The Tinkerers workshop

Welcome to the tour of my workshop page.

Workshop layout

The workshop is small but allows me to fit all my gear in it (just). I constantly have to shuffle things around as it is always over full. Here is the Layout of the workshop showing where the larger items are placed.
In the workshop, I have a lathe, mill, bench drill, band saws (horizontal and vertical) and a whole heap of other bits and pieces. The rest of this page covers the larger pieces of gear thatI have in my workshop.

My lathe

Here is the AL340 lathe shown in the trailer when I brought it home. The Al340 model is very similar to the AL330 that is currently sold by Hare and Forbes. When I bought the lathe, some parts of it had been a little knocked around but I figured that all these little things were quite repairable. Here is a list of the lathe repairs (as I do them):
Item Problem Repair
Cross slide handle project A non-original cross slide handle had been fitted (poorly).  A new handle/ wheel was made and fitted.
Tool post handle The tool post handle consisted of a poorly fitting threaded rod. A new one was made click on each image to see the old and the new. Old New
Tail stock  The tail stock would not lock down properly and had a non-original handle on it 

My HM52 Mill

In April 2007, I got this new HM52 milling machine. This machine has both a horizontal and a vertical quill which makes it very versatile. It has a 2HP motor on each axis so plenty of power for the tinkerer.

Prior to this I had a Hare and Forbes RF30 Mill/Drill and I reckon that no shop should be without one. Its was a great bench drill as well as being a good milling machine. I ended up making quite a few projects for it which can be found on my projects page. Many of my projects to date, had been made with or for this machine.(April 2007)
 

The Hermes CNC engraver

A while back, I was very lucky in obtaining a dead CNC engraver. all the mechanics were in very good nick and I refurbished the machine by putting all new controllers and associated equipment into it in order to bring it back to life. It runs from my laptop and does engraving and the cutting out of thin patterns. It is a great machine!
 

The vertical band saw


The band saw is now about 13 years old and I built this saw as a project. It has a tilting table, large throat and I have cut sheet metal with it. It is mainly used for cutting timber and plastic and is a great asset to the workshop.

The Hafco horizontal band saw


(The belt guard is off in this picture.)
When I first got this band saw, it was in a terrible state.The band saw was completely covered in used diesel oil. It was in such a mess that I pulled it all down cleaning every bit many times and then painted the items. This took a lot of effect as for weeks I found black stains appearing on me, my clothing and other things as a result of the black oil. The saw is now complete and is a great asset to the workshop.

I had a cold saw prior to the band saw and if you need really clean square cuts in lightish material Get a cold saw. If you have varied sized material that doesn't have to completely square every time, and you don't want to spend your day hanging onto the saw while it cuts the material, get a horizontal band saw.

The drill


Here is my "2006 Super drill" which I have put together. It came from the rubbish tip and has had new bearings, parts repaired, a paint job and a variable speed drive fitted. It can drill, tap and has full variable speed range to 3000rpm.Now that's super!

open the Variable speed bench drill page 


The linisher I purchased the Linisher from a very good friend (Don) who had picked it up from a garage sale and had since got a larger one. This is a very handy item for cleaning up plastics, metals and timber. Another "must have" in the workshop.