I finally retrieved the c.1885 FE Reed lathe from storage and have it assembled in the shop, though I don’t plan on powering it anytime soon–it will act as a dust collector and something to knock my hip against.

It’s a neat old machine and it’s in good operating condition, for what it’s worth. If you’re a metal spinner with a line-shaft shop, drop me a note, I’d be happy to see it work for a living again. It wouldn’t be outrageously expensive!

Here’s the inside of the shop, as you can see I haven’t done a whole lot with the organization of the space. (You can click for a larger image.)

I hope to build in some cabinets and what-not this winter, mainly on the wall where I have a couple of ancient Ferrari posters tacked up (I found a stash from ages ago…anyone for a 1980′s Testarossa poster? I managed to put that one back in the tube). I did get casters onto the metal work tables, they’re now handy for moving close to the action or allowing access to all sides of an unwieldy project.

On the table closest on the left is a pile of junk awaiting sorting and placing into the other side of the building. Right below the posters are the camshafts from the XJ6–I’m doing a valve adjustment, and am awaiting new cam bearings and shims. In the corner beyond that is an ancient file cabinet with my shop computer on top and my elderly stereo above it. I finally have a sink for the bathroom, and hope to work on that a bit tomorrow (keep calm and all that).

Beyond my trusty Delta drill press (I think it’s circa 1956) is my toolbox; I hope to move to a couple under-bench units when I build a new bench along that wall, in about the same place and scale as this one, but secured to the wall, and wrapping around the corner towards the press. The white MGB is serving as a shelf for the dash top and a few other components of the XJ6–one of the windshield wiper wheel boxes stripped out, and I’m awaiting some new used ones. I figure after almost 40 years in Washington, that’s fair enough.

I also have the rear mufflers off the XJ6; I bought new tips, the proper curvy variety as opposed to the straight ones which this car has now. Imagine my (lack of) surprise when I pulled off a couple of standard American mufflers which had been creatively made to fit, and which will definitely not take the new tips. So I’m trying to figure what to do about that, too.

The bikes are pretty much in for the winter. I need to do a fluids change on the Triumph–oil, coolant, and bleed the brakes. Bike will be ten years old this coming year and while it hasn’t had many miles put on (just a little over 3,000 now), the oil has only been changed a couple of times and the other fluids have never been touched.

To the right is the parts washer, the blasting cabinet is beyond that, and the shelves holding the miscellaneous small bits of the E-Type. ETA on that machine returning is still a bit murky.

Looking forward to getting the cabinetry underway. Along the back wall will be largish upper cabinets, with a nuts-and-bolts organization under a 18″ deep bench. This bench will mainly be used for staging parts and stashing those small projects awaiting time, money or bits–thus allowing the main bench (by the tools) to be kept clear for actual work. The tables can be wheeled out if more space is needed (they will live on the storage side when not in use). I was originally going to build a paint booth along this back wall, in the corner you can’t see, to the left. It would be about five feet wide with an open front, but a closed ceiling and a exhaust fan utilizing the old stove chimney. This would be for spraying small parts, and I still think it’s a good idea. I need to investigate fans and theory before committing to it, though.

The short wall right by the red toolbox, is, I think, destined to be the “sit down bench”, connected with the main bench along the gable. I will have upper cabinets only on this short wall, I’m not going to put cabinets on the gable wall. This sit-down station will be the place for manuals, computer, and other reference pieces, and I’ll probably come up with a “fluids” rack for the current can of brake cleaner, penetrating oil, etc, as well as gloves and shop towels. This “short wall” bench will only be about three feet wide; the wall is five, but the bench along the gable wall will be 24″ deep. 5′ of upper cabinets, though, is just about the perfect size to hold all the stuff I mentioned, and 3′ is fine for stashing a couple of low bar stools underneath a short bench.

Anyway, given my glacial progress, I’ll probably have the valve job done by the spring, and the rest will still be in the planning stage.

I bought a new rear exhaust hanger kit (from Moss Motors) for the GT not long ago. I moved the car today to facilitate the unloading of my new used compressor (see below), and came outside afterward to find the muffler laying on the ground, the cause being the failed rubber mount that you can see in the photo. (In case you’re not familiar with how these hangers are constructed, there is supposed to be another piece of metal bonded to the rubber where you see the rusty stains…that piece of metal is still on the car!)

The hanger is less than six months old and the car has traveled less than 200 miles in the sun, and has been stored inside, too. The only moisture this car has seen has been from a couple of washes. I even took care to be sure there was no torsional stress on the mount when I installed it (on a bonded-rubber mount, you do not want to have any twisting stress if you want them to last). Thankfully this happened in the driveway.

If this was a once-in-a-blue-moon thing I wouldn’t care, but it’s quite common. It’s one of the reasons restorers go to great lengths to buy new old stock (ie, factory original) parts when they can. Mind, it’s all of $5. Maybe I’ll write Moss.

Moving on, I bought a used (but new to me!) compressor for the Mahal. The gentleman I bought it from loaded it into my truck with a forklift; I got home and spent some time scratching my head as to how I was going to get it out. The weight isn’t horrible but at 300 lbs, most of it at the top of the tank, it’s decidedly awkward. It was too tall to fit into the shop without tilting it against the truck’s toolbox, which a friend helped me do, but he had to run and so I was left to my own devices.

In the end, I stole the hand-winch off the car trailer and mounted it to a rafter in the shop:

I probably could have strapped it up in a fashion which would have kept it more upright, but a problem with vertical compressors is that everything at the top is potentially fragile and not something you want to put straps or cables around. In the end, I had just enough lift to get it out of the bed.

I temporarily placed the machine on another of my torsion-box carts…I must have half a dozen of these, now, most in storage, some 2′ x 4′, some 4′ x 4′. They’re very handy and will support all the weight you could possibly want without any deflection, up to the limit of the casters.

I’ve never lived in a house with anything more capacious than a single-car garage; for the past five years we’ve lived in a house with a damp one-car carport. You can imagine how excited I am about the new Garage Mahal, as my friend Chuck would label it.

The building is 48′ x 36′ (split into two spaces, workshop side and storage side). The roof is entirely supported by the perimeter walls, so the interior is clear of supporting posts. Just think, I can store at least 16 rusty old British cars of the type I gravitate towards inside. That’s progress!

We get the keys Tuesday, if everything goes according to Hoyle. (My wife tells me there’s a house somewhere else on the property but I can’t remember much about it.)

This is probably more like it.

Considering I did this in a fairly cheesy program which is at least eight years old, it’s not terrible. Which isn’t to say it’s good.

I’m not sure how realistic this version is–need to do a cost guesstimate and then recoil in horror, I imagine. It’s “smaller” and more “zoned” than the prior effort, but with the complication that my office and Allie’s darkroom need to be housed out here, due to a smaller house. That means the cut floor space is added back in more expensive form. Sigh.

The extra garage at the carport end could be clipped if needs be, and a wee bit of tightening could be done elsewhere. I suppose if I really want more enclosed car storage in the future, I could build a simple 24′ 2-car garage at some point, assuming the extra garage stall shown here gets the axe.

Overall, this building is about 86 feet long, not including the carport. That’s about 2100 square feet under roof–480 of it heated.

Options to reduce the footprint? A second floor, which I’m not totally against–but that almost certainly means the wood shop would be upstairs. I have seen second-story wood shops before, they necessitate doors on a gable end and a crane, somewhat like you’d see on an agricultural barn for pulling bales of hay into a loft. Dunno.

Anyway, we’ll see if this is even viable.

When we build our modest little house, it’s my dream to build a shop. I’ve sketched a couple of designs, which you can find here:

Dream Shop

The 60 x 28 isn’t so close, but the 60 x 36 is pretty close to what I’d like. However, I think I’m going to have to scale back my plans quite a bit. We’ll see.