Setting Up a Functional Knife Shop

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.
 
It sounds to me like you've kinda got the shop arrangement figured out, with some modifications. The first part of your posting seems to ask the question "what are the next or 3 "big" equipment purchases I want to make". Assuming you've got good heat treating equipment, here's how I'd spend your money on metal working essentials.
- Mill
- Lathe
- Welder (MIG first, then TIG)
In that order for knife making. On the other hand for general metal shop work, I'd likely reverse the order. Having any of these 3 machines opens up a whole new realm of making "stuff".
You also might add a VFD to your drill press, what a difference that makes (and while your at it, add a VFD to the Mill and Lathe)
So, there's a Christmas list for you!
 
I also came from a production background. To be brutally honest, after several years of trying to chase process efficiency I discovered that working in batches turned every step of the process into a tedious, loathsome task and I never got the satisfaction of feeling like I was "making" something. I was just a grunt worker on a production line in my own shop. Make twenty blanks. Drill twenty blanks. Make twenty handles. Grind twenty blanks. ..... All I ever wanted was for each step to be over.

What I did learn was that setting up my shop as a series of work stations made the process just as fast as trying to be a production line. Each process has its own area with the tools needed for that process, just like a restaurant kitchen. No walking around in circles to get anything done and this line of thinking means that I need a shockingly small amount of space. My shop is set up like a restaurant kitchen- a long narrow galley starting with the dirty side and making it's way along to the clean end where everything is finished.
 
I also came from a production background. To be brutally honest, after several years of trying to chase process efficiency I discovered that working in batches turned every step of the process into a tedious, loathsome task and I never got the satisfaction of feeling like I was "making" something. I was just a grunt worker on a production line in my own shop. Make twenty blanks. Drill twenty blanks. Make twenty handles. Grind twenty blanks. ..... All I ever wanted was for each step to be over.

What I did learn was that setting up my shop as a series of work stations made the process just as fast as trying to be a production line. Each process has its own area with the tools needed for that process, just like a restaurant kitchen. No walking around in circles to get anything done and this line of thinking means that I need a shockingly small amount of space. My shop is set up like a restaurant kitchen- a long narrow galley starting with the dirty side and making it's way along to the clean end where everything is finished.
That's a good idea. I need better organization in my shop and I'm not super fond of the production bit either. I tried making ten Bird and Trout knives that way and ten months later I have four (the rest not up to par and scrapped) and they aren't finished partly because it started to seem so tedious.
I believe one or two at a time suits me better. Three max.
 
I also came from a production background. To be brutally honest, after several years of trying to chase process efficiency I discovered that working in batches turned every step of the process into a tedious, loathsome task and I never got the satisfaction of feeling like I was "making" something. I was just a grunt worker on a production line in my own shop. Make twenty blanks. Drill twenty blanks. Make twenty handles. Grind twenty blanks. ..... All I ever wanted was for each step to be over.

What I did learn was that setting up my shop as a series of work stations made the process just as fast as trying to be a production line. Each process has its own area with the tools needed for that process, just like a restaurant kitchen. No walking around in circles to get anything done and this line of thinking means that I need a shockingly small amount of space. My shop is set up like a restaurant kitchen- a long narrow galley starting with the dirty side and making it's way along to the clean end where everything is finished.
I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm not trying to make lots of knives in a true production sense, I'm trying to make the maximum use of the time available. It's reasonably easy to profile 4-6 blades in an evening and drill the same blades the next day. I run into bottle necks on heat treat day. I've tried more and less, but 4 blades is what I like to do at once. The problem is that's a Saturday job. It knocks out six hours watching an oven. That's because I just got one plug. Can't grind a thing. Which is exactly what I need to do usually. That's why I'm going to focus on the stupid little things like another plug in. Once I get rough grinds done, the batching is over and I take them to completion one at a time.

I'm really just wanting to get my 4-6 knives a month to about 8-10. This is done in evenings and weekends.
 
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