Originally Posted by zandoval (Post 23372988)

But come on man... Now your just showing off!

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...03c543648f.jpg

Originally Posted by nlerner (Post 23372971)

South wall, where some bikes hang in various states of completion:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...05cba99ed.jpeg

Originally Posted by ascherer (Post 23373754)

Nice display of broken crank arms, Neal! I respect your mighty downstroke.

Originally Posted by bulgie (Post 23372355)

Small 100+ year old house, and only half the basement is dug out with a sort of crawl space under the rest. And over half of that half is taken up with the stairs and the laundry (and where Laurie hangs her bikes). So my basement shop has 8' x 5' of usable floorspace where I can stand. After subtrating the workbench, storage, lathe and mill.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8e4f0ceaf8.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d5d7427c48.jpg



I have a Park pro stand in the basement (Xmas present from wifey) seen in the pic above, but I have to slide it around to get it out of the way of whatever I'm trying to do. I end up mostly working on bikes in the outdoor shop.

This below in the driveway, with an awning over it, mostly enclosed like a tent so it stays dry-ish, but obviously unheated. Workbench is screwed to the side of the house with big ol' lag screws into studs so very solid, can align tandem frames here. The house will fall over before that vise moves.

The "modern art sculpture" on the wall of the shed is my frame tacking jig, partially disassembled 'cuz the stuff that sticks out is in a high-traffic area, and so it gets assembled in the rare case where I need to tack a frame. It rotates to any angle needed (in one plane only, parallel to the shed wall) because it's attached to a Park stand that's inside the shed. I cut a hole through the wall to let the jig plug into the park socket.


Check out that buffing wheel, motor is 1 horse, 3-phase on a VFD, best buffer I ever had. The thing on the old grinder opposite the wire wheel is a Scotchbrite EXL deburring wheel which I wouldn't want to live without, they're awesome. The belt sander is a Kadrmas, not sure if they're made anymore, pretty decent for the money which was cheap. It was a assemble-it-yourself kit. 2 horse motor, I cannot slow it down no matter how hard I try, it's a metal-munching monster when I need it to be. Also has small-wheel adapter for grinding a radius as small as 1/4", and has a 12" contact wheel for the other end of the spectrum, like putting a hollow-grind on a knife. The other bench grinder has two grades of stone for grinding HSS lathe tools and sharpening drills. More machinist/framebuilder stuff than bike wrenching, but good tools to have if you have room for 'em.

I bought that tool chest with the bike stickers on it already! On Craig's List, terribly cheap, probably because most people didn't want all those stupid stickers. Well a few are mine, like 27.2, Paragon Machine Works, Lugs Not Drugs and a few more. The lateral filing cabinets were free, an office closing during the pandemic, they hold a lot of steel, aluminum and Ti.

Originally Posted by PromptCritical (Post 23374033)

Did I read correctly that the lathe and mill are downstairs in the basement? :foo:

Originally Posted by bulgie (Post 23374064)

Yes that's right. It's the only place I could put them. This house has no garage nor the land to put one on. Laurie wouldn't let me put them in the dining room.
Does that seem odd to you? Lots of hobby machinists have their shops in basements.

Originally Posted by PromptCritical (Post 23374244)

Not odd, but very impressive getting it down the stairs. It doesn't look like a "hobby lathe", bit more mid-size (i.e. >500#). :thumb:

Originally Posted by PromptCritical (Post 23374393)

It used to be organized.......
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4ceef79bfd.jpg

Originally Posted by bulgie (Post 23374432)

Ah I see you have a lathe too. That's a classic beauty, I love old cast iron. Do you know the age? WWII vintage maybe? I had to settle for Taiwanese for mine, much less aesthetically pleasing. But a good American lathe in the size I wanted was either clapped out from production or too expensive (or both).

Originally Posted by PromptCritical (Post 23374441)

It's a Logan Model 200.

Originally Posted by xiaoman1 (Post 23374622)

DA@#.......Those that have lathes and milling equipment are at the next level. IMO, those are real workshops.............Congrats! :thumb:
Best, Ben

Originally Posted by xiaoman1 (Post 23374622)

DA@#.......Those that have lathes and milling equipment are at the next level. IMO, those are real workshops.............Congrats! :thumb:
Best, Ben

Originally Posted by xiaoman1 (Post 23374622)

DA@#.......Those that have lathes and milling equipment are at the next level. IMO, those are real workshops.............Congrats! :thumb:
Best, Ben

Originally Posted by panzerwagon (Post 23374657)

Hey, we all have our vices… some are just lathe to the party.


(sorry, I’ll let myself out)

Originally Posted by bulgie (Post 23374669)

Well, only if you use 'em. Mine haven't made chips in over a month... well, we were away camping for 3 weeks so I guess I'll give myself a pass on that, this time... Last thing I made was a bike rack to carry the bikes over the tongue of the camping trailer, between the car and the trailer. Came out nice, out of the air-stream so they don't get bug-splattered, and they don't reduce our gas mileage. Some small parts used the lathe, some the mill.

Originally Posted by bulgie (Post 23374581)

Nice. I almost bought a Logan, great quality but the spindle bore was only 3/4" or so. I wanted it at least bike fork steerer size, to be able to turn the crown race seat. The one I got has a 1-3/8" bore, so it takes 5C collets natively, without a separate collet chuck.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...512fcdf6b9.jpg

People sometimes ask me "what do you need a lathe for?" A couple recent examples: I was repairing a tandem with a damaged eccentric. I got a new aluminum eccentric insert off ebay but it was too large in outside diameter for the shell. Easy-peasy, 10-minute job max. A while back I needed a cotter for an old steel cottered crank. I could have ordered one and waited days for it to arrive, but it was easy to make on the lathe. You know how the threads are offset relative to the cylindrical part of the cotter? Super easy to dial in with the 4-jaw chuck.

I also set up the lathe to miter tubes for framebuilding, worked awesome. Seriously, better than a lot of milling machines, just a bit slower to setup for mitering, and tear down afterward.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7f6863cdea.jpg

But then I got a milling machine, which stays set up for tube mitering, so I don't need to do it on the lathe anymore. So I gave my lathe tube-mitering setup to a friend who's also an amateur framebuilder. He has a mill too but it's tiny and weak, I think they call them micro-mills? Anyway, not up to it, but his lathe is plenty skookum. Lathes are a lot like horizontal mills, if you squint and use your imagination.

Originally Posted by Pompiere (Post 23374786)

Since we're talking about lathes...
I inherited this old Craftsman from my dad when he passed away last year. It's in my barn for now until my son can move it to his place in Iowa. My online research indicates it might be from around 1937 or 38. I'm not sure what it weighs, but my tractor's front loader is supposed to lift 500 pounds and it was struggling to pick the lathe up off the back of the truck. I know how to turn the motor on and move the cutting tool, but I couldn't begin to do any useful machining with it.:foo: There are about ten different belt combinations for main shaft speed, and the case on the left side is full of gears, like a transmission, for cutting threads.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a63c292908.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3eb85f12a8.jpg

Originally Posted by Pompiere (Post 23374786)

I inherited this old Craftsman [snip] the case on the left side is full of gears, like a transmission, for cutting threads.

Originally Posted by bulgie (Post 23374993)

That transmission is also for turning, like say making a seatpost smaller. You can turn the handwheel to move the carriage by hand for turning, but you won't get a nice-looking surface finish that way. Use the power-feed when you can.

The gears under that cover are usually called change gears, because you remove them and replace then with other gears to change the feed rate. Hopefully along with that lathe there is a box of change gears of various sizes. If you don't have 'em, and if you want to get into machining, you'll want to acquire at least some if not a full set. Nowadays they can be 3D printed.

Since changing the change gears is slow, most people try to pick one feed rate and use it for most things, to avoid having to swap gears. Very limiting, but tolerable if your standards aren't too high.
That's why most newer/better lathes have a quick-change gearbox (QCGB), that lets you choose feedrates (and pitch for threading) without having to replace parts. Generally speaking on those with a QCGB you still need to swap change gears to cut metric threads on an inch machine, or to cut inch threads on a metric machine.

If I had but one bit of advice (well, after safety glasses) it would be to not use that lathe until its been cleaned and oiled. Pay special attention to the spindle bearings in the headstock, and the sliding ways that the carriage goes left-right on, those need to be clean and oily at all times. Obviously chips land on the ways in use, and they don't have to be cleaned off continuously, but I recommend wiping with an oily rag after each use. It doesn't matter so much what oil to use, better to use the wrong lube than to run it dry.