Advice on a hypothetical space saving idea

[C-Bag]

Basically everything in there needs work of some kind or another, and theres been a lot of shuffling lately so most things don't feel fully "established" yet.

I would guess most of us are in the same boat. A lot of what I have is driven by a need for a project and as cheap as possible then it seems it shows up on CL. All have needed work or was bought to mod as needed. I’m not a restorer. And I keep away from basket cases. So my stuff is usually functional and then repair or mod later. Just too many irons in the fire to let one sit waiting for a restore that would take decades And way too often I need a machine just like it to fix that machine.

I see a lot of familiar stuff I have in common like I see the handle of a Beverly shear poking up off the beautiful old cast iron gang drill table with all the vices, shot bag and belt sander. I’ve seen one down in LA and was glad it was far away as that would be super hard to resist. My English wheel has most of my forming tools grafted to it like my beader, shrinker stretcher with my planisher hanging off it just for storage. Is that frame behind that table for a power hammer?

 

[Nutfarmer]

Nice shop. Too much extra space. You still have room to work in. All kidding aside good lay out.

 

[antalog]

I would guess most of us are in the same boat. A lot of what I have is driven by a need for a project and as cheap as possible then it seems it shows up on CL. All have needed work or was bought to mod as needed. I’m not a restorer. And I keep away from basket cases. So my stuff is usually functional and then repair or mod later. Just too many irons in the fire to let one sit waiting for a restore that would take decades And way too often I need a machine just like it to fix that machine.

I see a lot of familiar stuff I have in common like I see the handle of a Beverly shear poking up off the beautiful old cast iron gang drill table with all the vices, shot bag and belt sander. I’ve seen one down in LA and was glad it was far away as that would be super hard to resist. My English wheel has most of my forming tools grafted to it like my beader, shrinker stretcher with my planisher hanging off it just for storage. Is that frame behind that table for a power hammer?

I very much get where you're coming from, Im also trying to avoid taking on more "projects needed to complete other projects"... but of course I say that now until a potentially amazing deal pops-up and then I may have to change my story

That frame behind the table initially started out to be a power hammer. Im trying to build it on this super heavy base I picked up many years ago.

Heres an earlier version.


First I was planning on doing a mechanical style, then I was thinking I would do an air hammer from TM Technologies. But as I go now Im thinking I may actually lower the top arm, beef it way up and turn it into a pullmax style reciprocator. I got a bunch of that square tubing for free but its 1/4" wall and my research tells me that just might not be thick enough to handle serious shaping.

 

[C-Bag]

but of course I say that now until a potentially amazing deal pops-up and then I may have to change my story

Man do I ever know how the universe keeps throwing stuff in my path that is just too good to pass up! My SO keeps saying I need a bigger shop and while I agree with her to a certain degree I fear falling into the hoarder hole. There’s been a couple of deals I walked away from that I’ll always regret. One was a huge cabinet full of every type of tooling. But it was so far ahead of where I was as I was still in the research phase of trying to figure out exactly what I needed for a lathe and mill which was still a year or so off. That was $500 for probably 10x that amount of mostly new tooling of every kind. I hate when things show up out of sequence.

If I ever get to that point a recip is what I want. My cheap pneumatic planisher does an amazing job with the different dies but only a recip can do shrinking properly with a thumbnail die. I see guys with thumbnails in helve hammers and pneumatic planishers and you don’t really accomplish what a recip does because the stroke is not controlled like with a Pullmax style recip. It has taken a lot of time watching the different guys on YouTube to get that difference for me.

 

[Boswell]

I am pretty sure that the quantity and quality of deals you come across for new tooling is inversely proportional to the available shop space you have.

 

[jwmay]

Aha! I now understand what I’m looking at. If the bed ended where the tailstock is, it might fit in my shop. Lol

 

[AKFAB]

Thanks for all the advice and reassurance everyone! I enjoying hearing what people have in their shops and how they manage it.

This length lathe wasn't my first choice, but the price was too good to ignore and I do get impatient. My initial plan was to build a mobile rack type setup that would live over the last 2ish feet of the lathe, that could easily be rolled away if I needed the whole length. But ultimately that wasn't the best route. Im thinking this mill-lathe nesting idea should work for the time being! But I still need to workout how I can take it off easily. I appreciate all the advice!

Similar to what you guys are talking about, the biggest thing Im trying to work out right now is compartmentalizing different "areas" of the shop, for cleanliness and safety reason. Keeping sparks out of the wood area, sawdust out the machining area, etc. In fact Ill share a pic, since I dont have much posting history.

View attachment 458640

It currently sits at roughly:
Machining area - 11:00-2 o'clock (theres a wells index mill hiding back there at 12)
Temp material storage / fabrication equipment- 2-3 o'clock
Wood area - 3-5 o'clock
Grinders, buffers, tool chests, clamp rack - 6 o'clock
Sheet metal 10ish-11 o'clock

Basically everything in there needs work of some kind or another, and theres been a lot of shuffling lately so most things don't feel fully "established" yet.

Love the skateboards in the background, reminds me of my space !