shop tour - pic HEAVY

Wow, you are a lucky man. Actually its sounds like a lot of hard work paid off but, either way, I'm still super envious. That is my dream as well. Hopefully one day I'll have a shop half as awesome as yours!
 
Nice shop with some super tools. Thanks for sharing.:thumbup:
 
I cant imagine how you keep it clean. Umm where do you put your coffee? I expect you have a space allocated for it and a specific restored cup to drink out of. Very impressive. I used to do tissue culture and my clean room & lab were messier then your shop! Thanks for the tour.
 
Maybe this seems like the smallest thing, but I really like what you did to the swing arm lamp on the far right, by adding that extra swivel extension.

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3 mills
Bridgeport vertical
Cincinnati horizontal
drill mill
If i didn't totally understand why you would have and keep all 3
(and want the same thing myself), I would criticize that.

Why 3 welders?
started cheap, kept on getting a better one, and just kept them all?



What are these?
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Is the fridge full of welding rods?
 
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Looks great, Nick! NIce pictures and an extremely organized shop. Somehow I'm not suprised ;).

The two highlights of the tour for me: that AMAZING anvil and the surface grinder. I had some funds to pick up a surface grinder put aside...then I bought a new pistol :rolleyes: At this point I do more shooting than I do knifemaking. It seems that as long as I have a knife I'm SUPPOSE to finish, I avoid the shop. I just need to get these two I have left done and then get out and pound some steel for the fun of it.

One of these days I'm going to have to drag my butt up there and annoy you for a weekend.

--nathan
 
Great shop tour, Nick. I have a dial up connection and still I sat there and waited for all the pics to load. Totally worth it. I hope you get the building of your dreams to put this shop of dreams in, and the time to spend making a lot of knives in it. Soon. I can't even imagine what those machines and tools will be kicking out one day. Thanks.
 
dude that nimba just gives me a raging boner every time I see it. Is that weird?

Awesome shop Nick. I wanna come out there, maybe lay a blanket down on the floor next to Shadow's and just camp out for a few days. I promise I won't even chase the neighbor's, um, kittens
 
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Holy crap, that Nimba is "BY FAR" the best item in your shop! Someday I'm gonna take a trip up to Washington and buy one of those from the factory. Nice looking shop.
 
Nick, I sure would like to show your shop pictures to my wife,. It might encourage her to say yes if I wanted a bit more equipment . I think on the other hand if she saw how neat and tidy it is she might shut me down ! Great looking place Nick. Lots of contiued success !!! Frank
 
Thanks guys :)

The shop is very small. It's about 24X24, but it has three freezers, an oversized fridge, a household storage rack, and the household hot water heater... so I'm really only working with about 490 square feet.

On one hand, I'm proud I figured out how to make it all fit. On the other hand... it's "cozy." Cozy is good if you're talking about a mountain cabin, or movie night on the couch with your significant other. BUT, when you're throwing chips and dust and grit everywhere... it sucks.

But I'll take it like that with all the tools rather than when it was roomy with three tools!!! ;) :)

Nathan, I'm definitely looking to do separate work areas. I'd like to have a completely separate grinding room as well.

I looked at a house the other day that had a 36X70 shop... that would be about right!!! :D

As far as multiples... :) I actually got the old Miller first and do 99% of my welding with it. I traded a simple hunter for the little wire-feed (I've only used it a couple times, but it was out in a field with an extension cord -110- and it was a life saver!!!) I picked up the buzz box after I got my cert for stick welding 1" plate in vertical and overhead postions because I thought it would be a nice and cheap addition.

Mills--- I got started with the mill/drill and it's still the only one of the three I've used. I wanted a horizontal mill after I spent time working on one at the school. I came across this one with a bunch of tooling and the vertical attachment (which alone is worth more than I paid for the machine). I came across the vertical mill and the lathe almost by fluke via craigslist. The ad said, "machine shop for sale" The ONLY reason I called, was it was only 25 minutes from home.

Turns out the stuff belonged to the seller's grandpa who was a crazy amazing fabricator/machinist. These two machines were the small stuff.
There was a huge Cincinatti shaper, a huge Lodge&Shipley lathe.... LOTS of stuff. If you look close, you can see Alder blocks attached to the machines. He made those... they were black. I sanded them down, put finish on them, and mounted them back to the machines. He had them filled with boring bars, special jigs, odd tooling he made that I have no idea what it's for... but I'm keeping it in case I figure it out someday!

I do NOT need the machining equipment for my knives. I've never used it for one yet. I went back to school for machining and welding and I wanted to have the tools to build STUFF. However, they will get used for knives in the future.

Quite honestly, I had NO intention of putting it all in this shop. I bought it because it was available, was stuff I'd wanted for a long time, and I had the cash. It's stuff I won't be trying to buy or pay for when I am paying for a new house/bigger shop.

I was going to sell the mill/drill, but it's paid for just like everything else out there... so what the heck ;) :)


Those lazy W looking things are tong rings, to hold tongs closed tight.

I'd be happy to take pics inside the drawers... LOL :D It would definitely cancel out the comment about no blades in sight! ;) :o


There are a lot of little goofy things in the shop that I had to come up with just because of space or my need for organization. I'll probably take some pics of that kind of stuff too.
 
According to the camera data of your pictures, Nick, the general
lighting in your shop is great. Add to it specific lamps that go with
various working spots and the relatively large open space - it looks
like it is a good place to spend the day...

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)
 
HOLY S&$%! Awsome shop Nick. Where did u get those cool hoods for the buffer? And im surprised you haven't built something for those 400 grit jflex belts. That DRives mes NUTS!

Shawn
 
I love it Nick. Just seeing it stresses to me how much I need to learn. I wish you were closer.

Edited to add that I have to keep my shop clean too. Walking around looking for tools I just sat down is miserable. I like to reach for something, and it be there.
 
Wulf said:
dude that nimba just gives me a raging boner every time I see it. Is that weird?
Click to expand...

Mwahahahahahahahahaha! Great sick minds must think alike, cuz I was JUST getting ready to type that! :D

Oh, and Nick? It wouldn't matter if you got that 36x70 shop, you'd STILL fill it up with machines and stuff. ;) :)

You suck, BTW. I'm so jealous. :)
 
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