Took the first step towards building my shop

[mwmkravchenko]

At one time there was an estimate of over 3 million feral hogs including the young pigs in Texas. sponsored yearly hog hunts are becoming a Texas nationally recognized event it gives the city fellers something to shoot at besides the rancher's cattle & horses during deer season. 2 of my nearby neighbors trap them there is a buyer who will purchase any of them weighing over 100 lbs so they give the young piglets away. I have 2 that I got when they were about 15 to 20 lbs just barely weaning size they are about 35 and 50 lbs now the vet said neither are hybrid mix so when they are of size they will become fill for my freezer, if you have priced Biden's bacon and other pork products you can understand why

Sounds familiar. Were I grew up in Manitoba some guy lost control of African wart hogs. Manitoba winters are plain nasty and it was thought that they would die off. Hah! Adaptable little buggers. No limit on them now.

I used to raise two pigs a year, chickens and ducks. It cost more then to raise them then buy them. But I knew what they ate. And they tasted much better. The little barn will be a machine shop soon enough.

[Frank S]

Sounds familiar. Were I grew up in Manitoba some guy lost control of African wart hogs. Manitoba winters are plain nasty and it was thought that they would die off. Hah! Adaptable little buggers. No limit on them now.

I used to raise two pigs a year, chickens and ducks. It cost more then to raise them then buy them. But I knew what they ate. And they tasted much better. The little barn will be a machine shop soon enough.

And the meat will not be injected with more water content than the weight of the meat. When did that all start anyway? Before I left for the Middle East I could find fully cured Hams wrapped in cloth and hung above the butcher counter not refrigerated, if you wanted you could even slice off part of it and eat it without cooking it first. Now even if it says fully cured it will also say up to 60% water added by weight,even after you cook one for several hours, once the meal is over you have to put it in the fridge.

[mwmkravchenko]

And the meat will not be injected with more water content than the weight of the meat. When did that all start anyway? Before I left for the Middle East I could find fully cured Hams wrapped in cloth and hung above the butcher counter not refrigerated, if you wanted you could even slice off part of it and eat it without cooking it first. Now even if it says fully cured it will also say up to 60% water added by weight,even after you cook one for several hours, once the meal is over you have to put it in the fridge.

Yeah I cured and smoked a ham once. It was gone the same day. Never had anything like it since.

In the middle east ham would be a little hard to come by I am guessing.

[Frank S]

Yeah I cured and smoked a ham once. It was gone the same day. Never had anything like it since.

In the middle east ham would be a little hard to come by I am guessing.

Or so, you would think, but there was a saying a long time ago when I was in the military. RHIP. Being an engineer and a Texan on top of that there were many things available to me that other American Expats could not obtain. America may have saved Kuwait from Iraq but by in large it was Texas companies that put out a lot of the fires. I could put in an order through the Sultan Center supermarket chain or make a 100 mile drive to one of the US or British Army or navy bases, or simply drive out in the desert to visit some Beduin friends of mine who raised hogs just before getting to the Saudi Border, they also made some pretty good hooch too if you found yourself in need of some strong spirits.

[mwmkravchenko]

Or so, you would think, but there was a saying a long time ago when I was in the military. RHIP. Being an engineer and a Texan on top of that there were many things available to me that other American Expats could not obtain. America may have saved Kuwait from Iraq but by in large it was Texas companies that put out a lot of the fires. I could put in an order through the Sultan Center supermarket chain or make a 100 mile drive to one of the US or British Army or navy bases, or simply drive out in the desert to visit some Beduin friends of mine who raised hogs just before getting to the Saudi Border, they also made some pretty good hooch too if you found yourself in need of some strong spirits.

Live and learn. Nice to know.

[Frank S]

Inside the machine shop van of my shop always seems to be a sore spot for me the way I had some of the cabinets and storage units were always over cluttered, No matter how I tried to arrange tooling for either of my lathes when I needed this or that I might have to spend a lot of time searching for the item. Plus it seems almost daily I have been adding more tooling to the menagerie, which ultimately winds up creating more clutter or filling already over filled drawers
Yesterday it was windy with the windchill in the low teens so I sought refuge inside my machine van. I had the temperature inside of it up to around 60°f while trying to trun some parts I started searching for a special ground piece of HSS and couldn't find it anywhere. Finally I said enough of this I'm going to re arrange a few things so I can have some suitable drawer space
First I had to clear an area at the end of my workbench then I moved a storage unit that is filled with stuf that really needs to be relocated to the parts and bolt van but that will have to come later.
This cabinet was actually limiting my space in front of my bench mill and has always been in my way

So I moved it to the end of my workbench which now is at the same height and extends the work bench

I dug this bench type toolbox out of the front of the van where it was completely inaccessible emptied it out cut off the bottom 4 inches

Moved the tall wall cabinet about 3 feet West as well
then put the bench box here

I don't know where the grinders are going to wind up, but they are kind of handy right where they are. I still have a long ways to go to be able to create a location for each like item of tooling but it is a start. 1 drawer has my HSS (I still haven't found the one I was looking for), and reamers another has pipe taps and those recently bought extra fine taps and dies "I am going to have to make a special divider system for them later" Another has metric taps and dies

[Toolmaker51]

Easiest quick dividers aren't permanent....but they're usually free and plentiful. That corrugated plastic shipping foam keeps things in line nicely while itemizing and sorting. It will pleat when 'stitched' by hot glue gun to cardboard, for deeper contours.

Commercial storage drawers like Vidmar and Lista create a lot of square footage stacked up, but lack flexibility and high percentage of density in those same drawers. We pay for square feet, and often fail to utilize cubic feet well (which are basically free)!

[Frank S]

The last couple of days I have been stealing time from myself to work on getting my 2nd RPC built and hooking up the 9KVA transformer for the 460v At the same time getting all panels closer to being able to install all of the covers The single phase main panel has 1 more temporary 220 line to remove then that panel can be closed permanently, the breakers with red tape are not to be switched on until other things are completed, the transformer is ready to have that cover installed after I get the phases of the 2nd RPC to a balanced output. I can close the door on the main 3ph disconnect now and the encloser below it as everything that is going to be needed in those is complete. I need to connect the magnetic contactor to a breaker and add a 24v transformer in the 3ph 240v panel "bottom right" then that one can have the cover put on I don't have any conduit run out of the 3ph 460v panel "top right" as of yet so no need for the transformer to be switched on until something is connected for it to power.
I am thinking about not installing the capacitors in the connection box for the larger RPC but rather install them in a much larger separate panel to be mounted below the shelf due to my calculated number of capacitors needed to get proper output. By installing them in a larger panel is will also have enough room to add more capacitors should I require another idler motor later on.
All single-phase 120v lines are black #2 lines for 240v single phase are RED all #3 lines for 3ph 240v are blue and the 460v line are BOY #1brown $2 orange &#3 yellow. any neutral lines through out are white and the bonded grounds are green

[metric_taper]

Nice panel work.

So do you have an auto start system for when you need the RPC running? Something that senses you turning the switch on at the machine, or remote start switch.

I had initially used that to power my vertical mill, but the noise of the 3600RPM idler motor, and that it was on the far end of the shop drove me to use VFDs.

[Frank S]

Nice panel work.

So do you have an auto start system for when you need the RPC running? Something that senses you turning the switch on at the machine, or remote start switch.

I had initially used that to power my vertical mill, but the noise of the 3600RPM idler motor, and that it was on the far end of the shop drove me to use VFDs.

The RPC is activated by a magnetic starter with overload protectors and a 120v coil initiated by a simple wall mounted switch below my light switches