/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.181845]

So a bro and I are thinking about getting a workshop put together. For general hobby work and getting better at machining or welding. He is already fairly good a welding, and we both have some prior experience with basic metal/wood work.

One of our family members has an unused garage and would be willing to allow us to work in it. So, we are wondering what basic bread and butter tools and machines we will need. Most of the basic hand tools (hammer, saw, etc.) we already have between the two of us. What we don't have is larger machines for more precise and faster jobs.

Our ideas for first sets of equipment are a drill press, MIG welder, table saw, vertical mill, and plasma cutter.

Of course, those last two would be far too expensive to get without good reason or funding, but we are pretty sure that the first three would be able to finish most basic jobs that we would take on. Does /diy/ have any advice for us developing handymen?

Tl;dr = What are basic necessities for a workshop?

[Anonymous No.181851]

I don't know how fast or slow this board is, so I'll bump.

[Anonymous No.181852]

If you're doing any kind of drilling, invest in a good drill press. It's way easier to clamp something down in the drill press and make a hole where you want it to be than it is to use a hand drill and risk messing up your part.

[Anonymous No.181857]

>>181852
Good. A vote for the drill press.

[Anonymous No.181858]

>>181845
>vertical mill, and plasma cutter.
>
>Of course, those last two would be far too expensive to get without good reason or funding, but we are pretty sure that the first three would be able to finish most basic jobs that we would take on.
>Does /diy/ have any advice for us developing handymen?

Actually, look into making those yourselves. For instance, you can make a plasma cutter for about $300-$500 in parts and make it really nice. You can also DIY your own welders from microwave transformers (MOT welder) and stereo transformers (any big transformer really) for both arc and spot welding (proper cooling = higher duty cycles).

>What are basic necessities for a workshop?

Start with safety, lighting, and comfort (sitting and temperatures). Have proper ventilation and range hoods and cabinets to remove fumes from things you are working on so you don't even need to use a mask (like welding small stuff in a ventilated cabinet). Make yourself a positive pressure welding helmet so you always have fresh air (rig up a standard helmet for this) even in the heaviest of smoke.

Even for comfort, it is a safety issue. For times when you don't need a full welding helmet (when using the ventilated cabinet) you can wear the small goggles which will help keep you cool. For stools, choose ones that are adjustable height and have good padding you like.

For your drill press, get various jigs, clamps, and magnets to hold your work properly.

For your work stations, think about the creation process. Try to arrange your work stations so that you can go from one to the next in a clockwise or counter-clockwise fashion. This prevent heavy cross traffic and extra walking around. If there's more than one person working it makes it easy to get around each other.

[Anonymous No.181861]

>>181845
For serious woodworking, besides a tablesaw I'd throw in a router, jointer, and a planer in that order of importance.

[Anonymous No.181862]

>>181858
continued

For lighting, you can't have too much lighting. Big shop lighting over head, small wall mounted lighting, and moveable bench mounted lighting. Adjustable magnifying glass arms with a ring light are really great.

Also, I need to mention that only use the small welding goggles when there isn't a problem with flash burning. You don't want your face all sun burnt obviously. Then again, you may do completely different things than what I do. lol

[Anonymous No.181865]

>>181862
Just to add on to the safety portion of this, buy some good safety glasses from a local welding supply store. Your eyes are the most important tool that you will ever have. A $1.50 pair of safety glasses saved a broken grinder wheel from permanently blinding me.

[Anonymous No.181869]

>>181858
Good advice. I was actually planning on trying out the two welders that I already posted and I will look into other ways to weld. A new MIG welder only looked like it would cost about $150 ("only" being used lightly), which isn't that big of a deal.
What would I need to build my own plasma cutter?

>>181861
I don't know how much wood work we would be planning on doing, and most of what we would work on would not need to look pretty. A planer, to me, seems like the most important of those. Maybe even a band saw for when I'm feeling like losing a finger to creativity.

>>181862
I have been meaning to start working on my tan...

>>181865
We both have safety glasses from our high school Industrial Technology days and he has a welding mask.

[Anonymous No.181870]

>>181865
Oh yes, I totally agree. I use a face full shield. I also use ear protection both in the form of those small squishy foam things that go in your ears and the big ear mufflers over them. Both are needed in some applications.

On some safety notes. I don't stand in front of anything spinning (saw table blade, grinding wheels, etc) I stand to one side. This is to avoid any objects that may come loose from a work piece and being flung into me. Some would be brutal.

OP, also, when you are cutting things like mitered angles and ripping 2x4s or sheet metal, make sure to stop and recheck the calibrations on the machines you are using. They often become loose and go off on your while you are working. Even a 1/64 of an inch can be disastrous in some cases.

[Anonymous No.181871]

>>181869
Just to point out, I'm not trying to be a dick about the wood working things. I just don't remember using a jointer or router for anything but making my wood shelves look better back in high school. I could be mistaken on how useful they are.

[Anonymous No.181872]

>>181870
Thanks, man. Here's some troll info for your caring.

[Anonymous No.181874]

>>181869
>A new MIG welder only looked like it would cost about $150 ("only" being used lightly), which isn't that big of a deal.

Yes, that would be a lite duty cycle welder. You can increase its welding duty cycle time by adding ways to cool it down faster. You can use mineral oil to do this. Submerd the transformer into the oil like you were cooling a CPU on a PC. High grade is transformer oil and low grade is baby oil, both are mineral oil.

>What would I need to build my own plasma cutter?

Google. although, this will help a great deal,

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Your-own-Plasma-Cutter/

It looks complicated, but it's not if you learn things and each part slowly it will all come together.

>>181872
>pic

Eh, wrong board.

[Anonymous No.181888]

>>181874
>Eh, wrong board.

Yeah, sorry. Most of my pictures are from /k/. Does making your own alcohol count as /diy/?

[Anonymous No.181890]

>>181871
Well, I don't know what kind work you plan on doing and that will dictate what tools you need. But from your post ie.
>not look pretty
I have no idea what you even think you would use a planer for if function is your primary concern. A good router is the most versatile woodworking tool with bits available for most things can you think of (though they do get pricey), but just starting out I would say a simple flush cutting bit and maybe a bullnose would open a whole new world of possibilities. As little of the lumber available today is anything close to straight a jointer is of great importance, as though you might be able to freehand a straight edge on the tablesaw (and from your posts, I find it highly unlikely), you won't be able to do the same to a boards face.

[Anonymous No.181899]

>>181890
>with bits available for most things can you think of
This would be the source of my confusion. When we used a router back in high school (sorry, my only experience with such things) we only had one bit in the entire time. All it did was but a slightly rounded edge on the wood that we later used to make a shelf.

As for the jointer thing, I am pretty sure that our teacher called the jointer a planer. So I think we are talking about the same thing with that one.

[Anonymous No.181910]

>>181872
>Begin trigger pull with pistol pointed at chest(near heart)
...

[Tepache !aO5Mv7EC6. No.181914]

>>181888
Well enough and considering that is my pic collage, you're good in my book (/ck/ may argue otherwise. lol)

[Anonymous No.181918]

>>181910
Yes. That is why I posted it saying that it was a troll.

[dragondeka No.181946]

>>181899

no bro. im not the same fag, but a jointer and planer are entirely different. the jointer smooths and straightens the sides of a plank, the planer makes that mother fucker laser straight and level for the really wide side. for lack of a better term.

i suppose you could use a jointer for planing, but i dont see how you could use a planer for jointing

[Anonymous No.181990]

It looks like a lot of people covered it well, but I thought I'd add:
*good workbench and tool drawers or other organization methods - just as important, because if you can't find it or your table is covered with a bunch of crap, you will not get anything done.
*bench vise (which IMHO is part of a good workbench).
*clamps - if you are doing any drilling, woodworking, or welding (which usually includes grinding), you can't have enough of them.

I know you mentioned having smaller tools, but a few different sizes of vice grips and my angle grinder probably see the most use.

For large tools, I give another vote to the drill press. If you are working with metal, once you get one you won't know how you got on without it. I have a cheap chinese 13" floor one. The chuck is crap and has a lot of run-out, and it arrived with the idler pulley shaft visibly angled, but it has served me well. For the amount of drilling it has done, even through thick plate, it has actually held up better than I thought it would.

Personally, I'd get a metal cutting bandsaw over a milling machine. I will say, if you need precision work done, then there isn't a replacement for a mill. It's just that sometimes you can only go so far with cut-off wheels or miter saws.

Be careful about getting a cheap MIG welder unless you are prepared to fix it by the end of the month. Some people do that, mind you - get one they know is crap for cheap, then fix it up. It's just that it might be far better to save your money for one you can rely on.

[Anonymous No.182014]

OP, to be honest, if you're going to get a machine tool I'd pick a lathe over a mill any day. Most of the stuff you'd make on a mill you can botch using hand tools; if you tried the same with a lathe you'd just be wasting your time. Most things that need to be super-accurate are round parts, anyways.