Organizing The Shop

Discussion in 'Other metal working projects' started by Al2O3, Sep 28, 2020.

  1. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    My brother passed away a year ago and I just got the estate wound up a couple months ago. It’s been a long slog so haven’t been casting much. He had moved into my Father’s place when he passed away 23 years ago. My Dad had a hobby machine shop in the basement which wasn’t particularly a great place for machinery because it wasn’t very dry and not a walkout so everything had to be hauled down a steep flight of stairs which I did for him 30+ years ago…….when I was a much younger man. Some of his machinery and tooling was my grandfather’s. There was a lot of tooling. Some could not be salvaged, but much could. I sold the house and was coming up against deadline so I moved everything into my shop which has had it in a state of chaos and cluttered mess, with crap piled everywhere, but I’ve been chipping away at it.

    1 Loose Drawers.JPG 2 Loose Drawers.JPG

    I should never have to buy a twist drill, end mill, center drill, tap, tool steel, or a host of other expendable tooling again. It has taken me many hours to clean it up and sort it all. My first thought was it’s a lifetime supply of everything but in fact, I guess it was actually three lifetimes considering the source. There is also a lot of lathe tooling, chucks, arbors, mics, calipers, bore gauges, etc. Both my Father and Grandfather were government employees and frequently bought surplus items and it was some nice stuff……..many thousands of dollars’ worth if you were to buy it yourself. Without organizing it you would spend all your time hunting and not working……..I hate that, but wow, what a job going through it all.

    So a lot of the expendable and small tooling was in three, 18-drawer metal cabinets. Two were identical and a third with slightly shallower drawers. As opposed to fixing the cabinets up I looked on eBay and salvage sites to see what they were fetching and the answer was $400-$500 each…..wow! So I cleaned up and painted two of the three cabinets. Several drawers were missing, and several were not salvageable, so I made a double and triple sized drawer as replacements.

    3 Fabbed Drawers.JPG 4 Refurbed Cabinets.JPG

    The third cabinet was in really rough shape but 17 of the 18 drawers were in great shape. One was missing. I had a space over by my mill but it would need to be a vertical cabinet so I decided to make a cabinet and a couple drawers to suit that space. I have a jump sheer, finger brake, and slip roll so can readily bang out sheet metal stuff, so I formed up some shelves and sides.

    5 Bent Tin.JPG

    I had to paint the inside surfaces before assembly, cuz there’d be no way to do so afterward.

    6 Paint Inside.JPG

    I decided to make drawer pulls and file cards to match. It was pretty easy and worth it.

    7 Drawer Pull.JPG 8 Drawer Pulls.JPG

    I wasn’t looking forward to making a few hundred plug welds on light gauge metal so I succumbed and bought a HF spot welder on sale for $159. It works fine but only fires by manually toggling a momentary switch. It would be a much better machine with a timer circuit……I’ll have to add one of those later. Anyway, served the purpose and earned its purchase price and will get future use.
    9 Spot Welder.JPG

    I fabricated two more double drawers pictured here along with one the originals.

    10 New Drawers.JPG 11 Drawer.JPG

    Assembled the cabinet and test fit the drawers…….It will mount on the wall off the floor by the mill and house related tooling to save some shoe leather. Still have some painting to do but just about there.

    12 Cabinet.JPG

    Among other things, there were two Atlas/Craftsman lathes, a 12x40 and 12x54. The 12x40 sat in my Grandfather’s shop predating my birth. I learned on it and both my Father and Grandfather logged many hours standing in front of it. My Father bought the second one with the longer bed because there is a long tradition of gun smithing on both sides of my family, and apparently an enormous amount of patience (which I didn’t inherit), because they aren’t much of lathe for anyone that has enjoyed a real machine. Not sure I can see myself taking .020” cuts with such a light machine. When those machines went down the stairs 30+ years ago, I did it by myself. I nearly wore out my back and a friendship bringing them back up. I’m in the process of cleaning them up. I was surprised at the kind of dough these things fetch with the hobbyists. I could sell them both and buy a helluva machine for myself, which I’m sure is what my Father would have done given the means and chance, but three generations in the family is tugging at my heartstrings a bit on the shorter bed lathe……gonna have to think on that.

    13 Lathe.JPG

    Best,
    Kelly
     
    OMM, Mark's castings and Tobho Mott like this.
  2. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    Sorry about your brother. The clean outs can be a daunting task as you and Matt have mentioned recently. It looks like you've got quite a lot of useful stuff there. I'll bet some aspiring novice hobbyist who's watched all of Mr Petes YouTube videos would be grateful to get ahold of one of those lathes. They're nice little machines for light work. I've had a Southbend 9" for a few years now and while I'm still standing I wouldn't want to be without one.
    Nice sheetmetal work as well. That little spot welder has found a good home.

    Pete
     
  3. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Thanks Petee. Useful stuff indeed, and I'll think of them every time I reach for something.

    They're better than no lathe at all that's for sure and they are actually quite well equipped.....just light duty but a good machinist is like a good driver on the track that can drive slow cars fast! I think the reason they are so popular with the hobbyists is they are light enough to be moved by a couple people. I'm thinking I'll sell the 12x54 and use the other while I look for a deal. I have toyed with buying an import from precision Mathews versus old US iron but just can't get myself to do it yet.

    Ah yes, Mr. Pete aka Tubalcain. I did take in a couple of his YouTube videos on the lathes. His website is (or at least was a couple months ago) riddled with viruses and malware........too bad there.....Bastards!

    It's the typical Harbor Freight experience. The adjustment that controls the electrode gap is poorly designed and frankly doesn't really work. As I previously mentioned, a simple timing circuit would make for much more precise and repeatable spot welds. The timing circuit would add a little cost but the gap control design was just botched and doesn't work because the jam nut joint binds with motion. Check this out, the jam nut position controls the electrode gap along with a stop screw at the back of the handle, but the range of motion of the mechanism when you open it requires the bolt angle to change so it can't be tightened at 90 degrees. I think this is what happens when an engineer that has never used such a tool copies something and then never tries to use his own design. I'll redesign that with a live pivot in time......and a wooden handle? It weighs 30lbs.

    14 Spot Welder Joint.jpg

    But, I could not source a step down transformer for that level of current (some YouTubers use microwave transformers) or copper electrodes for the cost of the HF unit and given the time factor, buy versus build won even though it will need some minor work.

    Best,
    Kelly
     
  4. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    I discovered that the back portion of that compound joint was bound up on the welder and that was creating the inability for it to hinge properly. A little finessing (couple light, well placed, whacks with a small hammer) and it moved much better and I could set the gap with the jam nuts.

    15 Spot welder.JPG

    I also had purchased a pair of long electrodes for a little more reach. I got a little surprise when I went to install them. I couldn’t get the clamps to tighten up on them even though both sets were 5/8” diameter. Turns out the clamps were shimmed and the shims pushed out the back.

    16 Spot Welder Shim.JPG

    I guess they were designed for a metric diameter but sold with an SAE diameter. Not a big deal but had me scratching my head for a little while. Once installed, the long arms work even better than the short ones because they applied a more consistent load. So I finished up the vertical cabinet and mounted it on the wall.

    17 Vertcal Cab Painted Mounted.jpg

    Painted the other drawers I fabbed but still have a dozen of the lower drawers to catch up next time I have paint in the spray gun.

    18 Cabinet Painted.JPG

    Everything I touched needed to be sorted, cleaned, and/or repaired. Evaporust, oil etc. Had to rebuild the tool cabinet and all but two of the drawers.

    19 Chest.JPG

    I’m to the point where I’m making real progress now because I’m actually putting things away in drawers and cabinets, and am beginning to see my floor and lateral space again. Here’s a some examples of the work that went inside the drawers.

    End mills, 2, 3, 4 flute and roughing. Several drwaers up to ¾” diameter.

    20 End Mills.JPG

    Solid Carbide

    21 Solid Carbide.JPG

    These are about half the grinding and slip stones. I couldn’t salvage the tool post grinder and will need to build one.

    22 Grinding Stones.JPG

    Drills! Fractional, Letter, Number, stub, jobber, different point angles.

    23 Drills.JPG

    Morse Taper Drills up to 1”.

    24 Drills.JPG

    Taps, 2, 3 , 4 flute, spiral, plug, bottom, in NC & NF up to 5/8” and some NEF & crazy small stuff.

    25 Taps.JPG

    Jacobs chucks and a couple keyless chucks.

    26 Drill Chucks.JPG

    About 20 Tool Holders and assorted boring bars.

    27 Tool Holders.JPG

    Tool steel in parting, square, and rectangular profiles. HSS, Cast Alloys, Carbide tipped. I have a whole drawer of insert tooling I haven’t touched yet.

    28 Tool Steel.JPG

    It's the tip of the iceberg, but I'm sure you get the idea. I can’t imagine letting all that stuff going into a dumpster. I will certainly never use it all but as a hobbyist, I’ll die trying and never want for much in the way of tooling.

    Onward & Upward!

    Best,
    Kelly
     
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2020
  5. ddmckee54

    ddmckee54 Silver

    Kelly, there's a GOOD reason for that wood handle, wood's an insulator. Maybe they figure with one handle insulated you've got a 50/50 chance of not getting zapped?

    It's considered bad form for a manufacturer to electro-zzapp the customer while he is using a tool with your name on it. At least that's what I've been told.

    Don
     
  6. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    You still have to hold onto the metal handle to clamp the electrode. The wood handle is hollow with a 1/4" steel rod running down the center so it can rotate as you grip it and incidental contact with the steel straps on the side is inevitable so I doubt the odds of avoiding shock improved much ;). I did buy the 240vac version (there is a similar 120vac) because it had a little more capability. The secondary welding voltage from the transformer is too low to shock but if the primary ever fails, and the ground fails too, I'm sure it will get my attention!

    Best,
    Kelly
     
  7. crazybillybob

    crazybillybob Silver Banner Member

    Kelly,
    I won an auction lot that included a dumore tool post grinder and some parts for a shop made unit. I'll try to get some photos this weekend when I get back to the shop. But I'd be willing to get you any of the parts you'd be interested in. (the dumore might be a little big for my 10" SB lathe...but that's where it's going!)
     
  8. ddmckee54

    ddmckee54 Silver

    Kelly:

    The 50/50 chance comment was made with tongue planted firmly in cheek. All I meant was that you probably wouldn't get zapped through the hand holding the wooden handle. You would definitely get zapped through the hand holding that metal handle though.

    I would ask about a 240V GFI rated for that current, but then I realized the there's a REAL good chance that whatever you're spot welding is going to be grounded anyway. A GFI really wouldn't help a lot would it, it would always be shutting off the circuit.

    Maybe you could replace the wood handle with a plastic one that has flanges to keep your hand away from the metal, and insulate the other handle? But to paraphrase RotarySMP, that might just be trying to polish a turd.

    Don
     
  9. garyhlucas

    garyhlucas Silver

    No a 240 GFCI would not trip from the tips touching metal. Very simple how they work. Both of the 240 volt leads pass through the same current sensing coil. They cancel each other unless the current is going someplace else, like to ground. So if current is sensed it trips. The secondary on a spot welder isolated from the primary and not connected to ground so it can't energize the part you are welding.
     
  10. rocco

    rocco Silver

    A spot welder has a transformer in it which isolates the output from both the input source and from ground so it should not trip a GFCI breaker under any circumstances unless of course the transformer has an internal fault.
     

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