HELP, my shop is a MESS

[ajoeiam]

I inherited my dad's lathe and mill when he died in 2006, and started setting up a shop in my 2-car garage.
My wife has never let me forget that she no longer has a garage to pull into, but I bought her some other nice stuff, so we reached sort of a settlement/truce.

There was the problem of what to do with what was already in the garage, and then the layout, etc. for a machining-only barstock-build-only shop.

Then I got the foundry bug, and so incorprated woodworking equipment for pattern making, plus foundry equipment and supplies, and then purchased a few full-sized steam engines and pumps (New York Safety steam engine, Wach steam engine, Lister diesel, Baker pump jack monitor, simplex and duplex steam pumps, etc. in 2nd photo).

So my shop has morphed a great deal over the years, and it seems like I take three steps forward, and then five backwards.
Quite frankly, I need a new very large shop, but that is not going to happen.

Here are a few photos of my garage shop, over the years.

One thing is for sure, it is difficult to try and set up and/or change a shop and also do major projects in the shop at the same time.

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View attachment 154948View attachment 154949View attachment 154950

Hmmmmmm - - - - you're declaiming how terrible your shop is - - yet in pic three you have shown part of it that's in pretty decent order.

You might want to start by slowly expanding the area that looks like pic three (slowly is the key word here).

(My experience was that when there is only 'one cook in the kitchen' you can have things sorta terrible. Except what I found was that when you want high quality and/or high accuracy - - - - well - - - - really really tough to get in a non-organized shop. Then ran into the statistic that a machinist spent 18% of their day looks for tools - - - crap that got me right po'ed - - - I don't have that much time - - - so organization started becoming more important - - - its still a work in progress though!!)

 

[GreenTwin]

LOL, yes, three photos show my shop looking pretty good, but luckily I did not take a photo of it today, because you cannot walk in it at the moment, you can only crawl over things.

I have definitely hit the proverbial "critical mass" in my shop, and it has become shop/foundry/engine storage, pattern shop, etc., and is way out of control.

What I am going to have to do is find a place to store the foundry equipment, engines, and anything else that is not shop-related somewhere else (not sure where exactly).

I store things in my shop with the intent that I will go back and figure it all out one day, and that day has not yet arrived.

My business workload went exponential just before covid, and it has not let up since, so all I can do is just sit and look at the shop.

One day I will get caught up.

Edit:
I did purchase a 1,400 sq. ft. metal building a few years ago, with three acres of land, and so the long-term goal is to relocate and move everything into that, but that is another story.
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[Lloyd-ss]

Progress, NOT Perfection

I am trying to stay positive and on track.
Compare this to the photo in post #96. It only took about an hour. A lot of the stuff still hasn't been touched, but it can happen. I am getting sweaty palms because I know exactly which project is going to fill that beautiful empty space with clutter. Stay on track!!!

 

[ajoeiam]

LOL, yes, three photos show my shop looking pretty good, but luckily I did not take a photo of it today, because you cannot walk in it at the moment, you can only crawl over things.

I have definitely hit the proverbial "critical mass" in my shop, and it has become shop/foundry/engine storage, pattern shop, etc., and is way out of control.

What I am going to have to do is find a place to store the foundry equipment, engines, and anything else that is not shop-related somewhere else (not sure where exactly).

I store things in my shop with the intent that I will go back and figure it all out one day, and that day has not yet arrived.

My business workload went exponential just before covid, and it has not let up since, so all I can do is just sit and look at the shop.

One day I will get caught up.

Edit:
I did purchase a 1,400 sq. ft. metal building a few years ago, with three acres of land, and so the long-term goal is to relocate and move everything into that, but that is another story.
.

Hmmmmmmmm - - - - If you're moving - - - - well you can kill 2 birds (or maybe even more) with one stone!

Buy yourself either a reefer trailer (drop it off the running gear and the parking stand (I've done more than a few and could give some ideas given a pic of necessary bits - - - just reach out!) or a sea can (which you would need to insulate!!!!) and now you can start moving bits and bobs from you at least somewhat overloaded garage to the storage (which is parked right beside the garage!!!! (important point)). Then before you get to move you will have both an organized working area and a at least partially packed moving system. (Get a truck or truck trailer combination with a live roll and a winch to suck up the unit onto transit, boom things down, (ask him to drive carefully (I've never heard of women heavy transport operators - - - - swampers yes but not drivers)) then unload in same proximity to your 'new' place.

This will also give you more storage room at the new place so its a win in lots of directions!!!!

What say you?

 

[GreenTwin]

Well that is a very funny post, because someone gave me a reefer unit, apparently diesel, and I was just asking myself the other day "What the heck am I going to do with a reefer unit?".

LOL

I don't know the first thing about reefer units, but it appears that this unit is potentially intact and functional with a little TLC.

I don't have any information about it, and I am not a diesel person, but it appears it may be a 4-cylinder engine?
I hardly know what the parts are on this rig.

Any reefer experts lurking out there in model engine land ?
What would be a checkout/startup proceedure for something like this ?



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[RM-MN]

Well that is a very funny post, because someone gave me a reefer unit, apparently diesel, and I was just asking myself the other day "What the heck am I going to do with a reefer unit?".

LOL

I don't know the first thing about reefer units, but it appears that this unit is potentially intact and functional with a little TLC.

I don't have any information about it, and I am not a diesel person, but it appears it may be a 4-cylinder engine?
I hardly know what the parts are on this rig.

Any reefer experts lurking out there in model engine land ?
What would be a checkout/startup proceedure for something like this ?



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View attachment 154984

In the top left of the picture there are 2 canisters, one of which has a bleed screw at the bottom. Those are filters for diesel fuel and the bleed screw is to expel water. From the top right of the filters, a rubber hose leads to the right and down slightly to the injection pump. On top of this pump there are 3 steel lines leading to the injectors for each of the 3 cylinders. You have a 3 cylinder diesel engine.