# Aussie stews workshop 1



## stew

HI ALL,
I have a Member since 2009, but I have always found it hard to find the Time to Contribute to the Forum. I thought showing You My Workshop would be a good Place to start. My Name is Stewart and I Live in a small Town called Mallacoota in Australia. I work as an Outboard Mechanic and my Main Hobby is Metal Work hence me being on this Forum.
The Shed is 7.6mt (24ft) long x 6mt (20ft) wide x 2.7mt (9ft) high. The Power Hacksaw is a Parkanson with a 6" x 6" capacity. My Mig Welder is a Boss 202A (200 amp) and My Tig Welder is a Token Tools Alupulse AC/DC 200 amp Machine. My Mill Drill is a Top Tech DM45 ( I need to approve the Quill lock on this). My Metal Lathe is a Hafco AL-960B with a DRO, I bought a Taper Turning Attachment for it this year.  
I had originally Bought a Hafco AL-340A but the Transport Company dropped it and it was Damaged beyond Repair. My Tool & Cutter Grinder is Herless BM-450A, I have relocated it now to the Doorway of the Shed so the Grindings hopefully go outside. The Sandblast Cabinet has ended up being a long term project,  I hope to get back into it before the end of the Year. 
My Pedestal Drill is a Steelmaster B32 (32mm (1 1/4") Capacity a nice solid Drill Press. I Bought an Annular Cutter (Magnetic Drill Bit) Attachment for it this year to increase its capacity but I haven't used it yet.
I am going to Submit this Now and then Post another Thread with more Pics.
All The Best Stew


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## stew

HI ALL again,
The Stand with the Roller is a Material Support Stand that I made for My Pedestal Drill Press. The roller part is just made from some waterpipe and some bearings. The Raise and lower part is a thread that that i believe is used in Scaffolding. The Pressure Pot Sandblaster is one that My Brother and Built Years ago. It works well, even better now that I bought a 50CFM Air Compressor. 
The Coolant Pump is one that I made up to use between My Mill/Drill and Metal Lathe. The lid is Aluminium and the Plastic Basin is about a 9 Litre one. The Sieve is part of a Potato Masher, I spotted it in Woolworths and thought that would be perfect for My Coolant Pump.
Anyway thats all for now, hopefully their will be No Rain Tomorrow and I can do some Work outside.
All The Best Stew


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## dsquire

Stew

Thanks for posting the pictures of your shop and tools. It looks like a nice place to work on some fun projects. We look forward to seeing them. That Pressure Pot Sandblaster looks like it could make rust disappear in a hurry.

Cheers 

Don


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## gus

Whereabout is Mallacoota? Got to near the sea?

I live in Katong,2 km from the beach.


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## stew

dsquire said:


> Stew
> 
> Thanks for posting the pictures of your shop and tools. It looks like a nice place to work on some fun projects. We look forward to seeing them. That Pressure Pot Sandblaster looks like it could make rust disappear in a hurry.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Don


 
HI
You're welcome. Yes it is a good place to Work in, but not lately as it has been very Messy. Since those Pictures were taken I have made some alterations in the way of Relocating some stuff another tool Cabinet Trolley and I Bought a New Welder Trolley for the AC/DC TIG. The Sandblaster does a really good job. I just Bought some larger Nozzles for it which are 1/8" I had been using 3/32". The 50CFM can Handle a bigger Nozzle but I will see how these go. When i do some Sandblasting next i will Post some before and after Pics.
ALL THE BEST STEW


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## stew

gus said:


> Whereabout is Mallacoota? Got to near the sea?
> 
> I live in Katong,2 km from the beach.


 
HI GUS,
Mallacoota is very close to the Sea, from the My House the Sea would be about 1.5KM away. Here is a Weblink to what Mallacoota looks like http://www.google.com.au/search?q=m...kLqmfiAe-lYCoDg&ved=0CDsQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=582 . I see Katong is in Singapore, I will have a look later at some Pictures of it.

ALL THE BEST STEW


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## ELM6061

G'day Stew, nice shop and one I can only dream about.  Mallacotta is a beautiful spot with nice diving & fishing, great spot for an Outboard business and guess it would keep you pretty busy.

Eddie


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## gus

stew said:


> HI GUS,
> Mallacoota is very close to the Sea, from the My House the Sea would be about 1.5KM away. Here is a Weblink to what Mallacoota looks like http://www.google.com.au/search?q=m...kLqmfiAe-lYCoDg&ved=0CDsQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=582 . I see Katong is in Singapore, I will have a look later at some Pictures of it.
> 
> ALL THE BEST STEW



How faraway are you from Melbourne? Gus in Melbourne 19-----27 Oct.Will drop by if I could tear away from the too many relatives!!!!!
Gus is also a badly addicted fisho.


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## AussieJimG

Welcome Stew, that looks like a decent sized workshop and a nice backyard to play in. 

Jim


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## Rockytime

Great looking shop! Appears you have filled it very well. Thanks for posting.


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## Propforward

Nice space Stew! Great selection of tools - thanks for sharing with us!


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## stew

gus said:


> How faraway are you from Melbourne? Gus in Melbourne 19-----27 Oct.Will drop by if I could tear away from the too many relatives!!!!!
> Gus is also a badly addicted fisho.


 
HI GUS,
Mallacoota and Melbourne are actually quite a distance away from each other.  The Distance is about 550km from Memory so about a 6 1/2hr Drive. An Addicted Fisho? what You mean You get to go Fishing?. I always never seem to be able to find the Time. 

Thankyou All For the Replys in Regards To The Workshop.

All The Best Stew


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## lennardhme

Ahhhh beautiful Mallacoota. Unfortunately  remembered for the worst meal & service I've had anywhere in the world - but I still go back.
Great workshop Stew but I can still see some floorspace, so plenty of room left.
cheers,
leonard


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## Davo J

I was reading the thread and saw the part about the dropped lathe, the out board mechanic, then the crane and thought I know who this guy is, how are you Stuart?
The shed is looking good.

Dave (J) from the WW forum


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## rodw

Looks great Stew, I have the same MIG welder as you do but I am still too much of a noob with it to know if it is a good one or not. Anyway, it seems to do what I throw at it.


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## stew

lennardhme said:


> Ahhhh beautiful Mallacoota. Unfortunately  remembered for the worst meal & service I've had anywhere in the world - but I still go back.
> Great workshop Stew but I can still see some floorspace, so plenty of room left.
> cheers,
> leonard


 
HI,
I must have missed Your post, My apologies. Yes Mallacoota is certainly is beautiful and a Nice place to live. Sorry to hear about Your Bad Dining out experience. I know Myself when we have eaten out as a family that there has been the odd time that they forgot to kill the Cow.
Good to hear that You still come back. If You've got a Boat I have probably seen You as I work at Mallacoota Outboards.


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## stew

Davo J said:


> I was reading the thread and saw the part about the dropped lathe, the out board mechanic, then the crane and thought I know who this guy is, how are you Stuart?
> The shed is looking good.
> 
> Dave (J) from the WW forum


 
HI Dave,
I am quite well thank you Dave and I hope You are also well. I had seen the User Id Davo J on here and actually wondered if it wasn't You. The Shed is good, apart from needing a Cleanup. I will reply to the WW Pm soon.


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## stew

rodw said:


> Looks great Stew, I have the same MIG welder as you do but I am still too much of a noob with it to know if it is a good one or not. Anyway, it seems to do what I throw at it.


 
HI Rod,
I had seen Your Welder in The Shop section and I wondered if it wasn't a Boss. It looks like it might be a Newer Model than mine. I bought it to replace the Unimig 250swf that I used to have. There was nothing wrong with the Unimig, I just wanted to downsize as I didn't need the 250Amps. I actually wanted to Buy a Lincoln, but both Models had just been discontinued and they had nothing to replace them as yet.
 The Boss was the only other Mig that fitted My needs. Over the Unimig I find this Boss just so much smoother. I am still yet to have a good Play with it on Aluminium. Have You Welded any Aluminium with Your yet ?.


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## rodw

stew said:


> The Boss was the only other Mig that fitted My needs. Over the Unimig I find this Boss just so much smoother. I am still yet to have a good Play with it on Aluminium. Have You Welded any Aluminium with Your yet ?.



Stew, Nice to know you like the Boss over Unimig. I bought the Boss 202 because my bolt shop was an agent and they made an offer I could not refuse. I was looking at the Unimig 170. From memory, it was about $1k and they sold me the Boss for $1250 and gave me a couple of months to pay the bill. As well as the welder, also I bought a set of ally rollers, some ally welding wire and a separate hand piece with a Teflon liner so I am fully set up for ally but I have not tried it out yet. I have a job around the house with a lot of ally welding to make some louvered screens for my patio and carport area. Once made, I was going to get them powder coated but have been waiting until I get the painting done which I hope will be just about complete by the end of this coming weekend so this project is coming closer to its turn. 

I am debating about buying a Stick/TIG combo welder and maybe a Plasma cutter but I have not used a stick since I have had my MIG and I really don't think I have the time to learn to TIG as well (My MIG welds are bad enough!). Tradetools Direct up here have a combo Stick/TIG/Plasma unit for about $800 but from what I have learnt, I should look for an AC/DC unit if I want to TIG ally so I think it will be a fair way down the list.

So maybe you can confirm that when I am ready to weld ally, I should get pure argon? I have been using Argoshield Lite for steel so far. My current bottle is just about empty so maybe I will buy some Ally gas instead. Can I use pure Argon on steel too?


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## stew

HI Rod,
Although I was Happy with the Unimig, I did like My Boss a lot better - it's just a much better welder. That real good of Your Local Bolt Shop to give You a couple of Months to Pay. The Price You Paid is pretty good I paid $1450 Cash and got a few rolls of Wire, Tips, rollers etc. I actually just looked them up on the Net they have gone up bare Machine $1400 to $1600 on two different sites.

I have been like You since I bought a Mig, I don't do much stick welding at home anymore. You do need a fair bit of time to learn to Tig Weld. Welding Steel with a Tig is fairly easy as it is much like when Your Oxy Welding Steel. Tig Welding Ally, well that just so much more involved. 
If You want to watch some Videos of Tig Welding then I would recommend this Website http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/    on Youtube  http://www.youtube.com/user/weldingtipsandtricks?feature=watch .
If You want to Tig Weld Ally then You definitely need AC. 

In regards to the Gas for Aluminium, Argon is correct. At Work we use both Argon and I think (I will confirm this) the other one is Alushield Light for heavier sections. I don't think we have ever used Alushield Light on the Mig, I am sure it's only been used on the AC Tig.  Here is a some Info on Shielding Gases https://boc.com.au/boc_sp/au/downlo...shielding_gases_brochure_AU_Update_FA_web.pdf

As for using Argon on Steel, well the correct answer is really No as it's not recommended. I have Welded Steel with it Myself it does work, but I don't really like it. I find it a bit hard to get the Mig going good with argon. My Boss reckons it works Ok, but I'd rather bring My own Argoshield Universal in and use it. Maybe give Boc a call and see what they say about it.


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## rodw

Awesome Stew, thanks for the advice and links. I won't hijack our thread any further


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## gus

stew said:


> HI,
> I must have missed Your post, My apologies. Yes Mallacoota is certainly is beautiful and a Nice place to live. Sorry to hear about Your Bad Dining out experience. I know Myself when we have eaten out as a family that there has been the odd time that they forgot to kill the Cow.
> Good to hear that You still come back. If You've got a Boat I have probably seen You as I work at Mallacoota Outboards.



Hi Stew,

Heard about the good fishing at Mallacoota.

Gus Teng


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## geo

Stew 
Thinking of buying a 960 b what do you think of it
I bought a 2 nd 320 g and it's not much chop. Couldn't possibly be the operator


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## TinyTool

Reminds me why it's important to never throw things out.

But I myself might go with a recirculating grit style - where all the worn out stuff exits the cabinet at ultrafine dust - and it goes through a slightly soapy water scrubber.....

And the only thing it needs is new sand from time to time.


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## stew

HI Geo,
 Overall I am very happy with my AL960B lathe. It's  a good all round lathe where it can be used to turn big and small diameters. The only setback with small diameters is the 1400rpm but it is manageable. In saying that if you were going to be doing a lot of small diameter turning I would be looking at the AL-336 or something like it. It is rigid enough to do some heavy cutting to rough out bar stock. 

 The headstock gearbox changes gears easily and they stay locked in. All the other controls are easy to use and function well. Headstock re-alignment is quite easy to do, but it can be time consuming (as with any lathe). It has quite a good range of threads not that I've used the thread cutting feature much - basically just had a play here and there.

 Hare and Forbes advertise them as a Tool Room quality lathe personally I don't believe that. Don't get me wrong though, the AL960B is quite well made. Don't expect it to built like a german or English lathe though. The Hand wheels on the Carriage, Cross & Compound slide and Tailstock all work smoothly not like the AL-335 that I first looked at . The paintwork and finish on the ways is good.

 I crashed mine last year, but it survived with needing some quick change feed gearbox parts. I accidently jammed the Compound slide into the Tailstock (it had been a long day. I mentioned the crash for the reason that whilst I was doing the repairs I found some dry bearings in the Quick change gearbox. The Bearings were actually Nachi and this surprised me because I have never had a problem with Nachi bearings before. If you decide to buy the AL960B you might want to check them fairly quick.

  Whilst I was at it although the Headstock bearings are in oil they got a name change as well to SKF. I had been led to believe that Metal Lathe headstock spindles run matched bearings and they are normally P2 or P4 class. When I changed the Headstock spindle bearings
  I found two different size bearings so definitely not a matched pair. In saying that they are taper bearings and are a class bearing just not P2 or P4. Don't let the spindle bearings worry you, they hold their tolerance well.

 If there is something in particular that You want to know about the 960 just ask.
 All the best
 Stew


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## geo

Stew
i purchased the 960 is it tool room  lathe sitting in a shed in my back yard it’s not to shabby


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