OldIHC

I brought home the rest of my "new toy". 1957 model Bridgeport J head vertical mill. It's got the 42" bed. Looking forward to getting it cleaned up, set up, catalog what I have for tooling, and make some chips. It came with a 3ph to single phase converter so I'll just need to swap the plug for 50a unit and I'll be good to go. I'll entertain the idea of a VFD and DRO for the X and Y axis after the machine is up and running.

I was looking for a Bridgeport milling machine when I bought a geared head off shore mill. The mill I bought has a dove-tailed column with an adjustable gib key. This import mill has surprised me with some good work
You will like the Bridgeport milling machine and it will add so much to what you now do so well.
Enjoy.

About 20 years ago, before I retired, I built about 20 of these end cabinets and this is the one I made for myself. I had it on the end of my main toolbox until today. My home-made cabinet has a single drawer and adjustable shelves. It was wired with a retractable cord for an espresso machine. Too may fellow workers felt entitled to free espresso, so I took the machine out of the cabinet, and took the machine home.
I took the end cabinet I made off and replaced it with a 7 drawer end cabinet. This fits my home situation better.
I am trying to reduce the foot-print in my shop with better use of space. This means a few tool-boxes will have to go and/or be purposed. Two tool boxes will go to the basement tomorrow and I will put them for sale on Craigslist. There are 14 cabinets remaining in the shop and 3 more in the basement.
I modified the 3 drawer cabinet by lowering the drawers to the bottom and adding a shelf to the top. It now rolls under my MYFORD lathe and holds a bunch of tooling. I mounted my castiron lay-out table to the top shelf of this unit.

Nice Drawers lol. I'm scrambling to find space in my garage every day. It is often a game of tetris trying to get everything to fit just so so that I might get one more thing in the garage, or get to one thing that I buried weeks ago... Some day we will make it out to the country and I will have a proper shop. With room to breath that is is until I bring home more stuff. hahaha

I subscribed to this You Tube channel. I think this guy is a hidden gem. I like his idea of a garage.

https://www.youtube.com/user/bcbloc02/featured

Well, my shop got a whole lot of temporary relics today. Relics in the form of all the stuff we have to bring in to keep them from becoming wind-blown projectiles. Irma's coming for a brief visit. My 51's in the shop with his "jammies" on (car cover). Shutters went up over the house windows and all our preparations are about complete. Current projections are for the eye of the storm to pass about 20 miles west of us. In 2004, three different storms passed pretty much over us in the span of about 2 months. Here comes another one right over us - essentially. Obviously, the path will only be known when it passes over. The storm is moving fast enough to not pose much of a flooding issue. The soil here is porous enough to soak up the water rapidly. We're not expecting a Houston type situation. No two storms are alike, but the preparations are the same. Button up, hunker down and hang on! The waiting for it to come, pass over and depart is the pits, however. I'll let you know in a few days if we sustain damages or not. Today is Friday and the storm currently is due Sunday into Monday here in Central Fl.

My thoughts and prayers are with you and all those in the storm's path. This one sure looks like trouble. Hard for me to imagine, never had to go through what you are about to. Have a very good friend in Sarasota, he's gonna ride it out too. Stay safe and keep us posted when the power is back on.

Thanks for your concerns. Sarasota's going to be close on this one, if the predicted path comes true.
One of the things we learned from the threesome that happened in 2004, have a generator! We got a Honda 3000 portable during the power outage of Charlie, and it helped us through Francis and Jeane. We now have a 20kw whole house backup generator on propane. There's a 250 gal. underground tank and we received enough fresh propane today to "fill" it. We could go about a month if we needed to before refueling. What I don't like about it? It makes noise and you have to endure that noise while you are depending on it for power. Trade-offs. But, having a refrigerator, lights and A/C are pretty high on the priority list!

"Car Guys" are generally a self-sufficient lot, you are further proof of that. I have a 17K generator for back-up, usually for snow and ice events. Don't have to use it that often, but it sure is nice when you do. Noise? Yep, but I'm pretty sure you will the most popular house in the 'hood, especially in extension cord range! Talked to my friend this morning, he's ok, block house, not that close to the shore, hoping for the best, expecting the worst. Probably won't be a matter of when power gets restored, more like when power gets replaced. Could be awhile he says. Again, stay safe and good luck.

Lightweight! I have a 62.5KVA generator! If I can get the whole local area to chip in, for fuel, I can power them! I didn't buy it for back-up, I just couldn't let this 1940 Army air core unit go to scrap. Burns 5 gal/hr of gasoline, so you better want the power, it is expensive! Has a critical grade muffler so is quiet. Powered by a Buda LO 525 (525 CID six) that one can, and I have< hand cranked!