Shop #3, the offgrid lineshaft shed

[JH-Q]

So here it is!

After some having years off the machining trade (building my home in the rural countryside, learning offgrid skills and just catching breath)
Three years ago i cut the power cord, and has been living 100% offgrid since. In the beginning i had a gasoline 5kw generator for using the welder and construction tools. For a long time, i have thought out if running a small machine shop business from home would be possible without a grid connection. First when i sold my last shop in 2019, i bought some tiny quality machine tools (Lorch LAS, Cowells VM etc..) and though to keep the parts tiny, in order to keep electric consumption low and not having to build a giant power system. Things kinda changed when i first got a cheap and really fascinating vintage hot bulb engine from a local old gentleman who was cleaning his home workshop and moved to town apartment because of old age. He still remembered how to run the engine, and it was a while since it last ran, in the 1950's powering a treshing machine!

Soon after, i came across all kinds of interesting old machines from auctions whenever they were reasonably priced. It got a bit out of hands, and i needed a separate shop space to stash all my vintage stuff into!
The first find was a 1899 J.G.Weisser treadle lathe which i restored (i originally planned to use it for making parts, but when restored it was too nice to use on any work. So i got a barter deal for it at a local machine shop museum in Nivala ( https://www.konepajamuseo.fi/ ) I got an unused soviet heavy duty 3D pantograph from the 1970's and he got this piece of machinery history in his collection. He did build the treadle and underdrive pulleys and some minor parts, which the machine lacked. All the other cleanup and paintjob was done by me. Here are some pictures at his workshop, before moving the machine to his museum. https://aijaa.com/a/gXaCRI

During the last year, i've been building the shop from scratch with minimal budget. Mostly the material is reclaimed/surplus which i got cheaply. Last fall was tough, i trucked all kinds of machines i could find around the country, took them apart and moved them in mud with an engine hoist and couple of shipping pallets all by myself. Closest i could get to the shop by truck is about 15 meters (50ft) and there is a 60cm (2ft) step from ground to shop floor. I didn't intend to get this big machines, so the space is already crammed and it was a pain to get everything inside, while building the shop and trying to keep condensation from the machines to not let them rust! Whatever machines i have been able to put in the shop, will not be moved out from there anytime soon..

What to except in this thread?
-Building up a tiny lineshaft workshop from the scratch with minimal budget I do have a lot of recycled flat belt pulleys, shafting and pillow blocks from old agricultural machinery, but will need to cast some aluminum pulleys of the size i desire. So backyard alu foundry and patternwork
-Tooling the machines up, since something like a shaper vise is not something to be fount around here
-Completing actual, paying projects for customers (this is not a retirement shop, rather a microbusiness which supports my homesteading style of living!)
-Knowhow of how to run a shop without grid electricity. I have a smallish solar power system and the old hot bulb engine for power.
-I wish to hear good advice from the oldtimers who have actually run this kind of machinery. There aren't many around, so the clock is ticking and the knowledge should be passed on, so it will not be lost! I'm in my mid 30's and still hopefully have some time left to fool with machines and chips..

Starting with a couple of pictures, i do have a lot more coming, but it will take some time to scale them down and write something sensible for each item. This is the shop building site slightly less than year ago when i began building it.


This is the hot bulb engine from 1930's. It is made by BMV in Pori,Finland (Björneborgs mekaniska verkstad, unrelated to german car manufacturer) It is rated 5hp at ~750rpm and can run on pretty much any heavy oil. I'm using surplus heating oil, which can be had for free and cleaned up from water and other crud. The blowtorch uses lamp oil, and it is used only for heating up the engine when cold starting.



Here's an unknown camelback drill from early 1900's. It has no markings at all, but i suspect it might be swedish Rosenfors or a similar small manufacturer. Also the 200mm (8") power hacksaw is of unknown manufacture..

 

[JH-Q]

Here's a quick overview of the other machines. I will post more detailed pictures, it's been a hard posting day and i need to have some rest!

This is the shaper. 20" probably early Värnamo or Elliot/Alba. It has square ways and no gearbox, so it must be quite old.. I do have to make a clapper box and a proper shaper vise for it. I have already welded back together the table support, which was shattered into three parts due to previous owner moving the machine with tractor forks.


This is the conehead lathe. Made by Karhula osakeyhtiö (a factory and a foundry in eastern-coastal Finland) The manufacturing year is around 1915. It can swing 450mm on the ways and 1300mm betveen centers. It's too big for my shop, but it was so cheap i couldn't resist... (€350 complete with all 20 change gears, three chucks, small steady and some tooling)


And the soviet pantograph. Couldn't get a better picture since it is currently still under restoration. I have taken every single part of each machine apart, cleaned them throughoutly and put pack together, while replacing broken parts and adjusting them best as i can. This machine is made around 1979, it is NOS (haven't made a single chip since leaving the factory, just been sitting in storage wax) It does have a full 3D copying capacity, automatic stepover feeding unit and a 800-10000rpm spindle. It weights a hefty 1300kgs (or more), so it should be sturdy enough for real mold and tool milling and definately not an engraver pantograph!

 

[DDoug]

How many customers do you have ?
looks like a museum.

 

[JH-Q]

How many customers do you have ?
looks like a museum.

I do have some good, reliable customers from the past who i'll give a call when everything is set up and ready to run parts. I tend to keep my delivery dates and it would not be possible if i first need few months to tool everything up and build lineshafting. I have scheduled this work to take place next winter when the weather will be miserable again. If everything goes as planned, the shop should be making parts about an year forward from present moment. If extra income and time is needed, i still have few tools and a temporary, movable tiny house i built to sell..
My expenses are minimal, as i don't have a car or pretty much any overhead (property tax and waste disposal are ~80€/yr total, that's it!)

For the summer i have other work to do, building the house to live in and travel to other side of the country to teach tool sharpening/metalworking class. (a 3-week paying job)

Also there's been an inquiry about sharpening woodworking tools for local schools (hundreds of handplanes and thousands of chisels annually) but i'm not very excited about sharpening work. It might provide a steady income, though!

 

[animal12]

Wow , what cool setup .That's quit a jump from that Loarch to the Karhula lathe ! I'm kinda in a situation like you . Though my house is built . We are also off grid & I'm thinking that I will need to add some panels to run my equipment . I lived on ladders for 30 + years but after a bunch of failed back surgeries it's only taken me a week so far wiring my machine room & I only have 4 lights installed & 30' of conduit run with a handful of boxes for receptacles, I've spent the last 3 day unable to walk . Work slowly & safely ! . I like to think that I work smarter not harder but that hasn't been the case lately . I bought a new generator earlier this year that will run on pump gas or propane . California does not make it easy for off grid folks , I'm hoping the propane will buy me a couple more years . Have you given any thought to run your equipment off DC motors ?
animal

 

[JH-Q]

Wow , what cool setup .That's quit a jump from that Loarch to the Karhula lathe ! I'm kinda in a situation like you . Though my house is built . We are also off grid & I'm thinking that I will need to add some panels to run my equipment . I lived on ladders for 30 + years but after a bunch of failed back surgeries it's only taken me a week so far wiring my machine room & I only have 4 lights installed & 30' of conduit run with a handful of boxes for receptacles, I've spent the last 3 day unable to walk . Work slowly & safely ! . I like to think that I work smarter not harder but that hasn't been the case lately . I bought a new generator earlier this year that will run on pump gas or propane . California does not make it easy for off grid folks , I'm hoping the propane will buy me a couple more years . Have you given any thought to run your equipment off DC motors ?
animal

The Lorch was a fine piece of equipment, i did sell it for a fair profit after cleaning up and adjusting everything. I do buy all kinds of small equipment from auctions if the price is fair, fix and tool up the machines and then resell them. Not very often though, maybe once an year or two or so. Yesterday i won an auction with two 10mm cam-operated automatic screw machines for a whopping €50 as the only bidder, but unfortunately the auctioneer had a (hidden) minimum price, so the bid was denied. Might give them a phone call and discuss their target price.

Fun point about the DC motor, yesterday a friend of mine delivered me an old electric forklift motor in exchange for some end mills and stainless material. I have enough solar to run the workshop for few hours on a sunny day, but haven't been able to find a suitable motor. Mostly the 12v motors i could find were small chinese toys which would burn in continuous use. Then i cursed my friend over the phone about the motor issue, and he told me there's this forklift motor he has no use, offer something in exchange and he'll bring it over..
It's a japanese made 3kw 24v unit weighting around 40kgs (90lbs) and 1hr duty cycle. Since i have only 12v power system, it should run at around 750w continuous power. So i have to run the lineshafting a bit slower with the electric motor than with the hot bulb engine.

Also fount some useable flat belting 6" wide. Have to cut it narrower to get more metres out of it, still thinking how to cut it in strips and if it will unweave on the edges after cutting. Some kind of wowen fibre, maybe cotton hope not asbestos?

Keep it safe, animal! Lots of dangers on constuction sites and in the shop which can be serious..

 

[Hodge]

The Lorch was a fine piece of equipment, i did sell it for a fair profit after cleaning up and adjusting everything. I do buy all kinds of small equipment from auctions if the price is fair, fix and tool up the machines and then resell them. Not very often though, maybe once an year or two or so. Yesterday i won an auction with two 10mm cam-operated automatic screw machines for a whopping €50 as the only bidder, but unfortunately the auctioneer had a (hidden) minimum price, so the bid was denied. Might give them a phone call and discuss their target price.

Fun point about the DC motor, yesterday a friend of mine delivered me an old electric forklift motor in exchange for some end mills and stainless material. I have enough solar to run the workshop for few hours on a sunny day, but haven't been able to find a suitable motor. Mostly the 12v motors i could find were small chinese toys which would burn in continuous use. Then i cursed my friend over the phone about the motor issue, and he told me there's this forklift motor he has no use, offer something in exchange and he'll bring it over..
It's a japanese made 3kw 24v unit weighting around 40kgs (90lbs) and 1hr duty cycle. Since i have only 12v power system, it should run at around 750w continuous power. So i have to run the lineshafting a bit slower with the electric motor than with the hot bulb engine.

Also fount some useable flat belting 6" wide. Have to cut it narrower to get more metres out of it, still thinking how to cut it in strips and if it will unweave on the edges after cutting. Some kind of wowen fibre, maybe cotton hope not asbestos?

Keep it safe, animal! Lots of dangers on constuction sites and in the shop which can be serious..
View attachment 394794

Would the drive motors from treadmills be worth looking into for some of your smaller equipment?
If I'm not mistaken they are DC motors.

Hodge

 

[animal12]

Yep the treadmill motors are dc but they live in the 80-120 VDC range for the 120 VAC treadmills & I believe 180 & up some for the commercial ones . I have one on my SouthBend lathe & like it alot .
animal

 

[Strostkovy]

Treadmill motors can be had dirt cheap from surpluscenter.com . No affiliation; I just buy from them a lot.

You can also run them at lower voltage with full torque but reduced speed.

 

[JH-Q]

Not much has progressed in the workshop during summer - I have been building my home cottage and working various countryside "s**t" jobs. Such as emptying 200 year old insulation and floor joists from a historical house, which is being renovated, welding and drilling various structural steel parts for log house renovations, moving grass, chopping firewood and moving heavy stuff. Not the jobs i would call enjoyable, but i wasn't picky if there was something that had to be done and the jobsite was within a bike distance from my location.
I've been building a masonry brick oven and a woodstove for my house and those are almost done, still have to build the chimney before it gets frosty. We're talking about ~2500 bricks or 11 metric tons of material here, so it has taken a while. Also building up the timber frame so i can put some kind of temporary roof there before winter.

Whenever it's been rainy lately, i have sneaked to the shop to get things forward. Next half year it's going to be a lot of shop days, but there is also the lack of solar energy as a challenge! If i'm about to do any welding or machine work, i need quite a bit of power, so getting the hot bulb engine running is now #1 priority. It needs two new piston rings and a cooling system and then it should fire up. Now that i have a running lathe, i am able to make the piston rings out of cast iron, really simple design on them so not a big deal.

Here's the first temporary lineshaft setup. Later on this will be replaced with a proper cone pulley countershaft with forward and reverse pulleys. The wall mount is already designed to fit the whole unit. The motor will be moved to ceiling to run the whole lineshaft setup.
As a first job i chucked up a 5" hole saw and cored out the stuck 3-jaw backplate. After that i roughed out rest of it with a crude carbide tool and was careful not to touch the spindle itself. Now i have a 360mm (14") 4-jaw mounted on the lathe, and likely will not be removing it anytime soon, it should do all the jobs i have for the lathe to get shop running!




Here's the first actual part to be machined. This is a 120mm V-belt pulley for the pantograph, which i modified to have a 40mm bore. I was able to get within 0.02mm of the desired diameter, and it had a really nice light press fit to the motor shaft.


I know this silly little toy Proxxon is going to upset some, but it does upset me as well quite often when i try to make parts with it! To get things running and turn out some spare parts (such as fitting the flat belt pulley to the first lineshaft setup) i have had to use this toy to make the first parts. I needed a sturdy workbench to mount it somewhere, so i just mounted it in the toolpost since it's so tiny
As much as i hate it, it's actually really useful for tiny precise parts. Think about modifying the odd set screw or pin, when not needed i just mount it on the wall like a boring bar or toolpost grinder..



I have been able to modify the pantograph odd soviet taper to ER25 with the tiny lathe, running the spindle on it's own bearings for hard turning and grinding
This is before the modification;

And after;


And here is a part i made today. It's for the pantograph tracing stylus and connecting it to the automatic feeding unit via a ball bearing. I was suprised it was possible to turn a M33x1.5 retaining nut thread in steel with a 10.5kg toy lathe. It took some care to hone the tool really sharp, but other than that wasn't too bad. I do have to calculate threading charts for the big lathe and setup a reverse in order to have it cut threads. The motor can run backwards when plus and minus for the armature or field are swapped, so it's just figuring out how to wire a reversing switch to run it..


And just for chuckles, this is a CRANK shaper!
I have welded the notch in the shaper table with a nickel filler rod and planed the table true with this setup. I'm going to cut some keyways and smaller stuff for the lineshaft with shaper so this setup will do for some time... There's the wormgear and 0.5kw pallet jack motor lurking in the background if i have to plane some surfaces, i'm not going to hand crank truing a surface as big as the shaper table again! I do have a pile of old cast iron plates waiting to be trued up on the shaper and sold as marking table/surface table scraping blanks..