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What Do You Have In Your Workshop ?


Bikertov

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57 minutes ago, grendel said:

well my boxing day pursuits will probably be atypical to most, so far today I have designed a handwheel in CAD for a draw bar on my lathe, so that I can use the MT3 collet sets i bought myself as a christmas present, then once that has completed it will be down to the lathe to fit it, and then maybe an hour or so spent making chips and round pieces of metal into smaller round pieces of metal.

What fun to be had on a lathe, making round bit of metal into smaller round bits !

Its years since I played with mine - I got a little Emco Unimat 3 for my 13th birthday, with various accessories and a few more that I then made. Sadly it has sat under a dust sheet for more years than care to remember. 

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12 minutes ago, Bikertov said:

How funny !

Is yours an original 1980's Austrian Emco model, or a newer Chinese version ?

original, I have had it from new and bought it way back in the 80's, I have since bought some of the accessories, but didnt get the mill head, mainly because for a similar price I could get a whole mill that was more capable

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49 minutes ago, grendel said:

original, I have had it from new and bought it way back in the 80's, I have since bought some of the accessories, but didnt get the mill head, mainly because for a similar price I could get a whole mill that was more capable

Same time I got mine. When I think about it, the Unimat 3 literally changed my life !

I could go on, but it would rude to diverge and hijack Vaughan's thread.

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3 hours ago, Wussername said:

Excuse me, one minute we are discussing Broadland pursuits on Boxing Day which I personally found very interesting. Then we were hijacked, talking about lathes and stuff. 

Sorry, it was my fault for digressing on a previous post  

@grendel - can you move the offending posts, starting with my reply to you, to a new thread I just started ?

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Air compressor, mig welder, table saw, mitre saw, sliding mitre saw, band saw, router table, tool cabinet, plethora of hand tools both metric and imperial, belt sander, SDS drill, routers, spray guns, various tools/equipment  for maintenance/tuning classic car. Plus a huge collection of assorted car parts including two spare engines! Oh and a Triumph Spitfire 1500 on axle stands! Well - you did ask! :default_biggrin:

Chris

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way too much, I have a 13" south bend lathe, then a unimat 3 lathe, a watchmakers lathe, a small flexispeed lathe and a 5th smallish lathe (about a 5" ) then i have a small bench top mill, after that its the cnc router a bench drill press, a larger 4 foot drill press, a table saw, a planer thicknesser a band saw. also a 3 in one sheet metal bender/ cutter / roller, a small fly press several powered jigsaw, a smaall powered hacksaw (this gets sat on the lathe bed for use), and a whole bunch of hand tools, powered and unpowered, all in the space of my conservatories (2 - both second hand, joined together, I guess 8 foot x 20 foot), yes its rammed full of tools, but there is not a lot I cant make with a bit of patience and a lot of tidying.

elsewhere in the house I have my 3d printer, this can be used to make things I dont otherwise have the facilities for, such as the handwheel for the draw bar that I have made for the MT3 collets I bought for the big 13" lathe. this reminds me I have a swarf removal to perform, around my two in use lathes and mill, I guess that may be todays task, along with some tidy up and testing the draw bar and collets. (once its light enough to see what i am doing.)

 

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Well I'm currently moving the main workshop from one shed to a partitioned off half the garage. If all the equipment were in one place..

Heater...:default_biggrin: radio..

Pillar drill, table saw, band saw, wood lathe, bench grinder.

Hand power tools. 

Various drills battery and mains power, jig saw, half sheet sander, palm sander, belt sander, planer, Angle grinder, reciprocating saw, Tile cutter, Ancient hoover

Non power tools, 

Saws, planes, many chisels, hammers, Mallets... Dustpan and brush.. 300kg max load hand hoist to lift heavy  stuff on and off the work bench.. last item move, a 180kg keel I'd made for the sailing boat..

Currently on the bench is a jib club for the sailing boat. With various other boat bits scattered around getting coats of varnish. The boat is outside, the temporary marquee tent having been taken down due to winter gales, the boat is wrapped up in plastic while I work on removable items..

Model railway workshop.

Well that's one end of the model railway shed, in the U of track as it will head back the other way. As yet not properly set up, most of the tools live in a tool box that travels between home and Broadland Model Railway Club..  fridge, kettle...

Tools for mechanical stuff.

Spanner sets. Socket sets, plumbing tools,  farmers and trolly jack scattered between sheds Landrover and the other half of the garage.

One ton chain hoist, mostly used for lifting boat on / off trailer. , But can be used to lift lawnmower onto trestles or trailers up onto blocks etc ..

Electronic tools.

Hand held and bench dmms, oscilloscope, power supplies, signal generator, scattered around the place. Will eventually share the model railway work bench..

Gardening,

lawnmower, hedge trimmer, chainsaw, plus the usual gardening hand tools.

The oddities being a very large iron bound fencing mallet, and a dydle inherited from Harry Nudd..

 

I'd like to get..

A small metal lathe, then either a laser cutter or 3d printer..

 

 

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21 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

There is a Triumph Tiger 1050 2007 road ready and purring away.

There is also a 1976 Honda 400-4 Super Sport awaiting full restoration - Or there was, not seen that in ages!

Griff

So bike-wise, I have my very first bike, a Suzuki AP50, still sitting in the garage (though technically not the workshop.

Then I have my GSXR1100, awaiting a repair to the the petrol tank due to a leak, and it will then need a bit of light renovating as it has been off the road for about  4 years.

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On 26/12/2021 at 19:27, Bikertov said:

Same time I got mine. When I think about it, the Unimat 3 literally changed my life !

I could go on, but it would rude to diverge and hijack Vaughan's thread.

So I said that the Unimat 3 lathe changed my life, and that is no exaggeration ... this is the short version:

As a child, we were very much into model making for as long as I can remember - model railways, aeroplanes - plastic Airfix kits, rubber band driven, control line, RC - and boats.

Every year, we would go to the Model Engineering exhibition which was originally held in Seymour Hall, London and then the new (at that time) Wembley Conference Centre. 

I remember queuing up to be the first person into the show on more than one occasion. I was looking / dreaming of getting a lathe, as one does, and got friendly with the guys on the EMCO stand, as their range was a potential for me – the other being the Cowells 90 (made in Norwich if I recall ?)

After a couple of years (I was very young then …) they invited me on to the stand to demonstrate using the Unimat 3 lathe, and gave me an exhibitors pass to get in. I helped break down the stand at the end of the show, and they invited me back again the following year. At the end of that year or the next - I think I must have been 12 at the time - I had been responsible for selling quite a few of the little lathes, both direct and through a partner stand. So they offered me a lathe of my own for 50% discount, and threw in a whole load of free accessories.

Whilst I was on the stand during these shows, I got talking to one of the younger salesman. He had done an electronics apprenticeship for a particular company, which really caught my interest. I looked into it over the next couple of years, and in the end applied to the same company, left school at 16 and actually did my apprenticeship there.

So over time, the path I have taken in my work, resulting in me running a successful business employing 50+ people, has been as a direct result of these Model Engineering shows and the time I spent on the EMCO stand because of the Unimat 3.

Had it not been for the Unimat 3, I might have stayed on at school for A levels, gone to University and who knows what – but for sure, the Unimat 3 changed my life !

 

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I cant say that my unimat changed my life that much, I did have  a point where my interests and career could have gone down a very different route, after leaving school I had to choose between 2 job offers, one at a local engineering company that made oiling systems for pipelines, and the other as an electrical apprentice at the BBC, because of my love for draughting I chose the position in the drawing office at the engineering company, giving me a career as a draughtsman and a job I have loved every minute of the 40 years in that career. 

I may have ended up better off at the BBC, but that I will never know, I achieved all the targets of a sucessful career as a draughtsman, ending up as drawing office manager, then dropping back down the ladded a couple of rungs to ease myself down to retirement.

The unimat- well that was used extensively for a few years, then sporadically when I needed something, then finally resurrected about 5 years ago as I rebuilt my workshop and started making things again.

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What changed my direction was electronic training kits. At Inverness high school I'd finish SCE O grades, for the year but we still had a couple of weeks left. The school had some electronic kits delivered but had never used them. So they have a couple of us the kits to try .

They were individual electronic components in plastic blocks that you plugged together on a special board.. and you could make radio transmitters, receivers, frequency generators. Etc. So I got interested..

I remember the model engineering show and went a couple of times in the mid 70s. Sadly most of the time I've lived too far away.. I note it appears to have moved to Ally pally ..

Sadly the dinghy show has just moved from Ally Pally, to Farnborough, adding another hour each way to the journey, making it a very long day to attend...

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12 hours ago, Bikertov said:

So bike-wise, I have my very first bike, a Suzuki AP50, still sitting in the garage (though technically not the workshop.

Then I have my GSXR1100, awaiting a repair to the the petrol tank due to a leak, and it will then need a bit of light renovating as it has been off the road for about  4 years.

Garage contents are compressor, XT600E, TDM850 Mk2a, and the rarest of the collection, wait for it....

 

A 4.5KG butane bottle, full no less! :default_party0042:

And loads of jerry cans due to boat ownership.

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so I am just realising I missed some items (due to the fact they cannot be seen), there is an air compressor, a wood turning lathe, another 1/2 ton press, the sheet metal edge roller Air tools, corded power tools, the same power tools, but in cordless (thanks lidls) no fewer than 5 bench grinders (in different configurations, one has a slow water wheel, one has a tall sanding belt, one is set up for grinding, another for polishing, a small (spare) bandsaw, a small (spare ) table saw. a whole box of chisels (sharpened to a razor edge) there are small drawer units with just about everything you could need, a lazy susan type cabinet full of taps dies and the correct drills for same, from 1" BSW down, 3 6" or bigger bench vices, dozens of smaller bench vices a hand metal shaper, - Oh dear, I think I may have a tool problem----------------------not enough yet.

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