Member postings for Paul Atkin

Wow, thanks for all the help again.

JasonB & Stub Mandrel - Thanks for the explanation on the flywheel size. As for the future, I know that this, like any hobby can grab you and suck you in so I have to be strong and set my limits somewhere. Remember, at the moment I am not buying machinery - that will hopefully come later, my first job is to arrange the necessary space so based on what you have told me, I will work on the basis of a 250mm (10 inch) swing lathe with 550mm center distance for sizing the workshop.

Bazyle - I get the weight thing but when I look at various lathe and mill sizes, the weight seems to take an enormous leap from the 40-50kg range up to 150-160kg with nothing between, especially with the models I see here in Japan. My "workshop" is likely to be some form of shed without a solid floor - see the link below, this might be okay for the smaller machines, but for 150kg I will certainly need to put more thought into foundations. I can't pour concrete because my house is rented, I would probably need to lay paving slabs and rest the floor of the shed onto them, or leave out the floor and just build the shed around a paving slab base.

OMG - Thanks for the hints on the drill, I will plan to keep space for it at this time.

This has all been very helpful, thank you all. I will now need to confirm machine dimensions and make a floor plan with adequate working space so I can search for a suitable shed. Something like this which is 3.1m x 2.6 giving 81sq ft of floorspace

Thanks to all for the quick answers.

Just to paint the picture a little more, I am from the UK but actually live in Japan and believe me, there is no such thing as planning permission here. It seems that as long as your buildings are not actually overhanging your neighbour's property then all is cool. Having said that a half garage or 10'x8' shed would be easy to do.

As far as equipment is concerned, being here I am fairly limited on choice as model engineering is not so big it seems. A Myford would be impossible for sure. As in the UK, the only machine tools that are at all affordable are imported Chinese, probably from the same factory. Here are a couple of links to some Japanese companies, the pictures are quite self explanatory.

As far as I can tell, this "Mothmach" brand  http://www.senban.jp/product/PSF385VD.html is almost identical to the Warco models in the UK. http://item.rakuten.co.jp/auc-himitsukichi/c/0000000304/ This one has 250mm (diameter) swing and 400mm between centers weighing in at . (all metric here of course!!)

Then, this model http://www.senban.jp/product/PSL550VDR.html also with 250mm swing but with 550mm between centers is supplied by a company that does a complete re-build of machines as seen here http://www.senban.jp/target/inspection_l.html

On the mill, again same story with imports. It seems that this one is almost identical to the Sieg X2 http://www.senban.jp/product/PSF385VD.html and at 50kg, I could actually install this in my current hobby room indoors, but if I had to go up a size, then it is a huge jump in weight and it must be in an outbuilding. Again, that company seems to do some quite impressive tuning as seen here http://www.senban.jp/target/inspection_f.html

I had thought about a grinder, but it is tiny. Regarding the pedestal drill, is it strictly necessary when having a nice mill available?

Coming back to lathe size again, for a 7 inch flywheel you guys seem to be suggesting a 10 inch swing. Having that extra capacity makes working a bit easier I assume so as not to be working at the limits of the machine, correct? The reason I ask is because both those companies make lathes with 180mm swing (7 inches) which are much smaller and less than half the weight of the 10 inch swing machines. There seems to be a huge jump in size and weight which is the main reason why I started the topic.

Edited By Paul Atkin on 20/01/2014 16:01:16

Currently I tinker with a little Unimat 3 in a spare bedroom. The modelling bug is with me but currently I have no space to expand, so as a long term project I want to build a workshop in the garden and stock it with a lathe and mill capable of doing "real" work.

As a reference, my ultimate aim would be to have a lathe and mill capable of machining something like the Stuart Models Victoria Twin http://www.stuartmodels.com/inprod_det.cfm/section/casting/mod_id/47 or similar

This has; Length 15.5 inch, Flywheel diameter 7 inch, bore 1 inch and stroke 2 inch.

My question is what size machines would I need in order to achieve this? The lathe I can understand pretty well, but I'm not sure about a suitable capacity mill.

Once I understand the machine sizes, I can start planning and budgeting the building of the workshop.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Edited By Paul Atkin on 20/01/2014 06:13:19