Long story short, about 15 years ago one of my close friends had a close relative pass away & leave him a sizable bit of money. He'd always wanted a workshop, so he had a slab poured on his property & a two-story outbuilding built. He had space, but no tools & not much knowledge of machining & fabricating. I had just the opposite going on, so we joined forces. My "rent" was just leaving my gear at his place, and I nominally had control over half the shop space. When I moved about five years ago, I gifted the whole shebang to him, for putting up with all my sometimes oddball projects (and the assorted craters I'd put in his yard over the years).
Outside our place. Quench tanks, bins of molding sand and assorted debris. We used to have a Champion hand-cranked forge & a decent anvil out front, it's since been donated to local craftsmen.
Going inside, my old main workbench. (lol) Crap. It's STILL a mess. Idle hands, clean bench, etc.,etc.
My shop buddies' workbench:
Our main drill press. It's a "Craftsman" in name only. I think the main column & plastic bits are original. Strong mother. It can drive a 1-1/4" bit through inch aluminum without slowing down.
The secondary drill press, where I did most of my overhead routing & smaller milling chores.
Our rinky-dink scrollsaw, the 14" bandsaw off on the right side, and one bank of our parts bins.
My shopmate's welding helmet & his favorite spear we made. It's a bit of truck spring & a lot of grinding, welding and more grinding.
Okay, on to stuff we've made. We used to have a lot of armor & weapons hanging around. Our SCA fighting armor, SCA armor we were working on for other folks, personal projects, paying projects, doing-it-for-a-friend projects, etc. Over time though, and us shutting down the "official" shop, we've lost a great deal though. We donated most of the old-school and antique tools to local craftsmen we trust, donated most of our surplus SCA armor to people who were just starting heavy fighting & needing gear, loaned it out to folks just starting kendo. It started with two dudes in a building building cool gear for fun, and it kinda ended that way. But I still found some interesting stuff:
A big 'ol pile of handmade bludgeoning nastiness-
A hand forged knee copp in 16 gauge mild steel-
Here's a better shot that shows the wing that protects the outside of your knee. That's our much used and very tired grinder station in the background-
A batch of 16 oz wax-boiled leather scales waiting to be used to repair Cuirbouilli armor.
I was just about to leave, and then I noticed something in the pile of clutter of my shopmate's workbench. No way. It can't be. I'd sold that thing the first year our shop was running....
I gave him a ring. It was. He had no idea that was the first damn sword I'd ever made. Someone had swapped it to him for some repair work about a month ago. It'd somehow made the rounds of people I knew, that he knew, and that-the-other-one-knew, and somehow made it back to home. She was minus her handle, scabbard, rusted up- and was beaten to hell n' back- but the meat of the matter was still good.
Best. Birthday. Ever. I took her home, and I'm going to clean her up and give her a new home.
Outside our place. Quench tanks, bins of molding sand and assorted debris. We used to have a Champion hand-cranked forge & a decent anvil out front, it's since been donated to local craftsmen.
Going inside, my old main workbench. (lol) Crap. It's STILL a mess. Idle hands, clean bench, etc.,etc.
My shop buddies' workbench:
Our main drill press. It's a "Craftsman" in name only. I think the main column & plastic bits are original. Strong mother. It can drive a 1-1/4" bit through inch aluminum without slowing down.
The secondary drill press, where I did most of my overhead routing & smaller milling chores.
Our rinky-dink scrollsaw, the 14" bandsaw off on the right side, and one bank of our parts bins.
My shopmate's welding helmet & his favorite spear we made. It's a bit of truck spring & a lot of grinding, welding and more grinding.
Okay, on to stuff we've made. We used to have a lot of armor & weapons hanging around. Our SCA fighting armor, SCA armor we were working on for other folks, personal projects, paying projects, doing-it-for-a-friend projects, etc. Over time though, and us shutting down the "official" shop, we've lost a great deal though. We donated most of the old-school and antique tools to local craftsmen we trust, donated most of our surplus SCA armor to people who were just starting heavy fighting & needing gear, loaned it out to folks just starting kendo. It started with two dudes in a building building cool gear for fun, and it kinda ended that way. But I still found some interesting stuff:
A big 'ol pile of handmade bludgeoning nastiness-
A hand forged knee copp in 16 gauge mild steel-
Here's a better shot that shows the wing that protects the outside of your knee. That's our much used and very tired grinder station in the background-
A batch of 16 oz wax-boiled leather scales waiting to be used to repair Cuirbouilli armor.
I was just about to leave, and then I noticed something in the pile of clutter of my shopmate's workbench. No way. It can't be. I'd sold that thing the first year our shop was running....
I gave him a ring. It was. He had no idea that was the first damn sword I'd ever made. Someone had swapped it to him for some repair work about a month ago. It'd somehow made the rounds of people I knew, that he knew, and that-the-other-one-knew, and somehow made it back to home. She was minus her handle, scabbard, rusted up- and was beaten to hell n' back- but the meat of the matter was still good.
Best. Birthday. Ever. I took her home, and I'm going to clean her up and give her a new home.
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