www.smythies.com - Build the Lab web page
Phase one of the basement lab project is the metalwork area. The house was built with a 240 plug for the milling machine. I have been using the milling machine for a few years, but with it mounted on the palette I made to bring here on the floor in the garage (gets uncomfortable). Below are some pictures as the job progresses (with big time gaps for all the other parts of life that leave no time for this).
I had to do my office first in order to free up my big Creo bench. It had been used as a desk for at least 15 years now.
First, get everything out of the room. It'll be the last chance to do a complete strip and wax, so prep for waxing.
Then rent commercial floor polisher and wax...
paint the metal work end of the lab area with oil based gloss paint for easier maintainance and cleanup. Build up old bench from desk height to bench height. Hand make some laminate to build narrow bench back to other bench width. Sand and re-surface each bench. 6 coats of varnish, and wet/dry sanding to number 600 paper (I.E. gross overkill for a metalwork bench).
Finally, bring the milling machine (that Ken lent me), in pieces, to it's spot. (pictures compliments of L.B.'s new Digital camera. Previous pictures were poorly scanned from film prints)
The milling machine operates at 240 Volts. I can not get the downfeed handle off.
Pictures are with our new digitial camera.
The is still several hours worth of cleaning small parts to do.
