George_Race
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2010
- Messages
- 125
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I have been a member here for some time and never got around to putting up pictures of my home built work shop. First some quick background. Preparing for retirement I built a 40 X 30 Pole Barn. Sectioned off the back 16 X 30 for a workshop, and planned on using the front portion for an Airplane Hangar. Before I retired I purchased a Zenith CH701 Airplane Kit. I spent the next three years building the Airplane in the shop and assembling it in the hangar portion of the building. I did the initial flight testing in the airplane and a few months later sold it to another Pilot. Having learned a lot about things needed for building experimental aircraft, I decided to put together a small Router/CNC so that I could cut up to 1/4 inch aluminum for airplane parts. Over the past several years I have developed quite a lot of airplane parts an have been supplying them to airplane builders all over the world. My web site has all the details on my airplane and airplane parts building. http://www.mykitairplane.com
I got interested in building model engines a couple of years ago. Have built a couple of runners, both very small and out of brass. Also have an unsuccessful Stirling build that I still cannot get to run, but have not given up as of yet. I have had to learn everything about machining from the ground up. I now start with AutoCAD drawings and go from there to CNC milling of parts. It has been a steep learning curve and I continue to learn with each new part I try to make. Needless to say this web site has be an invaluable source of information and help these past couple of years.
So that is the story, here come the pictures of the workshop.
First some general shots of the shop area.
Here are some closer pictures of the work bench area.
The aluminum you see setting on the bench above, is for my next build, a governor controlled air powered Hit and Miss that I will be starting on very soon.
Along the way I have collected and learned how to use a lot of very neat tools, shown in the pictures below.
And last, my misc tool table, boy what a mess that always is!
For my airplane parts building I keep a lot of sheet material in stock, all different sizes and thickness.
Here is the CNC machine that I built up from a lot of different parts and pieces. I started with the K2CNC frame, built the Hobby CNC controller kit, and wired it all together.
I wrote my own screen for Mach3 that does everything that I need to do in my simple machining.
Getting ready for the build of my Hit and Miss, the first thing I wanted to do was find the center of the blocks of aluminum I purchased for the two flywheels. So I needed to build a bit larger center finder then the one I had built up earlier for the small engines I built.
Above, I route out an area more than half the thickness of the material.
Above and below, I start cutting out the complete piece.
Above, all I need to do now is break out the holding tabs and it is finished.
Above, I scribe the first set of lines on the first flywheel blank. Now I will set it up in the mill and start looking for the flywheel that I know is inside of the chunk of aluminum. Once I get down to the center hub, I will be able to hold it in the chuck of my little lathe and finish the outer surface of the wheel. The max my little Harbor Freight chuck will take is about 2.5 inches.
So there you go, the shop, the tools, and the start of my next project with step 1!
I am going to do a complete documentation, with pictures, of the Hit and Mill build so will be posting it in the appropriate area as I move along on the project.
All comments and questions are welcomed,
George
I got interested in building model engines a couple of years ago. Have built a couple of runners, both very small and out of brass. Also have an unsuccessful Stirling build that I still cannot get to run, but have not given up as of yet. I have had to learn everything about machining from the ground up. I now start with AutoCAD drawings and go from there to CNC milling of parts. It has been a steep learning curve and I continue to learn with each new part I try to make. Needless to say this web site has be an invaluable source of information and help these past couple of years.
So that is the story, here come the pictures of the workshop.
First some general shots of the shop area.
Here are some closer pictures of the work bench area.
The aluminum you see setting on the bench above, is for my next build, a governor controlled air powered Hit and Miss that I will be starting on very soon.
Along the way I have collected and learned how to use a lot of very neat tools, shown in the pictures below.
And last, my misc tool table, boy what a mess that always is!
For my airplane parts building I keep a lot of sheet material in stock, all different sizes and thickness.
Here is the CNC machine that I built up from a lot of different parts and pieces. I started with the K2CNC frame, built the Hobby CNC controller kit, and wired it all together.
I wrote my own screen for Mach3 that does everything that I need to do in my simple machining.
Getting ready for the build of my Hit and Miss, the first thing I wanted to do was find the center of the blocks of aluminum I purchased for the two flywheels. So I needed to build a bit larger center finder then the one I had built up earlier for the small engines I built.
Above, I route out an area more than half the thickness of the material.
Above and below, I start cutting out the complete piece.
Above, all I need to do now is break out the holding tabs and it is finished.
Above, I scribe the first set of lines on the first flywheel blank. Now I will set it up in the mill and start looking for the flywheel that I know is inside of the chunk of aluminum. Once I get down to the center hub, I will be able to hold it in the chuck of my little lathe and finish the outer surface of the wheel. The max my little Harbor Freight chuck will take is about 2.5 inches.
So there you go, the shop, the tools, and the start of my next project with step 1!
I am going to do a complete documentation, with pictures, of the Hit and Mill build so will be posting it in the appropriate area as I move along on the project.
All comments and questions are welcomed,
George
which leads me to ask where do you put the music so you can see it. ???
