Tell me what you DON't like about your shop/lathe

[alex carey]

all I have is a lathe in my "shop" which is actually a 2 car garage, which is taken up by a trailer and a whole bunch of other stuff. Hardly any room for me. I actually have to alter a table to have wheels so I could move it when I want access to my lathe.

As you can see the only room I have is between the curtain and the lathe, kind of sucks sometimes.

Though, I think my biggest complaint is not having a bandsaw, I really don't enjoy roughing stock, even if I take a chainsaw and knock off all the corners, still sucks.

[Gary DeWitt]

Alex! You might consider closed shoes, keeps out the chips. Last time I wore sandals to turn, I dropped a sharp tool far too close to my foot.

My shop is just the right size for me, 1/2 of a two car garage, about 8 x 16 or so. I manage to fit a hybrid TS, BS, DP, 30x85 workbench, 1 1/2 hp trashcan sized dust collector and, oh yeah, 16x42 General and Delta mini lathes and grinder. Of course, when the car is in, it JUST fits between all the machines. Not much room to dance, either, and the car has to go during any large projects. Also, I share both side walls with neighbors, so noise can be an issue at times.

I like both my lathes mostly. The Delta just buffs nowadays. The General has too small a footprint from front to back, too susceptible to vibration in spite of major ballast if you ask me. I'm going to attach some outriggers to it one of these days. Developed a strange knocking noise recently but that turned out to be a loose pulley, stopped when I tightened it up. I really like the power, capacity, VS, movable headstock on it though! On balance, I'm happy with my setup, and consider myself a lucky guy.

[Jeff Nicol]

Well my shop is my 2 car garage 24x24 with a 7x14 addition on the back that will eventually house the CNC router I am working on. I have 3 lathes PM3520b, Delta 46-460 and my original generic chinese built 12x36 with retrofited VFD and 1hp motor. Then of course all the other shop tools table saw, jointer, 16" planer, 14" BS, drill press, belt/disc sander combo, scrollsaw, oscillating sander, small metal lathe, small metal mill, good dust collector and hand power tools everywhere!

The negatives are it is not big enough and the ceiling would be nice at 10' instead of 7.5'. I also have a 36x42 shed out in the country with my sawmill and tractor and other forestry stuff.

Yes I am spoiled!

Have fun with what you have, no matter what!

Jeff

[Glenn Weathington]

At 12.5' by 12.5' my lathe 'shop' is a dedicated room in a 24 X 48 out building. All four walls and the ceiling are insulated, but I have no heat or AC. I just wear appropriate clothing for the weather and in the summer I set a box fan in each of the two windows for a decent breeze. It could use dual pane windows,a space heater, a window mounted AC unit, a larger capacity bandsaw, at least a dust deputy for my shop vac, a better work bench set-up, more storage, more lighting, trim molding around the four foot wide shop-built door and most definitely my shop could use an upgrade to 220 volt electrical service.

My modded Rikon mini with extension on the other hand is fine- AFTER I changed what I didn't like about it, of course. I have been thinking of fabricating riser blocks to increase the swing to 14-15 inches. A lathe with more capacity and more power would be nice to have,though.

[David Hostetler]

Like so many others here, space is my biggest issue with my shop. I am in an 18x20 alleged 2 car garage with a sloping floor making the ceiling height 8' at the common wall to the house, and 8' 6" at the rollup doors. I have no storage over the rollup doors, there is no real space to the sides of the rollup doors to speak of, and this space is shared with all my lawn and garden, and BBQ equipment and supplies, not to mention it doubles as as staging area for building materials as I do home repair / renovation. If I could get the rest out of my shop, it would still be smallish, but MUCH more workable. The next biggest issue I have is power. I REALLY need to bring at least a 100 amp sub panel in here!

[Tony Greenway]

Let me say first off that, as a professional cabinetmaker with a nicely equipped shop at home, I am truly blessed. I get to work with wood all day-everyday. My building is 40x75 and sits about 400' down the hill from my house, so on pretty days, I can even walk to work. Another pert is that I get to have turning time with my 13 yr old son, Max. Sometimes I have to be working while he turns, but we're still there together.

Okay, now my shop complaints, not enough turning time and NO AC!! Now I know you guys out west are used to those 115 degree days and are probably calling me a wimp, but this southern humidity is a killer.

[Les Kuesel]

My shop s about 26X16 (in side a pole shed) divided by 3 rooms. One room is unheated and uninsulated 14x16 that has my tablesaw, bandsaw, dust collector, air compresor, wood storage, chopsaw and a variety of other things. I made two rooms out of the other 12x16 (8x12). I have it insulated well and rewired (still working on what kind of heat I want) One room I use only for lathe and sanding work and the other is my finishing and puttering around room. I really like having the lathe and sanding room separate just for being able to mostly contain the dust. I have my dust collector piped in. Heat and having more time turning is what I need.

[Pat Zabrocki]

My shop is in the basement but its just me in the house so its pretty big, which I like, but the dust gets places it shouldn't and I'm probably sprawling out too much. That will make giving up that space a little difficult when I finish the basement.

What I really, absolutely, and completely hate about my lathe is not being able to stand next to it often enough...

cheers
pat

[Les Kuesel]

My shop s about 26X16 (in side a pole shed) divided by 3 rooms. One room is unheated and uninsulated 14x16 that has my tablesaw, bandsaw, dust collector, air compresor, wood storage, chopsaw and a variety of other things. I made two rooms out of the other 12x16 (8x12). I have it insulated well and rewired (still working on what kind of heat I want) One room I use only for lathe and sanding work and the other is my finishing and puttering around room. I really like having the lathe and sanding room separate just for being able to mostly contain the dust. I have my dust collector piped in. Heat and having more time turning is what I need.

[Scott Lux]

My "shop" is a corner of the garage. Ok, it's a 12 X 10 corner.

Complaints:
Dust covers everything in the garage, esp when working Cedar or Mahogany.
Not much room to store wood.
Unheated

Likes:
Close to home, insulated

My Lathe(s) are a 7X10 Wilton mini, and a 10X16 Rockler Excelsior VS.

Complaints:
Low speeds are too fast (500 and 750)
Not much hp

Likes:
Both are small and fit the space well.
Both are EVS. I LOOOVE adjusting speed minute amounts to eliminate dancing

[Bryan Morgan]

I have a two car garage with a car and a truck in it and a full size washer and dryer. Its only 21'x21' so all my tools are shoved up against walls and I have to back out both vehicles to do anything "serious". I'd leave them outside but my truck already got stolen once so I'm not going through that again. I rearrange the place every couple months and while it seems better, it never really is. My bandsaws current position is right next to the side door so I have to lock it if I use the tool, otherwise if someone opens it when I'm standing there I'm going into the blade. I have plenty of room in the back yard that I could expand the garage (its an L shaped floorplan) but even in this economy the increased house value would kill me in taxes once they re-appraise the house.

[Irby Vaughn]

May as well throw in my 3 cents worth (I got paid). I have an older Central Machinery 14" x 42" wood lathe I've used for a while and lately had a need to make a few small wooden goblets for a close friend.. After unsuccessfully trying to use a 4-jaw chuck at the head end and having much difficulty keeping the wood in the chuck--I decided it was time to buy a smaller lathe, and after reading stuff on this site, I decided to purchase an Excelsior Mc1018 mini lathe. It arrived earlier in the week and I assembled it and tested it today. Very smooth operation with the spur center after I drilled small hole at the center of the headstock to allow the point to go into the work before the spurs did to keep from splitting the wood . And with a slight tap with a chisel 4 times to have the spurs to get a grip, all worked well. Before I turned the stock from round to square, I rounded off the 90 degree edges with my joiner by using a homemade jig to hold the work so the point of the 90 degree edge was pointed down and the blades flattened the edge slightly. I know a reader told me not to do this, but square corners on purple heart would no doubt chip as soon as the roughing tool hit it. And after repeated 90 degree turns and 45's and 22.5's etc. , it had about 16 flats around and then I put it on the lathe and using a very sharp gouge, the purpleheart shaved like balsa wood...Hey...works for me. I started with the slowest speed and moved up to high speed, all worked well and I am sold on the MC1018 excelsior for my purposes...Irby Vaughn, Olympia, WA (Incidentally I bought the lathe from Rockler for $269.00 tax included)

[Prashun Patel]

I wish my shop, lathe, and dc were all larger.

[Dan Masshardt]

Dislikes: no electronic variable speed on the lathe. No dust collector currently.

[Rich Harkrader]

My Grizzly G0462 doesn't have a hand wheel. WTF?!? My PSI Turncrafter Commander 12" has a "spindle lock" that doesn't actually lock the spindle. Again WTF?!?

Rich