Family Shop

Dave Black

Member
Messages
638
Location
Central PA
My shop is an old chicken house. The whole building is about 40' x 200', the shop part is about 25'x40'. The shop is shared with my 3 brothers and Dad so its hard to keep clean. I cleaned up some before taking the pictures. The pics should be in order as you would walk in the door then look clockwise around the shop. The first pic is right inside the door and there is my 3 homemade sanders, the blue cylinder is the oscillating spindle sander, to the left of that is a "sandflea/ V sander" style sander, and behind them is a 6"x80" edge belt sander. Next to the door is a 12" band saw and around the corner is the lathe. Next to that is the miter saw and radial arm saw. Above the overhead door are the filters for the cyclone dust collection system. The "CHE" on the sign stands for Chicken House Engineering, My friend made it for me while I was making a steadicam for him to use for film making. Next to that door is the metal working area with stick/tig welder, metal table, grinders, metal sanders, small drill press. The next pic is the overhead door that goes outside. To the right of that is the saw table with built in router. The last pic is the drill press and behind that is the bathroom/paint storage room. More pics to follow.
 

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More

Here are some more pics. The first is the DC system, it is Bill Pentz design although it is made from polyethylene plastic rather that sheet metal. The plastic came from brine tanks for water softener systems (my day job). The green outlet duct is an 8" fiberglass water softener tank. The next pic is a 2.5" vacuum hose hookup. You can see my blastgate system that I designed. All of the gates are normally shut, when I switch on a tool a solenoid opens and sends compressed air to the air cylinder which opens the bast gate. When the gate opens it holds closed a momentary switch that turns on the cyclone. When I turn off the tool the solenoid shuts and the gate closes which opens the switch and turns off the cyclone. The next pic is a closer shot of the miter and radial arm. Next is the main work bench and mobile tool cart under it. Next is a close up of the homemade V sander. Then another shot of the spindle sander (note the fiberglass water softener for the stand). 4th from last is my homemade end vise. The next is a shot of the table saw with homemade T square style fence. 2nd to last is my plane drawer, the 2 on the bottom right are ones that I made. Last is a dead blow mallet that I made to use with chisels. Its made from an old brass 1" check valve and lead shot.
 

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Dave, welcome to the Family :wave:

Great introduction, nice shop, lots of pics, and lots of interesting ideas to plunder.......... ;) :D

I've got a homebuilt Pentz design cyclone too, and I love it.

So, you have a very nice workshop, with lots of toys, what do you make?

Cheers!
 
Welcome to the Family I will look forward to seen some of your work. I did notice the absence of a Lathe ???:huh::dunno::rofl::rofl::rofl:


The lathe is there, its in the 2nd pic of the first post.

QUOTE
So, you have a very nice workshop, with lots of toys, what do you make?

I make all kinds of stuff, right now I am building 10 dining rooms chairs out of white oak to go with the table I made 3 years ago. I think I may like building tools more that making "real" projects. Hopefully I will be replacing that delta TS with a sawstop and in that process I will be redoing the router table. Right now the router is mounted on a plexi plate which I will be replacing with a cast iron table from an old table saw.
 
Dave, you and I would get along I think :D I too enjoy building tools, I built my own bandsaw!

I got a SawStop earlier this year, it is one heck of a nice saw, if you get one you will love it! :wave:
 
Hi Dave! Your my kinda guy! I too enjoy making my own tools, jigs, etc. BTW, how do you like that V-sander, I've seen them at the woodworking shows. They seem really slick, almost bought the kit, but wanted to get an opinion from someone other that the sales person.
 
Hi Dave, welcome to the family! I also have a chicken house, 34x200. I considered renovating one end, but mine is only 6' tall on the inside tall people really hate walking in it, but they sure clean the cobwebs for me!!:rofl::rofl::rofl::thumb:
 
welcome dave,, and i too like al lthe homemade tools yu have ..first one i am curious about is your spindle sander, how did you make that and does it ocislialte up and down" and the second observation is the edge sander appears to be home madeas well possibly from a tread mill??? so fill us in on your homemade tools,, yur quite the group of guys there in that shop ..looks like yu can make anything:D:thumb:
 
QUOTE
Dave, you and I would get along I think I too enjoy building tools, I built my own bandsaw!

Do you have any pics of this bandsaw, I have been thinking of making one myself.

QUOTE
BTW, how do you like that V-sander,

I just made this about a month or 2 ago, but so far I really like it. It comes in really handy for sanding parts before assembly and because of how it operates it gets sanded with the grain, not to mention that its VERY fast. I can sand 4 sides of a chair leg in about 7 seconds. The only things I needed to buy were the PSA velcro and sand paper and 2 bearings. I got the paper and velcro from supergrit.com, their store is in Gettysburg PA which is close to me.

QUOTE
first one i am curious about is your spindle sander, how did you make that and does it ocislialte up and down" and the second observation is the edge sander appears to be home madeas well possibly from a tread mill??? so fill us in on your homemade tools


The spindle sander was pretty easy to make. I had a 10" ryobi drill press that I cut the column short on. I then bolted that to the bottom of an old table saw top. I used an old gear reduction motor from a chemical feed pump( something else from the water treatment industry) to move the spindle up and down. I am still working on it, I need a straight 1/2" shaft to put the rubber drums on. Right now I am using 1/2" shaft from tractor supply that I threaded on one end and put a lock collar on the other end to keep the drums in place. The shaft wobbles a little as it spins so I need to come up with another idea. I am not sure how much it would cost to have something made at a machine shop, any ideas are welcome. The edge sander is also home made. It is not from a treadmill though. The drive drum is 3" pvc couplers glued together and fastened to a v belt pulley which is on the motor shaft. The other drum is from a 10' section of roller track I got from a junk yard.
 
Nope, there was a Grizzly clone ;) Jet lathe in the background in one photo. He's OK. We'll keep him. :D

That lathe was a christmas present from my parents about 12 years ago when I was 14. I don't use it as much as I thought I would but it sure comes in handy when I need it.
 
Hi Dave Welcome to the family.

Good size shop you have there lots of room to move. Glad Larry brought up the tools. I like that workbench vice you have there. Any chance of a close shot of how its made. Looks like it only has a handle on one end. How do you close it up?

I am in the process of building my own bench right now so it would be handy to see.

I think those blast gates are something else. I guess you have air always available and from what i see a large compressor. But i think its neat. I like the automation aspect of it. Thats what all the goodies are for you make it work from one switch.:D:thumb:

You got enough in your shop for many tutorials and lots of interesting posts.

Thanks.
 
Hi Dave Welcome to the family.

Good size shop you have there lots of room to move. Glad Larry brought up the tools. I like that workbench vice you have there. Any chance of a close shot of how its made. Looks like it only has a handle on one end. How do you close it up?

I am in the process of building my own bench right now so it would be handy to see.

I think those blast gates are something else. I guess you have air always available and from what i see a large compressor. But i think its neat. I like the automation aspect of it. Thats what all the goodies are for you make it work from one switch.:D:thumb:

You got enough in your shop for many tutorials and lots of interesting posts.

Thanks.

I don't have any close ups of the vise, but I will try to explain how its made. The jaw on the bench side of the vise is 2 boards laminated , they are screwed directly onto the end of the bench. There are 2 holes in the jaw through which the mechanics of the vise go through. The moving parts are pretty easy and very effective. Basically they are 2 metal pipes, one of them fits snugly inside the other. At the end of the larger pipe a large nut is welded on it. The large pipe fits through the bench side jaw with the nut at the far end, a few stainless steel pipe clamps around the pipes keeps them from sliding out of the jaw. The smaller pipe is VERY tightly fitted into holes in the moving jaw. I installed it with a very large hammer, there is nothing but friction holding them in. The whole moving jaw with the pipes installed slides into the fixed jaw. I then put threaded rods through the pipes and screwed them through the nuts. At the vise end I put double nuts on the threaded rod and then screwed on "washers" to the jaw. I then double nutted the rod on the outside of the washer and put on a handle. Under the bench there is a chain system that turns both of the screws at the same. Basically it is 2 nuts that have #35 chain sprockets welded to them and 1 is screwed onto each of the threaded rods and a regular nut is tightened against it to keep it in place. This is probably very confusing reading it so I suppose that I will have to get a pic so this makes sense.
 
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