get through the whole cleaning and setup process, the machine should work beautifully and I will know it has been done 'right.' Then, I'll get to have some fun, fabricating some sheet metal.
M_P
I decided, instead, to work my way through the Baileigh owner's manual and do all the cleaning, lubricating and adjusting that it recommends for the SBR 5216. The machine was theoretically tested at Baileigh, but a quick check of the brake showed that it wasn't anywhere near where I wanted it.
There was much elbow grease expended this evening. Let me give you a hint: COSMOLINE. There's really ONLY one good thing about cosmoline, and that is that if you are cleaning it off of a machine, you just purchased a brand new machine (well, OK, two things...it keeps your brand new machine from rusting until it arrives at your doorstep.) It is icky, it is sticky, and just not a lot of fun.
The first part of the owners manual was not very helpful. It says 'use a degreaser or solvent, but do NOT use acetone.' It didn't say what to use to get all the cosmoline off the machine. Later in the manual, however, they mention 'mineral spirits,' so I did a quick search and found that mineral spirits are what I want to use for this purpose.
After the cosmoline comes off, the manual recommends coating the plain metal surfaces with 10W30 oil. I cannot imagine why you need the '10' part of that...that is just to reduce the viscosity of the oil in the engine before the oil warms up. So, I went to the auto parts store and found the most basic oil I could. It was pretty tough to find NON-synthetic oil on the shelf. I ended up with a very basic 'real' petroleum oil at 30W. Oh...I also had to stop by HD for a stick of 1/2" EMT tubing...used to set up the brake part of the machine.
I guess this is as good a time as any for the one picture I have. Here is a picture of the removable roller, from the slip roll part of the machine. I pulled it off to make it easier to wipe down and oil all three rollers. I did think ahead on this part of the project. I knew the roller would be pretty heavy, so I wanted a safe place to keep it, while it was off the machine. I grabbed a 4x4 piece of cribbing, which came under the machine, drilled a couple of two inch holes through it, then cut it in half with the band saw, to give me a cradle for the roller, when it is off the machine. This gives lets me keep it from rolling off the table top and getting dinged up. This roller wasn't just 'pretty heavy,' it was shockingly heavy. I had turned the release lever and backed off the roller adjustment knobs and tried to pull the roller out. It didn't budge...it took a LOT of ooomph to pull that thing out! I see why they recommend using two people to remove that roller...
View media item 19972
That was pretty much the rest of my night. Taking parts off, scrubbing them down with mineral spirits. Wiping the part with a thin coat of oil. Putting the part back on. I've only made it about half way through the machine so far. The Baileigh is 'toothless' right now...all the leaves of the brake are out. I have all the leaves clean and oiled, but having them out gives me better access to the rest of that area for cleaning.
Well, not many pictures to show tonight, but I am making progress. As much as I was not looking forward to cleaning all this cosmoline off, it has been a fairly therapeutic process. Not to mention, it looks MUCH better after cleaning and lubricating. And, once I get through the whole cleaning and setup process, the machine should work beautifully and I will know it has been done 'right.' Then, I'll get to have some fun, fabricating some sheet metal.
M_P
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
Why a combination machine now?
I'm still busy in The Aerodrome studio, just not really a lot more to show you with pictures. As I get a couple of hours here and there, I do some more cleaning of the new Baileigh combination machine (take a part off, wipe the cosmoline off the part and the machine screws with mineral spirits, wipe the part and machine screws with 30W oil to prevent rust, reinstall and re-align the part.
I realize that I haven't really posted much from a couple of months ago and I wanted to fill you in on what I was doing and how I arrived at getting the Baileigh 5216 shear/brake/roll (referred to as 'the Baileigh' from now on).
I was trying bend a couple of relatively thick aluminum (0.125, I believe) to form the 'strut' of a structure. My intent was to make a benchtop base for my new Milwaukee band saw. The portability and design of the unit is great, but a lot of what I do would be easier with a fixed, vertical band saw. So, I was in the process of building an aeroplane-inspired base. The table of the base was mocked up in 1/4" thick aluminum...
View media item 16143
I was going to make legs for the base which would look like you cut a section out of an airplane wing. While I can rivet together all the pieces of the 'strut' for those bases, I wanted to bend one piece for each leg, to give the it a very secure base. Here is a drawing of the strut I was trying to bend, the strut is in red...
View media item 16442
I tried everything I knew to bend this stuff, from clamping it to the bench and bending it by hand to beating on it with a rubber mallet. Nothing I could think of would give me a uniform bend in this material.
[tonight's story also gave me a chance to play with my new (to me) camera too. For those of you who need to know: Canon 10D SLR digital body with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 MK I lens. Two of the pictures were shot 'on location' in the garage and two of the pictures were shot on my tabletop studio in the dining room.]
So, since I didn't have a budget for new machinery at the time, I looked up how to make your own brake, out of readily available materials. I ended up making one out of wood, with a couple of hinges. It didn't have the biggest capacity, but I the pieces I was trying to bend were only a couple of inches wide. Here it is, showing you primarily the hinge alignment. When you build a bending brake, you need to make sure the pivot point is at the axis of the bend...in this case, I had to inset the hinges into the wood in two directions to get there. I got spot on on the base of the brake, and very close, with the bending leaf of the brake...
View media item 20095
Here, you see the bottom of the clamping board, which I decided to laminate with aluminum plate, for durability. I think this is 0.125 aluminum plate, fastened to the clamping batten with countersunk screws, then a router with a roundover bit was run around the edge, to soften the edge and blend the wood and aluminum. Look back at the picture above, to see where the piece of aluminum is, on the bottom of the clamping board...
View media item 20096
While this brake did OK on thinner material, it still did not make the bends I needed for the band saw table struts. So, I started looking around for a brake. Most of the used stuff on CL seemed to be plated in gold. They still wanted way too much for it. I found some stuff in the Grizzly catalog which would work for my immediate needs, but for about $700, I would end up with only a leaf brake, not a box-and-pan brake, like I wanted. While I have been trained to TIG weld, I don't have a welder at my garage (yet--will likely get a OA gas setup first). So, I really wasn't looking to get a welder and build my own brake yet.
As I was exploring the market for brakes, I naturally looked at Baileigh Industrial's web site. Grizzly had a combination machine, similar to the HF machine, which was rated to shear/brake/roll up to 20 gauge CRS. That just isn't going to cut it in my garage. I'm not spending that kind of money on a machine which only does 20 gauge (and that is likely pushing it for those machines). Baileigh had similar machines, but they had one rated for 52 inches wide and up to 16 gauge CRS. That's more like it! EEEK...that thing is $2,000, plus shipping. That'll take me forever to save up with my hobby budget.
Fortunately, a couple of financial blessing happened around that time and we decided I could go ahead and get that Baileigh machine, even at $2K. So, I call Baileigh Industrial (BI) and ask about one. The salesman tells me they happen to have a scratch-and-dent of that model, and asks if I would be interested. Long story short, I got the machine for 1/2 price...$1,000, plus shipping. Since the machine arrived a little over a week ago, I have been unloading it, putting it on its new bench, and cleaning it up.
This cleaning of the machine has been a very relaxing project. I definitely want to get through this phase and get back to building projects, but I have kind of enjoyed getting in tune with the machine. I've disassembled a fair amount of it, except for the major assemblies, to perform the clean/oil/reassemble process on each part and machine screw. Once I get it all back together, I am going to go through the setup and alignment process outlined in the user manual. Once I am sure everything is lined up and ready, I'll make a few test cuts and bends, to try everything out and get used to the machine. I'm still getting used to the new camera, so I'll try out some pictures here. I suppose I should get a few pics 'side by side' with the old camera, and see if the new pics are really any better. I am still generally letting the camera make most of the decisions. As I get more into it, I will figure out part of the exposure on my own and set that manually, while letting the camera take care of the rest of the calculations.
Here, you see the end shot of the brake. The metal is very bright, but I wanted to give you a shot perpendicular to the end of the blade, so you can see that it is lined up properly (centered in the anvil portion of the brake)...
View media item 20093
While this picture makes it look like they are not lined up, it is just the angle of the shot which makes it look that way. This just gives you an idea of where the picture above is located on the machine...
View media item 20094
That's all for tonight...most of today was taken up with family stuff and fixing a toilet that decided to fail catastrophically this afternoon (read: drip water fast enough to get all the way through the floor and start dripping through the ceiling of the bathroom below).
M_P
I'm still busy in The Aerodrome studio, just not really a lot more to show you with pictures. As I get a couple of hours here and there, I do some more cleaning of the new Baileigh combination machine (take a part off, wipe the cosmoline off the part and the machine screws with mineral spirits, wipe the part and machine screws with 30W oil to prevent rust, reinstall and re-align the part.
I realize that I haven't really posted much from a couple of months ago and I wanted to fill you in on what I was doing and how I arrived at getting the Baileigh 5216 shear/brake/roll (referred to as 'the Baileigh' from now on).
I was trying bend a couple of relatively thick aluminum (0.125, I believe) to form the 'strut' of a structure. My intent was to make a benchtop base for my new Milwaukee band saw. The portability and design of the unit is great, but a lot of what I do would be easier with a fixed, vertical band saw. So, I was in the process of building an aeroplane-inspired base. The table of the base was mocked up in 1/4" thick aluminum...
View media item 16143
I was going to make legs for the base which would look like you cut a section out of an airplane wing. While I can rivet together all the pieces of the 'strut' for those bases, I wanted to bend one piece for each leg, to give the it a very secure base. Here is a drawing of the strut I was trying to bend, the strut is in red...
View media item 16442
I tried everything I knew to bend this stuff, from clamping it to the bench and bending it by hand to beating on it with a rubber mallet. Nothing I could think of would give me a uniform bend in this material.
[tonight's story also gave me a chance to play with my new (to me) camera too. For those of you who need to know: Canon 10D SLR digital body with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 MK I lens. Two of the pictures were shot 'on location' in the garage and two of the pictures were shot on my tabletop studio in the dining room.]
So, since I didn't have a budget for new machinery at the time, I looked up how to make your own brake, out of readily available materials. I ended up making one out of wood, with a couple of hinges. It didn't have the biggest capacity, but I the pieces I was trying to bend were only a couple of inches wide. Here it is, showing you primarily the hinge alignment. When you build a bending brake, you need to make sure the pivot point is at the axis of the bend...in this case, I had to inset the hinges into the wood in two directions to get there. I got spot on on the base of the brake, and very close, with the bending leaf of the brake...
View media item 20095
Here, you see the bottom of the clamping board, which I decided to laminate with aluminum plate, for durability. I think this is 0.125 aluminum plate, fastened to the clamping batten with countersunk screws, then a router with a roundover bit was run around the edge, to soften the edge and blend the wood and aluminum. Look back at the picture above, to see where the piece of aluminum is, on the bottom of the clamping board...
View media item 20096
While this brake did OK on thinner material, it still did not make the bends I needed for the band saw table struts. So, I started looking around for a brake. Most of the used stuff on CL seemed to be plated in gold. They still wanted way too much for it. I found some stuff in the Grizzly catalog which would work for my immediate needs, but for about $700, I would end up with only a leaf brake, not a box-and-pan brake, like I wanted. While I have been trained to TIG weld, I don't have a welder at my garage (yet--will likely get a OA gas setup first). So, I really wasn't looking to get a welder and build my own brake yet.
As I was exploring the market for brakes, I naturally looked at Baileigh Industrial's web site. Grizzly had a combination machine, similar to the HF machine, which was rated to shear/brake/roll up to 20 gauge CRS. That just isn't going to cut it in my garage. I'm not spending that kind of money on a machine which only does 20 gauge (and that is likely pushing it for those machines). Baileigh had similar machines, but they had one rated for 52 inches wide and up to 16 gauge CRS. That's more like it! EEEK...that thing is $2,000, plus shipping. That'll take me forever to save up with my hobby budget.
Fortunately, a couple of financial blessing happened around that time and we decided I could go ahead and get that Baileigh machine, even at $2K. So, I call Baileigh Industrial (BI) and ask about one. The salesman tells me they happen to have a scratch-and-dent of that model, and asks if I would be interested. Long story short, I got the machine for 1/2 price...$1,000, plus shipping. Since the machine arrived a little over a week ago, I have been unloading it, putting it on its new bench, and cleaning it up.
This cleaning of the machine has been a very relaxing project. I definitely want to get through this phase and get back to building projects, but I have kind of enjoyed getting in tune with the machine. I've disassembled a fair amount of it, except for the major assemblies, to perform the clean/oil/reassemble process on each part and machine screw. Once I get it all back together, I am going to go through the setup and alignment process outlined in the user manual. Once I am sure everything is lined up and ready, I'll make a few test cuts and bends, to try everything out and get used to the machine. I'm still getting used to the new camera, so I'll try out some pictures here. I suppose I should get a few pics 'side by side' with the old camera, and see if the new pics are really any better. I am still generally letting the camera make most of the decisions. As I get more into it, I will figure out part of the exposure on my own and set that manually, while letting the camera take care of the rest of the calculations.
Here, you see the end shot of the brake. The metal is very bright, but I wanted to give you a shot perpendicular to the end of the blade, so you can see that it is lined up properly (centered in the anvil portion of the brake)...
View media item 20093
While this picture makes it look like they are not lined up, it is just the angle of the shot which makes it look that way. This just gives you an idea of where the picture above is located on the machine...
View media item 20094
That's all for tonight...most of today was taken up with family stuff and fixing a toilet that decided to fail catastrophically this afternoon (read: drip water fast enough to get all the way through the floor and start dripping through the ceiling of the bathroom below).
M_P
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OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
Just one picture tonight...
View media item 20130
Of course, you know what this means...I have finally finished cleaning, lubricating, and setting up the Baileigh 5216!!!
I ended up moving the top of the brake section up. It was too low and it kept the handles from continuing around in a circle (which is necessary for the slip roll section to work.)
I tested the shear section, as recommended, with a piece of paper. I taped 5 pieces of printer paper, end-to-end, to get an approximately 50-inch long piece of paper. The first cut tore the paper for the first 5 inches, then cut the rest of the strip beautifully. I loosened the bolts of the shear bed (which holds the fixed blade) and moved it a tad (the machinist's technical term for that distance) toward the blade and locked it down. The second cut was beautiful, from end to end.
Yes, I know...that is not the prettiest box ever. It really wasn't meant to be--I just wanted to get something bent quickly and check the machine's alignment. I started with some pretty rough looking aluminum which I picked up at the salvage yard. I was going to throw a couple of rivets in it, but I was done for the afternoon (I spent part of the day finishing up the toilet repair...the toilet was 20 years old and still working on the original parts, which is amazing, but it finally gave up the ghost and started leaking like crazy from one of the tank bolts, so I replaced all the internals and ended up breaking the ancient bendable-copper supply line, which meant another trip to the hardware store and back to finish up the toilet). Overall, it took about 7 hours, over 3 sessions, to clean and set up the machine.
I did a quick layout and cut it to the outline on the shear part of the combo machine (it cut this aluminum sheet 'like butta!') Then, I cut out the corners and tabs with a pair of duck-billed tin snips. I bent the box into shape with four passes through the brake part of the machine, after setting up part of the machine to the width of the short end.
Once I get the bench on the ground again (in its final location and off the wheel dollies and attach the diagonal brace to the back legs), I will go through and do another quick alignment check on everything.
WHEW! This has been quite an experience. I cannot wait to get this piece of equipment in its place in the garage and make it a daily part of the fabrication in The Aerodrome Studio.
I hope everyone had a good weekend!
M_P
View media item 20130
Of course, you know what this means...I have finally finished cleaning, lubricating, and setting up the Baileigh 5216!!!
I ended up moving the top of the brake section up. It was too low and it kept the handles from continuing around in a circle (which is necessary for the slip roll section to work.)
I tested the shear section, as recommended, with a piece of paper. I taped 5 pieces of printer paper, end-to-end, to get an approximately 50-inch long piece of paper. The first cut tore the paper for the first 5 inches, then cut the rest of the strip beautifully. I loosened the bolts of the shear bed (which holds the fixed blade) and moved it a tad (the machinist's technical term for that distance) toward the blade and locked it down. The second cut was beautiful, from end to end.
Yes, I know...that is not the prettiest box ever. It really wasn't meant to be--I just wanted to get something bent quickly and check the machine's alignment. I started with some pretty rough looking aluminum which I picked up at the salvage yard. I was going to throw a couple of rivets in it, but I was done for the afternoon (I spent part of the day finishing up the toilet repair...the toilet was 20 years old and still working on the original parts, which is amazing, but it finally gave up the ghost and started leaking like crazy from one of the tank bolts, so I replaced all the internals and ended up breaking the ancient bendable-copper supply line, which meant another trip to the hardware store and back to finish up the toilet). Overall, it took about 7 hours, over 3 sessions, to clean and set up the machine.
I did a quick layout and cut it to the outline on the shear part of the combo machine (it cut this aluminum sheet 'like butta!') Then, I cut out the corners and tabs with a pair of duck-billed tin snips. I bent the box into shape with four passes through the brake part of the machine, after setting up part of the machine to the width of the short end.
Once I get the bench on the ground again (in its final location and off the wheel dollies and attach the diagonal brace to the back legs), I will go through and do another quick alignment check on everything.
WHEW! This has been quite an experience. I cannot wait to get this piece of equipment in its place in the garage and make it a daily part of the fabrication in The Aerodrome Studio.
I hope everyone had a good weekend!
M_P
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Honch
Well-known member
Machine Punk the Baileigh looks like it is a very nice piece of equipment, I would love to have something like that in my garage. The only concern I would have with it is, the press brake dies appear to have a very tight bend radius, they are probably intended for steel. The specs said it handles up to 16 gauge steel or 0.0598 which would limit you to about 0.040 aluminum in 6061-T6. I use that as an example because you posted as using it previously. If strength is not a concern then you wont need to worry much about a tight bend radius, if you bend it less than minimum bend radius and it doesn't crack it might be good. I have seen people bend 6061 or even 2024 with too small of a radius, to the naked eye it looked fine and then it cracked in half as the part was being assembled.
A press brake will also limit you to a maximum bend of 90°, at least with those dies. You can possibly bend less than that by not running the brake through its full stroke, but it will probably be difficult to duplicate in quantity. Most aviation repair and fabrication outside of an OEM environment is accomplished with a box brake which can be had as small as a vice mounted version. They have minimal setup and allow 0° to 135° bends, increasing bend radius is as simple as using another piece of metal between the fingers and the piece being bent.
I would never try to anneal aluminum to bend it, there are much easier ways to bend aluminum without cracking it. Always be sure to bend the metal against the grain, this applies to high strength steels as well. Polishing the edge of the aluminum where the bend is to be made is also a good practice, a blue Scotch-Brite Roloc works great for this. Whenever metal is sheared or cut it leaves micro fractures along the cut edge this is where the crack or break propagates from. Cutting a relief radius at a bend point will also allow for bends without cracking. This is commonly done when not all the bends on a single piece can be made against the grain of the metal.
I would suggest using 2024-T3 around 0.032 or similar and in a non-clad version if available. For what you appear to be doing it is much easier to drill, bend and form than 6061 or 7075. Without the cladding it is much more resistant to scratches and much easier to get a brushed type finish. If you are looking for shine with no work, by all means get the alclad.
A press brake will also limit you to a maximum bend of 90°, at least with those dies. You can possibly bend less than that by not running the brake through its full stroke, but it will probably be difficult to duplicate in quantity. Most aviation repair and fabrication outside of an OEM environment is accomplished with a box brake which can be had as small as a vice mounted version. They have minimal setup and allow 0° to 135° bends, increasing bend radius is as simple as using another piece of metal between the fingers and the piece being bent.
I would never try to anneal aluminum to bend it, there are much easier ways to bend aluminum without cracking it. Always be sure to bend the metal against the grain, this applies to high strength steels as well. Polishing the edge of the aluminum where the bend is to be made is also a good practice, a blue Scotch-Brite Roloc works great for this. Whenever metal is sheared or cut it leaves micro fractures along the cut edge this is where the crack or break propagates from. Cutting a relief radius at a bend point will also allow for bends without cracking. This is commonly done when not all the bends on a single piece can be made against the grain of the metal.
I would suggest using 2024-T3 around 0.032 or similar and in a non-clad version if available. For what you appear to be doing it is much easier to drill, bend and form than 6061 or 7075. Without the cladding it is much more resistant to scratches and much easier to get a brushed type finish. If you are looking for shine with no work, by all means get the alclad.
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
Thanks for the ideas! The cool thing, which I didn't realize before I completely disassembled and cleaned the machine, is that not only do the leaves of the brake come out, the anvil does too. I've already been thinking about how to fabricate leaves and an anvil with a rounder profile (weld a 1/2 diameter oil-hardened tool steel to a plate of regular steel, then cut it to the correct widths, then heat and harden the rounded part) Well, that's my idea, anyway.
Thanks for the other tips and thanks for stopping by and posting at The Aerodrome Studio!
M_P
Thanks for the other tips and thanks for stopping by and posting at The Aerodrome Studio!
M_P
Honch
Well-known member
The "leaves" or fingers along with the anvil are known as dies. The leaves are individually removable for clearance reasons such as bending a box, it allows the legs of the box to clear the finger.
The dies are sold by many different companies to accomplish different bends, flanges and joggles. Making one without the proper tooling would probably cost you as much or more than buying them and the results would be questionable.
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
Behemoth Bench is Braced
Another 'light on pictures' post, but there isn't much to see right now...I'm basically moving Stuff in circles in the studio side of the garage, to get it out of the way of other Stuff, which is moving to a permanent home somewhere else in the studio. Of course, some of the Stuff is moved outside, just to get it out of the way for a moment, so I can move other Stuff.
Anyway, the big news headline is:
"The Baileigh 3-in-1 is in its Permanent Location and the Behemoth Bench has Finally Been Braced Diagonally"
Here is a picture of what I came up with for diagonal bracing on the bench. I went with what seemed to be the simplest route, because I don't really believe it 'needs' diagonal bracing, since the bench seems very stable 'as is,' especially since I went with the next size up of dimensional lumber, over whatever I thought I actually needed (i.e. chose a 2X8 when I was pretty sure a 2x6 would have been adequate), and I used through-bolt construction on all the joints.
However, somewhere in the back of my head, there is a little guy, waving a red flag in the air, emblazoned with the words "1200 pounds." That machine is HEAVY and I don't think I'd survive it falling on me. I originally planned double 2X8 diagonal braces...but the new design of the bench didn't work well with those. I chose the simplest thing I could think of. I took the cutoff from one of the 3/4" sheets of plywood used to make the bench top, cut it to the correct length, and lagged it onto the back leg of the bench. For sturdiness, I would have preferred to lag it to the front of the back legs, but I have plans for storage under this bench, so I ended up putting it on the back of the back legs. In typical Machine_Punk fashion, this over-engineered brace was fastened to the back of the legs with over-engineered fasteners.
I had a bunch of 5/16" lag bolts, about 3.5" long, which I didn't use, after I changed the design of the bench and went with all 'through-bolt construction on the critical joints. So, I used them to attach this piece of plywood to the back of the legs. This is a slightly out-of-focus picture, but it gives you a great view of what I did to brace the bench diagonally...
View media item 20279
If you didn't already know that I use a lot of rivets in my fabrication, this would be another clue...lots of fasteners, in long, straight, lines. It didn't take too long into the lag bolt installation to figure out this was a bit much, but I had to laugh at how much like a double-row of rivets it looked. I nearly calculated the rivet pitch, out of habit. The air-powered, 3/8" ratchet stopped ratcheting about half way through each of these...did the rest manually, with the HF 3/8" composite ratchet. Sure was wishing I had an impact wrench on this job...
View media item 20280(sorry for the out-of-focus picture...that was a super-long shutter speed).
As a side note: The 12-ton air-over-hydraulic bottle jack and wheel dollies worked beautifully for lifting, moving, and lowering the bench.
Another side note: One of the legs of the bench, or the concrete floor, is slightly uneven. Since I won't be moving this bench much, I simply used a couple of sets of regular shims under that leg. Very low-tech, but completely functional.
On to other news...this new wire shelf has been bothering me since the minute I installed it a few weeks ago. (This is the NSF Certified wire shelving unit at Costco, for anyone who is interested...about $90, if I remember correctly. I cut 1/2" MDF for shelf liner. I think tempered hardboard would have been adequate)...
View media item 17635
I have so much room above the waist-high shelf, because I want to be able to store any of my bench equipment there...and that is how much room it takes for the drill press. (That shelf is as close to the height of my smaller workbench as I could get...so moving stuff back and forth from the bench to the storage shelf is easier). Unfortunately, it wastes a LOT of potential storage space and there would be very few times I would store the drill press (it is one of the most-frequently-used pieces of equipment in the studio). While the top shelf is a nice storage place for light boxes of Rarely-Needed Stuff, that big, empty spot bugs me, every time I look at it.
So, today, I finally decided to take the whole top half of the shelving unit off (it comes with extra hardware and shelves, to make two complete half-height units). The current bottom half has been scooted over to where my pick-a-part bins are now, which gives me great access to the bench tools and to the whatever tools eventually reside in that area of the Reconfigurable Tool Rack.
What to do with the rest of the wire shelving unit? Assemble it under the new Behemoth Baileigh Bench, of course! Unfortunately, the uprights are about three inches too long (look the other way and give me about two minutes with my Milwaukee portable band saw and I'll have that problem fixed.)
That's all for updates today. Making progress as I have time to spend in the studio. Not a lot worth seeing right now, but there is a lot going on.
M_P
Another 'light on pictures' post, but there isn't much to see right now...I'm basically moving Stuff in circles in the studio side of the garage, to get it out of the way of other Stuff, which is moving to a permanent home somewhere else in the studio. Of course, some of the Stuff is moved outside, just to get it out of the way for a moment, so I can move other Stuff.
Anyway, the big news headline is:
"The Baileigh 3-in-1 is in its Permanent Location and the Behemoth Bench has Finally Been Braced Diagonally"
Here is a picture of what I came up with for diagonal bracing on the bench. I went with what seemed to be the simplest route, because I don't really believe it 'needs' diagonal bracing, since the bench seems very stable 'as is,' especially since I went with the next size up of dimensional lumber, over whatever I thought I actually needed (i.e. chose a 2X8 when I was pretty sure a 2x6 would have been adequate), and I used through-bolt construction on all the joints.
However, somewhere in the back of my head, there is a little guy, waving a red flag in the air, emblazoned with the words "1200 pounds." That machine is HEAVY and I don't think I'd survive it falling on me. I originally planned double 2X8 diagonal braces...but the new design of the bench didn't work well with those. I chose the simplest thing I could think of. I took the cutoff from one of the 3/4" sheets of plywood used to make the bench top, cut it to the correct length, and lagged it onto the back leg of the bench. For sturdiness, I would have preferred to lag it to the front of the back legs, but I have plans for storage under this bench, so I ended up putting it on the back of the back legs. In typical Machine_Punk fashion, this over-engineered brace was fastened to the back of the legs with over-engineered fasteners.
I had a bunch of 5/16" lag bolts, about 3.5" long, which I didn't use, after I changed the design of the bench and went with all 'through-bolt construction on the critical joints. So, I used them to attach this piece of plywood to the back of the legs. This is a slightly out-of-focus picture, but it gives you a great view of what I did to brace the bench diagonally...
View media item 20279
If you didn't already know that I use a lot of rivets in my fabrication, this would be another clue...lots of fasteners, in long, straight, lines. It didn't take too long into the lag bolt installation to figure out this was a bit much, but I had to laugh at how much like a double-row of rivets it looked. I nearly calculated the rivet pitch, out of habit. The air-powered, 3/8" ratchet stopped ratcheting about half way through each of these...did the rest manually, with the HF 3/8" composite ratchet. Sure was wishing I had an impact wrench on this job...
View media item 20280(sorry for the out-of-focus picture...that was a super-long shutter speed).
As a side note: The 12-ton air-over-hydraulic bottle jack and wheel dollies worked beautifully for lifting, moving, and lowering the bench.
Another side note: One of the legs of the bench, or the concrete floor, is slightly uneven. Since I won't be moving this bench much, I simply used a couple of sets of regular shims under that leg. Very low-tech, but completely functional.
On to other news...this new wire shelf has been bothering me since the minute I installed it a few weeks ago. (This is the NSF Certified wire shelving unit at Costco, for anyone who is interested...about $90, if I remember correctly. I cut 1/2" MDF for shelf liner. I think tempered hardboard would have been adequate)...
View media item 17635
I have so much room above the waist-high shelf, because I want to be able to store any of my bench equipment there...and that is how much room it takes for the drill press. (That shelf is as close to the height of my smaller workbench as I could get...so moving stuff back and forth from the bench to the storage shelf is easier). Unfortunately, it wastes a LOT of potential storage space and there would be very few times I would store the drill press (it is one of the most-frequently-used pieces of equipment in the studio). While the top shelf is a nice storage place for light boxes of Rarely-Needed Stuff, that big, empty spot bugs me, every time I look at it.
So, today, I finally decided to take the whole top half of the shelving unit off (it comes with extra hardware and shelves, to make two complete half-height units). The current bottom half has been scooted over to where my pick-a-part bins are now, which gives me great access to the bench tools and to the whatever tools eventually reside in that area of the Reconfigurable Tool Rack.
What to do with the rest of the wire shelving unit? Assemble it under the new Behemoth Baileigh Bench, of course! Unfortunately, the uprights are about three inches too long (look the other way and give me about two minutes with my Milwaukee portable band saw and I'll have that problem fixed.)
That's all for updates today. Making progress as I have time to spend in the studio. Not a lot worth seeing right now, but there is a lot going on.
M_P
Kevin54
MEMBER EMERITUS
If you ever have anyone make up some punches and dies for you, remember that a punch is cut at 85 degrees total and a die will be cut at 90 degrees total. If the punch and die is both cut at 90 degrees, you will have a hard time making a 90 degree bend. The 85 degree punch allows the workpiece to slightly overform and spring back to 90.
This is for a 90 degree bend only. Punches and dies will vary according to material and the degree of bend that you want. You also want to keep your inside radius close to the material thickness that you are bending. For example, if you are bending .032 thick material, you don't want to go less than .032 radius on your punch.
This is for a 90 degree bend only. Punches and dies will vary according to material and the degree of bend that you want. You also want to keep your inside radius close to the material thickness that you are bending. For example, if you are bending .032 thick material, you don't want to go less than .032 radius on your punch.
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OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
THANKS for the info, KEVIN54...I was just getting ready to dive into learning this whole bending allowance and bending radius thing. I have looked at some commercially available dies...and they usually seem to use between 85-88 degrees, to end up with a 90-degree bend, after springback. I'm looking forward to running some test pieces with this setup, once I get the studio a little more organized.
M_P
M_P
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
Continue to Organize the Studio
I have been busy in the garage, just not a lot to show for it, yet. Mostly just cleaning and organizing.
Today, I had a couple of projects to improve my studio space in the garage.
I put up some new lights. I only had one CFL and one OLD 4-foot, double tube, T12 fluorescent fixture. I moved another OLD fixture to the shop area and put new DAYLIGHT bulbs in it. I bought a new T12 fixture and put some daylight bulbs in it. One of the old fixtures just wouldn't work with the new daylight bulbs, so I ended up figuring out the best old bulbs to put in that fixture, until I can get back to the store and get another fixture and more bulbs...
View media item 20464
Yes, I know, that isn't an elegant or fancy solution. BUT, I have plans for lights I eventually want to build, I have other priorities on the purchase list right now, and I just wanted the quickest, lowest-cost solution to getting more lights. With about $35, I tripled the fixtures and got probably 4-5 times more light. It is like daylight in there now. I think I am going to add two more fixtures, with daylight bulbs, before this is over. Having decent light in The Aerodrome Studio is amazing. If you are on the fence about moving to the daylight bulbs, I would highly recommend it. The difference is truly unbelievable.
Next, I planned to modify half of the wire shelving system. If you remember, I took the top part of the shelf unit off, with the intent of putting it under the new Behemoth Baileigh Bench. Here is the whole shelving unit, from a couple of weeks ago...
View media item 17635
The bottom half of that shelf stayed pretty much exactly the same, and was moved to somewhere else in the studio. Unfortunately, the uprights on the top part of the shelves were a few inches too tall. Fortunately, I own a Milwaukee portable band saw, which made VERY short work of cutting the uprights down to size. I popped the end caps back on and nobody will ever know...
View media item 20461
Now, unfortunately, the wire shelves really aren't that effective for holding tools and other stuff...everything gets caught up in the wires. Fortunately, I do a little woodwork too...and I fabbed up some shelf liners, out of tempered hardboard. I cut the liners to width and length on the table saw, then cut out the corner clearance with a Forstner bit (man, those things have come in handy)...
View media item 20462
Then slid it neatly under the Behemoth Baileigh Bench, ready to store some tools...
View media item 20463
M_P
I have been busy in the garage, just not a lot to show for it, yet. Mostly just cleaning and organizing.
Today, I had a couple of projects to improve my studio space in the garage.
I put up some new lights. I only had one CFL and one OLD 4-foot, double tube, T12 fluorescent fixture. I moved another OLD fixture to the shop area and put new DAYLIGHT bulbs in it. I bought a new T12 fixture and put some daylight bulbs in it. One of the old fixtures just wouldn't work with the new daylight bulbs, so I ended up figuring out the best old bulbs to put in that fixture, until I can get back to the store and get another fixture and more bulbs...
View media item 20464
Yes, I know, that isn't an elegant or fancy solution. BUT, I have plans for lights I eventually want to build, I have other priorities on the purchase list right now, and I just wanted the quickest, lowest-cost solution to getting more lights. With about $35, I tripled the fixtures and got probably 4-5 times more light. It is like daylight in there now. I think I am going to add two more fixtures, with daylight bulbs, before this is over. Having decent light in The Aerodrome Studio is amazing. If you are on the fence about moving to the daylight bulbs, I would highly recommend it. The difference is truly unbelievable.
Next, I planned to modify half of the wire shelving system. If you remember, I took the top part of the shelf unit off, with the intent of putting it under the new Behemoth Baileigh Bench. Here is the whole shelving unit, from a couple of weeks ago...
View media item 17635
The bottom half of that shelf stayed pretty much exactly the same, and was moved to somewhere else in the studio. Unfortunately, the uprights on the top part of the shelves were a few inches too tall. Fortunately, I own a Milwaukee portable band saw, which made VERY short work of cutting the uprights down to size. I popped the end caps back on and nobody will ever know...
View media item 20461
Now, unfortunately, the wire shelves really aren't that effective for holding tools and other stuff...everything gets caught up in the wires. Fortunately, I do a little woodwork too...and I fabbed up some shelf liners, out of tempered hardboard. I cut the liners to width and length on the table saw, then cut out the corner clearance with a Forstner bit (man, those things have come in handy)...
View media item 20462
Then slid it neatly under the Behemoth Baileigh Bench, ready to store some tools...
View media item 20463
M_P
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
I will look into that...thanks!
Red Leader
Well-known member
As always, looking fantastic!
Now I want to be a cool kid too and get all this sweet metal working stuff!
Now I want to be a cool kid too and get all this sweet metal working stuff!
flybefree
Well-known member
MP: I love the fact that you are diving in head first to this whole deal! Great work my friend, I al learning as you go too...so thanks for posting up.
Shaun
Shaun
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
RED LEADER an FLYBEFREE: Thanks for the kind words and taking the time to post! I'll have a few more pics soon, of the newly-organized studio, once I deal with the Disgusting Pile of Stuff in the middle of the floor.
M_P
M_P
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OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
The Organized Studio
I know I haven't shared a lot lately, since the things I have been working on are more 'behind the scenes.' (and who really wants to see pictures of me, moving Stuff in circles, until I find The Spot Where it Fits?)
I've mainly been working on getting the new Baileigh 3-in-1 into the studio, set up, and enough room around it to work. While I was at it, I decided to just get that side of the garage cleaned out (my huge, 15-passenger van won't fit in the garage anyway and my wife's car will fill the other side of the garage) and have a little elbow room. After much sweat and tears, and dust and frustration, and pulled muscles and late nights, The Aerodrome Studio is finally 'presentable' for the first time.
I realized, the other night, that I have been using solid rivets and aluminum sheet for just over a year now. I scribbled some information on my very first practice piece, with my very first bucked rivet, that reminds me I started this journey on April 12, 2011. You can see the practice piece in the bottom, right of this picture...
View media item 11622
It's hard to believe it's been just over a year...I barely remember a time I didn't know how to rivet. Weird.
Anyway, on with the tour of The New and Improved Aerodrome Studio.
This is the major storage corner. The wire shelving unit on the left is the Costco unit (for about $100 and I highly recommend it). I really like these shelves, because they remind me of my other hobby (cooking), they are very sturdy, and they are easy to reconfigure if your needs change. This unit was originally about 6 feet tall a few weeks ago, when I decided to use the top and bottom parts of the unit separately. This is set up to be just about exactly the same height as the workbench right next to it, so it is easy to move bench power tools back and forth between the bench and storage. The shortened height of the shelving unit also allows access to future Custom Tool Boards on the Reconfigurable Tool Rack.
The pick-a-part-bins shelf to the right was a CL find at $25. I will eventually repaint it and put it on a framework with casters. The yellow bins were bought new though and were about $350 delivered (shipping was painful, even just from Los Angeles). I got those from Uline and I am very pleased with the quality.
You see the yellow hose coming from the ceiling. That is my temporary solution for getting compressed air over here (the compressor is near the garage door, on the other side of the garage.) I'll eventually put in 1/2" copper pipe and put a drop just to the right of the Reconfigurable Tool Rack.
There was an excess-equipment sale at work recently (a hospital), and I got quite a bit for the shop, for a sum total of $60. I'll point out the pieces I got from that work equipment sale as we move around the studio. The first piece is the pneumatic-lift laptop table you see holding a couple of yellow bins. It rolls and goes from the height you see there to mid chest height, with the press of a pedal. All it needed was a couple of screws tightened up and it is now perfect. I will use it to hold tools and parts, while working on projects...
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Here, you see a hospital bedside stand I got as part of that $60 purchase. I use the drawer for my buffing supplies and the lower section of the cabinet for abrasives of all sorts. On top of that is the HF 7-drawer side cabinet. I got it for $150, since the keys were locked in a drawer at the store. After drilling the lock, I called HF customer service and they sent me a free replacement lock. The end cabinet was hanging on my HF 5-drawer tool cart, but that was always going to be a temporary situation. I originally planned to get the 13-drawer tool cart, but I read GIRL IN A GARAGE'S thread and was inspired to make my own tool-storage drawers some day. The reusable shipping box on top came from the work equipment sale too. I'll put that in the van and keep a few tools and supplies in there.
What you can see, but not recognize, in the bottom right of this picture is my portable contractor's table saw, which I received in trade for a truck rack, which I got free but did not need...
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Moving left, we see the bin shelving unit again. In the background, you can see the wood of the double bike rack I built, to give everyone easy access to their bicycles, just by opening the garage door...
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Here is my general workbench. I built this a good 15 years ago, when my work space was a sum total of 4 feet by 8 feet. So, this bench has wheels on one side, so I could move it out to the carport to work. My workshop at that time was just a few inches wider than this bench. For now, the drill press stays on the bench. I plan to make the drill press its own small bench, just to the right of this. On the wall, you see the Reconfigurable Tool Rack and the first couple of Custom Tool Boards I have built...
View media item 20533
The lens I have for my new (from eBay) camera won't let me take wide pictures (no zoom). So, this is me, standing just outside the open garage door, to give you a better overall picture of the space. The bench you just saw would be just to the right of this picture, so we are continuing left around the studio space. You see my HF 5-drawer tool cart at the far end of the space and the Baileigh 5216 on the left border of the studio space...
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Here you can see the right edge of the Baileigh 3-in-1, sitting on the Baileigh Behemoth Bench. I got the machine as a scratch-and-dent and only paid half of list price for it. I think I ended up spending just over $200 to build this bench. Sorta hidden in this pic is the new-to-me Wilton vice I got on CL for $65, mounted on the right end of the bench. In front of the bench, you see the bar-height office chair I got as part of that $60 used-equipment purchase...
View media item 20534
As most of you have seen, I tend to build relatively small objects (picture frames, camera brackets, Custom Tool Boards, etc.) I like to be able to position those pieces at the right height and angle for whatever I am doing. I have a plan for a whole new kind of 'adjustable bench,' which will essentially hold just about any part at any angle in a 3D workspace....but in the meantime, this is what I use for holding small pieces, while working on them. It is a HF clamping work table (free, from an uncle), with a homemade wood vise I made about 15 years ago, when I didn't have any extra cash. the vice is built to work with my bench. It has a square hole in it, which matches the square dog holes I cut into the top of the bench. I built a little riser, holding two special clamps designed to hold locking pliers. I happen to have a couple of US-made 11-inch Vice Grips in them. I've only ever seen these locking pliers clamps in Europe (indeed, I bought these in England, while attending a sheet metal shaping course at Contour Autocraft). Anyway, this system works for now, until I can build the custom piece-holding bench I have designed...
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I completed another little project today. I'm not sure what the scientific name is for this phobia (perhaps amissialocophobia), but I am unusually afraid of losing the original chuck key for a drill and ending up with an expensive paper weight which is holding the last drill bit I used hostage. While I cannot claim to have originated the solution to this problem, I can claim to be pleased with my implementation.
I found a neat, little, retractable cable at Blue Collar Supply in Sacramento (highly-recommended), for a couple of bucks. The unit is entirely metal, including the wire cable. I just drilled and tapped a 10-32 hole in a non-critical spot on head of the drill press, cut the socket head cap screw to length so it wouldn't interfere with any of the inner workings, and attached the retractable cable to the side of the drill press head. It wasn't a difficult project, but I use the drill press frequently and how well this works brings a grin to my face (not to mention keeping me out of the sanitarium by keeping track of my chuck key)...
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I need some help from all of you. Can you help me identify the hard, gray, flat, horizontal substance in this photo? I've never seen it before in The Aerodrome Studio. I seem to have a lot of it now (well, relatively...I know plenty of you guys have much larger shops than me), and it is nice to be able to breath and think in the garage...and not have to move 5 things out of my way to work on something.
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As a side note, here you see the last item I got for that $60...the adjustable, rolling stool. I now have room to move and comfy places to sit in the studio as I work. Now, I can get back to the regularly-scheduled program of building aeroplane-inspired objects. Next on the list is the vertical base for my new Milwaukee portable band saw.
M_P
I know I haven't shared a lot lately, since the things I have been working on are more 'behind the scenes.' (and who really wants to see pictures of me, moving Stuff in circles, until I find The Spot Where it Fits?)
I've mainly been working on getting the new Baileigh 3-in-1 into the studio, set up, and enough room around it to work. While I was at it, I decided to just get that side of the garage cleaned out (my huge, 15-passenger van won't fit in the garage anyway and my wife's car will fill the other side of the garage) and have a little elbow room. After much sweat and tears, and dust and frustration, and pulled muscles and late nights, The Aerodrome Studio is finally 'presentable' for the first time.
I realized, the other night, that I have been using solid rivets and aluminum sheet for just over a year now. I scribbled some information on my very first practice piece, with my very first bucked rivet, that reminds me I started this journey on April 12, 2011. You can see the practice piece in the bottom, right of this picture...
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It's hard to believe it's been just over a year...I barely remember a time I didn't know how to rivet. Weird.
Anyway, on with the tour of The New and Improved Aerodrome Studio.
This is the major storage corner. The wire shelving unit on the left is the Costco unit (for about $100 and I highly recommend it). I really like these shelves, because they remind me of my other hobby (cooking), they are very sturdy, and they are easy to reconfigure if your needs change. This unit was originally about 6 feet tall a few weeks ago, when I decided to use the top and bottom parts of the unit separately. This is set up to be just about exactly the same height as the workbench right next to it, so it is easy to move bench power tools back and forth between the bench and storage. The shortened height of the shelving unit also allows access to future Custom Tool Boards on the Reconfigurable Tool Rack.
The pick-a-part-bins shelf to the right was a CL find at $25. I will eventually repaint it and put it on a framework with casters. The yellow bins were bought new though and were about $350 delivered (shipping was painful, even just from Los Angeles). I got those from Uline and I am very pleased with the quality.
You see the yellow hose coming from the ceiling. That is my temporary solution for getting compressed air over here (the compressor is near the garage door, on the other side of the garage.) I'll eventually put in 1/2" copper pipe and put a drop just to the right of the Reconfigurable Tool Rack.
There was an excess-equipment sale at work recently (a hospital), and I got quite a bit for the shop, for a sum total of $60. I'll point out the pieces I got from that work equipment sale as we move around the studio. The first piece is the pneumatic-lift laptop table you see holding a couple of yellow bins. It rolls and goes from the height you see there to mid chest height, with the press of a pedal. All it needed was a couple of screws tightened up and it is now perfect. I will use it to hold tools and parts, while working on projects...
View media item 20530
Here, you see a hospital bedside stand I got as part of that $60 purchase. I use the drawer for my buffing supplies and the lower section of the cabinet for abrasives of all sorts. On top of that is the HF 7-drawer side cabinet. I got it for $150, since the keys were locked in a drawer at the store. After drilling the lock, I called HF customer service and they sent me a free replacement lock. The end cabinet was hanging on my HF 5-drawer tool cart, but that was always going to be a temporary situation. I originally planned to get the 13-drawer tool cart, but I read GIRL IN A GARAGE'S thread and was inspired to make my own tool-storage drawers some day. The reusable shipping box on top came from the work equipment sale too. I'll put that in the van and keep a few tools and supplies in there.
What you can see, but not recognize, in the bottom right of this picture is my portable contractor's table saw, which I received in trade for a truck rack, which I got free but did not need...
View media item 20531
Moving left, we see the bin shelving unit again. In the background, you can see the wood of the double bike rack I built, to give everyone easy access to their bicycles, just by opening the garage door...
View media item 20532
Here is my general workbench. I built this a good 15 years ago, when my work space was a sum total of 4 feet by 8 feet. So, this bench has wheels on one side, so I could move it out to the carport to work. My workshop at that time was just a few inches wider than this bench. For now, the drill press stays on the bench. I plan to make the drill press its own small bench, just to the right of this. On the wall, you see the Reconfigurable Tool Rack and the first couple of Custom Tool Boards I have built...
View media item 20533
The lens I have for my new (from eBay) camera won't let me take wide pictures (no zoom). So, this is me, standing just outside the open garage door, to give you a better overall picture of the space. The bench you just saw would be just to the right of this picture, so we are continuing left around the studio space. You see my HF 5-drawer tool cart at the far end of the space and the Baileigh 5216 on the left border of the studio space...
View media item 20538
Here you can see the right edge of the Baileigh 3-in-1, sitting on the Baileigh Behemoth Bench. I got the machine as a scratch-and-dent and only paid half of list price for it. I think I ended up spending just over $200 to build this bench. Sorta hidden in this pic is the new-to-me Wilton vice I got on CL for $65, mounted on the right end of the bench. In front of the bench, you see the bar-height office chair I got as part of that $60 used-equipment purchase...
View media item 20534
As most of you have seen, I tend to build relatively small objects (picture frames, camera brackets, Custom Tool Boards, etc.) I like to be able to position those pieces at the right height and angle for whatever I am doing. I have a plan for a whole new kind of 'adjustable bench,' which will essentially hold just about any part at any angle in a 3D workspace....but in the meantime, this is what I use for holding small pieces, while working on them. It is a HF clamping work table (free, from an uncle), with a homemade wood vise I made about 15 years ago, when I didn't have any extra cash. the vice is built to work with my bench. It has a square hole in it, which matches the square dog holes I cut into the top of the bench. I built a little riser, holding two special clamps designed to hold locking pliers. I happen to have a couple of US-made 11-inch Vice Grips in them. I've only ever seen these locking pliers clamps in Europe (indeed, I bought these in England, while attending a sheet metal shaping course at Contour Autocraft). Anyway, this system works for now, until I can build the custom piece-holding bench I have designed...
View media item 20535
View media item 20536
I completed another little project today. I'm not sure what the scientific name is for this phobia (perhaps amissialocophobia), but I am unusually afraid of losing the original chuck key for a drill and ending up with an expensive paper weight which is holding the last drill bit I used hostage. While I cannot claim to have originated the solution to this problem, I can claim to be pleased with my implementation.
I found a neat, little, retractable cable at Blue Collar Supply in Sacramento (highly-recommended), for a couple of bucks. The unit is entirely metal, including the wire cable. I just drilled and tapped a 10-32 hole in a non-critical spot on head of the drill press, cut the socket head cap screw to length so it wouldn't interfere with any of the inner workings, and attached the retractable cable to the side of the drill press head. It wasn't a difficult project, but I use the drill press frequently and how well this works brings a grin to my face (not to mention keeping me out of the sanitarium by keeping track of my chuck key)...
View media item 20539
View media item 20540
I need some help from all of you. Can you help me identify the hard, gray, flat, horizontal substance in this photo? I've never seen it before in The Aerodrome Studio. I seem to have a lot of it now (well, relatively...I know plenty of you guys have much larger shops than me), and it is nice to be able to breath and think in the garage...and not have to move 5 things out of my way to work on something.
View media item 20541
As a side note, here you see the last item I got for that $60...the adjustable, rolling stool. I now have room to move and comfy places to sit in the studio as I work. Now, I can get back to the regularly-scheduled program of building aeroplane-inspired objects. Next on the list is the vertical base for my new Milwaukee portable band saw.
M_P
SWA Guy
Well-known member
MP,
Nice job on the workshop! It's great to see you making progress again. I can't wait to see more of your creations!
I have been doing the same thing in my shop today and am still puttering at 0120. It's great to have breathing room and the space to actually do something in here! lol
Guy in Sacramento
P.S. I was in Blue Collar today as well!
Nice job on the workshop! It's great to see you making progress again. I can't wait to see more of your creations!
I have been doing the same thing in my shop today and am still puttering at 0120. It's great to have breathing room and the space to actually do something in here! lol
Guy in Sacramento
P.S. I was in Blue Collar today as well!
Wingnut65
Well-known member
M_P, nice score at the sale. Always nice to find useful equipment at garage sale prices. At one office building I worked in, I got my wall mounted TV shelf for $5.
Congrats on the 1 year of pounding rivets. Seems I haven't seen any smiley faces in a long time. Hold on to that sample as a memento of Aluminum - Day One!
And that question on the gray stuff is a hard one.
I can't put my finger on it, but I'm sure you are all over it and will figure it out. Although I've heard from some people that when you get so much of that stuff, it's time to get more tools...
Congrats on the 1 year of pounding rivets. Seems I haven't seen any smiley faces in a long time. Hold on to that sample as a memento of Aluminum - Day One!
And that question on the gray stuff is a hard one.
I can't put my finger on it, but I'm sure you are all over it and will figure it out. Although I've heard from some people that when you get so much of that stuff, it's time to get more tools...
OP
machine_punk
Well-known member
Thanks, I cannot wait to build more of my creations. I did a little prototype work this afternoon, on the project which made me decide I needed a better way to bend sheet metal, and it was refreshing to get back to what I like to be doing in the studio. Of course, it was really cool to work with the 3-in-1 machine...so much easier to cut and bend sheet metal as I work.
I only make it Sacramento every month or two. We do have family members and rental property there. If at all possible, I make a stop at Blue Collar Supply and stock up on hardware and aluminum, while I am there.
Thanks for taking a moment to post!
M_P
I only make it Sacramento every month or two. We do have family members and rental property there. If at all possible, I make a stop at Blue Collar Supply and stock up on hardware and aluminum, while I am there.
Thanks for taking a moment to post!
M_P