My shop is definitely what you would call 'compact'. At 1.7m x 3.8m, its not much more than a walk in wardrobe! I would say it is best described as like a galley kitchen... without any food. 

I walk in, and basically from a standing position, I can reach pretty much everything I need at any time. And although it is a bit tight, I have learned that I don't really need a huge amount of space. The scale of the work I am doing is quite small, so I rarely have a problem. When I do, I just take it out to the 'outside' area, and work there. There's barely a spare inch of wall or shelf space, but in truth I want for nothing. Everything except the band saw fits inside too, which keeps it out of our humid tropical climate.

To make such a small space work, I've had to become very efficient at storing things. A big part of that was the initial choice of work benches, which is what I want to show you today.

Before I set it up, I had a very clear picture in my mind that the shop had to be a comfortable place to spend a lot of time. I figured I would be spending a fair bit of time in it, so it might as well be pleasant. A big part of what I had in mind was a big, solid wooden bench; something really heavy, unique and long lasting.

I scoured the web for ideas, and found plenty of designs that were basically box structures, with lap joints, screwed and glued, and then some sort of basic wood board top. Pretty basic, and easy enough to put together over a weekend. However most of the designs had the weight being borne as a shear load by the screws. Probably ok for light duty, but I had in mind a milling machine that weighs 370lbs/170kg. I wasn't sure that these simple benches would cut it for something that heavy. Besides, they didn't really look that... enticing.

So already doubts were creeping in about these simple designs. I also wanted something with character. Something that would sit like a rock, handle being dug into with a screwdriver, hit with a hammer, chipped and knocked about. Not made from that cheap pine you see everywhere these days, but from a decent hardwood. I wanted something that would develop character as it aged over the years, and hopefully something that would last for decades.

And definitely no screws. All wood.

So I played around with some sketches, and did some research on how to do a good solid join without metal fasteners, and this is what I came up with:

I guess you could call the horizontal platforms "trusses". They're made from spotted gum, and the truss joins are fastened with oak dowels, tapped in and glued with PVA. They were then cut off and sanded back. The corners joins are all mitered, and I used a router to mill a pencil round on all of the exposed edges to make the corners safer. I also milled ornamental grooves into the legs to pretty it up a little.

The truss ends sit in milled recesses on the legs, so that all of the load is put onto the legs in compression, rather than as a shear force on the fasteners. I think this should be very strong. In fact It's probably over engineered a bit, but it's nice to know I can up-size my mill later, and not have to think about the bench. Besides, nothing too strong ever broke.

As you can see, it was assembled in position in the shop, so it's there for the duration.  The top is also spotted gum and the finish is linseed oil, which makes the shop smell kind of nice too.

This bench ended up being dedicated to the mill, so I made another two. One running down the side of the shop, as a general workbench, and one for the outside 'dirty' area, that also has a simple woodworkers vise attached.

So it's now a few years later, and of course the floor space remains the same. But the tiny little shop has well and truly flourished. What was a little flicker of an idea, has now grown into something that fills up most of my spare time, and brings me a lot of enjoyment. These benches were the very first things I made for my shop, and I couldn't have got started without them.

Thanks for stopping by,
Chris.

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*...Big Things Grow. Paul Kelly.

One of the constants of my small home machine shop, is the need to match up disparate equipment so that they can cooperate together, to "do good work*". Not an easy task, but yet another great excuse for more tool building. (did I mention how I like to build tools...?)

A great example of this, is how I connected the newest acquisition to the shop, the Divisionmaster CNC indexer, to my two Chinese lathes.

One component I had to make to fit the indexer, was this mandrel to fit the rear of the lathe bore:

As I mentioned last week, the tools from China are great for getting the shop up and running, but the QA can be a bit patchy. But would it surprise you to learn that the run-out of the rear of the lathe bore was 30 Thou? I can understand 4 or 5, but 30?! Was he boring it with his eyes closed? No space program for you my friend...
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Simply clamping the rotary table to the mandrel without addressing this runout was not an option. The eccentricity would pull the table off the axis of the lathe, and result in rotational error that would quite literally be printed on my clock wheels as a variation in tooth space. We don't want that, no sir.

The solution: Turn an eccentric mandrel, and then mount it so as to to cancel out the error.

Easier said than done. I made a nice little collection of near misses, before I came up with one that acceptably balanced the error, and then of course I had to find the correct rotational alignment to cancel the error.

The result was a residual run-out at the back end, of about a thousandth of an inch. Which is where the bellows coupling comes in. It flexes enough to accommodate that small error, and the rotary table now sits as solid as a rock on the lathe center line, as it rotates through 360 degrees. So the superb rotational accuracy of the CNC driver and the rotary table is translated to my clock wheels, and now everybody is happy. Well I'm happy.

There's another example of a witness mark on the rotary table fitting too, to account for a very slight run-out in the Sherline tables' central hole. (Yes that surprised me too...)

The spigot fitting I made to fit onto the table, was milled in place, and this dot was marked at the zero degree position while it was still on the mill. Provided it goes back into the same place every time, I have a perfectly concentric spigot. 

By the way, here are some other bits and pieces of the lathe indexing set-up.

There is a stand-off rod, that attaches to the change gear banjo, as well as a plate that fixes onto the back of the rotary table, and a hand wheel to fix the whole thing together. I got a bit fancy with the shaping on that one... I figured if I'm going to be using this thing for the next few decades, it had to look better than a hacked off piece of scrap aluminum.

Be sure to check out this system in use in the Wheel Cutting video.

Thanks for stopping by,
Chris.

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* Yes, I'm a confirmed NASA tragic, the quote is from Gus Grissom.

I was recently asked what sort of equipment I have in my shop.

Most of the gear that is available to me for purchase, inevitably comes from China*. I have dreams of Hardinge, Schaublin and Myford, but the truth is I've never actually seen any examples of them with my own two eyes. In my part of the world (Australia), they rarely if ever turn up for sale, and importing them new (or even s/h) is prohibitive. So, like you I suspect, I'm stuck with the stuff from China.

But is that such a bad thing?

For one thing, your dollar goes further. A lot further. You can get a whole home shop started, with the money you might have dropped on a s/h restored Myford (assuming you could find one). Yes its substandard equipment, in almost every respect, but it will get you well and truly started on machining. As opposed to having a sweet little Myford on the bench, with nothing left over in the wallet, to buy anything else.

With the money left over, you can splash out on the better cutting tools, put them in the cheapo machine, and start making beautiful chips. Believe me, it makes a difference.

Secondly, it forces you to learn. All of the little defects, provide the perfect motivation to learn the craft of machining, and every defect made in China has a solution; it just depends on how creative you want to be with your efforts. Suddenly you're searching out mini-lathe.com and lurking around yahoo groups looking for the best ideas; maybe even coming up with your own. Before you know it, you're pushing engineering drawings in front of your wife, showing "your latest solution to the tail-stock runout problem". All very good practice, and also very good fun.

And finally it leads you inevitably to that important engineering fact: There is no such thing as perfect accuracy, just tolerances.

You are now well inside the abilities of your cheap little mini-lathe or mill, and you know what it can and can't do. You have a few little cheats and work-arounds for when it really counts, and you now have a good appreciation of when to relax and just accept +/- "whatever". And all of this was provided to you for a fraction of the price of the good stuff.

Of course, you can also crash the carriage, drop chucks on the bed and generally make all the stupidest, dumb a**, cringe-worthy mistakes a rookie can make, and know that all you've done is scar a cheap little disposable tool. But then I wouldn't know anything about that...

The dreams of course, never stop.

As always, thanks for stopping by,
Chris.

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* For the record: I have a Sieg SC4 Lathe, a Sieg SX3 Mill drill, and a CQ6125 9 x 20 lathe, all from "Over the pond" as Tubalcain says. My small Band Saw claims to be Taiwanese, but I think I detect a Chinese accent...

My USA made gear is top quality, and includes an outstanding (and much used) Delta 1" Belt Sander, a Bench Filing Machine made from Andy Lofquist's castings, and a fine little Sherline lathe.

Why do I make so many tools from Aluminum alloy, instead of steel? Surely it would be better to make it for the long term? Well its a bit of a sore point, but I'm glad you asked!

In my part of the world (a far flung corner of Australia) good quality steel is virtually unheard of. There is an abundance of that gummy hot rolled stuff. Local industry use it, and there are plenty of off-cuts if desired, but they want a pretty penny for scraps. And it's just awful to work with.

Ask for cold rolled steel, and you can expect a good natured shrug. Ask for anything more exotic like 12L14, or the wonderful (UK) EN8M, and there will definitely be furrowed brows. It just doesn't get used by our local manufacturers, so they never see it.  Gauge plate is unobtainium, although drill rod is still available from Blackwoods.

Basically we just don't have a steel industry in our country that even remotely equates to the UK or US. If we need the good stuff, we model engineer types have to really pay through the nose, by ordering  from specialist suppliers, mostly overseas/online.

Aluminum alloy on the other hand, is as common in my part of the world as water. All dimensions, grades, you name it. And I have a couple of local fabricators nearby that use a lot of it, so off-cuts are thick on the ground. (off topic - is there any better way to spend an afternoon, than by browsing the local off-cut rack, scoring some really choice cuts of aluminum for the next project? I think not!)

So when it comes to a substantial tool, my first thought is: "Can I get away with aluminum or maybe even brass?". Because I know steel is going to really hurt the wallet.

Usually its a question of wear and rigidity. For extra rigidity, I usually increase any critical dimension to account for the increased flex. For example, I think it was borderline making my Vise Sub Table from aluminum. But I stiffened it up by adding a bracing section underneath, and it sits like a rock in the vise. I don't have a need to push it too hard, and thus far it has served really well.

Regarding wear, the Aluminum certainly bruises very easily, and if it is part of an assembly that has relative movement, it also wears rapidly. But most of the tools I am making will have low cycles, so it's usually not an issue. I treat the critical stuff (mating surfaces, threads etc) with kid gloves, and thank my lucky stars that I didn't have to fork out a fortune for the steel.

If the worst happens, and it becomes clear that the aluminum is not up to the task long term, well at least I have a finished prototype that has been in the field for a while, to use as the living blue-print for re-making it in steel.

The other bonus from Aluminium of course is that its an absolute pleasure to machine; No excuses for a poor surface finish!

Thanks for stopping by,
Chris.

I made a chapter ring today. The pics above show the brass after being filled with wax.

After the silvering process, the numerals are left with a rough surface; a remnant from the last stage of sanding. So typically one of the last steps after silvering, is to gently heat the wax to melting point, to make the surface of the numerals shiny.

I have tended to do this by heating the underside of the dial with a butane torch, but it can be a little tricky if you care about the surface finish on the other side. 

Apply too much heat, and it will leave a mark. It is possible to avoid it, but its also very easy to make a mistake, and leave an unsightly burn mark.

If this side is to be polished, no problem. But if it is to be left silvered, the work is pretty much ruined.

So today I thought I'd try the kitchen oven, instead of the butane torch. It can heat up to 250°C which is more than enough to melt the wax, and it should be a uniform heat right? No scorch marks from an electric oven. What could possibly go wrong...

I finished the dial, and then applied a single coat of thin lacquer as usual. I decided to do this mainly because I was concerned about the silvered surface oxidising/discoloring in the oven. Of course, there was then the possibility that the lacquer might do something unpleasant while heated, but it had to be one or the other.

Well it worked a treat. In less than 5 minutes, there was a beautiful sheen on the wax, and I think the lacquer even benefited a little too. It looked to be a little smoother than before it went in.

Masterchef, here I come...

Thanks for stopping by,
Chris.

It seems to be a constant of life.

The moment you become attached to a product that really pleases you, its only a matter of time before it disappears off the shelves for good, never to be seen again. You then spend a large portion of your waking hours scouring Ebay for the last remnants of your forbidden treasure. If you stumble across a source, the only rational response is to buy as much of it as you can afford. Maybe even a lifetime supply. Who knows when you'll ever see it again, right?

Just as Smeagol becomes Gollum, the shift from mild mannered citizen, to obsessed hoarder is inevitable.

Such is the case for grinding and polishing pastes commonly used in horology.

The literature commonly refers to using Oilstone powder (powdered arkansas stone) for steel preparation, prior to final polishing with Diamantine (finely ground aluminium oxide powder). I have also found that using a medium grade Carborundum is a very effective first stage preparation,  prior to the Oilstone powder.

The problem is, a few years ago, Oilstone powder became almost impossible to find. I purchased a 30g jar from German materials dealer Ernst Westphal in 2011, but it appears to have been one of the last jars in existence. If only I had known, I would have bought up big, cornered the market, and built an Oilstone powder empire!

Instead, I only purchased the one jar, and remain an Oilstone pauper. Desperately watching my pitiful supply slowly dwindle to nothing, trying to stretch it out as much as possible.

Since then, I have not seen it for sale from any of the common retailers. Occasionally old stock pops up on Ebay; small quantities left over from what appear to be retired professionals selling the contents of their workshops (or perhaps estate sales?). I recently had a crack at an auction, and missed out. Given that my precious little jar is nearly empty, I really needed a break.

And just like that, good fortune came to the rescue: Oilstone powder is back for sale at Ernst Westphal. 

The order is in, and I patiently await my lifetime supply... My Precious...

Thanks for stopping by,
Chris.

Well here it is, my first effort for Youtube, so we're off and running.

I had a lot of fun making it, and spent a surprisingly large amount of time getting it into shape!

All going well, you will see reasonably regular video's from me; at this stage I am aiming for one every two weeks. You'll be able to follow my progress, as I make a skeleton clock from scratch, using raw stock.

I will also be making other machining video's related to tool making and the like. If you're interested in home shop machining, working with metal, and making things, you're in the right place.

Please like, share and subscribe via the Clickspring Youtube channel, and if you feel really motivated, please leave me a comment. Extra bonus points if you leave questions, or some ideas for future video's you'd like to see.

Thanks for stopping by,
Chris.