What's in my Shed

[Jasonb]

I was asked the other day in the Midget thread about my workshop so now that the top secret new products have been hidden away I was able to take a few snaps, did I mention that one of the perks of testing and doing reviews is the items seldom have to go back to the supplier

I have an 8 x 16 shed, insulated with 50mm PU insulation in the walls and ceiling then lined with faced OSB. I made a new door to replace the flimsy pair that were on the end and changed the basic windows to double glazzed UPVC. Sorry the large Bonsai are not looking their best this time of year.



As you enter to the right is a bench that does not get used that much, meant for grinding and welding and other similar dirty tasks, since getting the Femi bandsaw that tends to live at one end and the fish food at the other. The Parrot vice is quite handy being able to swivel and it can also be mounted on it's side. Few odd draws below but not much engineering related stuff in those.



Moving around the next section of bench has a Tormek Grinder, bench Grinder, small belt sander and bench drill which does not do a lot of actual drilling these days being used more for honing, wire brush or polishing etc. Not Much in the way of model engineering items in the draws above but a few larger M6 and over fixings, springs etc.



Further along this wall was a nice bit of clear bench where a model being worked on could be kept or drawing laid out but lately it has been occupied by the Sieg SX2.7 from ARC that I have been using for some magazine articles that they sponsor. Smaller draws below have steel stock in but most of the larger are again not filled with ME stuff.



This half of the shed is where most of the action takes place, starting with the Warco WM280VF which I have had for about 10 years now (yes they will last that long ) few frequently used tools behind and sets of metric and imperial drill boxes with some common size stubb length ones to the right.



I replaced the flat metal panel between the cabinets two cupboards with some draws on full extension runners to keep lathe tooling in.



To the left of the lathe across the end wall is the bench with my vice and saws & files stored above. To the right is the modern version of the wooden engineers chest and beyond that lathe chucks in the corner. The opposite corner is taken up by the mill.



Draws under this bench which are again on FE slides have non ferrous metals to the right and odds and ends to the left.



The Sieg X3 mill sits quite nicely across the corner with a few bits related to it up on the wall and tooling like collets, cutters and spindle tooling easily to hand in the draws below. I've had this since 2007 and apart from a couple of belts, one set of brushes and an LED light it has performed well. I have added a DRO and there is also a X-axis powerfeed left from testing and also a spindle speed readout.



The front wall with the view is taken up with a final run of bench where i can sit and fiddle with engines, mark out, etc and the left hand end is where most of the engine stand when being run, few odd screwdrivers in a rack behind.



Marking out and measuring tools in the draws below and the metal ones have things like taps & dies, reamers, drills and so on. You may have gathered by now that I tend to keep most of my things in draws, I like it that way as you can keep the swarf and fine cast iron dust off them so you don't get black hands when you pick up a tool that has not been used for a while.



I have also recently got a CNC mill in the form of a Sieg KX-3 but had to put that in the garage, it may get moved back into the shed when the SX2.7 goes back but more than likely it will stay where it is.



So that's about it, sorry there are not vast amounts of tooling or multiple ex industrial machines to see but I find that is all I need to keep up a regular flow of completed and running engines and that the far eastern equipment is upto the job but as they say the most important Knob in the workshop is the one doing the actual work

J

PS. Before you ask, yes my workshop is usually that tidy.

[Jo]

So that's about it, sorry there are not vast amounts of tooling or multiple ex industrial machines to see but I find that is all I need to keep up a regular flow of completed and running engines and that the far eastern equipment is upto the job but as they say the most important Knob in the workshop is the one doing the actual work

I don't know why you have such a chip on your shoulder about using and owning Chinese machines/tooling they are perfectly adequate for home use. But I think the average person first setting out to make model engines will think you have vast amounts of tooling in comparison with what they have 

Jo

P.S. Surus noted that you don't have any casting sets in your workshop.  (Not showing them was a good move as he doesn't want to visit you  )

[pgp001]

Nice to see other peoples workshop layouts Jason, very efficient use of space.

It differs from mine mainly due to the fact that my (mainly not Chinese by the way) machines are almost all floor standing, so that seriously limits the available space for benches and drawers at ground level. I have a purpose made insulated wood shed which is 16' x 12' and it is absolutely crammed full. So like you I have be a tidy worker and not let junk get in the way all the time.

I will try and put some photo's on at some point.

Phil

[b.lindsey]

Thanks for the tour of the shed Jason. Very neat and organized and obviously up to the tasks you ask of it.

Bill

[Roger B]

That's a good neat workshop      The number of machines will always expand to fill the available space even if you aren't directly responsible for their arrival     

[Flyboy Jim]

Very nicely set up workshop Jason. Thank you for showing us around.

Jim

[Johnmcc69]

Very nice layout Jason! I really like the natural lighting! It looks like a great place to spend (lots of) time.

 Computer? Does it live in the house or do you use a laptop?
(I'm not saying a computer is a workshop requirement, I'm just curious.)

 Thanks for the tour!

 John

[RayW]

Very nice setup you have there Jason. Makes my little workshop look like a broom cupboard in comparison.

[mike mott]

Thanks for the tour of your workshop Jason, I really like the way you have organized your tools in the drawers, it is nice to keep the big wide shelf bench clean. it is something that i have to constantly remind myself of too.

Mike

[Dave Otto]

Nice Shop Jason, thanks for the look around!

Dave

[Kim]

Thanks for the shop tour, Jason.  Very nicely laid out, and ever so tidy!  My shop is seldom so tidy.  Certainly something for me to strive for!
Kim

[jadge]

So that's about it, sorry there are not vast amounts of tooling or multiple ex industrial machines...........

Oh dear, I'd better keep quiet. 

It's a mystery how I manage to produce anything using rather old secondhand ex-industrial machines. However, sometimes size matters, or so I'm told:



Workshop tidiness varies. In the motor racing machine shops I've been to you could eat your dinner off the floor. On the other hand I've visited a commercial machine shop where you wouldn't let your dog go to the toilet. But they did have industrial machine tools that were bigger than Jason's shed.   

Andrew

[Jasonb]

Thanks for the interest

Jo, as it is a workshop and not a storage room your little friend won't find any surplus castings in there. Did you notice that 3 of the 4 engines in there are from casting sets, I must be slipping

John, I don't have a computer in the shed. There is a reconditioned tower hiding behind the CNC mill hidden by the bit of bubble wrap I put over it when not in use. Otherwise design and CAM get done in the house.

Andrew I suppose it depends on what we get upto in our workshops, a 2" traction engine or large hit and miss engine is about my limit and the sort of size I'm happy with, if I were doing something larger or had more of a need for large metal removal rates then a more substantial machine would be needed which would take me out of the bench top range. Though I can still manage to work on some large items. I do keep looking at that Colt that Home & Workshop have had on sale for a long time which would be more the sort of thing I would go for rather than a toolroom lathe such as a Hardinge.



I do like to tidy the workshop regularly, usually gets done on a Sunday afternoon just before I pack up for the weekend. That way if I do need to use the workshop for anything in the week I can be sure of having an empty bench and all tools where I know their location. I'm much the same in the woodwork shop where the most used tools are the bench brush and broom.

[Allen Smithee]

However, sometimes size matters, or so I'm told.

I always used to think size wasn't important, but then all my wallpaper fell off.

AS

[ShopShoe]

Very Nice use of space. I like drawers too, under benchtop machine tools.

It is especially nice that you seem to keep everything clean and organized, even though you allude to a lot of non-model work.  I find that is what I am always fighting: Evrything is neat in the machining department, then I have to take a lawnmower apart and leave it that way until I acquire the repair parts. Not to mention the occasional woodworking which makes sawdust and then needs isolation for finish to dry and cure.

--ShopShoe

[Twizseven]

I try to vacuum swarf up on a regular basis every hour or so.  Its bad enough carrying it into the house on clothes or shoes but my biggest worry is the cats getting swarf in their paws.  The cat wanders into the garage/workshop and round to where I am working when he wants food or a fuss.

What does anyone else do about swarf and pets.

Colin

[Jasonb]

What does anyone else do about swarf and pets

keep 'em locked up

[Twizseven]

That's a tad harder with cats, especially is he garage is the only route into the house.  The dogs don't look entirely happy about it.

Colin

[Laurentic]

I never got over the sign I saw over an engineers desk in a CEGB (That date's me) Power Station, "A clean desk is a sure sign of a sick mind", back in the 1980's.

My shed has never got over it either. 

I do try and keep it clean, but clearing swarf does tend to get left littering the lathe and mill until a "really must deal with that" time arrives.  Best intentions and all that.  But I do wish I wasn't quite such a hoarder and didn't have so much stuff littering the place, never mind the swarf.

Nice shed Jason, given me food for thought, the way you've organised things.

Chris

[Pete49]

However, sometimes size matters, or so I'm told.

I always used to think size wasn't important, but then all my wallpaper fell off.

AS

I see what you did there Allen   

[Mcgyver]

thats a nice looking and well organized shop

[scc]

Great workshop Jason, thanks for the tour.            Terry

[RayW]

Thought you might enjoy this as a contrast to Jason's very tidy workshop.
Some years ago, I helped a friend clear out her late fathers "workshop" which was in the back of his garage. By way of thanks, I was given most of the contents including my Churchill Redman Cub lathe as recounted elsewhere on this forum.
The attached photo shows yours truly in the partially tidied up shop (yes, really)!! The large drip tray on the lathe must have been a good four inches deep with swarf all over and buried in it I found two sets of chuck jaws and various other tools. There were also numerous tools scattered about the floor buried in swarf and sawdust.
The lathe gearbox is on the floor to the left of my leg and you can see the two black control knobs for the feed and screwcutting gearbox just above my back.

[Hrcoleman]

Hello Jason,

I know that this is an old thread, but I was wondering if you could let me know how you found the Sieg SX2.7 compared to your own Mill?
I'm in the market for an upgrade to my ageing X1 and have been looking at the Sieg SX2.7 and SX3 as well as the more or less equivalent Optimum machines.
Tending towards the Siegs at the moment due to the higher Mass and heavier columns.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

Cheers,

Hugh

[Jasonb]

If you can afford it then go with the SX3, although mine is the X3 it shares a lot of parts and it is a more rigid machine than the SX2.7 having larger width and length dovetails and a more substantial column yet the table is about the same size. If you do go SX2.7 than stick with the standard table length. They both give reasonable readings when I put a dti on them so not much in it accuracy wise but you can certainly take a bigger cut with the larger machine and not just due to the larger motor. I also prefer not having to reach up to the top of the column to move the head.

[Hrcoleman]

Thanks Jason.
The z crank being at the front of the base is very attractive I must say.
Good tip on the dovetails.  Not something I had considered in my decision making.

Cheers,

Hugh.

[gary.a.ayres]

Good to get a look inside the studio of a master artist!

Alas, my shop is diametrically opposite to yours in terms of tidiness. During each stage of a project it just gets more and more chaotic until the end of the stage, at which point I reorganize then the whole process starts again...

And your dirty bench is cleaner than my clean bench is.

[gary.a.ayres]

The z crank being at the front of the base is very attractive I must say.
Good tip on the dovetails.  Not something I had considered in my decision making.

Hugh - There's no doubt that Jason is an authority on Seig mills. I'd have gone for the SX3 but felt at the time that I didn't have enough room in my small shed, so I went for the SX2.7L instead. I wasn't at all disappointed in the 2.7. It's a nice little mill and quite powerful for its size and a quiet runner. If I was buying it now though I would probably go for the SX3 and find a way to shoehorn it in somehow. That said, I recently decided to look at replacing the 2.7with the SX3 but decided against it because my main reason for doing so would have been spindle nose to table difference, but on looking into it I found that the difference wasn't big enough to justify the cost. For now, at least.