# some of my shop



## Julian (Oct 31, 2007)

Hi All,

My workshop is an extended garage divided into four 'rooms'. One is for the freezer and household junk. Next is my computer room. The next is my workshop with a machine shop beyond.





The bench to the right is 3.5m long and almost a metre deep. My lathe was in here but I decided to build the machine shop. All that is in here now are the welders both mig and arc. a cheap drill press and a Warco sander.








My machine shop has a Seig Mill soon to be partially cnc'd if I get the time and inclination to build it.








A seig lathe with a mod to the crossfeed to bed sliders...very necessary.








And finally 'The Beast' . This is my latest acquisition a forty year old Denford Viceroy Lathe. Nothing stops the beast which weighs in at over 300kg.




Lots of space and plenty of storage. As you can see I am a very messy worker but hey why tidy up....you never can find anything until it is messy again!

Julian


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## 1Kenny (Oct 31, 2007)

Nice set-up Julian,

Thanks for showing your shop. Lots can be learned seeing other peoples equipment.

Kenny


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## cfellows (Nov 1, 2007)

Thanks for posting.  So is this a garage with an attached house?  :wink:


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## Tin Falcon (Nov 4, 2007)

Julian: Nice shop . reminds me a little of my own a mini lathe and mill and a larger vintage domestic lathe. 

Could you explain the lathe mod please??
Tin


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## Julian (Nov 6, 2007)

Hi Tin.
As you know the chinese lathes in all their different guises and liveries are all made by Seig. The product is basically a good lathe but with typically chinese lack of thought. If there is a way to cut the cost by a minute amount they will do it because they believe all we want is cheap tools in the west. Yes I like cheap but it still needs to be fit for purpose and if that means by paying another couple of quid I get a better product then I will gladly pay it.
The lathe i have has a design flaw on how the cross-slide assembly is held onto the bed and how it is adjusted. It is just a cheap low quality cast iron plate. It is bolted on with three bolts. In between these bolts are two grub screws. By adjusting all five you are supposed to set the pressure the plate exerts on the bed by effectively bending the cast plate. This is a crap idea nd retains its adjustment only for several minutes after you start turning then you can see and feel it going out of adjustment. There are a large number of mods for these lathes on the internet but I chose to copy the method of an adjustable wedge shaped gib strip. It is very simple and works very well. It only took a couple of hours to build and fit. It works so well that it highlights the imperfections in the casting and finishing of the bed. Next job is to fit Timken Taper bearings to the head to stop the squealing and slack.

If you want more detail on the gib mod I can write it up for you and can easily remove them for more detailed photos.

Julian.


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## macona (Nov 7, 2007)

I like the Viceroy. Is the handle on the front of the headstock for the backgear?

When I had my 7x12 I did the tapered gib as well for the saddle. Though instead of using the large screw to set like you did I just cut a notch in the gib  to match a button head SHCS tapped into the immobile piece of the gib assy.

In actuality it would be better to use strip of cast iron than brass now that I know CI has a significantly lower coefficient of friction.


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## Julian (Nov 8, 2007)

Hi Macona

The Viceroy or "The Beast" as it is known to us was delivered 40 years ago to a college near Oxford. I am the third owned. I bought it from a mdel engineer who was moving and did not want to drag over 300kgs across the country. He just bought another nearer to his new home. He produced over two dozen running steam engines on this lathe aswell as hundreds of parts for other model engineers. Until yesterday I had found that it stopped for nothing but the top belt decided to slip yesterday so I had to delve in the back to adjust it. There is no tensioner on these so I had to take a link off the belt.

You are quite correct in you assumption. The top handle on the head is for the back gear. Turning speed is altered by moving the lower belt on the pulleys. The lower handle on the head controls the feed to the movement shafts. Up drives the leadscrew for thread turning. Middle is neutral and down drives the feedshaft. The cross slide has a gearbox that takes its drive from these shafts. When on feedshaft I can drive the topslide slowly out from centre or I can drive the cross-slide slowly towards the chuck. On these feeds the finish is very good. In fact it is far better than anything I can do by hand. This lathe also has a suds pump system which when used with the auto feed gives an almost mirror finish.

On the seig I built the tapers from some plans on the net. I chose to make the screws quite large to make access easier and the adjustment range better. I was happy to use brass because it smooths down very well and beds in easily to the bed-ways. I am very pleased with the improvement this mod has given...every chinese lathe should have it. Friction is not even a consideration at the speeds the assembly moves at. Also I had the brass in stock. I do not keep any CI as I very rarely use it. My main metals are steel, brass and mostly ali.


Thanks for your interest
Julian.


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