Nick's Machine Shop

Nick's Machine Shop And All The Additions

(Tuesday, 19 March 2019)

Nick just Slacked me about the machine tool auction, and the Bridgeport mills are still under $1000... Closer to $500 he says. I tell him I'd probably go as high as $1700, but then he tells me about the huge buyer's premium of 18 - 21%, 18% for cash, 21% for credit. He'll keep an eye on it, I'm sure. Something tells me we'll be moving a piece of heavy machinery in the near future. If only one of the lathes would have panned out. Not sure what we couldn't build if we had a mill and a lathe.

Right before I head into the sprint planning meeting, Nick Slacks me to say we are the high bidder on one of the Bridgeport mills in auction that ends soon, like while I'll be in this meeting. Then we're not. So just now outside the meeting sitting down at my desk we're back and forth, winner, not winner... The suspense is killing me! I'm only staying as long as I need to so that I can answer Nick if he has any questions about the auction. I'm kind of done with this for now. WE WON!!! We're now the proud owners of a Bridgeport mill!

Now Nick wants to know if I want a bunch of copper clad board... Sure. Current bid is $12, so maybe $40 tops? I don't want it that bad, but it will make a nice copper roof for the station platform, or even town hall. He snagged a couple of small vises for $15 and a bunch of hold downs for $30. It's like Christmas. Hope Ann's present gets here today, then we can all enjoy Christmas! Well, as close to Christmas as we're going to get in March that is. Now we just need to figure out how to get the mill to Nick's place, and that's going to be difficult. The thing weighs a ton, literally, and even if they can lift it onto the trailer at their end, how do we get it off the trailer at our end? Plenty to talk about at the supper table tonight!

Once I'm out of the meeting, I see online that Ann's new ladybug eggliner has arrived at the house. It had been 8 stops away all morning, so it was nice to see it finally made it. I get out a bit early to get home and open it up to check it out... Once all the other things that need done first get done that is. It is indeed the original Aristocraft unit, even down to the couplers, just repainted and rebranded as Bachmann. While I wonder if they will rework the design to accept Bachmann knuckle couplers, I rather doubt they will retool, staying with the existing tooling and just making more of the Aristocraft style couplers. Time will tell, and it should prove interesting to follow...

Well, we end up discussing the new mill and how to get it to Nick's place. He's had time to think about it and says we should just get a company to move it. Good. I agree. Then we don't have to worry about screwing anything up before we even get to use it. Besides, they have insurance to cover anything that would happen. He ends up waiting and waiting on the folks that were highly recommended to get back to him. Thankfully another company gives him what seems like a fairly cheap quote. By the time it's all said and done, the quote has nearly doubled, but at least it's still much cheaper than the other folks that finally got back to him.

Thankfully when they delivered it, they put it right where he wanted it... NOT! They actually brought a forklift with them, but even with the head configured as low as it would go, it wouldn't clear the door opening using the forklift. They did roll it into place and Nick went to work on it. First thing was trying to get it powered, but that means a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD). And a dedicated feed for it. And a controller extension. And then rebuilding all the parts that are worn and need a "refresh", but he has it well in hand. Turns out the Digital Read Out (DRO) is broken on one axis, so we'll need a new one of those too. A new three axis DRO that is...

<< Previous | Flooring | Lathe

(Friday, 22 March 2019)

Gave the sports bar, er, "Lakehouse" one more try... Yeah. No. Fail.

I setup the green train and get it running around and around the Barkyard while Ann and Nick head to Lowe's. When they get back and we unload things, Nick is the first to notice the green train is running. We sit and watch it for a while as we plan out what the next steps for the machine shop at Nick's place will be. He's planning on a separate electrical subpanel just for the machine equipment. We both agree it's more than a good idea to have a subpanel dedicated to just the machine tools and to keep the rest of the garage, like lighting and outlets on their own separate circuits.

(Saturday, 6 April 2019)

Going to fly in the B-17 today, but I'm nowhere near as excited about it as I was at first. Maybe because we had things all worked out the first time. Maybe because it's an effort, a labor even, just to get there in time... Dunno. They told us mechanical issues when we rescheduled, but I think it was really because they hadn't sold enough rides to make it worth their while to even fly there. After all, he did say their bread and butter was the Sun n Fun... Hopping in the shower now.

Nick sent an email and left a voicemail for the guy scheduling the flights. We need to know if we'll have to buy tickets to the airshow just to get to the plane, and whether there's a special place to park, or a different part of the airport , or what... As we're leaving for the show this morning, we still haven't heard back from the guy. I'm guessing he's not expecting us to show up so he won't have to refund the money or something... How would we know when he can't be trusted to return our communication? We head to the show anyway, unprepared for anything.

Wow. What a disappointment. The guy in charge of this circus is a real winner... NOT! You can't make this shit up. Where do I start? First, we've had our tickets since the Tico airshow, so he's had our money for over a month now. He sent Nick an email saying we could reschedule for another upcoming event in Central Florida, a gift certificate, or a straight up refund. At the time, Ann said to just take the refund and be done with it. Turns out she was right, that's what we should have done... As far as the B-17 flight anyway. When Nick was finally able to speak with him on the phone, we were able to find out that event was the Sun n Fun in Lakeland, so we rescheduled for then. Then is now.

Long story short, watching what should have been our flight spin up and roll out is about all I can stand. When we're finally able to talk to them, they agree to refund the money. Good thing too. I didn't want to have to call the bank and have them take the money back... Come to think of it, I may still have to, knowing who I'm dealing with here. We stick around long enough to see her get airborn, then head back to the flex. I down another bottle of water before we get to the car, and another on the way home, hoping to finally re-hydrate now that we're out of the sun.

Nick's having problems getting a signal, so I bring up Waze on my phone and get us back on I-4. Unfortunately, now's that time of day when I-4 gets really congested, and ALWAYS in the same places coming from Tampa toward Orlando. Then it tells us, estimated time in traffic, 37 minutes. More like, traffic jam, next 37 minutes. Bumper to bumper, creeping along for miles. At first Waze has us going on some back roads, like US 33, but that's only because I told it our destination was home, not Skycraft. Guess it doesn't make any difference now, no matter which way we go, it's going to be a long time before we get anywhere.

Maybe 45 minutes or so later, we exit I-4 and get on the 429. From there it's a pretty uneventful drive to Skycraft. I want to just get in and get out, usually a losing proposition for me. Nick still wants to browse, even though he knows what he's looking for. I manage to keep going long enough to find some gears for me. He finds some replacement brushes and connectors and stuff he needs for the drive motor on the mill. All in all, it's another enjoyable visit to Skycraft. We head back out the way we came, and towards home. We were going to ask Ann if she wanted to go to Applebee's, or even Chili's, or wherever, but before we can even say anything, she tells us she's cooking chicken on the grill and it should be ready about the time we get there.

Home, just in time to eat! Boy that sure is nice, and I let Ann know it too. After the day we've had, it's certainly welcomed. Once we're done, the plan is to bring Klaus over and let the two puppies play in the Barkyard... While we wait for them to arrive, I set the doodlebugs to chasing each other around the track. Brigel knows he wants to chase them and knock them off the rails, but can't decide which one to chase, so he chases both! One at a time of course. It's comical to watch, as Ann and I sit and enjoy the show. About that time, Nick's back with his pup.

(Saturday, 20 April 2019)

Nick and Ann are back from their travels with the new bandsaw in the bed of the truck. I head over to Nick's place to help him unload it with the engine hoist as a crane to lift it off the bed of the truck to the ground... Well, at least down to sitting on the legs of the hoist so we can easily wheel it into the growing machine shop in the attached garage. From there we head to Lowe's for lumber and flashing for the 270 gable end repair as well as new ducting for our attic. I almost forgot the flashing, and boy was their lumber selection for shit! One look at the 8' 1x4 rough cut cedar and I decide to go with three ten footers instead of four eight footers. And if their select cypress tongue and groove is any indication, I'd hate to see what non select looks like! I grab a couple of the eight footers just in case I can't cut clear with the twelve footers. Even the supposed premium pressure treated 2x4s have tapered ends? WTF?

Somewhere in here Nick found an ENCO lathe and won it!

(Friday, 28 June 2019)

Working remotely... Eventually. Start the day by helping Nick get the lathe out of the bed of the truck using just the engine crane. Any false moves and I've just wasted $1500. What an adventure! I start by asking Nick how it got in there and analyzing our options. He tells me the guy had a forklift and just set the forks to run up the middle of the pallet and set it in the bed of the truck. Hmmm... that means we'll need some way of lifting the ends to get something under it to roll on. First we need to strap the lathe to the pallet, because THERE'S NOTHING SECURING THEM TOGETHER!!! I can't believe the guy actually lifted it in there that way. No fear... With the lathe secured, I lift the end sitting on the tailgate with the engine hoist and a wide strap. We try the handle to the floor jack first, but it's not thick enough to not just sink into the bedrug along with the other end of the pallet.

Nick comes up with another idea and heads back to the barn to fetch the jack post we used when we rebuilt the framing around the new roller doors for the detached garage, "The Ranch" as we call it now. I lift everything back up enough for Nick to wedge one of the jack posts under the pallet on the end nearest the cab of the truck. This time as I lower it, that the 2x4 pad on the end of the pallet lifts the pallet off the bedrug as it rocks up and over the post tube. It rolls easily, almost too much so, but soon we meet up with that dreaded 2x4. I lift everything again and this time Nick has to "tap" the other tube into position, enough to free up the first post and "tap" it out and away from that 2x4. I lower it again and it's another easy roll until it stops at that 2x4 again. Repeat the process until we're about to roll onto the tailgate. Drum roll please...

My concern is the tailgate won't support that kind of weight. If this thing weighs 1300#, then at least 650# will be sitting on tailgate. More than that if you consider that's the spindle end with all the gearing. We rig it to roll almost to the edge, stopping shy of where it would just roll off, but far enough that we'll be able to lower the other end on the engine hoist to the ground without it interfering or hanging up on the tailgate. We carefully roll it out on the tailgate, then quickly spot the pallet using a 2x4 and a couple of saw horses. I slowly lower it until the load on the tailgate is taken up and supported entirely by the saw horses. We give it a minute or so to collapse if it's going to, the tailgate still there to "catch" it should the temporary perch fail.

It continues to hold as Nick pulls the truck out from under it and out of the way. We hurriedly move the engine hoist around to the other end and get it strapped in place. I lift it off its temporary perch and we slowly lower that end to the ground as well. Not bad, but it's taken us most of the morning to accomplish that much. We started around 9:00 AM, and it's nearly 11:00 AM now. We both have calls we have to be on, so I decide to head home so I can join the WebEx meeting and Nick can call in to his stand up. We meet back a little before noon at his place to enjoy leftovers for lunch. Then it's time to get the lathe off the pallet, onto rollers, and moved into the attached garage. After we're done eating, we have a look to see what needs to happen in the attached garage and where we're going to put it. After some discussion and clean up, Nick decides to put it along the wall where we were going to put the cabinets from the other house.

It leaves the most space for getting to the mill, the lathe, and everything else without making it so cramped we don't have enough room to do anything with them. I thought Nick had bought a toe jack to get into the the slot meant to raise and lower these kinds of machine tools, but no dice. He's trying to think of whether the furniture dollies will support the weight or not and I ask him why not just use the heavy duty car rollers? Yeah. Good idea. He heads out back again and comes back more than a few minutes later. He had to grab a wrench and what not to fix them. He says he put the lock washers on the wrong side of the casters and needs to fix that first. It doesn't take long and soon enough we have the spindle end sitting on another temporary perch, out of the way enough to allow us to pull the pallet out from under it... Once we get the other end up off of it that is.

The tailstock end takes a little more thinking and doing, but we get it up on the floor jack and remove enough of the 2x4s that tailstock end is sitting on to finally pull the pallet out from under it. We get the first roller dolly in place quite easily. The second one proves more challenging since the floor jack can't go low enough to not still be supporting the weight. We shove one of those 2x4s we had to remove from the pallet between the roller dolly and the cabinet and lower the floor jack out of the way. She's free and rolling on her own accord now, or rather the roller dollies. We spin the lathe around to get it facing the right direction and Nick opens the garage door. We roll it in and close the door before we lose much of the cooling. There. That much is done! Nick's going to run a new power feed to it and will need access behind it to do so. We leave her where she sits and I head back home to get back to work on my proposalling. Not bad for three hours work.

(Sunday, 30 June 2019)

Ann and Nick are preparing supper and I'm sitting here relaxing, waiting for time to eat, which doesn't take long. Then we're off to DQ for dessert. Our reward is soaking in the hot tub again, but this time in a hot tub, not tepid like yesterday. I get the doodlebugs set up and running and I'm the last one in. We soak for half an hour or so, then it's time to get out. There's still enough time for Nick to get to Lowe's and get the rest of what he needs to finish running the power feed to the new (to us) lathe. He put in a new sub panel for just the big garage machine tools yesterday, freeing up a number of slots in his main disconnect panel, leaving him with ample free space in the new sub panel for any new equipment that may come along in the future.

(Wednesday, 21 August 2019)

Went with Nick to pick up a set of EMCO CNC machines at another makerspace downtown, worth around $4500 each, if working. They're going in the trash if no one wants them according to our makerspace Slack channel... Nick has just enough of the truck cab back together to go get them. We get them loaded and head back home. They sit in the bed of the truck until we have a chance to unload them Saturday.

(Saturday, 24 August 2019)
Unloading the CNC machines today.

(Wednesday, 28 August 2019)

So sitting here at work, shall we say coasting? So far this morning, I've Slacked with my coworker . I'm also on Slack with Nick about the impending tropical storm and generators and maybe picking up a complete computer setup for talking to the "new to us" EMCO CNC machines.

(Tuesday, 3 September 2019)

What should have been the day of the storm is still waiting on the storm day. Dorian sat over the Bahamas for the last two days, weakening to a category 3 from a category 5 storm. At least five people known dead on Abacos, and the eye is still just thirty miles from Freeport! It may start to move north, skirting the east coast of Florida, but we're still waiting... And now it's down to a category 2 and finally starting to move to the northwest as of the 11:00 AM update.

Finally come supper time I notice the wind is gusting pretty good every now and again. Time to get things squared away for the evening. I begin by moving the cable and then the generator into the garage. Then I take out the rainaway arches, one at a time, and retract the awning. I place the arches in the garage and that pretty much takes care of it. I had already cut the high density foam into pieces earlier when I was outside with Brigel, while Ann was on her work call, and stashed it in the garage. Ann and Nick took Brigel with them to Nick's to take him and Klaus to the dog park while I stayed home and got the dishes going and the coffee put on for the morning. Tonight should prove interesting as the wind field from Dorian slowly moves over us. I figure maybe 40 MPH gusts. We shall see come morning. Thankfully the office is still closed tomorrow.

Nick starts to chat with me about how he ordered the differential mode drivers he needs to talk to the CNC mill we got a few weeks back. Then he sends a link to an article about making our own PC boards and says he may need to borrow some of that copper clad we got from the auction even longer ago. I tell him the laser print transfer is nice, but the ferric chloride etchant, not so much. He follows it up with an article about a different etchant that we can make ourselves from muriatic acid and hydrogen peroxide that can be reused and renewed over time to avoid having to dispose of toxic copper salts as hazardous waste. It's all very interesting, and something I've thought about doing more than once, but the photoetching was the part that always stopped me because of the expense. Now all you need is a laser printer and a clothes iron to transfer the toner to the copper clad board. Nick wants to try it tomorrow, even if he doesn't have the circuit quite drawn up yet. Should prove interesting...

(Wednesday, 18 September 2019)

Nick sent me a Slack message tonight with a short movie of him using the keyboard to jog all three axes on the PC Mill 55! He even cleaned off the window on the enclosure door... He says he'll need to polish it at a later time, but it's all coming together for sure. Awesome!

More to come, so stay tuned...

<< Previous | Flooring | Lathe