Thought I'd post a few pictures of the recent upgrades I've made to my call making area. Last fall when I turned that batch of giant Hambone tribute calls I realized I had a very inefficient set up that had me walking all over the place to gather turning accessories and tools. After duck season ended and before hunting property work began I reworked things and came up with a much improved wood turning area. The goal was to get everything in arm's reach and I mostly accomplished this.
This is the overall set-up. Before I started the re-organization a significant portion of what you see here was 40 feet away which was way too far. On the left is my 1936 Oliver 159 patternmaker lathe I restored about 10 years ago. On the right is a 1977 Oliver 159 that came from the wood shop on Redstone Arsenal. It was plug and play. The 1936 is the smoother of the two.
I bought a bunch of bolts with the same threads as the lathe spindles. I countersunk the bolts from the back of some quarter sawn white oak and epoxy poured around the bolt heads. Not coming out or spinning! I also countersunk rare earth magnets into circular recesses on another board and this is where I store my chuck jaws and other tidbits.
I used the same bolt board idea and mounted one under a tool cabinet. It keeps faceplates and collet chucks in close reach.
Also close at hand are chuck keys. I've found box joints to be quite strong for such racks.
On the left hand side of my tool cabinet is a rack for MT2 bits, centers, and collets. I reamed the holes with an MT2 reamer so as not to be sloppy. To the left of that is a rack for metal lathe quick change tool holders. Typically used for metal lathes they are also quite useful on a patternmaker lathe.
Underneath the lathe are two trays for holding jigs, banjos, cross slides, drill press vises, etc.. They get dusty as hell but since only heavy stuff is stored here I blow them off without fear of a cross slide going airborne.
In between the two lathes are where I keep my turning tools and wrenches. I want this stuff easy to reach at all times. I hate digging for specialty wrenches so pretty much every special wrench I need is here. I used AI to lay out the holes to get the most turning tools packed into the rack. Geometric packing problems have been around forever and take advanced mathematics to solve. I'm lazy and let AI do it for me.
This shelf is where I store drill bits, tap & die sets, and other drill tooling. My drill presses are next to the lathes so this stuff goes with both. If you look close you will see some old school cast drill bit indexes. Grab them whenever you see them at garage sales. They are getting very collectible and pricey.
Underneath the patternmaker lathe I added a shelf and placed two Gerstner chests on it. Dust doesn't bother them as longs as I keep them latched. They are wonderful for storing lathe tooling and accessories.
That's all for now. I won't be able to do much call making until this fall when hunting property work and other outdoor projects are complete. But when that time comes I'm ready.
This is the overall set-up. Before I started the re-organization a significant portion of what you see here was 40 feet away which was way too far. On the left is my 1936 Oliver 159 patternmaker lathe I restored about 10 years ago. On the right is a 1977 Oliver 159 that came from the wood shop on Redstone Arsenal. It was plug and play. The 1936 is the smoother of the two.
I bought a bunch of bolts with the same threads as the lathe spindles. I countersunk the bolts from the back of some quarter sawn white oak and epoxy poured around the bolt heads. Not coming out or spinning! I also countersunk rare earth magnets into circular recesses on another board and this is where I store my chuck jaws and other tidbits.
I used the same bolt board idea and mounted one under a tool cabinet. It keeps faceplates and collet chucks in close reach.
Also close at hand are chuck keys. I've found box joints to be quite strong for such racks.
On the left hand side of my tool cabinet is a rack for MT2 bits, centers, and collets. I reamed the holes with an MT2 reamer so as not to be sloppy. To the left of that is a rack for metal lathe quick change tool holders. Typically used for metal lathes they are also quite useful on a patternmaker lathe.
Underneath the lathe are two trays for holding jigs, banjos, cross slides, drill press vises, etc.. They get dusty as hell but since only heavy stuff is stored here I blow them off without fear of a cross slide going airborne.
In between the two lathes are where I keep my turning tools and wrenches. I want this stuff easy to reach at all times. I hate digging for specialty wrenches so pretty much every special wrench I need is here. I used AI to lay out the holes to get the most turning tools packed into the rack. Geometric packing problems have been around forever and take advanced mathematics to solve. I'm lazy and let AI do it for me.
This shelf is where I store drill bits, tap & die sets, and other drill tooling. My drill presses are next to the lathes so this stuff goes with both. If you look close you will see some old school cast drill bit indexes. Grab them whenever you see them at garage sales. They are getting very collectible and pricey.
Underneath the patternmaker lathe I added a shelf and placed two Gerstner chests on it. Dust doesn't bother them as longs as I keep them latched. They are wonderful for storing lathe tooling and accessories.
That's all for now. I won't be able to do much call making until this fall when hunting property work and other outdoor projects are complete. But when that time comes I'm ready.
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