Mike Walters,     London Ontario   mikewal@sympatico.ca        9/23/2006

These are a few photos of my new Taig basement shop.
I also have a full size machine shop at my parents house were I have done all of my building to this point, but it is now an hour away (stupid career ha ha ha)
I wanted to add another challenge to building so I decided to use Taig equipment to design and build smaller size IC engines in my basement.
My basement shop is not yet set up perfectly but here are some pictures of it to this point.

Taig lathe with cabinets obtained from auction. Note the cat has taken up residence on the top. She watches me work for hours on end from that exact spot. Behind the lathe tailstock are a couple quarter scale Offy blocks I am finishing. (One for me one for eBay)
 

Over seas saw purchased for 120.00 dollars new “Princess Auto for the Canadian viewers”. Once set up right with a Starrett blade it saws perfectly every time, Very cheap and a real time saver.
 

New Taig 2019 mill, this machine is simply awesome for what they are worth! Very rigid and super accurate the lathe has the same characteristics. Some misc tooling lying around including two micro 40/1 ratio universal indexing heads that are half finished (rear right) these will allow me to cut any ratio of gears I will ever need (the second one is also going on eBay).
 

It seems that putting a shop together is a never ending process, I hope to be to a point were I have my storage for tooling etc organised enough that I can relax and enjoy working in my basement very soon.
 

A Lorch watch makers lathe with drilling tailstock and compound cross slide. These machines are the only way to go when you need really small parts. Incredibly accurate for their age (I don’t know how old the Lorch is but it is very old) they work like a sewing machine with a variable speed pedal on the floor, if you can afford one of these BUY ONE! You won’t regret it.
The lathe is about 10 inches long very tiny the picture makes it look kinda big.
Just a note you will notice that the Lorch is reversed as opposed to a conventional lathe it takes a couple minutes to mentally adjust to this when it is used. Lorch is the only watch makers lathe that I have seen do this……………………….. kinda weird.
 

I built my tables heavy as a rigid table is much nicer to work on. I have purchased every Taig accessory made for metal and am very satisfied with 95% of them. Sherline may have Taig beat with quality on a few accessories like chucks and offer a few more accessories geared to the modeller but Taig machines (IN MY OPINION ONLY!) are far superior in mechanical design and overall rigidity.
 

I am also lucky that my Father has the other big machine shop and supports me 100% with stealing all of his tooling every time I go home to visit HA HA HA just kidding dad!
 

Copyright 2006,  Florida Association of Model Engineers and engine builder as noted above, All rights reserved.