1/16/12 Setting Up Shop

I know it's been a while. I've been hesitant to post too much about things that are not that interesting on the face of it, but to myself and Jordan are pretty darn cool. for the past couple of months, we've been preparing our containers to be the workstations we are picturing.

The first thing on the list was creating a table for the lathe to rest on. Jordan and I spent a good afternoon building and bracing this workbench, only to realize that we hadn't made it deep enough  to accommodate the motor, which I had removed from the lathe because it was destroyed by the flood... Oh well, it will make a good table for the computer or 3D printer, if an over built one.

The next thing on the list was designing workbenches that were built into the wall that could be raised and used as required, but could be folded away to free up space when not in use. To create the prototype bench, I welded a heavy duty door hinge straight to the wall of the container so that we could bolt a table top to. We made the prototype top out of two 5/8" peices of plywood glued together. The front legs are sprinker pipe with flanges bolted to the table top and to the floor. This allows for height adjustment by threading the pipe in or out of the flange. The prototype came out very nice, but we decided to make a few modifications for the rest of them.

Rather than permanently weld the hinges to the wall, we figured that it might be more useful to have a flange with bolts in it welded. This way either a hinge or any number of other things could be bolted to the wall in the future. This also allowed for a flush and much stronger weld. We also used 3 plies of 3/8's board with one layer of masonite on top for a nice work surface.

Lather, rinse, repeat and we had setups for a few tables.

Unfortunately, due to a dispute with another tenant in the navy yard, we are going to have to move our containers. Luckily our new location is substantially nicer than our current space and has a better view. This meant, however, that we needed to paint the roof and remaining sides of the containers, as they would be viewable from the opposite direction. Jordan tackled this last weekend and we are scheduled to move in the next week or so. 

W.W.

-BNYSS

6/28/11 Coming Apart

Everyone in the shop loves the new lathe. Over the past week we permanently mounted it to the table and disassembled to get the slides to travel a bit smoother. J.B. also mounted his light on the lathe so we can see what we're doing a bit better. Overall it's looking pretty great.

There are a few more big parts of the disassembly of my car left: The rear suspension, the engine, and the dashboard. I chose to tackle the first two because I hate taking dashboards down. You spend a day on your back, bent like a pretzel to reach a bolt way up inside the dash, only to find that there are 5 more bolts, even further up inside holding that section of the dash down.

To pull the engine you need a hoist. The problem with a standard like the one below is that it is designed to roll under the car.

With the car up on an elevated concrete pad like mine is, that isn't happening. To solve this problem I decided to build a gantry. I gathered up some scrap steel from some old scaffolding and started designing.

I need this to be about 8 feet tall and wide enough to span the concrete pads we have. I'll hang a chainfall from it and we can use it to pick up engines or even whole cars.

After getting the steel, I cut one section off with the torch to make a foot, then I ran out of gas. Once I got ahold of a sawzall, I cut another section off. I hit all the surfaces that would be welded with the wire wheel, then lined it up to weld.

After some ugly welds, this is what I've got. Just need to make one more, then span the towers.

I also dropped the rear suspension out of my Z yesterday. First I pulled the driveshaft and halfshafts.

Then I disconnected the brake and e-brake lines, and loosened the 12 bolts holding the rear end of the car on.

And so this is how she sits now. The rear end of the car is light enough for one person to pick up easily.

K.Y. started putting the Benz back together as well. That sparklingly clean intake looks so out of place in the engine bay now. Hopefully we can get all the vacuum hoses connected correctly to get this thing running soon.

Making progress...

-W.W. SBSS

6/17/11 SBSS gets a Lathe!

The collection of tools at the shop is growing at a fantastic rate.

As usual, on Wednesday I spent some time in the craigslist tools section. Searching for a lathe, I came across this beauty only an hour away from the shop.

I immediately emailed the seller and A.Y. who has a pickup truck. We made arrangements to meet Thursday evening and I started doing research about the model of the lathe. It's an Atlas model Th42 and, like the mill we recently purchased, it was probably produced in the 1940's. These things are built of solid cast iron and tend to last forever though.

After work yesterday, I hopped on the train and went to the shop to grab A.Y.'s pickup. After much swearing in traffic, I picked up A.Y. on the lower east side and we made our way to Long Island to grab the lathe.

The lathe was sold by the third generation owner of the Road Runners bicycle shop in Glen Cove. Apparently, the shop used to be a motorcycle shop, and somewhere in it's history they moved to bicycles. In the back room, where the lathe was housed, there was a full sized South Bend mill, a sandblaster, and many other heavy machine tools. There were also a couple of classic British motorcycles mid restoration. It was truly a great shop. It also turns out that the seller and I had met a couple of years prior at the North American Handmade Bike Show in Richmond where I was showing the Bamboo bikes.

We did the deal, loaded up the truck and made our way back.

The table wasn't original to the lathe and was a little flimsy, so we decided to use it for something else and mount the lathe on our cabinet alongside the mill.

It was getting a bit late by the time we got to the shop, so we didn't mount the motor to the table yet, but that should be a fairly simple job.

All in all the shop is really coming together.

-W.W. SBSS

6/13/11 New Toy!

Tools are toys for men.

After spending some time searching on craigslist, I finally found a suitable milling machine for our shop. I originally wanted a full-sized Bridgeport milling machine. While we could afford the machine itself, transportation and installation of a 2500lb machine gets pretty expensive pretty quick. I kept my eyes open and eventually found this smaller, benchtop machine that fit the bill perfectly. I called the guy and arranged to pick it up Sunday.

Saturday I went to the shop with K.Y. and did a little work on the Z. I pulled the bumper and corner markers off, and started removing the front suspension.

K.Y. and I also took a trip to a local machine shop to pick up the intake from the Benz. As seen in the earlier posts, it was quite dirty both inside and out. After a quick sandblast from the shop, the part was as good as new.

Sunday, I went to see the mom and check on an oil leak on her Ford Focus. Once I determined it was nothing to worry about, we took a trip up to white plains together to pick up the mill. I took a quick look at it and determined it was good to go. After I did the deal, the seller showed me his workshop, which had pretty much every machine tool in existence. There were at least $150k worth of machine tools in his basement. It was like looking into my future.

We disassembled the mill, threw it into the focus and drove home. Getting to the shop I discovered exactly how difficult moving a mill by yourself can be, but weight means quality and this mill weighs about 350lbs all together.

I just ordered all the little end mills, collets, parallels and holders that I need to start using this sweet little mill. It is seriously like going to a toy store for me.

-W.W. SBSS

4/17/11 Weekend Update

The sears tool section is a toy store for guys.

This was a pretty productive weekend. I made it to the shop in the afternoon on Saturday intending to fully disassemble the carbs on the FZR...again. The one sticky slide was really getting to me, and no matter how much I cleaned it or stretched the spring to give it more force it wouldn't operate smoothly. Luckily, two heads are better than one. Since the stiction seemed to be caused by a combination of a worn slide surface and a slightly creased diaphragm, Kevin suggested that I swap around parts to see if that might spread the issues around rather than having them all on the same carb. Sure enough, this worked well and the carbs all operate quite smoothly. We threw the carbs back on the bike, hooked up the throttle and choke and moved on the the next project, the big green Benz.

A.Y. and J.B. spent some time cleaning and organizing their tools and preparing the last slab for use. The shop is starting to look great. Tools hanging on walls, bins on shelves, marks on tools to show how they belong to, the whole lot.

Sunday I woke up early to take the train home so I could bring my tools to the shop. I loaded up the Focus, drove to the BX and dropped everything off. Afterwards K.Y. and I took a trip to the local Sears so I could get a new toolbox.

I love the Sears tool section. It's all black and red and smells of nickel plated steel. If I had unlimited funds I'd probably go there and get one of everything. Unfortunately, my funds are limited and I walked out with just the toolbox and foam drawer liners.

I organized my tools, took stock of everything I'm missing, and admired my pretty new toolbox.

Then I took the wheel off my bike so I could replace the flat tire when the new one arrives in the mail. It can't get here soon enough because the weather is beautiful.

-W.W. SBSS