In article ,
jtaylor wrote:
At this point I am moving 4 little pieces of paper around on top of another
sheet of paper with squares drawn on it.
The floor is about 12'x22'. Footprints for the four things a
Car 13'x6'
Lathe 3 1/2' x 5 1/2'
Mill 3' x 4'
Drill 2'x2'
What sort of space should there be between the various tools so I can do
work without having to remember exactly where I am all the time?
Remember to allow for the full travel of the mill table, plus
access to the cranks at each end.
Lots of extra open space to the left and right of the drill
press, to allow drilling in long stock.
The car can be moved out at need -- and will probably eventually
stay outdoors (as ours does), to make more room for machine tools. :-)
Perhaps build a stand-alone carport to shelter it. Besides -- you don't
want to bring a soaking wet car in out of the rain to generate humidity
to condense on the machine tools' ways.
Are there any real advantages to having access to all sides of the lathe -
this asked because right now the bench is by itself in the middle of a floor
and it's kind of nice to be able to walk around it.
Almost all sides.
1) The operator side -- obviously.
2) The headstock end, for changing to the Metric change gear set
at need.
Also -- lots of extra room at this end for feeding long bar
stock through the spindle, and providing an anti-whip support
for the bar stock to keep things from getting really dangerous.
I have to duck under the anti-whip tube when I need to leave
the shop while doing through-the-spindle work.
3) The back side -- to install and remove the taper turning
attachment at need, and for installing the senders for a DRO.
4) As for the tailstock end, I have a heavy-duty purpose-built
table there to hold the bed turret when I'm using a tailstock
instead. It is just high enough so I can slide the bed turret
(loaded with tools) onto the end of the bed, without having to
strip it and lift it in stages. The tailstock is easy to lift,
by comparison.
Enjoy,
DoN.
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