Workshop to drool over.

https://www.facebook.com/Dragonmans/videos/1973944275962764/

Geoff - I can only drool!

Edited By OuBallie on 01/07/2018 06:43:54

Gotta love America. Truly is the land of plenty.

Lot of machines, lot of talk but no customer jobs going on. If you saw my crummy little shed, lots of jobs, few machines and lots going on, but then, I am not a professional !
BobH

"....With a shop like this a guy can make almost anything...."

.....almost.... But, it's the indian not the arrow.......

At Epping Forest Horology Club we have some amazing craftsmen (and women) but some of the most special work is done in amazingly bleak and illequipped circumstances....we have a man who makes amazing unique one-off clocks from scratch in a tiny connecting passage between two basements in his sons house, and another wonderful craftsman who has no lathe in his carpeted garden shed. There are others who work in their lofts and on the corner of their kitchen tables........

My own specialist 'clock workshop' is a 5ft length of racking that I'm allowed to keep and operate in my conservatory...just small lathe and 'Aldi' drilling machine plus dremel and vital sundries on four shelves with detachable vice. I like it and give mental thanks every day! .....If I can't do good work there with a mug of tea and Classic FM then I need to call it a day.

I am beginning to understand that "less is more", notwithstanding my lack of skills - I wouldn't know where to start with much of his machinery

Well he said he's a one-man show so no work going on while he's talking to the camera. Looks like he has a milling machine and a Sunnen hone set up permanently for each individual common Harley machining procedure, so I imagine his turnaround time would be pretty quick. He had a good stack of rods there waiting to be honed, and a stack of flywheels waiting for something.  Sounds like jobs come in in the morning and go out that afternoon. LOL, but they all say that!)

What he does is actually fairly straightforward machining, for the most part. Just having the dedicated machine for each operation saves massive time on the set up -- which like much machining can be more than the actual cutting time. Most of what he does would not be as complex as quite a few things model engineers do in their home shop, just bigger and set up to be more commercially done in less time.

I get a feeling he may do a little gunsmithing too, looking out the back door there. He certainly didn't buy all that machinery from standing around flapping his gums none too much.

Edited By Hopper on 01/07/2018 09:18:27

Edited By Hopper on 01/07/2018 09:26:55

For me, having a budget of pennies, the satisfaction is in doing something with very little. I remember reading about the chap in the WW1 prison camp, who made a superb little 1/10 scale car with basically some nails and a biscuit tin. Wonderful stuff.

Just the other day I was in a museum that had a display of 'trench art' and there were some amazing little models in there. Too many people seem to think you need huge amounts of cash to make a start in model engineering. I do envy this mans workshop though! lucky fella!

'Zactly!

He has an awful lot of machinery but many are set up to do a specific job, hence he can knock out all sorts of jobs very quickly. It is the setting up and breaking down of jigs/fixtures/accessories that consumes vast amounts of time. Look at piccies of cnc machining centres. All the different tools held in a carousel and everything close at hand for the machine to swap items around quickly.

The nearest us man-in-a-shed can get, in order to save a bit of time, is to plan jobs for mill or lathe and switch the jobs. So you plan any jobs needing the use of the 4-jaw. Plan the jobs needing faceplate to be fitted on the lathe and so on.

Keeping dedicated clamps, spanners, Allen keys, cutters, collets close at hand in orderly racks for use on the mill and another lot for the lathe, should help to speed things up a bit. I actually break up sets of spanners and dab them with blue paint, same colour as mill. Same with lathe, green and bench drill, yellow. Anything misplaced screams where it's home is. I actually dab a spot of red paint next to any metric threads that I cut, to assist in later ID. Next job coming up, is to use yet another idea of someone elses; a small rack of pieces of steel threaded int. and ext., of various common threads as trials to ascertain the threads of miscellaneous nuts and bolts in my collection. Might take a little while to do but it's a one-off to save time later and enable me to properly label containers and use up some of my collection.

Edited By DMB on 01/07/2018 09:58:23

I think he does a lot. Look at his vest. Either he's got another workshop set up for that, or the Harley stuff's just a front...

This explains who he is and what he does **LINK**

Geoff - A man of many means.

He does say over and over again that he does Harley rebuilds. This is a commercial advert for his business. It is only about £50k in machines if second hand which is not much for a business.

There are several much larger and amateur machine collections, and custom made barn sized workshops that get mentioned on forums such as HSM. The problem is partly getting the space.

Looks more like a museum. I think I’d rather have Dan Gelbarts workshop.

**LINK**

" with a digital readout everything comes out perfect"

I obviously bought the wrong kind !

I've got a tiny lean to on the side of the house. It's so small I have to mount things in the vice in such a way that I can cut them without banging my elbow on the wall.... but it's mine.

Nice layout for a machine shop... does he actually do anything with it ? never noticed a bit of swarf, no employees around, all machine tables in pristine condition no engines at various stages of disassembly. I reckon his major income is from the ranges.

George.

I do not think much of his high precision, a spinning fuzzy laser light ring, +/- 0.5mm say.

From what I've heard that is quite good for a Hog

And property in Detroit is very affordable!

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 01/07/2018 17:27:04

45 years experience and still leaves the chuck wrench in the chuck. Prefer simple shops.