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Kitchen workshop

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Johnb:
I live in a flat so workshop space is of necessity limited. Fortunately there is only me to worry about so my workshop lives on the breakfast bar in the kitchen.



The heart of the workshop, and my only power tool, is a Cowells 90 ME basic lathe. It's a lovely little machine, though I could sometimes do with the fine feed and screw-cutting attachment!



One early addition was extra lighting. The lamps themselves had been hanging around for a while looking for something useful to do, and the supports were out of some scrap timber I came across.



Having no grinder, much of my machining has been done with 1/8" silver steel tool bits in home made holders.



The tool bits are easily formed by file before hardening. Once tempered the tool bits are sharpened on a stone using a jig made from scrap.



As I don't have a drilling machine, I made up a drill pad for the tailstock.



It's been an ambition to be able to mill components held in the chuck, so I made up a milling spindle with overhead drive sitting on top of the lamp supports.



Here we have a closer view of the spindle mounted in the vice on the vertical slide. It was made from the scrap box, with plain cast iron bearings. The shaft was made to suit and lapped in situ. It should last a while! Note the lump of wood under the near-most chuck jaw. This is a basic dividing set up. A weight on the end of a bit of string connected to the chuck key holds the jaw down on to the wooden stop. Three jaws, three divisions. With the wooden stop at the back of the lathe bed I get another 3 divisions. So now I can mill some nuts.



Here we see the overhead drive. The bearings are off-cuts from some hornblock castings. The wheels can be moved along the shaft and held in place with grub screws onto a flat on the shaft. Note more lumps of wood to support the bearings. Handy material, wood.



Well that's about it at the moment. As with every model engineer, a lot of other bits and pieces have been made along the way. The current project is to build a double ended grinder so I can sharpen tools more efficiently. I've got the wheels and am in the process of building the gubbins to hold them in the right place and turn them round. The grinder will be installed on another demountable "shelf" between the lathe and the overhead drive. And it will be driven from the overhead. There will be a cover for the lathe to keep the grinding dust off the machinery of course. I'm not really sure when I'll get it working. The current struggle has been boring out some anonymous bronze (Admiralty?) from the scrap box for the bearings. This has caused a detour into boring bars, how to sharpen them, methods of holding them, etc. etc. etc. All jolly good fun!

Bearcar1:
Greetings John, my hat is off you you sir for showing us your ingenious usage of space. It is fascinating to me to see these things. Well done :ThumbsUp:  Care to show off some of the projects you have made? You do know that we LOVE :Love:  pictures.


regards


BC1
Jim

Jo:
I remember this ;D.


--- Quote from: jgb7573 on December 29, 2012, 07:21:07 PM ---The heart of the workshop, and my only power tool, is a Cowells 90 ME basic lathe. It's a lovely little machine, though I could sometimes do with the fine feed and screw-cutting attachment!

--- End quote ---

Sorry missed the fact that you did not have the fine feed attachment :shrug:. Would you like to knock up some blanks and could visit to use my mill to cut the necessary gears?

Jo

NickG:
Hi John,

Great stuff! Where there's a will there's a way.  :ThumbsUp:

Johnb:
Thanks for the kind comments guys. The workshop gives me a lot of pleasure, and quite some frustration too! But that's not to do with where it's located, more to do with my skill!

Thanks for the offer Jo. I have access to a milling machine at the club, but getting the self-act hooked up is not high up the list at the moment. The current job is the grinder so I can spend less time honing. Then I want to arrange for better dividing facilities. That's probably going to be a means of fixing dividing plates to the end of the spindle plus a detent. Lots more fun to be had yet!

And guys, I'll post some more pictures when I have something to show. I'm not a rapid worker!

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