The Home Machinist!

Mills don't have to be leveled, and there is a lot you can do on a lathe, even on long work, without leveling it.

The lathe and mill will now be able to handle long work, but I won't be able to support lathe work on the mill. I don't think it's a big sacrifice. If I ever need to do it, I can always move a machine.

I stuck the phase converter on the wall today, so now all that's left to do is to install outlets. I plan to put two 50's and two 20's on the north wall. I also plan to run wire over the trusses to a junction box on the south wall, and from there I'll install one 50 and two more 20's. Finally, I'll ...

I saw a clever idea on another forum. You make little paper cutouts representing your tools, and you arrange them on a scale drawing of your shop. It's a lot faster than trying to use CAD or something. I'm giving it a try. It appears that the best thing is to dump the idea of putting the mill at the...

What's better? Mill at the head of the lathe or mill at the tail? Another problem: if I have the lathe out in the floor facing the wall, and then I put something heavy on it, I'll have to roll the heavy workpiece between the lathe and the wall. I suppose I could do that, but I was hoping to have the...

The shop is 30 feet square. I am thinking I'll put the workbench (or lift table) parallel to the north wall, about 10 feet away. Then I plan to put big tools along the wall and tool chests in line with the workbench. This will give me a long rectangular work area with the tools and bench facing in. ...

Yesterday I got my second electrical panel installed in the workshop, so now I can put the phase converter on the wall and have my machines moved in. I read somewhere that it's okay to put more than three #3 wires in 3/4" conduit. The person who wrote that must have a great sense of humor. It's...

I'm glad to have that information. Maybe I will make use of it in the future. I think it's very odd that someone would spend a lot of money on an outbuilding and then put a small panel in it, but that's what happened here. I kind of wonder if they gave me as much power as they could have. It's hard ...

Thanks for the offer of help, but the work is done, so I plan to leave it alone.

I used Homeline because 1) the existing main panel was Homeline, and 2) Homeline offered quad breakers.

The quest for adequate shop wiring is nearing completion, assuming I don't fry myself before I finish. I had a real electrician run #2 copper from the house to the shop, and now I have 100 amps out there, which ought to be good enough for the foreseeable future. I made them use big conduit, so I can...

I would love to have one, along with another building to put it in.

It would be a terrible table that would disrupt the whole shop. You would have to come up with a clever way to turn an arm into a solid platform, you would have another arm sticking out in your way all the time, and you would have to walk around the posts constantly. It would be unbearable. A four-p...