Workshop set-up

awesome, I mad mad envious. how many poisonous critters have you had to clear out, or will you have to in the future?

Dayum! Nice shop.
I gotta work off of an old kitchen table for a saw horse,using only
hand tools,a recip saw, a circular,and a drill.
...and yeah,that actually IS a stone wall. Very cool.

I'd love to dig into that organ, am I actually seeing integrated circuits parked alongside vacuum tubes?

@pete56

Yeah, three stone wall sides, about a foot and a half thick, and one long side of sliding doors. The rafters in the roof and the support posts are trees, and only squared off where necessary.

I still have a bandsaw and table saw to come, along with a metal lathe, wood lathe, and drill press that I am going to have to buy back from the bloke the ex meeping sold them too for drug or booze money.

@godevillivedog

No, you are not seeing IC's and vacuum tubes, thank meep. The shiny silver things are just capacitors. My (lack of) knowledge of this sort of electronics makes me wish you were here.

Bonerz!
Oh, just LOOK at that floor space!

Looks like a damned good start.

You'd be wise to make your second project a good solid, heavy work table with a stout big-jawed vise and a couple of those nice wood vises that you use with bench dogs.

1/4" steel plate for a top makes it damned near indestructible (if you wanna go for the gusto.)

I have my Dad's old bench as soon as I can pry it out of CP's money-grubbing hands, which is going to take a lawyer to do. It is 15' long by 5' wide and 1" thick - two planks properly joined and about 50 years old as a counter top. The little one I am making now will do for metal work afterwards, a sheet steel cover won't cost much.

The Shed is basically a five car garage- five cars long by one car deep, but only has concrete floor in three bays, and that is pretty old and rough. But it is way better than what I have had before (nothing) so I am happy.

That's not a workshop..that's a meeping cathedral with spiffy tools.

@nurglets

Sorry, I missed answering you earlier.

The only poisonous things I will have to evict will probably be the odd Redback spider.

I am adding to my machinery, slowly but surely.




I got my Dad's old bandsaw back just after christmas.



Complete with Dad's change-speed gear, that really slows it down.



I built a small bench as a temporary measure until I can my big one back. The top is 11/2" thick corporate desk-top with a nice laminate on it.



I have also managed to by my drill-press back from the bloke the ex sold it to.

Of course, I had to build a stand for it.

Yesterday, I finally got Dad's table saw back. This thing is ancient, and heavy. Most of it is cast iron.






The plate is interesting. I wish I had the original motor, but it must have weighed a meep-load. I mean, where the meep do you get a 6volt, 24 phase, 800 Hz electric supply? Was this thing built for the Royal Navy for use on-board a battleship?

Damned fine tools man!
Good to see that you're getting the shop together!

@spankerchief

Get my wood lathe back next, then I have to start saving money to by actual wood.

Oh yeah. I think you told me at some point how hard it is to get good lumber over there.
I've got a few places for basic 1"(2.54 cm) boards, but I have a meep of a time getting 5/4"(3.2 cm) which would work a meep of a lot better for most of what I do.
It just boils down to throwing more money at it to have it shipped.
meep it all...
It just I can imagine you getting a mobile sawmill (chainsaw and rails) and cutting your own. (That is, if there are trees where you're at.)

I have the chainsaw, but would need a bigger one for the trees around here. Most of them are eucalypts that have died and dried out standing up, and they are as hard as nails. Beautiful timber but eat chains for breakfast. I do have a sawmill about an hour away, but he wants a couple of hundred per log, which is a bit rich for me.

Hey, that's funny!
We've got eucalyptus all over here, too!(Probably a different species of)
They used to edge the highways with it to control the wind-blown dust.
Then the damned things started snapping off branches over the road and causing accidents.
I hear it cuts okay if you get it green, but yeah: it's hard as a wedding meep (and brittle to boot) when dry.
I've never used it.
Is it good for anything?

The ones in Cal. are transplants from here back in the 1800's, so we could share a species or two.

The River Red Gum is a beautiful deep red colour and has wonderful figure in it. They use it here in two-inch slabs for bar-tops and things. Most of the rest has nice colour, but a lighter pink than the redgum. It is very short-grained though, and brittle around joints, but otherwise easy to work. Just have a lot of plane and saw blades sharp, and a meep-load of sandpaper. And it will drink varnish or oil like a sailor on shore-leave.