Closet Shop Examples

[Too_Many_Tools]

The portable shop discussion has up a need that many of us will have in the future...the closet shop.

How about those who have done gone the closet shop route showing us how you did it?

TMT

[Limy Sami]

Closet shops? ............ ahem, now isn't that a rather personal question? ........... FWIW a little googling should reveal your particular tastes and requirements.

[oldtiffie]

Flushed with success

A lot of people have come out of the closet lately - and some have been "outed" by others.

There are a lot of "closet this" and "closet that" etc. people about so I guess that its not unreasonable to find or have or install a machinist/HSM shop in a closet.

If as seems to have been inferred that the said closet is a "water closet" then I have good news - John Stevenson posted a pic of an office and a computer in a WC. Perhaps John can be persuaded to re-post that pic - for the closet dwellers and others perhaps?

[Edit]

Anything is possible.

Here are some anvil-workers - Blacksmith's?? - who have come out of the closet - with "Rainbow" decor?.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3x-pwJGsgU

Google GMCLA.ORG for yourselves!!!

[Dawai]

Portable? like a unimat with a wooden box?

Or Portable like a bus with a lathe-welder-shaper in the back. I remember a old man who would live in his bus-machine shop while "shut downs" were going on in plants and do work full time till it was over. He'd sleep right on a cot there in the mess and shavings.

I, being a electrician did not get to get that close to him, nor did I want to, there was no shower available. He did lil things like rekey pulleys and shafts and cut and drill bit pieces. Story was he made enough not to work the rest of the year. Each year at the 4th July shutdown I'd end up working some 24+ hour length shifts myself. I am too damn old and too grumpy now.

I'd like to see a cargo-container shop set up and how that actually works out.

[Evan]

I am getting ready for that eventuality when the time comes, as it will, to move from this large but labour intensive property we now live on. When we move it will be to someplace smaller and I won't be able to keep all my machines, of that there is no doubt.

So, some time ago I purchased a Unimat that I can operate on my lap if need be in my hospital bed. Chips may present a slight problem but I already have those to contend with from time to time.



I also have an old HP flat bed plotter complete that I will be converting to a portable engraver/router for very light milling of easy 2D materials. I may even CNC the Unitmat to make up for my increasingly poor dexterity and may go so far as to build a mini version of my CNC milling machine, perhaps half scale.

[loose nut]

If you read old Model Engineer magazines there are many examples of "shops" set up in a closet or cupboard/sideboard in the household dining room. After hours it would unfold for a while and then be cleaned up and put away and visitors are non the wiser.

There have been a few examples of streamer chest workshops that merchant sailors have, unfold the legs and open the front and top, plug it in and instant shop, small lathe, drill press, grinder etc.

There was even a traveling salesman who had a suitcase "shop" that he took on the road with as he did his sales rounds.

There isn't any reason that someone couldn't have a small "shop" after being relegated to the old foggey home by the kids.

[Dawai]

Evan, I used to have a steamer trunk.. It had 4 pipe floor flanges on the bottom reinforced w/plywood. You'd screw 16" nipples into the flanges, set it on them and you opened the lid and had a "whole" tattoo setup. It fit on the back of harley a few times, in the back of various cars, traveled in the tattoo bus and saw probably 100,000 miles.

Anyways with the lid closed and the nipples off, it looked like a nice clean old steamer trunk.

A long beard keeps the shavings from going down the neck of your shirt.

[Evan]

What shirt?

[MickeyD]

The late Rudy Kouhoupt who wrote so many good articles for HSM had a shop that was smaller than a lot of closets are now. Between his books and rather painful videos (sorry to speak bad of the dead, but the production quality is pretty bad), there is a lot of good advise and tips on working out of a very small shop and still being productive.

[saltmine]

I used to do my lathe work on my dining room table, when I lived in an apartment. I did assembly and layout on the coffee table in the living room.
A lot of stuff got built there. Fortunately, the place I have now has a small workshop in the back yard. I didn't waste any time getting my tools set up in there. But, like any typical shop it quickly filled up with various tools.
Still fairly productive, but crowded with two people working.

[danlb]

It's not quite in the 'closet' category, but I initially had an HF micro mill and HF 7x10 mini lathe. They were both light enough to move off the bench top when I needed the space. I've read of people using the kitchen sink as a work space by putting their lathe on a base that fit into the contours of the sink.

What I can not imagine is where you would store all the spare stock that you accumulate when you have a shop. I'm talking about the hundreds of pounds of meta bars and rod that you have 'just in case you needed it'.

Dan

[dp]

I am getting ready for that eventuality when the time comes, as it will, to move from this large but labour intensive property we now live on. When we move it will be to someplace smaller and I won't be able to keep all my machines, of that there is no doubt.

So, some time ago I purchased a Unimat that I can operate on my lap if need be in my hospital bed. Chips may present a slight problem but I already have those to contend with from time to time.

For that I think you're going to have to add a drool pan

[Too_Many_Tools]

If you read old Model Engineer magazines there are many examples of "shops" set up in a closet or cupboard/sideboard in the household dining room. After hours it would unfold for a while and then be cleaned up and put away and visitors are non the wiser.

There have been a few examples of streamer chest workshops that merchant sailors have, unfold the legs and open the front and top, plug it in and instant shop, small lathe, drill press, grinder etc.

There was even a traveling salesman who had a suitcase "shop" that he took on the road with as he did his sales rounds.

There isn't any reason that someone couldn't have a small "shop" after being relegated to the old foggey home by the kids.

Any examples to post?

I suspect that most of us don't have access to old Model Engineer mags.

TMT

[loose nut]

I guess I could dig through the couple of thousand mags that I have but by the time I found them , unless I got lucky, the thread would be dead.

Just think small equipment mounted on a small footprint. When I first started out I had a unimat mounted on a shelf in the back of a closet.

[SHADOW]

Clisby Lathe, 2" chuck, 6" rule stuck to bed.


Lathe in original Box, foam packed around acessories when closed.


One of the things to consider when doing machining other than in a home shop is swarf. It tends to go everywhere. You don't want to upset the housekeeper. A helpful containment strategy is to machine inside a clear plastic cleaners bag. This small lathe by virtue of the DOC generates MILES of very fine continuous strands, a situation that can be assisted by doing preliminary cutting at home.
Another thing that appears is the number of small items needed to accompany it. Drills bits (fractional & number), taps & dies, files, saw, oil, specialty tools (slotting saws, dovetail cutter, boring tools), etc carried in another toolbox.
I chose a Proxxon rotary tool as it uses the same 12v power supply as the lathe. It has speeds to 18k collets or adjustable chuck, and with a steel collar it goes in a holder at spindle height bolted to the cross slide. It is very light weight.
The lathe offers a number of shop made tooling opportunities of it’s own as a limited number of accessories are available for it. It doesn't turn axles for quarry trucks but capable of real work in small scale to ward off those machining withdrawls on long trips on the road. I'm still in the process of settling on a baseboard other than a thin plywood base.