tkroenlein
Well-Known Member
I've been doing a lot of thinking a lot about the next or 3 "big" equipment purchases I want to make. While I definitely am a one at a time hobby maker, the fact that I've worked in manufacturing for 20 years demands that I approach everything from a build it better faster, and for less money perspective. So I do (small) batch: heat treating, profiling, drilling, grinding, gluing, etc. Usually 4 knives at any given stage. That works out handy, because I work in 2-3 hours a few days a week in the evening, then maybe 8-10 hours on the weekends.
In the process of spending all that money in my mind, and I do need some of those items for maintaining quality while working faster, it occurred to me that most of my unproductive time is spent setting up, moving, or clearing space to work on a different task. Now that's kind of funny, because if you were eavesdropping on any number of conversations at work day to day, you'd probably assume that I had eliminated that kind of waste in my own shop. So before I drop any more coin on stuff, I'm gonna make a good run at using what I have, better.
Areas for raw material and staging/kitting for in process work. This will amount to no more than a cabinet or shelving and some containers in a single location. That will keep blades and glued up scales and the like off the gluing and layout tables.
Consumables storage. That amounts to all of our best friends, abrasives. Everybody knows this one well.
Drilling. I have 3 drill presses. I'm only using 2, with the little china one set up permanently for leather. I have a proper "bench top" Jet 14" swing metal working drill press, and an older Buffalo 5 speed bench top press, that's too fast for a lot of metal work. I need to build a single stand for these both to set on, and dedicate the Buffalo for wood/micarta/g10 work, and quit swapping and cleaning oil off the other one.
Heat treating. My little oven lives on a cart. Because I have one appropriate plug for it and my grinder on the other end of the shop. I need to run a line to the other end of the shop and maybe get fancy and drop a couple disconnects for multiple plugs to the other end. I hope copper is cheap when I'm ready to do that.
Hot work area. So one corner in my shop is where I do my welding, bandsawing and forging. The better part of that corner is throwed junk. Things like metal projects for the shop. I want to stub a short 4' wall out towards the center of my shop for about 8', and create a "U" with tin all around the inside. Electrics moved up to above the tin. And a decent storage rack for iron stuffs.
Just some random thoughts to bounce around here. Feel free to suggest or talk about your own. This is Shop Talk, after all.
In the process of spending all that money in my mind, and I do need some of those items for maintaining quality while working faster, it occurred to me that most of my unproductive time is spent setting up, moving, or clearing space to work on a different task. Now that's kind of funny, because if you were eavesdropping on any number of conversations at work day to day, you'd probably assume that I had eliminated that kind of waste in my own shop. So before I drop any more coin on stuff, I'm gonna make a good run at using what I have, better.
Areas for raw material and staging/kitting for in process work. This will amount to no more than a cabinet or shelving and some containers in a single location. That will keep blades and glued up scales and the like off the gluing and layout tables.
Consumables storage. That amounts to all of our best friends, abrasives. Everybody knows this one well.
Drilling. I have 3 drill presses. I'm only using 2, with the little china one set up permanently for leather. I have a proper "bench top" Jet 14" swing metal working drill press, and an older Buffalo 5 speed bench top press, that's too fast for a lot of metal work. I need to build a single stand for these both to set on, and dedicate the Buffalo for wood/micarta/g10 work, and quit swapping and cleaning oil off the other one.
Heat treating. My little oven lives on a cart. Because I have one appropriate plug for it and my grinder on the other end of the shop. I need to run a line to the other end of the shop and maybe get fancy and drop a couple disconnects for multiple plugs to the other end. I hope copper is cheap when I'm ready to do that.
Hot work area. So one corner in my shop is where I do my welding, bandsawing and forging. The better part of that corner is throwed junk. Things like metal projects for the shop. I want to stub a short 4' wall out towards the center of my shop for about 8', and create a "U" with tin all around the inside. Electrics moved up to above the tin. And a decent storage rack for iron stuffs.
Just some random thoughts to bounce around here. Feel free to suggest or talk about your own. This is Shop Talk, after all.