New Member from West Midlands.

Hello, I'm Stuart from West Midlands, recently retired from working in NHS operating theatres for the last 40 years.

I've been a reader of Model Engineer Magazine for many years and am looking forward to building a garden workshop next spring. I've put down the concrete slab, six inch thick with steel mesh reinforcement and a plastic membrane underneath to keep out damp from the ground. It's a bit smaller than I would have liked, about 11ft x 6ft 6in but I can also use a single garage.

I've spent the last few years acquiring equipment while I was still earning and have obtained: Fobco Star bench drill. Meddings L2 pillar drill, Excel die filer, Tom Senior E type milling machine, Oldak precision high speed drill, Elliot grinder, RJH Gryphon polisher/buffer, Kennedy Hexacut power hacksaw etc. Still need to get a lathe, hoping to get a Cowells and also something bigger, I like the look of the Colchester Chipmaster. Also would like to obtain a Vanco linisher.

You may guess from the above that I like to buy British made stuff wherever possible, but apart from researching equipment, I'm a complete newbie and will probably be a regular visitor here for advice.

I've also stocked up on castings and drawings to start building stuff next spring when I hope the workshop will be finished. These include: Hemingway Universal Pillar Tool and Sensitive drill, Brunell Double Diagonal Engine, Anthony Mount Cross Engine and Murray's Hypocycloidal Engine. I'd also like to have a go at John Wilding's skeleton clock, and an American Shay locomotive.

So that should take care of the next 20 years, you'll probably be fed up of all my questions by then.

Hello Stuart

You are probably better equipped than most of us were when we started out; an absorbing pastime is in my view an essential requirement for replacing the daily work schedule and keeping out of the way domestically. I saw many leave work after spending their life there with no idea what to do with themselves in the years that follow, so sad.

Enjoy working with it all and getting to know its funny little habits!

Regards Brian

Welcome Stuart from a fellow West - Midlandser (several of us on the forum). You'll certainly find answers to any and all questions here as the chaps are really helpful with years of experience and expertise. You'll also get some smiles and useful information about non-technical matters, usually good tempered! - a pleasant way to spend a little time on a frosty morning when you need to put off going into a cold workshop.

Retirement has both advantages & disadvantages, but being able to immerse yourself in a hobby such as this will make it a pleasant experience and definately stop the brain from atrophying.

All the best. Mike

Hi Stuart. Welcome to the forum. Try to get as much insulation into the walls and ceiling of the shed as you can. It will be a PIA to do it after yor machines are installed. Good luck with the shed build and your foray into the modellers world.

regards

Hello Stuart,

I'm also in the Midlands at Redditch, You sure have a lot of gear already but how are you going to fit it all in a 11X 6.5 ft shed and have any room to work? Your Garage will also soon get full if you are after two lathes as well. My shed is a 14ft & 8ft lean to and has four large vintage lathes inc a Holbrook, two Pittlers and a South Bend and leaving me just a small section of bench to potter about on

Welcome along Stuart, I am also in the West Midlands a few miles north of Lichfield. Vintage motorcycles for me I don't make models but find them interesting. Enjoy the hobby and your retirement.

Welcome. I am in Birmingham and have built up a reasonable workshop over the years. Still working full time in the NHS though....

Your list of projects should keep you pretty busy in your new workshop !

Ian Cooper who owns Rotagrip in Hockley has a few Chipmasters in his warehouse. Maybe worth speaking to him?

Given the size of your initial projects and limited workshop space (after factoring in 6 in insulation all round) you might look at a Boxford or similar rather than the Chipmaster which seems to have a rather large footprint.

Hi Stuart welcome to the forum from also from West Midlands WS2 postcode, you may want to consider joining a club I can as a member recommend Black Country Live Steamers of which I'm a member Link

or Wolverhampton and District Model Engineering Society both clubs meet at Baggeridge Park and several model engineers are in both clubs link

H

Hello Stuart,

Just to add to my twopen'orth to Oldiron's advice, insulating the the floor as well is not a bad idea if you like warm feet.

Chipmster lathes suffer from wear in the Variator mechanical speed variation device. Some replace that part of the drive with a electronicVFD to vary a three phase motor's speed. My larger lathe choice was an Harrison M300.

Welcome to the forum, Stuart, you are well under way to a great workshop. When the building is done, pay particular attention to insulation, good insulation will slow the rate of temperature change and reduce condensation which is not good for tools and machinery.

Hi all, thank you for the warm welcome and sound advice. I had planned to insulate the walls and roof but was undecided about insulating the floor. Can anyone recommend a suitable floor insulation product which would be easy to keep clean, be able to withstand hot chips (the metal type !), and not be too thick (bearing in mind the maximum building height allowed is 2.5m as it is adjacent to a boundary, I'm 1.85m tall and roof insulation will reduce headroom further). I originally planned to build an apex roofed shed, but in order to maximise headroom over as large an area as possible, and to give more wall space for shelves and cupboards a flat roof would be more commodious. Dutch barn and pent roofs I suppose would fall somewhere between the two, any suggestions would be welcome.

Hi Stuart & welcome. You have lots of equipment already & as said above more than many of us had when starting out.

The workshop. If you build from timber & want insulation then bear in mind that the polystyrene sheets available in all thicknesses will give you a far better thermal value (Insulation) than standard rockwool. I used sandwiched fridge panels 100mm thick which at the moment is holding about a 7 to 8 degree C difference inside to out. But still takes a fair lick to get warm. Most of the year it's not a problem But just now it is.

Steve.

Stuart -

I have a 14' x14' wood built workshop that is insulated on the walls and roof (Apex) and is double glazed. It sits on slabs spaced apart on a sand base to allow airflow through underneath

The one thing I have often wished I had done however was insulate the floor which is just the original planking on 15" spaced joists with hardboard on top as a covering. Apart from just in front of the mill that has proved more than adequate from a wear point of view. The area in front of the mill is wearing with the imprint of the plastic matting but still has a way to go and that's after 40 years or so. It certainly stands up to to swarf but then I don't do anything on an industrial scale

I spend a lot of time in there so consider heating cost as part of the hobby. I have a 3Kw '9 fin' oil filled radiator set to 1 Kw on all of the time - no condensation issues and no rusting experienced. It's a very rare occasion indeed to switch it to the 2Kw setting.

Good luck with yours - enjoy yourself

Tug

Welcome Stuart from another newbie, I've certainly been made welcome and had plenty of sound advice from the helpful folk here..

As a member of two clubs in the W.Midlands I would heartily recommend joining one - but most (certainly both of mine) have a steam locomotive focus - which is not where your main interest seems to lie, reading your post. However the friendship, access to model engineering experience and possibly a workshop is valuable and IMHO worth the usually small subscription.

Definitely find a club and join.

Help, advice and companionship should always be available. You'll get some good ideas, as well, from time to time.

Howard

Floor insulation board (e.g. Cellotex) is available which is more robust than wall and ceiling board (our builders thought they didn't need to bother which they used for what until I pointed out the imprints of their boot soles in the wall board on the floor). In my workshop I used 50 mm thick insulating board covered with 18 mm flooring chipboard covered with cheap foam backed "lino" (couldn't find it without the foam). The "lino" guarantees a soft landing for dropped items and the latter tend not to roll too far. It has stood up OK except where the wheels of my 5 leg castor chair have made a hole; easily covered with a semi rigid-plastic matt made to protect carpets, etc. from such attacks.

Hi Stuart, another West Midlands noob here, I'm just west of Stratford upon Avon.

That's quite a selection of gear you've got there.

I'm just looking for my first lathe too, something bench sized, but the stuff I'm planning to do is more on the Scrollsaw / small lathe/hand-filling end of things.