Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Welcome......To Odd Acres

[Terrick down Under]

Gee, the repairs have come up nice, well worth the effort.

 

[Finallygotit]

Very cool mini lathe, what powers it?

You can see it in the picture below. The motor is cocked over at an odd angle (thank you UPS) because of the broken bracket. It's a variable speed motor. I haven't tried it yet. Maybe I should go do that......

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Finallygotit]

Gee, the repairs have come up nice, well worth the effort.

Thanks Terrick! It will be interesting to see how accurate this little guy is.

 

[rattle_snake]

Dan,
Impressive amount of work and progress on the odd acres. Where about in Tucson are you at? I thought the PO of my place did ****** attempts at Concrete work, but your place took it to a whole new level. wow! So many failed attempts at so many things. That's not good for an engineering mind. Glad to see you got things straightened out, cleaned up and looking good.
Enjoyed reading through this thread nice work.

 

[Finallygotit]

Hello Justin, thank you very much for the kind words and thanks for following along.

We're out on the southeast side of Tucson in Vail. Kinda rural out here, which is the way we like it.

More to come!

 

[Terrick down Under]

Kinda rural

Then you a tag like ours!

 

[Finallygotit]

Terrick, I love it!

Well done!

 

[Finallygotit]

Well............it's finally here!!

My Bridgeport! These pictures were taken right after the riggers left. Great couple of guys.









It's a little grimy and rusty but the feed screws have less than 0.002" backlash. The quill moves like your pushing it through butter. Mechanically it was maintained very well.

Now starts the cleanup and then the wiring.

WOO-HOO!!

 

[-Brent-]

Awesome! Congrats!

 

[ajohno]

Looks great.

 

[ASHMAN_AZ]

NICE, was that a craigslist find?

 

[Terrick down Under]

Nicely done, love that mill.
BTW, I made the 1990's updated tooling for the "National Service Medal" at the Royal Australian Mint on one of those. It was my first project as a Toolmaker. Unbeknown to me (until after the presentations were done) one of the medals was for my late father, that made it really special.

 

[sawduststeve]

Thats a nice bit of kit, great score Dan.
You'll have to show me how it works , I'm mainly into woodworking machinery.
More importantly though, it's exactly the same size as that blue square on your floor, that's ****** amazing that is, what are the odds of that happening, result.


Regards
steve

 

[Finallygotit]

Awesome! Congrats!

Merci beaucoup!!

Looks great.

Gracias!!

NICE, was that a craigslist find?

Danke!! It was actually purchased from a local estate sale.

Nicely done, love that mill.
BTW, I made the 1990's updated tooling for the "National Service Medal" at the Royal Australian Mint on one of those. It was my first project as a Toolmaker. Unbeknown to me (until after the presentations were done) one of the medals was for my late father, that made it really special.

Terrick, I started my career as a mold maker with one of these in the '70's. It kinda holds a special place in my heart and I'm very fortunate to be able to own this.

Your experience cannot be topped though. That is truly special.

Thats a nice bit of kit, great score Dan.
You'll have to show me how it works , I'm mainly into woodworking machinery.
More importantly though, it's exactly the same size as that blue square on your floor, that's ****** amazing that is, what are the odds of that happening, result.


Regards
steve

Hi Steve, don't tell anyone but I put the tape down after they put the machine in place. I will be more than happy to show you how it works. Once I get it cleaned up and wired, I have to tram (indicate) it in. I will show how that's done. This is a really versatile machine.

Thank you all for following along!!

 

[Grumblebum]

Nice mill dan, keen to see it come to life.

Cheers GB

 

[1/2 Cup]

Finallygotit Wow now that is one nice piece of kit, well done..

 

[Finallygotit]

Well, clean-up has commenced. It's starting to look a little better.

Before...


After.....


For those of you that are unfamiliar with a milling machine, it is quite versatile, stout and accurate easily to within ±0.001".

From the picture below, you can see that the ram that holds the head moves forward and back. The way that the ram is connected to the base also allows it to swivel 360° The head also pivots up and down.



From this picture, you can see that the head also tilts left to right, the table moves left to right (X axis), toward the back and front (Y axis) and the whole table assembly is attached to the machine knee which also can be raised and lowered.


And.............IT'S ALIVE!!!!

When I had gone to look at the machine, I ran the speeds up and down a little bit to make sure the variable speed drive functioned - and it did. Last night I ran the speeds from full speed to a crawl. Just before one gets to the crawl speed, it sounds like someone dumped rocks in the drive.

I also noticed this on the quill


That gap is not supposed to be there. That's a retaining cap for the spindle bearings. I tried to tighten it and it wouldn't budge. So I decided to tear into it and if I'm going to tear into it, I might as well rebuild it. A complete head rebuild kit is on order and should be here early next week.

I'm still on the fence if I want to paint it or leave the patina.

More to come......

 

[-Brent-]

Compared to others I've seen, it was clean BEFORE. Now, the thing looks nearly new. I've always wanted to own one (and obviously learn a ton).

 

[stioc]

I was already really liking this thread before the mill showed up (show us some projects you've done with it either here or in the Fabrication section). Hopefully in about 9-10yrs I'll 'retire' and move to a lower cost of living area and have a house/shop like your's. Tuscon is on the short list of places but thinking some place with 4 seasons.

 

[rattle_snake]

I'd leave the original finish, as it has character. Did you get any tooling with the mill?

 

[Finallygotit]

Compared to others I've seen, it was clean BEFORE. Now, the thing looks nearly new. I've always wanted to own one (and obviously learn a ton).

Thanks Brent!

I was already really liking this thread before the mill showed up (show us some projects you've done with it either here or in the Fabrication section). Hopefully in about 9-10yrs I'll 'retire' and move to a lower cost of living area and have a house/shop like your's. Tuscon is on the short list of places but thinking some place with 4 seasons.

Thanks for following along stioc!

Tucson does have four seasons, they're just a little more subtle than other areas of the country. Well except for summer, there is nothing subtle about summers here. But it really is a dry heat.

I'd leave the original finish, as it has character. Did you get any tooling with the mill?

I'm kinda leaning towards leaving the original finish. We'll see after I finish cleaning it up and rebuilding the head.

I did get some tooling. Lots-o-endmills, a large assortment of taps, fly cutters, large tool holders, a nice keyless chuck, complete step block/clamp set, complete set of 1/4" parallels, a bunch of carbide inserts for the fly cutters.

More to come.......

 

[Squashfest81]

Just cruised through your thread. Great job on the shop, shed, garage, and house. It's all coming together.
Now seriously, you bought a Bridgeport to fix the tiny lathe. Classic! I was confident you had a milling attachment for the Atlas in the mail. Well played!

 

[-Brent-]

What's happening? Anything new?

 

[Finallygotit]

Hello!

I was going to post an update early next week but I can give you a written preview.

Lot's of little projects have been completed. Since the flooring was installed, I managed to get all of the wood molding installed. WHEW!

Since my lovely wife is vertically challenged, I needed to rework the wall cabinets in the laundry closet so she could access them much more easily. (pics to come)

Seeing that it's getting a bit toasty outside, I finally finished running conduit and wiring up the mini split for the shop. Lo and behold, it works.....albeit in fan only mode. The HVAC tech is coming out this Friday to charge it up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a successful startup. I heard rumors that the unit didn't quite work before it was disassembled but I'm going to attribute that to the PO.

We have been busy getting ready for monsoon season as well; lots of regrading. Last year we had a deluge one August morning that dumped a little over 3" (7.9 cm) of rain in an hour. That in itself wasn't cause for major panic. But when I got home right afterwards, I was sick to my stomach. One third of the decorative rock in the front yard was now in our back yard. We were within one inch of getting water in our front door, according to the schmutz left from the water line on the foundation. The land was so eroded that it was like off-roading to get to any house entrance. Mud was everywhere!

I found the main culprit to be the road grading that the county did (bless their hearts) just up the street from us. It literally diverted all of the water coming down the road into our front yard. I have pictures! We should be in good shape now. We'll see after we get a rain or two but I'm pretty confident.

Like I said, little projects and others too. Will post some pics soon. I have to travel again for work (doing a lot of that lately) and will be back in a couple of days.

 

[Finallygotit]

You know what I like? I like air conditioning!

Outside



Inside the shop



The mini split is working just fine! According the HVAC guy, this unit (which was previously in our CG room) has barely any hours on it. He said it's running like it was brand new. Considering how hot it is outside nowadays, I'll take that.



Cheers

 

[1/2 Cup]

Dan, well done..

There is nothing like having a cooool shop..

 

[Finallygotit]

Thanks Steve!

Although I probably won't be keeping it that cool out there. I had it running for most of the day just to see how low I could get it in there. I will probably keep it in the 78° to 80° range when I'm working in there. It will be off otherwise.

More to come....

 

[Finallygotit]

As I mentioned earlier, we had a little issue with rain water runoff last year. These pictures really don't show how bad things were.

You can kinda see the way the water was flowing. And if you look real close into the front door area near the concrete, you can see the schmutz line on the foundation where the water had risen. We had over two inches of mud on the concrete walks which made walking into the house a real pleasure (NOT).

We had so much rain water diverted onto our property that it carried a lot of the sand/gravel/dirt from up the road to our place. This picture shows our culvert being completely full of stuff.

Today we have reestablished the culverts and grading was done.

Under the driveway, the PO installed a six inch and an eight inch by 20 foot lengths of galvanized pipe. Those were completely clogged. It took me many evenings to get those unglogged.

We should be in pretty good shape when the rains do finally arrive.

Thanks for stopping by folks!

More to come.....

 

[slodat]

I have two 2 ton inexpensive (import) mini-split heat pumps in my shop. It is amazing how well they keep the place cool. I have the thermostats set around 68F and it keeps the shop well under 75. I can't imagine trying to work in a shop in Arizona without A/C. Congrats!

 

[Bruce 993 SEA]

Are the culverts large enough? Not sure what the spec is for them but I seem to recall they are usually 12 or 14 inch diameter. Of course you said the county screwed up the ditches causing a lot of the problem...good luck getting them to take action or fess up to the screw up.

Nice work on the ditches BTW!

We had problems with the city here in Washington. We don't get monsoons like you but steady drizzle and an occasional heavier down poor. Culverts are usually like I said 12 to 14 but in some places the city relies on berms that are only 3 or so inches high. They do not hold nearly the volume of a culvert and a ditch.

I guess it is too late for your culverts as you would have to tear up the driveway to replace.

When does the monsoon season start?

Cheers!

 

[sawduststeve]

Evening Dan,

I think your thermometer is broken,nearly 100 degrees,I never knew they went that high.
Good work with the A/C a cool work space has to be good.
Hope the new levels help with the rain water, an old garden of ours used to flood abit (ALOT) a 100ft x 40ft puddle thigh high, we used to wake up after a heavy rain with a dozen ducks on the new pond, they disappeared as the water level went down.

Steve.

 

[Finallygotit]

I have two 2 ton inexpensive (import) mini-split heat pumps in my shop. It is amazing how well they keep the place cool. I have the thermostats set around 68F and it keeps the shop well under 75. I can't imagine trying to work in a shop in Arizona without A/C. Congrats!

Hello slodat, this little mini split amazes me and it's really quiet too. One could get away with a swamp cooler out here but 1) the added humidity doesn't play well with exposed raw metal on machinery and 2) they don't do much good when the rains start.

Thanks for stopping by!

Are the culverts large enough? Not sure what the spec is for them but I seem to recall they are usually 12 or 14 inch diameter. Of course you said the county screwed up the ditches causing a lot of the problem...good luck getting them to take action or fess up to the screw up.

Nice work on the ditches BTW!

We had problems with the city here in Washington. We don't get monsoons like you but steady drizzle and an occasional heavier down poor. Culverts are usually like I said 12 to 14 but in some places the city relies on berms that are only 3 or so inches high. They do not hold nearly the volume of a culvert and a ditch.

I guess it is too late for your culverts as you would have to tear up the driveway to replace.

When does the monsoon season start?

Cheers!

Hi Bruce, monsoon season officially kicks off on June 15 in these parts.

I don't think we have a standard out here for culvert size. I have seen all kinds of things out here acting as culverts.

Now that the county has regraded the roadsides, we "should" be good to go. Time will tell.

Thanks for stopping by!

Evening Dan,

I think your thermometer is broken,nearly 100 degrees,I never knew they went that high.
Good work with the A/C a cool work space has to be good.
Hope the new levels help with the rain water, an old garden of ours used to flood abit (ALOT) a 100ft x 40ft puddle thigh high, we used to wake up after a heavy rain with a dozen ducks on the new pond, they disappeared as the water level went down.

Steve.

Hi Steve, I tell you what, I will take another picture for you when we surpass the century mark.

So when does duck hunting season officially start by you?

 

[Finallygotit]

I also mentioned earlier that I had to slightly reconfigure our laundry area.

We started with this

Well, the cabinets were too high and the access to the front loaders was a little to low and the cabinets were set back a little too far for my vertically challenged wife. Sooooooooo.......

I made new pedestals out of wood with a pullout shelf which made loading and unloading the machines much easier for her and especially for me (I'm 6' 2"). Still, the laundry consumables were still out of reach of said vertically challenged wife. So I made fully enclosed wood boxes the same height and width of the cabinets and hung them on the wall which then had the cabinets screwed to them. Those boxes are seven inches thick which put the cabinets that much closer to shorty. And to give it an Odd Acres little twist, I staggered the placement of the wall cabinets. I plan to make an open oak shelf under the higher cabinet to store stuff for my lovely wife. I also have some finished oak plank left to install between the cabinets and the side walls.

Finished assignment.

Thanks for following along.

 

[-Brent-]

Pedestals are the way to go! As I was scrolling down, I was wondering if I'd see them. That little laundry nook is pretty darn cool.

 

[Finallygotit]

Thanks Brent! My wife seems to be liking it quite a lot now. Whew!

More to come!

 

[ap2002]

very nice place you have.... enjoy reading your thread... do you happen to know the what brand and size your mini split a/c is?

 

[Finallygotit]

very nice place you have.... enjoy reading your thread... do you happen to know the what brand and size your mini split a/c is?

Thank you very much for the kind words and thanks for stopping by!

The mini split is a Mirage Magnum. It's rated at 24,000 btu (about 2 tons) which is good for about 1,000 square feet (93 sq. meter). I was told that it is made by Gree who makes the better mini splits out there. So far, so good.

Edit: This unit is a heat pump so winters will be warm if needed.

Cheers!

 

[bj383ss]

The laundry room came out great. And the wife is happy so win for you.

I have a future plan for one of those awesome mini splits in my garage. I was able to insulate my garage walls before the builder put up the drywall. I just need to insulate the ceiling and then get an A/C. I can survive here in the summer until about August and then it just gets too damn hot.

Someday though..

I never realized you guys got Monsoons.

Bret

 

[Finallygotit]

Thanks BJ and thanks for stopping by.

Mini splits are so easy to install and use. I love 'em now that I have one!

I would suggest making sure your garage doors are insulated and you put a weather strip seal on the sides and top of the outside of the garage doors. You may already have that in place but just wanted to put that out there because it really helped with mine.

 

[Finallygotit]

Thought you folks in the more humid climates might get a kick out of this. Look at the humidity. Hoo boy my nose is dry.