How we arrange our shops and why.

[Frank S]

Why do you arrange or place your tools like you do?
For many the obvious answer is due to available space,
For convenience ranks high on the list.
For safety should always be a priority.
Many of the things in my shop past present and future has to do with shared applications.
In my van trailer shop I have most machines arranged #1 for the amount of space available #2 to enable me to utilize my jib cranes for lifting heavy or bulky objects.
I can swing the crane out the door and hoist up something then swing it inside to the band saw or the lathe or the mill or even the drill press or the arbor press.
My lathe is positioned in such a manor that I can open the door behind it for cross flow ventilation but more importantly I can go around to the outside and park a wheel barrow at the door and transfer the sometimes massive amount of chips from the lathe to the wheel barrow.
the band saw as most know is mounted so that it swings from inside to outside the trailer allowing me to cut long materials or as in the case just recently to cut the stub off of the part I am working on from the blade side of the saw since due to its shape I could not chuck it in the vice the other way.
I have 3 bench grinders a belt sander and a chain saw grinder all mounted in a 2 ft sq area right behind me when I'm standing at the lathe to sharpen my cutters I merely turn around I don't have to walk anywhere I can be grinding on something while the lathe is running and all I have to do is turn around to check it or change it the instruments are stored in a cabinet below the table that the grinders are mounted on everything in arms reach.

[Ralphxyz]

Some people absolutely would never have a grinder in the same room as their lathe, it has to be in it's own door closed room.
I like your setup!

Ralph

[Frank S]

Some people absolutely would never have a grinder in the same room as their lathe, it has to be in it's own door closed room.
I like your setup!

Ralph

Thanks Ralph;
I imagine that if I were doing tool room work I'd have a lathe confined in its own little climate controlled room as well. But I get irritated when I have to take a final cut of less than .020". Nothing irks me more than to have to switch out and use HSS to make a .001" cut because I miscalculated my previous cut.

[Ralphxyz]

I had at least one poster in a machining forum that got really piss*d when I said that tool post grinders had been manufactured for at least fifty years with thousands of users that never had a problem with grinding on their lathe, of course they did cover their ways at least with paper towels.

Ralph

[Frank S]

I had at least one poster in a machining forum that got really piss*d when I said that tool post grinders had been manufactured for at least fifty years with thousands of users that never had a problem with grinding on their lathe, of course they did cover their ways at least with paper towels.

Ralph

I guess they had never seen a crankshaft being ground on an engine lathe or a custom camshaft being made. Hence the name engine lathe

[Ralphxyz]

Really, I was surprised the animosity came over the wire.

Ralph