# Plant #1



## steamin (Feb 21, 2011)

Yes, my workshop is called Plant #1. There is a Plant #2. It is the wood workshop. But for now I will share Plant #1 with you. 

Picture #1 is what you see as you walk into the shop. In the far left corner is my daughter's art area. She is a freelance graphics art designer with no room at her apartment to do her thing. So ole dad to the rescue. The black curtain you see is an optical comparator. I found a Diacro 12" box brake and shear on line at a used equipment web site. A little cleaning and a new paint job brought them back to life. I have my inspection and layout tools in the immediate left hand corner of the work bench.

Picture #2 Shows my general work area. The horizontal machine in the foreground is a 1955 Kearny & Trecker #2. Behind it a 1958 Bridgeport with power feeds on all three axis and a DRO on the X & Y axis. 

Picture #3 shows a Linley Jig Boring machine that my father refurbished many years ago. This was his pride and joy and he spent many hours sitting on a stool making model parts. Beside the jig bore is a cabinet with all the basic shop tooling in it. In the far left corner of the picture is a 1977 Hardinge HLVH tool room lathe. When my father was living with us for a short while, we spent 3 months dismantling the machine, cleaning, painting and replacing many parts. It is a sweetheart of a lathe and can hold tolerances to the tenths. In the left foreground is the latest project, an American LaFrance Steam Power Fire Engine.

Picture #4 shows my workbench and the Birmingham Geared Head Lathe I use for heavy work. It is a 13" x 40" gap bed lathe. The work bench that I use is from a Advance Machine and Tool Co. out of Dayton, Ohio. It is patterned after the old toolmaker bench that was developed for the tool room at National Cash Register Co., Dayton, Ohio. 

Continued to next posting !


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## steamin (Feb 21, 2011)

Picture #5 shows what I call the dirty area. The welding bench, surface grinder, belt sanders, bandsaw and a small spray paint booth. To the left of the Miller Dialarc TIG welder is a filing machine. If you ever have the chance to get one, they are extremely handy to have. You can put different shape files in it for couture filing and working weird shapes. Over to the extreme right is the ever ugly stock rack. As soon as the weather stays nice for several days, I will purge and straighten it out again. 

That is the basics of my shop AKA Plant #1.


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## kd7fhg (Feb 21, 2011)

Nice lookin shop, I ment to say plant #1.
Rex


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## kcmillin (Feb 21, 2011)

Wow, very nice shop, a lot of machinery and storage space. 

I officially have Drawer Envy :big: 

Kel


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## steamin (Feb 23, 2011)

Yes, I have been a very lucky guy for sure and Blessed in so many ways. The steel cabinets and maple work tops came from a renovation projects at the college where I retired from. The Kennedy and Stanely/Vidmar cabinets came from my father's workshop. I am a firm believer in a place for everything and everything to be kept in that place when not in use. My shop tools were always available to my kids, but the first time they did not put something back after they used it, the shop was off limits for a while. It happened once with just one of our three kids. They now do the same ting with their tools as well as their personal items. All three have said thank you to me on several occasions for that little lesson of life. 

My father always said that a tool is just an extension of ones hand. That tool needs to be taken care of as I would take care of my hands.

What you see was not an overnight acquisition. It is an accumulation of over 50 years and the marriage of two shops together. The best part is my wife loves to be a part of the machine shop scene. She is also my engineer of the 1/3 CASE engine we use to run our 1/4 scale American sawmill. 

Yes, I am blesses and I thank God every day for the gifts that He has bestowed on me.


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## steamer (Feb 23, 2011)

OOOOOH I"m getting all hot and bothered by that K&T....the HLV, Jig borer and the lab cabinets are nice too!

Dave

P.S. Too clean though....gotta dirty it up a bit ;D


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## lazylathe (Feb 23, 2011)

Awesome looking shop/plant!!!

I have to agree that it is way too clean and organized! :

I would assume that the cars get to live outside??
If only i could convince my wife that it was a good idea....

Most of us have to try and bring all our tools to the basement man cave!!!

Andrew


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## steamin (Feb 23, 2011)

Yes the cars do live outside. They have never been inside since we bought the property. My wife says we bought the garage and the house just happened to come along with the deal. That poor building has been through so many things. It was a full blown photographic studio with a black and white darkroom at one time. Another time there were two Farmall F-12 tractors in there that my younger son and I were working on side by side. Now it is an art studio/machine shop.

I served my apprenticeship under my father at Monsanto Research and Development CO. in Dayton, Ohio. It was a scientific research machine shop that required things to be clean during manufacturing and assembly. It was not to NASA standards, but none the less we had to be neat and tidy with things. Trust me, I do make my fair share of messes, its just that I clean up after myself and put things away so I know where to go to find it the next time I need to use it. One of my father rules while working for him was to leave a machine or work area cleaner than it was before I started to use it. It was tough at times, but when you have 8 men working in the the same shop, it sure is nice to go into a clean machine instead of having to clean up after someone else in order to accomplish your task.

Yes, I love the ole K&T. It is like a machine that I used in my high school shop class in 1962. It was not working at the time and I asked the shop instructor if I could fiddle with it. HE gave me all the manuals and away I went. A week later we put power to it, flipped the switch and engaged the clutch and WOW, what a thrill !!!!! The Hardinge HLVH is like the one I used in my apprenticeship. I spent many hours turning stainless containers with tapered press fit lids to put radio active materials into. Monsanto had several contracts with different manufactures for making the radio active startup rods for the nuclear submarine program that was just starting to bud in the early 1960's. These rods were used to make the nuclear reactor active. 

Thanks for the comments. If you are ever in the Cary, NC area, please feel free to look me up. I'll put a pot of coffee on or at least make a fresh pot and we can jaw bone about all the models we would like to build and will never have enough time to do.

PS: I do have to confuse. My daughter just finished cleaning up the corner she was in and I did a major clean up for the photo shoot. We use to call that a "Dog and Pony Shows". I 'll take some pictures of some chips sometime to demonstrate that I do use the shop on a daily bases. :big:


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## steamin (Feb 28, 2011)

Chip Pictures :big:


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