Thread: Show us ya metal working sheds and tools W/Pics!!!

I wouldn't be without a power feed, it will change your whole out look on milling now. I am making tool holders for the lathe at the moment and just load, stand there and wait until it done it's job, then reload and watch it all over again. I wouldn't be standing there winding the table for all these I will tell you that, LOL

Dave

Hi Guys,
I said I would load up a couple pics of my workshop...about a month ago...while we were chatting over on the Show us your Shaper thread...
So here we go, a bit late, I know...
...usual excuse...too many projects on the go, at the same time.

Regards,
Adrian (Neebs)

I think im in love

Thats one great man cave you have got there, i love it especially all those shapers, is there 4 in total?

Love how compact your shed is and yet you can still fit alot of big machinery.

Cooper

far out. that's fantastic. what can i say.
i see a round head colchester there and a Bridgeport mill.
ive been wondering how many of us own colchester's of that era.
this and the latest project thread are my favorites
aaron.

HI,
Neebs that is a GREAT Workshop Set Up You have there. Out of Interest how Big is Your Workshop ?.
Thankyou.

Drool... very nice setup

great question steran. because im shore its no bigger than mine. just less junk.

Originally Posted by Neebs

Hi Guys,
I said I would load up a couple pics of my workshop...about a month ago...while we were chatting over on the Show us your Shaper thread...
So here we go, a bit late, I know...
...usual excuse...too many projects on the go, at the same time.

Regards,
Adrian (Neebs)

Adrian,

I noticed you have a Myford Ml7 with a gearbox. A very different gearbox. Can you tell us what it is?

Regards

Eric

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the comments about my Shed...

I will try and answer your current queries and questions in order...

xXVapourXx / Cooper: Yes, you are correct...you can see four Shapers...The three Elliotts clustered together...with the Boxford, over on the other side...(mobile, and in front of the Bridgeport). In addition, there are the two Slotting Attachments...The Type E Head on the back of the Bridgeport Ram (I will enclose another pic)...and the Elliott/Invicta Slotting Attachment which is sitting on the floor in front of the newest Elliott 14M (last pic of my previous post)
With regard to fitting it all in...Well, that's still an ongoing juggling act!!!
I have enclosed another more recent pic of even more of my "stuff" getting squeezed in...You can see the 5ton Flypress, the Bridgeport Slotting Head, the Boxford Shaper, the Smart & Brown H5 Toggle Press, the Union Tool and Cutter Grinder...and lying on the floor under the bench the "other" Myford Lathe awaiting rebuild...etc.etc

However, I refuse to dispose of any more of my "stuff"!

(Some background to that last statement...We downsized and moved here four years ago as we approached retirement...
In real terms...I had to downsize by 80%..on all my "stuff"...and "big boys toys"...before I actually moved here...as the restriction was: The available floor area in the "new" workshop...compared to the room I had when we had our Small-holding.
That was a "heartbreak"...I can tell you!!!
Anyway...what's done is done, as they say...
However..."the powers that be", are now well aware...that there is no way I will relinquish any more of my "stuff"!)

Azzrock / Aaron: Yes...in the background you can see the old RoundHead Gap Bed Colchester Student (I will enclose another pic of the Student showing the latest aquisition for it...the 18" Gap Bed Faceplate)...
I have the standard 12" Faceplate that I got with the machine...however, I have been looking for the large capacity faceplate for quite a long time now...just picked one up the other week.
PS Paintwork is a bit tatty on the Student...but I will get around to repainting it, one day! However, mechanically it's not bad...It's a 1968 machine and had a reground bed a few years before I bought it, along with new feedscrews and nuts for the cross and top slide...but that is coming up for twenty years ago now!
With regard to the Bridgeport...It dates from 1965...was professionally rebuilt in 1977...and I bought it from our Toolroom back in 2000...so I have had this mill for 12 years.

Steran50: My current (and hopefully last) workshop, that you see in the photos, is 5.5 metres wide by 7 metres long...basically, it's a double garage.
My previous workshop was 20ft x 50ft...Plus...after we gave up the horses...I also commandeered the Stable block...which was 70ft x 12ft...so I made it my "mission" to "acquire" a hell of a lot of "stuff"...in an effort to fill these big spaces!!!
...Ohhh....Happy Days!!!

Blu_rock: What can I say...other than...can someone please pass Blu-rock a tissue!!!

Lamestlama / Eric: Well spotted that man!...
I often think that...that's half the fun in seeing photos of someone else's workshop...is zooming in the pics, to see what else you can "spy" in the background!

It's a genuine Sparey Screw-Cutting & Fine Feed Gearbox...designed by...and casting set sold by...Lawrence Sparey...better known as the author of "The Amateur's Lathe"
(This book was virtually the "bible" as far as using a small lathe is concerned) and his other publication, "A Man and his Lathe".
(In point of fact, in the book "A Man and his Lathe"...on page 21, there is a photo of Sparey's own ML7 Lathe...and you can see the gearbox in that pic as well).

Sparey designed this gearbox back in around 1948/9 (about three or four years before Myford brought out a gearbox for the ML7)...and as Sparey had a small engineering business at the time...he went on to market and sell the drawings and castings for the screw-cutting gearbox you see in the photos (I enclose another photo of my ML7 with theSparey Gearbox). My gearbox was built by a very good friend of my mine back in 1951...and he bought the raw materials direct from Sparey. The lathe (1948) and the associated gearbox were owned by my friend until 1982...when I bought the lathe from him...as, at that time, he wanted the higher speed of the Super 7.
So I have owned the ML7 you see in the photos for the past 30 years.

Hope that's enough info for you guys at present...It stopped raining...so I'm away out to "play" in my shed!

Regards,
Adrian (Neebs)

Note: The Sparey gearbox became "un-available" after a number of years as Sparey retired...However, it next "re-appeared" as the "Algoa" gearbox...and subsequently the "Machin" gearbox...marketed by Hemmingway Kits.
In both cases...the gearbox "cases" become slightly more "refined" in terms of looks...however...fundamentally...as far as I am aware...they were still just basically...a "re-clothed" derivative of the Sparey Gearbox.

shore you couldn't of got a bigger face plate.that machine has the joy stick poking out of the tread turning gear box
im going to have to look up my manual about that.
do you have any trouble when swinging your bridge port from milling to slotting is there a trick to it?
that if bridge ports and Kondia's are really the same. they look it.
thanks
aaron

also i forgot to say but your man cave is like a museum

Cooper

Hi Adrian,

Nice shed

Like most of the posts already, i have no idea how you have some many machines in such a small space. Good job. I guess you learn to make do when you must.

That faceplate looks HUGE compared to the rest of the chipmaster.

I don't know about the rest of you but i might have a bit of shaper envy......

Ewan

Adrian (Neebs)
STUNNING.............Just bloody stunning.

Hi Guys,

Again...thanks for your continued appreciation of my "shed"...

Azzrock/Aaron & Ueee/Ewan: The faceplate, on the Colchester Student, just looks huge in the photo...because I haven't removed the gap-piece (from the Bed)...in front of it...I had just cleaned it up (the faceplate, that is) after getting it home...and just wanted to see it on the machine...
Although I must admit...an 18" faceplate on a 6" Center height Lathe...is pretty big..

Now Aaron...with regard to the "joystick"...This machine is a Metric machine...and as such, were fitted with what is known as the "Continental" gearbox...hence the joystick control...which was standard on the Continental Screwcutting Gearboxes.

...And, in relation to swinging the Bridgeport around to bring the Slotting Head into use...No problem...slacken four bolts, unplug the DRO Console and the power to the J Milling Head...and just swing it around. Re-tighten the four bolts, plug in the DRO Console and also the powerlead for the Slotting Head...and away you go!
...Takes as long to "write" as it does to carry out the "task"...easy peasy!!!
...especially when you have done it...many times over many years.

Ueee/Ewan: With regard to "squeezing" a "quart into a pint pot"...Your right...necessity is the mother of invention...and, as I am NOT losing any more "equipment"...Then..it just has to "fit"...one way or another!
I have established however...that some of the machines will only "fit" in...one way!
There are no alternatives...don't ask me how I know!!!

...makes it nice and "cosy" tho' (especially since I tapped into the house Central Heating and extended it out into the Workshop)

...or should that be that the workshop is: "compact and bijou"?

...Ohhh...and Ewan...with regard to Shaper Envy...Sadly, I had to stop at four Shapers...
...as I just couldn't get any more in!!!
...damn and blast!!!
...especially, as I was offered a Selig Sonnethal Planer a while back...and also a "one-owner" Invicta 24" Shaper complete with the original vice...
...double damn and blast!!!


...one thing more...I have had to, radically, cut down on the "choccy biscuits" with my "brew"...
...It...or rather I...was getting a bit "tight" for getting past (or squeezing past) the machines!!!

Cooper: A salient and sobering point to close with...
...I think ALL our "man-caves" are fast becoming "Museum's"...
As we see Engineering and Manufacturing jobs "dying out"...across the bulk of the western world...it is getting to the stage where it will only be the "men in caves" or "men in sheds" that will still keep the "old skills" alive for future generations...

Matthew G...thanks for your comment.

Regards,
Adrian (Neebs)