Taking a break from modeling

[Bernd]

My modeling activity has been put on the back burner for the season and outside projects, plus a large basement project is underway. With the grass growing faster than I can mow it, I guess adding fertilizer doesn't help, getting the boat ready to take to camp and cleaning up an outside area for a building to house the 2 boats, one car and the tractor for the winter takes a big chunk out of modeling time. Best I can do is check into the forums and see what's going on.

As for the basement project I've finally come to the conclusion that it's time to get rid of all the things that followed me home over the last 20 years and it was time to get serious about building a layout. So the first thing to go was the Buffalo Forge Drill press. I'd powered it with a treadmill motor. Great variable speed capability. It went to the wife's nephew who build pulling trucks.



GONE. Time to move the lathe and drill press.



The lumber has arrived to build up the wall which will be insulated. Code says you need to insulate 30" below the frost line. I decided on the full 8 foot. Also new LED lights are temporarily hung. I do think they will stay where they are and the wiring will get neatened up. Right now they are daisy chained. They plug into each other to form a chain.



And this is what happens to the rest of the basement "storage" area.






The first section of wall is up.



So the object of this project is to finally get the basement organized for a layout. This first part will be setting up the machine shop area which will contain the lathe, Bridgeport, small surface grinder and perhaps the Grizzly mini-mill. Then on the right will be the wood working shop. Looking at the 5th picture you can see the beam running horizontally with a post in the center. Those will be the division points for the two rooms. The whole length of the beam from left to right will be walled in with doors large enough to move equipment in and out.

An another project is to convert my Sherline mill to use ball screws. They don't wear out like the lead screws that came with the original machine. Only difference is they are metric. I'll see how that all works out when I get to that. That won't happen till fall or winter. This was delivered yesterday.



So if you don't see me around it'll because I'm either at the summer cottage or busy with the above mentioned projects. Also on another note and why I have some many 1:1 projects is that the wife finally retired in March and I can't get away with doing "jigs & fixtures" because she's home all day.

Bernd

[restocarp]

Looks like some fun toys there, Bernd. Enjoy the process!

Matt