# Shop Pictures



## vulture (Jan 13, 2004)

My new (1966) mill is up and running with some tooling I made on it, with it, for it. I think shop pics are cool, and it is amazing to me that I used to braze file-mitered frames in an apartment bathroom because I had no shop and the bathroom had a vent fan. Personally I really dig everything about building bikes, the end product must reap the benefits of everything you can focus on farther upstream. I think about design, joining methods, cutting tubes, alignment, tool building, and really enjoy all of the aspects respectively. Lets see some pics, from simple to uber complex. The weird elevator symbol is to protect the innnocent.


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## Schmitty (Sep 7, 2008)

Nice. I love shop pics too. Been looking for a vert mill for years.. ugh.

Is that CAT 40 tooling? That's what I would like.. already have some for the horiz.

-Schmitty-


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## shandcycles (Jan 15, 2008)

Wade, that is one very big milling machine!


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## dr.welby (Jan 6, 2004)

Moar homebrew tooling pix plz.


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## Smokebikes (Feb 2, 2008)

The industrial look in grey makes me get excited in a strange way.............:arf: 
Here is my refuge from the world.......:thumbsup:


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## Jamenstall (May 18, 2004)

Don't really have any DIY tooling pictures to show. I did pick up a vertical head for my mill this week that I'm excited about. I don't think it will part the sea for me, but I'm sure it will come in handy in the future. Plus I don't have the room for a full size vertical mill in my garage.

The one thing that's been on the burner to to make a base for my bender. I wanted something that I could bolt on and off of my welding table. I ran into some issues and it's not complete. I expect to get back to it this weekend.


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## Schmitty (Sep 7, 2008)

Ah the Nichols vert head! Have one myself that I have yet to use. Do you have a newer mill with the high speed bearings and/or a vfd?


-Schmitty-


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## Jamenstall (May 18, 2004)

_Ah the Nichols vert head! Have one myself that I have yet to use. Do you have a newer mill with the high speed bearings and/or a vfd?_

To be honest I don't know if it has the high speed bearings or not. How do you tell the difference? I have two of these mills, one's older and doesn't have the ring to support the vertical head. The other one does, it also appears to take a different belt as well. The older of the two is up and running via a rotary phase converter.


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## Schmitty (Sep 7, 2008)

Neither are needed, but with the older mills, you'll end up with 2 speeds that are not that great (the vert head can only be run at a certain % of max.. forget the exact#). So either a vfd, or a newer machine with the high speed bearings, and it's greater belt drive combos would really make the vert head more useful. The old machines have 2 step pulleys, while the newer ones are 4 or 5 step. A vfd negates the # of steps for the most part. The high speed bearings have oilers as opposed to grease zerks, and the data plate should say as much.

-Schmitty-


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## Jamenstall (May 18, 2004)

Schmitty

Thanks for that tip bit of information...I didn't know about the bearings or these machines. Here's a shot of my pullies and the tag. Now I just need to get it powered.


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## Schmitty (Sep 7, 2008)

Yup, you're golden. You could still use a vfd and be better off for it.

Check into the vert head... not to be used at top speed, which is too bad, b/c it would be nice for Al. Maybe it's a warning not to be headed, or only applicable to heavy use industrial enviorns.

If I was you, I'd set up the older machine for mitering, and the newer one for the vert head, and what ever else.

-Schmitty-


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## steelhead (Jul 8, 2004)

I still need to get some nice shots taken by someone that actualy knows how to use a camera. But here some of mine (ain't much butt all paid for):


The workshop in its current set up and current state of mess.


My restored Myford ML7. I love that thing!!


The old set up. Fork jig and tandem attachment for my Bikemachinery jig.

More pictures on my Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/lecadre/)
And Blog (https://lecadreframebuilding.blogspot.com/)


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## fanzy4 (Aug 19, 2004)

A few random pics from the wokshop:  
My mitering setup, on a vintage Garvin horizontal mill:



















And a home-made backstand grinder, perfect for shaping dropouts...


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## Evil4bc (Apr 13, 2004)

Here are a few recent pic's from our shop -


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## blue.RACCOON (Dec 5, 2009)

Rad thread! Here's a picture of half of my parents' garage which I converted from a cluttered storage vault to a hobby fabrication shop about 4 yrs ago. Many of the tools were passed down from my Dad and Grandpa, and I supplied the welder, band saw, press, bender, and many other tools since this picture was taken.

Next are mill shots. I bought it about 5 months ago. Rented the trailer from a local guy, and it's totally bad ass and pivots in the middle, but it was a very scary drive home. Had to go through some concrete highways in Pasadena which go cu-clunk cu-clunk as you pass the seems in the concrete which is something you don't normally notice, but 55-60 mph caused a resonance of the traler/mill combo and the thing was coming off the ground and bucking like a mechanical bull ...terrifying, pulled over about 10 times to check the chains, and they were loose more than once. I really wanted to press control-z on the journey, but I was in too deep so kept going. Got it home with no mis-haps and after 4 full days of dis-assembly, gas soaking, skotch briting and oiling she emerged as a particularly beautiful mill, at least in my opinion.

Next are some material rack shots, made those a couple months ago. Not really bike specific but I think a nice peice of shop furniture. Great to finally stop tripping over peices of tubing.

Then finally some custom jiggage. The first is a homemade fork jig, only top precision in this garage! don't worry I haven't charged money for anything that's come out of it. Next is a single pivot swingarm jig that my friend made for a school project. It lives in the garage now and shown loaded with my day to day trail bike back half.


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## VenMod (Mar 12, 2006)

*After the reorg.*

Just finished reorganizing the indoor shop. Now got to get the garage in shape. Getting the itch to build a new frame for the coming season!


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## coconinocycles (Sep 23, 2006)

this made my life so much easier........


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## apat13 (Jun 19, 2006)

Damn! You guys have some awesome setups.


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## shiggy (Dec 19, 1998)

coconinocycles said:


> this made my life so much easier........


Steve, what is the thinnest wall tubing you have been able to bend, what diameters? How small a radius?

I have a idea that would need several hoops (complete circles) of 1/2" or 5/8" tubing.


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## pvd (Jan 4, 2006)

Here's some of mine: http://pvdwiki.com/index.php?title=The_PVD_Workshop


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## themanmonkey (Nov 1, 2005)

pvd said:


> Here's some of mine: http://pvdwiki.com/index.php?title=The_PVD_Workshop


That Hardinge lathe is the same one I've got on my wishlist. That's a really well stocked shop, of course I wouldn't have expected any less from you.


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## Smokebikes (Feb 2, 2008)

pvd said:


> Here's some of mine: http://pvdwiki.com/index.php?title=The_PVD_Workshop


YES! With a spread like that world domination is possible.............


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## swift (Apr 3, 2007)

Sweet setup.

A couple of those Hardinge lathes have been coming up on craigslist in Portland and Seattle. Having a Logan 825, I've resisted to date but dang have I been tempted.

I really want to know what's in the "forbidden drawer of mystery"! Hook us up with a peek.


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## j-ro (Feb 21, 2009)

pvd said:


> Here's some of mine: http://pvdwiki.com/index.php?title=The_PVD_Workshop


Sweet dude! whats the shop cats name?


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## zipzit (Aug 3, 2005)

pvd said:


> Here's some of mine: http://pvdwiki.com/index.php?title=The_PVD_Workshop


 Wow! that's quite a shop. Can I ask a few questions?

--Are those truck scales? do you use them for weight distribution testing? 
-- What are the two curved graphs on the upper right hand side of the wall (Is that stress / strain curves, or something to do with power output?) 
--I want to know it that is _*official *_blue safety tear tape holding the oxygen / acetylene bottles to the leg of that bench.

thanks,
zip


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## pvd (Jan 4, 2006)

zipzit said:


> Are those truck scales? do you use them for weight distribution testing?


Those are race scales for motorcycles. I use those when fitting bikes to get weight distribution over the wheels proper. It really helps, especially on road bikes.



zipzit said:


> What are the two curved graphs on the upper right hand side of the wall (Is that stress / strain curves, or something to do with power output?)


One is an example of gearbox modeling for setting up superbikes for different tracks/conditions. The other is a cool graph I made to explain to students the relationship of performance to margin of error. It's a neet concept to talk about with people learning about how things work.



zipzit said:


> I want to know it that is _*official *_blue safety tear tape holding the oxygen / acetylene bottles to the leg of that bench.


Yeah, I'm a slacker there. I've got a bunch of bottles in that shop that I really need to make one nice rack for. It's on the list.


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## yoyoma (Mar 13, 2004)

Just thought I'd add some pics of my new frame fixture, I'll post some of my new shop soon too.
The jig is made from 8020 extrusions, and a bunch of laser cut and machined parts. Disclaimer: I plan on selling not only the complete jigs but kits for builders to make their own. If anyone is interested, PM me... ok the sales pitch is over.
Features I like: "HT height" and "HT distance in front of BB" and HT angle can be changed independently without affecting the other. CS length and BB drop same thing. You know exactly what you are changing when you loosen the knobs and slide the pieces. 

From FRAME JIG
more pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/pdaniel2/FRAMEJIG#


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