What Kind of Workshop Facilities do we all have??

[listerdiesel]

Not so much a 'I've Got a Bigger One Than You' topic, but it would be interesting to see how we have evolved our workspaces to cope with family budgets (or lack of them!) and more crucially, how those with small work areas manage.

Lack of space is a perennial problem for us, as the factory steals space for long-term component storage (resistors, capacitors etc on bandoliers) so we started renting barn space, and now that is also full up.

We have a big Int40 milling machine (think Bridgeport on steroids) waiting to come down to the house:

http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel/Misc/Beaver1.jpg
through to
http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel/Misc/Beaver5.jpg

Pictures taken on the day we collected it, we have worn that van out and had a new one since then...

Also have a few Ward Capstan lathes, one inside and fully operational with collets etc etc., two more (maybe three?) outside or up the farm in store:

http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel/Ward/Ward15.htm

Tool & cutter grinder (Clarkson) Pictures in the same section as the Ward stuff.

Loads of mill tools that we collected before we actually bought the milling machine, big Elliott Progress 3A vertical pillar drill, 3MT and drills up to 1.25" in steel, plus loads of other mechanicking sort of stuff.

We have a engine hoist frame that is dismantlable/portable for moving heavy stuff, plus a big hydraulic crane outside for shifting the stuff we cannot manage ourselves. That has been given the shot blast/Zinc Spray treatment as we have to leave it outside under sheets for most of the time, but it goes to over 9ft high lift, which is VERY useful.

Problem is, we just haven't got any room! 

Peter 

[Doug]

I hear you Peter.

I have no garage and had to pull down a little work space I had last summer.
Right now I'm buting atthe seems with stuff flowing back into the house and the wife is not happy....

[sid]

same problem here/space//I live in the city and had several zoning tickets and been to court on some//I have 2 engines on my deck / 5 in my drive way hidden by the cars and 4 trailers parked in various place out of site//I found out that zoning only covers the front yard... anything that I can get beside or in back of the house is not subject to zoning//also I have to keep 2 trailer load of engines about 50 miles north at my cousins house..my problem is that I can only run an engine about 15 minutes before someone calls the police for noise..so I run them for 10-15 minutes and stop and wait a while and restart them// another problem is coal smoke from the forge.. the neighbors can smell it but can not find it//sid

[rbodell]

I realy don't have a worjkshop, I have a 40 foot shipping container for parts/tool room.

http://picasaweb.google.com/rbodell/MyShop02/photo#5059819388858678930

Not shown is the waste oil processing rig, metal lathe, wood lathe, table saw and welder.

One of these days when I get some time I will get another container to put beside it for an actual shop.

[Stan]

My "shop" is the basement of our master bedroom, which used to be the garage.  The PO of the house built a 12' by 20' garage with a basement under it.  The floor of the garage was built on railroad track used as joists, set into the concrete wall, with a layer of 3" by 6" timbers as a floor, with another layer of 3x6" timbers running the other way on top.  Nice solid floor!!

The room is small, and I use it mainly as a woodworking shop, however right now I have Penelope's top end parts (her bottom end is too heavy to drag through the basement into the workshop) sitting on my workbench.
Stan

[4x4_Welder]

Well, I just bought a 28x33' garage a little over a month ago, that happened to come with a nice older doublewide and about a third of an acre of lawn.  Just outside of city limits, so not much in the way of zoning. 
The downside is that it's only a third of an acre, there's other houses within sight, and the garage needs a floor (just gravel now) and power put in.  Once I get that stuff done, it will be my shop and I'll actually be able to get my business moving.

[dpollo]

My workshop area is actually greater than the house which I believe to be the natural order of things. I do not understand why I still have no room and wind up working outside.  Alas.

[zacksstacks]

I have an attached single car garage for the weather-sensitive stuff, and an 18x20 dirt floor carport for the weather tolerant items. Anyone wonder where my 10/1 is? 

[listerdiesel]

I have an attached single car garage for the weather-sensitive stuff, and an 18x20 dirt floor carport for the weather tolerant items. Anyone wonder where my 10/1 is? 

Inside, in the living-room?? 

Peter

[lendusaquid]

Here is a picture of my shed. Its where i escape reality and the wife 

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2101698090100808385FTXvxH

[M61hops]

I have a 20 X 24 sorta flimsy shop building.  I use the term "building" losely here but it keeps the rain off my stuff.  The walls are wood and the roof is corrogated tin plated steel.  When I got this place only i/4 of the floor was concrete so I poured a thick 10 X 24 slab to hold up my lathes.  I still need to take up a 8 X 12 section of wood floor and pour a concerte one.  I'm tempted to bury an exaust system under that section of floor and am thinking of pouring a thick heavy block to mount my listeroid on.  I'm not sure if I want to sacrifice the space to have the engine inside but the extra heat and ease of keeping an eye on the motor is really tempting.  I was going to build a better shop space but ran into zoning blockades.  In the land of the free you can't just build what you want on your own property.  I am thankful for what I do have though!             Leland

[Grael]

OK Ill add mine. It is a 10'X12' shed which houses our batteries and inverter. In one corner is the wood stove which keeps the batteries warm when it is very cold outside, as well as keeping me warm when I'm fixin' something. The rest of the room is taken up by junk. Outside is various engines and assorted junk, as well as our 3 generators. (Listeroid coming soon) At least it is an escape from the world; not many people would consider the quiet hum of an inverter or generator southing...

[rbodell]

I was going to build a better shop space but ran into zoning blockades.  In the land of the free you can't just build what you want on your own property.  I am thankful for what I do have though!             Leland

No zoning and building codes here. Even outhouses are legal here.
Never could figure why a septic tank is better then an outhouse. Everything ends up in the same place.

[contaucreek]

We just bought a house and there is a new detached garage on a concrete slab there, i guess its about 18 x 22 feet. Exposed trusses so i will fashion up a chainfall for hoisting. Not much in the way of machine tools, I leave them at work and forget about them until 7 the next morning !!!.

[Doug]

OK Ill add mine. It is a 10'X12' shed which houses our batteries and inverter. In one corner is the wood stove which keeps the batteries warm when it is very cold outside, as well as keeping me warm when I'm fixin' something. The rest of the room is taken up by junk. Outside is various engines and assorted junk, as well as our 3 generators. (Listeroid coming soon) At least it is an escape from the world; not many people would consider the quiet hum of an inverter or generator southing...

Be very careful about striking a spark or flame in there young fellow....
Hydrogen doesn't hang in a room like NG pr propane but if your too close to a battery that off gassing you can have an explosion.

I'll go even further and recomend you and your dad look for some battery vent caps withthe littel hose barb to vent outside

Or you can roll in the snow trying to wash the acid from your face like I did one night when Iwas about your age after making an arc with a booster cable on a battery I had just freshly charged. Its a truely awful thing trust me.... The smell, the taste and the burniong in your eyes