Lets See Your Shop!

[MG-42]

This is the second level to my shop. There is a yazmat cnc mill, a cnc lathe, my sinker edm, my older wells index vertical milling machine, the pantograph, and the die working bench and wire feed welder.
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[n3480h]

Well, it's tiny, but I'm having fun with it. The picture doesn't show it all, but you can see a lot of it. Lathe, mill, drill press, micro drill press, grinders, polisher/buffer, horizontal/vertical metal bandsaw, and about 400-500 pieces of tooling. The outside of the left wall is in the garage, and holds a rack with a lot of metal and machineable plastics. Still have to finish the walls with white FRP, add drawers to the benches, and install better and permanent lighting. OA welder, mig welder, and chopsaw reside in the hangar shop.

Since the machine shop is only 7-1/2 feet by 11 feet, it's heated with a small oil radiator, and cooled with a little 5,000 BTU AC unit. They don't run much, so overhead is minimal.

Tom

 

[RandyM]

Great shops guys! Keep 'em coming. Paradise comes in many forms.

 

[Ray C]

On a related matter... About 3 years ago, I painted my shop floors with that industrial epoxy. As of last week when I mopped/scrubbed the floors, the two spots I stand in front of the mill and lathe are wearing down to the cement. -No big deal as I'll just touch-up those locations. The rest of the floor is still in good shape.... Just want you all to know that ground-in swarf will eat that epoxy in about 3 years time.


Ray

 

[MG-42]

This is the third and last level of the machine shop. Here is where the Haas and sharps cnc machining centers set.

 

[zmotorsports]

I am new here and although not a "machinist" by any stretch of the imagination I thoroughly love machining and fabricating parts. I am an industrial maintenance mechanic as my full time job for the past almost 26 years now (started right out of high school) and my wife, son and I have a small performance oriented motorsports business at our home.

I built the 1150 square foot shop in the back yard in 1995 after purchasing our home new in 1991. I originally built it to take on side work after my normal 10+ hour day job for extra money to support my racing and tool addiction and also be the support center for my cars and motorcycles while spending some quality time with my son when he grew up. I would pretty much work on anything I could get my hands on to earn money, from small engines to hi-performance engines and transmissions and it quickly turned into doing mainly general repairs. I quickly became overwhelmed with customers and started to shift more towards work on race cars, motorcycles, sandrails, sand quads and more of the "custom" side of the industry.

I bought a Smithy CB1239 in the late 90's to support our business and have the ability to put more of my "custom touches" on various projects that I would work on for customers as well as my own projects. I purchased it not knowing exactly how much I would be using it but I did have the need for lathe/mill but not the best budget and DEFINITELY not the floorspace to give up.

Over the past year and a half or so more customers have been having me do small machining jobs knowing that I have that capability. I am 100% self taught so far from expert status or even novice for that matter. I have simply applied common sense and ingenuity to the many items that I have machined. I am sure many I did not do the "proper way" but I got the job done and satisfied my customer.

My wife and I started discussing our retirement more and more lately as we are nowhere near retiring but we are also not getting any younger. I told her that I would love to be able to do more machining and less crawling around under cars and trucks during retirement. To do that I felt like I needed to upgrade my little Smithy to something a little more suited for more full-time use and a bit more rigid to ensure accuracy, not that I haven't been able to get accurate work on the Smithy, it is just a lot more time consuming to creep up on dimensions.

Here are a few pictures of my shop from a few years ago right after installing my Ammco 10k pound 2-post lift. I will definitely take more as I am having to completely rearrange the entire one side to change placement of my motorcycle lifts and having to make room for two new machines where one machine resided. I have always prided myself on purchasing the best tools and equipment I could so they would be a true investment in my future vs. just something to get the job done. I would have loved to have a large full-size Bridgeport and large name brand American lathe but again, budget and floorspace are my limiting factors. I recently ordered a Precision Mathews PM 1340GT and a PM 932PDF which from my research seem to be good quality yet in fairly small packages to fit into my tight little shop.

Mike.

Picture of the south side of my shop. The small Snap-On toolbox near the corner is my son's. The bead blasting cabinet is MAC tools and Nugier 20-ton hydraulic press.


My Snap-On toolbox and part of the west wall workbench area.


My toolbox looking towards the other west workbench.


The motorcycle are of the shop. The small room houses my 60 gallon dual stage Quincy air compressor. My solvent tank and the other west work bench.


Welding equipment.


Machining area of the shop. Smithy lathe/mill, Wilton 20" drill press, Wilton 12" disc/6"x48" belt sander (probably the most used tool in the shop) and the Baldor bench grinder/wire wheel mounted on pedestal.


Welding table that I fabricated about 10 years or so ago.


And stuffed with bikes and work.

 

[David]

That is a very nice shop you have there Mike! When the new equipment arrives you should be set up for most any project that comes your way.

It's nice to have "custom" customers because most are a little more willing to open the wallet and not gripe about the prices for quality work.

Keep us posted on the arrival of your new machines. There are quite a few PM owners here to help you out if needed.

Welcome!!

David

 

[MG-42]

In my day job I have the opportunity to see a number of home shops. I enjoy everyone of them. The small, the large, the clean and organized and the dirty and messy. I just love shops.

 

[zmotorsports]

That is a very nice shop you have there Mike! When the new equipment arrives you should be set up for most any project that comes your way.

It's nice to have "custom" customers because most are a little more willing to open the wallet and not gripe about the prices for quality work.

Keep us posted on the arrival of your new machines. There are quite a few PM owners here to help you out if needed.

Welcome!!

David

Thanks David. I know what you mean as far as opening the wallet. People would skimp and want me to do things to save money on their daily drivers that would get them safely to and from work, their kids to soccer practice and vacation but when it came to their motorcycles or sand toys they would literally throw money away on them. Every gadget or accessory they could bolt on..

That is one of the reasons I wanted to move away from the general repairs as I was not willing to sacrifice my reputation and start cutting corners. I am all for saving people money but not at the expense of doing quality work.

I do have a few loyal customers now that I still work on all of their daily drivers as well as their toys but for the most part I am wanting to get more into the machining and custom fabrication aspect of building custom motorcycles.

Mike.

 

[rmack898]

That's a nice shop Mike. Is that a Dynasty 350 is see? We have one at my day job and it is one very nice machine.
When you get your new PM machines you may want consider moving the belt/disc grinder just a little farther away from your lathe and mill. Just food for thought.