OK, so I just recently joined and was asked for pictures of my shop.  Well I have three so I'll show you one of my wood shop.  Sorry, this is my metal shop can't find the wood working shop pictures at the moment.  In the first picture you can see a vertical band saw this is one I built from wood,  That included the large saw wheel..

 

Hope these are OK for now.

 

Paul

WOW! Beyond spectacular Paul! My favorite has to be the Keurig Coffee Closet. Cool.

NICE! Always wanted to set up a metal shop, but the tools are SOOO expensive! "Borrowed" the one at work instead!

John

WHOA!!!

Hey Grandpa, I would have added a donut warmer if I would have thought of it.  

 

I actually have a second lathe that I made a heavy duty bench for it the shop now.  It a 9 inch South Bend model B built in 1941.  The one in the picture is a 10L South Bend tool room that was built in 1942.  I did a semi-rebuild on it which included a paint job and VFD.  Love this lathe.  The pictures are from 2012 when I first completed the shop.  

 

Thanks for the positive comments.

 

Paul

Here is a picture of the 9 inch South  Bend and base I mentioned.  Also shows the collet holder I made up for the bench end.

24 minutes ago, Fastback said:

Hey Grandpa, I would have added a donut warmer if I would have thought of it.  

 

I actually have a second lathe that I made a heavy duty bench for it the shop now.  It a 9 inch South Bend model B built in 1941.  The one in the picture is a 10L South Bend tool room that was built in 1942.

Not to late to add a donut cache...

WWII era lathes...fantastic! Thanks for preserving them!! Wouldn't it be awesome if they could tell stories of what they produced during that era? Beautiful bench for that Model B as well as the collet storage.

My dad was a machinist. I'm sure he would be in awe of this collection of tools. The tool box on the desk in front of the fireplace looks a lot like the box he had.

I'm loving it, nice!

Outstanding shop!.  I'd love to have the Bridgeport mill.  The surface grinder brought back a memory.  When I was still working, our tool room had a jig stashed away that the midnight shift made.  It was made to grind planer and jointer blades and it was used a lot. 

Thanks, I have not made a jig at this point.  At one time my Uncle sharpened my jointer blades on the surface grinder, but I hated to keep asking him (and he passed away in the early 90's) so I bought the Delta sharpening station, which by the way does a decent job.  I did not have any of the machine tools back then.  In fact, my surface grinder is the one he used to use to do the sharpening for me.

 

Paul

I have a small metal working area, but I'm a long way from a machinist. I'd love to have a surface grinder. I have an older Jet 9x49 VS mill and a new PM1440HD lathe. I also cast aluminum using a home made furnace. So far most of my casting has been with sand. I did try a couple of experiments with lost foam. Have you tried casting?

I also am not a machinist I just try to do the best I can. Sometimes the projects come out well and some times they don't.  No, I have not tried my hand at casting.  At the present, I have way too many hobbies I am trying not to add any more to them.  I can't say I work a lot with aluminum.  I have a very good inventory of cold roll steel, probably 2 and 3,000 lbs.  I also have some A2 and O2, but nothing to harden it with.

 

That 1440 will do most anything you need to do.  I have heard that Matt does a nice job setting them up before they are shipped.   Nothing wrong with the Jet mill either.  Had my surface grinder given to me. Its a decent machine 6 x 18,  manual. 

I have a rod of O1 and have made a couple of things with it. I tried hardening it and tempering back with a torch, sort of worked but didn't do something quite right, not hard enough. 

The PM1440 seems OK. Initially some of the shift knobs were really stiff. There is more play in the cross slide lead screw and compound than I'd like, The carriage hard stop is of really poor design. I made a new one. I opened up the gear boxes expecting to find sand but they were clean. The DRO works and now that I'm more used to using it, I rely on it a lot. Have only played with the taper attachment. Very touchy setting up.

I now use Joe Piecyznski's method of threading from the head stock toward the tail. Tool, up side down, spindle rotation opposite. Works very nicely. No need to be quick about anything. if you haven't followed him on YouTube give it a try, very good.

I don't have a DRO, but I do use a 4 inch digital caliper on  the tail stock to read the quill movement.  In addition, I made a holder for a dial indicator to measure the cross slide.  My lathe is a 1942 Heavy 10 or 10L, with  4 ft bed.  It was originally built as a Tool Room lathe, it also has a taper attachment and a 1  3/8 inch spindle bore.  This old lathe has a plaque on it that indicates that it met the war boards requirements.  I can't turn in reverse because it has a threaded spindle end.  I can thread reverse threads by starting at the chuck and turning towards the tailstock.  

 

I did install a 2 axis DRO on my mill and really like it.  Oh, I will check out the machining site.  Thanks.