My workshops
An early start
My first
workshop was a delapidated shed next to my parent's
house, 'Rag, tag and bobtaii ' ancient tools belonging to my
father comprised the equipment. With these I built many
models, Mainly due to the period in which I was working WW2,
I built waterline models of the great Battleships of the era,
' Hood ', ' Warspite ', 'Nelson 'and ' Rodney '. among many
more. Imagine my dismay as I heard on the wireless, our main
source of news, pre-television, that these grand ships were
being sunk, one after the other !
Model
aircraft followed....most crashed on first rubber powered
flight. At 16 with some money in my pocket I started with
model railways, making track from Peco chairs which were
placed individually prior to rail insertion, thousands of
them. Articles at the time in 'Railway Modeller' showed
my locomotives, then constructed from curtain rail and cocoa
tin. This interest survived 3 years of Army service
and..........so continued an all embracing model hobby '
mania '...............still enjoyed 60 years on.
Finding
space
Before and
after army service and throughout my early married life
various other locations were found, garages, spare rooms and
even on one occasion a worktop in the lavatory. Things
progressed and a decent tool kit was assembled then 32 years
ago I built a house extension with a bespoke workshop. This
was described in the 'Model Engineer' titled
' A quart into a pint pot ' Which it was !
The
room is just 3.5 metres square with two windows and , such
luxury, centrally heated !
It was
necessary to make the most of every bit of space yet allowing
room to work.
The
' Pint pot ' clockwise
from top left hand image.....
General
view,.... The dirty bench...... The clean bench
and............. Old Faithful ..........No more
room...........except upwards !
Being
tight for space means that everything has to be removable or
in store yet readily accessible. The best contribution to
ease of work was the construction of a solid, yet mobile,
central bench, that could be moved adjacent to the current,
dirty or clean bench or to a particular machine to provide
continuity of surface area. This also proved useful in moving
heavy models about the shop.
It
is essential however to remember that castor mounted benches,
tool boxes or stands can become unstable if the rotation of
the of the castors reduces their floor contact below the
desired 3 to 1 height to base+load ratio.
The '
Pint pot ' sufficed for 30 years or so until t I
moved into the relatively spacious garage, pictured here with
most of the equipment installed.
'Up and over door'
provides adequate ventilation ! Unfortunately in winter it
must be sealed to prevent rust attach on tools and equipment.
The floor is concrete painted light grey to assist in
spotting those small items which get dropped...a disadvantage
of concrete is that one cannot hear small items as they land,
and also, as it is so smooth, small parts depart into the
most difficult to reach places !
I maintain ' Clean '
and ' Dirty ' benches ( For use as the descriptions imply !)
The vices are on baseboards which can either be exchanged
from one bench to the other or removed to provide a clear
working space. This is achieved by using ' Screwfix ' bench
stops which provide a strong clamping force.
Benches
and lighting are from skips ( given permission )and
shopfitters scrap, as is all the Dexion angle used for
framing. It seems that every new shop demands a refit the
waste materials can be a goldmine for the economic
minded, environmentally aware ! The bench shewn left
front is on heavy duty castors and can be moved to extend
othe benches or move heavy models. The false ceiling
suspended from the rafters provides storage space.
Myford
lathe friend of 30 years, and never a breakdown. The joy
of a lathe is that with it, one can make up all manner of
additional fittings and fixtures from scrap metal, ( Or
even on occasions from specially purchased materials ! )
Some of my additions are illustrated below
Tools and things to hand, Lost a
tool?..time to tidy up !
Tools
and things......................
Whilst
setting up the pages ' Building the Allchin ' I
mentioned that, once one has a lathe and, posiblly a
light mill or substantial drill , apart from the jigs and
templates required for a particular project there are a
number of useful bits of equipment that can be
constructed, often from scrap'.
Whilst the
purchased product may look better, the home produced
article can cost much less. yet meet the basic
requirements of the task for which it is made. The
following images show several such attachments largely
prduced from scrap gleaned from skips ( by permission of
the owners ! )
This 4 way indexing
toolpost cost just the price of the capscrews and the
plastic knob, the rest was the cost of the blood, sweat
and tears that went into sawing the offcuts of plate and
applying a spot of welding rod.
The left hand
image, a simply made attachment. permits indexing using
the lathe bullwheel. It is attached inside the headstock
using a tapped hole thoughtfully provided by Messrs
Myford, the plunger engages with the bull wheel. on the
right is a fly cutter/facing tool for use with the
imported milling machine. Capscrews are used to fasten
the block of barstock to the mill. Scrap stel was used in
both cases.
On the left,
the small block of metal, twice slotted, three times drilled,
twice tapped and once bored hold a boring bar which
accommodates short cutters from tool steel. it proved useful
a number of times in constructing both Pixie and the
Allchin. On the right, salvaged steel used to
construct a rear toolpost. If anything revolutionises
parting-off it is the rear toolpost, particularly for the
amateur. In the event of ' An issue ' as problems are termed
today. a jamb, or a dig-in the tool tends to lift slightly
and further damage can be avoided. both items were made for
the cost of the knobs, cap screws and some more sweat !
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The knurling tool set
up in the rear tool post cost the price of the knurls and is
kinder on the lathe than the single knurl model, The right
hand image shows a bracket for mounting gauges which also
provides fixing for the ' Wobbler ' possibly the most
primitive yet effective bit of gear for centering stock in
the chuck. With the fine point in a deep ' pop ' on the
workpiece the long end of the pointer mahnifies any degree of
eccentricity.
