Stand for the blasting cabinet

I also made a stand for the blasting cabinet to get a comfortable working position. This is the reason for the elbow connector in the air line, so that it doesn't take room but goes down, as my workspace is very limited and getting pretty crowded with all the various stuff.

I welded the stand from 25 x 25 x 2 square steel tube, better known as "furniture tube" in here. I used a MIG welder because that was available and it is quick to use. I got the material from Rautasoini and it cost me about 20 EUR for the 9.6 meters of material and a cutting fee of 1.7 EUR, so quite cheap.

For welding the frame nice and square I bought a magnetic square from Biltema for 5.49 €. It provides 30 kg of magnetic pull and the 105 mm side length provides accuracy. I tested this little gadgets accuracy with a 400 mm machinist square and the magnetic square was truly a square. In retrospect I should have bought two or three of these to make the setups even more easy, but even with only one I could free my hands and got rid off of using clamps and got everything square in one go.

Once I had welded the frame I checked the diagonal lengths and found that there was 1 mm difference in 900 mm distance, so it was really good. The frame was a little bit twisted, as it rocked on the floor a little, but I fixed this by grinding about 0.5-1 mm off from one of the legs. This way the blasting cabinet sits on the stand without rocking during use. The floor side of the frame doesn't matter as the stand will have adjustable feet.

I used an air powered angle grinder to smooth the welds in all corners and then an angle sander on all surfaces to break the shiny metal so the paint sticks better. I wiped all the grinding dust with a rag and then used a clean rag and solvent to go through all surfaces to remove the last bits of dust and all the oil.

I had bought red oxide primer and black matte spray cans from Biltema for a total cost of about 10 EUR. I sprayed the primer on the frame in thin layers and with a help of a flashlight I inspected every surface that there were no metal to see and that the primer was smooth. I let the primer dry for half an hour and wiped the surfaces with a clean rag to remove the primer dust. I applied the black paint also in thin layers to get an even result, but run out of paint once I had the first layer, so I went and bought a second can of paint. This got me approximately two layers of paint and even surface, so good enough for me. I let the paint dry for two hours.

To give the stand good stability and finish I bought four plastic caps that were intended for this type of tube and had M10 nuts molded in them, so I could screw in the adjustable legs. The upper ends of the tubes I sealed off with similar end caps. All the caps I just whacked in with a rubber mallet and they fit snugly.

Once I got the stand home, I moved it to the correct place, adjusted the feet for level and stability and lifted the blasting cabinet on top of the stand. Fit as it should, with about 2 mm of free space from the tubes to the corners of the blasting cabinet.

Last bit to get this stand finished is to buy a piece of film faced plywood, cut the corners and install it on the supports I welded halfway up the stand to act as a storage space.

A new lathe in mind

Seems that I've been too busy to write updates in here, as I've been in work and tried to do a lot of lock related stuff in the past months. Sorry about that, I'll try to change that :)

Oh well, xmas is coming up and I have outgrown from my mini lathe a while ago already, so I've been searching for a new and bigger (mini) lathe for my workshop. Around the time I got my mini mill, SIEG Industries updated their lathes and mills to have a brushless motor instead of the brushed DC motors like in my C2 mini lathe and X2 mini mill. Now it seems they have many of their products offered with this new motor design and that makes everyone happy, as the new motor type offers a lot of torque in the low RPM range and is more silent than the previous type.

As I have loved the C2 from SIEG, the obvious choice is to look from SIEG again. I pondered this for quite a while already and decided on the new C4 lathe that has the updated motor version and fulfills my needs more than enough. My list of functions was more torque, more power, more versatile cross slide and bigger swing.

Comparison of specifications for C2 vs. C4



A search for a distributor lead me to Axminster Tool Centre website. Their offer is very good and tempting and I have heard all kinds of good from them. I got a quote for the shipment to Finland and it is a little under 150 EUR, which to me seems cheap. The total for the lathe and shipment would be about 1250 EUR (VAT included), so I'm only missing about 1000 EUR from the price.

I already ordered a Multifix 40 position quick change tool post from ebay.de with 5 holders for the price of 290 EUR plus 20 EUR shipping. A very good and rigid tool post that I have used at my friends workshop and in school we had one and I love it that you can position the tool in so many positions without turning the holder itself.

I will make a new update when I get the lathe, in the mean time I'll post something else and also try to think of a way to lift the lathe on my workbench...

Overview of my workshop

As many have asked where do I work, I thought to give a peek to my workshop. I live in an apartment building and one of our four rooms (13 m²) is reserved for me and as a general storage space. Haven't heard of any complaints about noise from neighbours yet, but I do try to make things during the sunlight and only in small amounts at a time :)

Here is a quick look from the door in to the room. Quite crowded in here, but there is enough floor space to walk around and do work, although I would like to add another shelf system like the one on the right. You can see my lathe, mill and work table in the back.

This is the mill and table for it. I made the table from scrap found in a dumpster, only had to buy few parts from a hardware store. The top is coated with thick laquer layer and provides an easy way to cleanup and it also prevents oil from penetrating to the particle board which could soften enough to break.

Here is my work table closer. This provides me table space and a place to think when designing, assembling or drawing something. The table cost 99 EUR and it can be disassembled and reassembled when needed, as it only has four bolts. The top shelf provides some storage space for miscellaneous stuff, like tape rolls, packing material, towels and such. The back board has an array of small hooks that provide a way to hang my hand tools neatly. This has proven to be very nice system and the tools are always there when not in use. It is easy to cleanup because I don't have to think where does this tool belong to or were is space for it, as there is one designated place for it. This also translates to less work finding the tool when in need for it ;) The tabletop material is MDF and I have a thick layer of laquer also on this one to prevent oil from penetrating the surface.

This table has two drawers and I'm using the left drawer for measuring equipment and notebooks, although there is some other stuff also there. A calculator is a must have and you can get a decent calculator for like 10 EUR new. I think mine cost me 19 EUR, but it has some nice functions. I do have also a Texas Instruments TI-86 graphical calculator, but it is on quite rare use at the moment.

The right hand drawer has become quite heavy as I store all my drill bits and various tool bits in there along with some other things. This is not a good example of how to store your tools, as they can bang together and that can chip or dull the delicate cutting edges. I should take some cardboard and make small boxes for everything. Most of the tools are bought from eBay along with the measuring devices, except the drill bits that are from the nearest hardware store.

Lathe sits on its own table with the drill press, although I will move the drill press to the mill table probably, as the lathe tailstock handwheel keeps bumping in to it. The table is DIY and it has a 6 mm thick rubber mat glued to it. This keeps tools on the table but it is a little harder to cleanup, as the chips tend to grab into the rubber a bit. Turpentine and a paper towel fixes that problem if needed :)

The drill press is the cheapest I could find, 44.90 EUR from a local hardware store. It had some drawbacks and poor quality, but it has proven to be a very decent machine after my modifications. I'll tell more about those in an article dedicated for this drill press alone.

I have a grinder here also that I would normally use for grinding lathe tool bits, but due to fire hazard I will not use it in here. It has a stand that I made in my welding class at school, for a total cost of 19 EUR (including a can of spray paint). The base is open at the back and I have stacked about 20-30 kilos of steel scrap in there to keep it steady.

This tool cabinet on wheels is my own design and make. I thought of buying one, but the cheapest I could find were 300 EUR and up and they were not able to be used as a workspace so i thought that it would be fun to make one. This was my final project in welding class and it was done with MIG. The whole things weighs about 65 kilos and it has 3 mm thick steel plate on top which is good for banging things on.

I quite recently bought this storage shelf system from the hardware store, cost 39.90 EUR. It is very light and handles up to 65 kilos per floor. I should bolt it to the wall so it would not trip, as it can twist quite much now. It has helped very much and it is good that it can be disassembled easily, as there is no bolts or anything, just wedge action joints.

About a week ago I also installed a small shelf on the wall to store all my machining related books, articles and my project folders. Very handy and keeps them away from dust and debris.

Here is my not so neatly organized box of materials that I use when making something. There is small kitchenware boxes labeled for different things, like aluminum, steel, HSS scrap, carbide, brass, plastic etc. Weighs something around 200 kilos. All the longer rods I have in a separate place. Most of these materials are bought from a scrap metal recycling yard (Rautasoini), but also eBay has provided materials like brass and plastic for cheap. The grey box system contains various bolts and nuts and the like, organized by their size and the most general sizes that I use are from M4 to M8.

The most important thing to remember is to have a small trash can and some sort of brush to get all the swarf and chips away from the floor. This reduces the probability for an accident and also it is nice to work in a clean place.