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Welcome to Westwood Metalworks, What is he building in there?

Been chipping away at modeling tools and machines this week and finally have everything done. I didn't go crazy with detail. Just concerned with important features for fitment. Grabcad was a good source for some stuff, even the shaper beleive it or not. I actually downloaded 3 and frankenmodeled them together to suit the overall shape and size of my Prema. COuld not find a Myford s7 (or ml7) but found an atlas 10 and adjusted it to fit the envelope of the myford.

Anyway, here's the shop as it currently sits more or less.
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And heres the NEW layout so far.
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Still a few things I don't like, and will play with some things a bit more. I'm losing my drill press stand and one drill press with the new one. Not sure I like that yet. Mostly because I have nowhere to put it right now.

The best thing about this new layout is getting the grinders together in one location, and beside the back door so I can wheel the belt grinder outside for messy stuff.
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That is the whole reason for this reshuffle, as since building it I haven't really had a good spot to put it. I plan to put up a shower curtain or something similar around them to contain the dust and grit as much as possible.

I'm really going to miss my little bandsaw/drillpress island station though.
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Probably the favourite part of my current shop just because of the way it functions. There's no equivalent good spot to put my saw once I move the mill out to the middle though. Will be much easier to sweep up after it now though which I like.

What stated out as a quick fun idea has morphed into something I didn't intend, but still had fun doing. Do I need my entire shop 3d modeled to move stuff around? Absolutely not, I've been doing it the hard way for years. But it really didn't take that long to do, and now it's done.
 
Thanks. Completely over the top and unnecessary lol, but now that it's done it's pretty fun and super easy to drag stuff around without a pinch bar and rollers. I've moved things around in here quite a lot over the years, seemingly every time I added a machine, so this will be handy moving forward. I think my Excello has held down every square inch of floor in there at one point lol. Ever since I bought the surface grinder I needed a reshuffle, and building the belt grinder also drove that home. I initially was only going to move the mill and grinders to swap places, but once I started dragging stuff around in cad I liked it more and more. All the chip making equipment together, all the dust making equipment together.

Just before bed last night I had another idea of where to put the saw, and dragged this arrangement around quick.

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I really like that spot for it better, as it still allows long passthrough of full sticks from the front door to back, similar to where I had it before. Plus it's along the wall and I can put shelves over it. It sits next to the welder under my beer fridge cantilever from the steps. Which might be going too, as the beer fridge shit the bed over the holidays. The only thing I'm missing and couldn't fit is my filing cabinet that was previously in that spot. It just has abrasives, and PPE in it, so I can find a new home for some of it I want to keep in the shop, and take the rest downstairs.

As much as I want to right now I won't be moving anything until nicer weather and I can pull stuff out and blow it all down. I also want to paint a bunch of stuff, and the shop walls as well. I'll plop the belt grinder on my little beach side box for now to get it off the welding table and carry on with some other projects on the list.

There's a bunch of stuff I haven't drawn yet either, Like my mechanics tools and boxes near the steps, but I'll chip away at that if I get bored....I have an idea to build a kind of built in toolbox on the step landing that will allow me to get rid of those boxes completely, and also serves as a railing. Wanted to do that for a while, Had a rough model drawn up but it was also lost in the crash and I haven't got around to getting started again.

The only downside to all this? When I click save in cad, it doesn't update the actual shop lol. 🙁
 
Mike R said:
Yup, super handy. And now for a public service announcement - back up your data now!
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🙁 I have a much better system now.....2x SSD in the laptop now, and I periodically synch both. I've also been keeping an eye on the home server thread. Would like to put something together this year sometime.
 
I seem to recall from pics of your shop that you have tall ceilings? Have you considered pallet racking? Welders, brake/shear, compressor, storage etc up high. Machines that really need to be on the ground get put under the racking.

I’m gradually doing this in my shop- I should have planned better years ago, but trying to improve now…
 
Yes, but only 9'1" tall when I measured the other day. I always thought it was taller (that's what she said), at least 10' TBH, but tapes don't lie.... The width is 15'1" and length is 20' 7".

I do have some old built in cabinets above the back corner, but they are somewhat poorly utilized right now, and it wouldn't hurt my feelings to strip them all out and come up with an alternative solution. I have thought about pallet racks a time or two, or some other sort of mezzanine, but it was nothing more than beer ponderings while gazing out in the shop. I might revisit it now that I have this model and see where it leads me....

The last Idea I had a few years ago was a sort of mezz with steps up from the landing where the beer fridge was covering the area over to the back door. Now that the beer fridge is dead, and I don't really care if it gets replaced, I might play around with this idea more and see what comes of it.

The one thing I want to maintain is the space for a bigger lathe, and to keep in mind that at some point I will be moving my welding table, welders, stock rack, and grinders out of here, either to a NEW shed (replacing current blacksmith shed), or a covered back patio out the back door. I'd be happy with either, but so far the covered patios is winning as it'll be easier to access in the winter, and one less separate space to heat. But I'm still not 100% on what I want besides the path of least resistance lol. I ultimately just want total isolation for the welding/grinding/fab and spark making areas from the chip making areas. I won't be able to get a bigger lathe until that happens though. I already downloaded a Hardinge HLVH model in preparation....😀
 
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That's just a quick n dirty 42" wide mezz from the step to the door....but I kinda like it. There is already a built in cabinet running along that space , and along the back wall already, but I like the idea of ripping it all out, and going with one open mezz. I have no doubt the stuff stored in the cupboards would all fit on that one shelf, and the wide open back wall gives more room for small shelving. It's mostly woodworking tools in there anyway, which need to head out to the barn as I cleanup and finish that space more.

Thanks for the prod in that direction! I'll toy around with it a bit more, but I think it's a hole worth fishing in. I really like the looks of sitting at that workbench already, with the mezz providing more localized overhead lighting and a nice view out the back door.
 
And with some tier'd storage, I might be able to retain my filing cabinet, having it elevated and open to the stair landing now. I like that...

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That vertical wall, with 4" post spacing depth is also the perfect spot for "can" storage beside the filing cabinet.
 
I just stuck the grinder on the beach side cabinet for now. Just need to mount the vfd to the wall again and it's useable.
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This is a shot of the overhead cabinets.
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A quick check with a tape and some visualization says the mezzanine idea is a good one.....more work, but ultimately more betterererer. 🙂. There are things in those cabinets that haven't seen the light of day in a decade.

One thing the cad model doesn't account for is the "stuff". There's a lot of it. Here, there, everywhere. All needs to find new homes. Stuff and grinding dust. Its everywhere from the welding table build....
 
If you could use one tool box for tools and the lathe it might free up some space. I know this isn't the cheapest solution but it worked well for the SM9. I also changed out the stock thin wood top for a thicker wood counter top.

If you mount the VFD for the grinder to the wall that will limit the mobility so no grinding outside.
 

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YotaBota said:
If you could use one tool box for tools and the lathe it might free up some space. I know this isn't the cheapest solution but it worked well for the SM9. I also changed out the stock thin wood top for a thicker wood counter top.

If you mount the VFD for the grinder to the wall that will limit the mobility so no grinding outside.
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The lathe has a cabinet or drawers under it now. Making a new one has long been on the wish list. Something about 10" taller....

Mounting the vfd is just temporary for now where it is. I still have some legs to make and bracketry to mount the vfd on the grinder itself to do to make it a self contained unit.
 
Lucky7 said:
Are the curtains there to contain chips?
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No copyrights here, copy away.
Sched 40 3/4" PVC water pipe and fittings for the frame and Dollar store shower curtains attempt to keep little metal pieces under control. The curtains are cheap plastic so rip easy and hot stuff does stick. I've since added a backsplash to the new to me lathe so it's less of a problem now.

jorogi said:
No, there's no swarf in that shop, spotless.
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You caught me at my yearly(ish) cleaning day.
 
YotaBota said:
No copyrights here, copy away.
Sched 40 3/4" PVC water pipe and fittings for the frame and Dollar store shower curtains attempt to keep little metal pieces under control. The curtains are cheap plastic so rip easy and hot stuff does stick. I've since added a backsplash to the new to me lathe so it's less of a problem now.


You caught me at my yearly(ish) cleaning day.
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Of course there are no build threads to support your swarf claim 😛
 
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