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Southern Alberta Members?

smurray

smurray

Member
I live in Cardston, enjoy hobby metal machining and am wondering if there are any members of this group in my general area.
When I play, I use a South Bend 9" lathe, a Busy Bee mill/drill, a 7" metal shaper and other assorted machines and tooling for them. I have made some tooling for my machines, repaired parts for motorcycles and vintage/classic cars and basically just have fun and relax in this hobby.
Would like to get in contact with others with similar interests on a casual basis.
 
Not exactly local - but close ish? I'm over in Coaldale.
Nearly bought a place in Cardston before we located here from the lower mainland (vancouver) area.

edit: aaaaand just realized that I necro'd that post from 2017!! :O
 
Dr.Fiero said:
Not exactly local - but close ish? I'm over in Coaldale.
Nearly bought a place in Cardston before we located here from the lower mainland (vancouver) area.

edit: aaaaand just realized that I necro'd that post from 2017!! :O
Click to expand...
Well I hadn't seen that post either and I would have missed the date also.

So what do you play with Dr. Fiero? I'm in Warner and play with small asian lathe and general metal working machinery.
Other than leaving the people behind, I would imagine moving from Vancouver to Coaldale would have been a tough transition, no?
 
It was a good move. I'd had MORE than enough with the insanity there. 8km to work. Budgeted 1.5-2hrs in the morning to get there.
The perpetual grey skies, and rain, and humidity... bleah. 50 years of that, it was time to go.
2.5 years here now.

I'm just finishing off my sandbox to play in here. Totals up to 1650sq ft with 12ft ceilings.
Older Taiwan 12*24 lathe (1/2 way converted to 3phase through a VFD).
G0704 I converted to CNC.
2nd manual G0704.
16spd drill press that I 3ph/VFD'd already.
Bandsaw, TIG, MIG, Stick, Plasma cutter, Hyd press, 10K 2 post lift. You know... the usual stuff. ;)

So as you might have guessed, I do a lot of automotive stuff. And I like fabbing up the odd thing here & there.
Couple old garden tractors (JD 317, A/C Big Ten) that I make things for.
 
Dr.Fiero said:
It was a good move. I'd had MORE than enough with the insanity there. 8km to work. Budgeted 1.5-2hrs in the morning to get there.
The perpetual grey skies, and rain, and humidity... bleah. 50 years of that, it was time to go.
2.5 years here now.

I'm just finishing off my sandbox to play in here. Totals up to 1650sq ft with 12ft ceilings.
Older Taiwan 12*24 lathe (1/2 way converted to 3phase through a VFD).
G0704 I converted to CNC.
2nd manual G0704.
16spd drill press that I 3ph/VFD'd already.
Bandsaw, TIG, MIG, Stick, Plasma cutter, Hyd press, 10K 2 post lift. You know... the usual stuff. ;)

So as you might have guessed, I do a lot of automotive stuff. And I like fabbing up the odd thing here & there.
Couple old garden tractors (JD 317, A/C Big Ten) that I make things for.
Click to expand...
Oh it sounds like you know how to have fun! We LOVE pictures here on this forum.
 
smurray said:
I live in Cardston, enjoy hobby metal machining and am wondering if there are any members of this group in my general area.
When I play, I use a South Bend 9" lathe, a Busy Bee mill/drill, a 7" metal shaper and other assorted machines and tooling for them. I have made some tooling for my machines, repaired parts for motorcycles and vintage/classic cars and basically just have fun and relax in this hobby.
Would like to get in contact with others with similar interests on a casual basis.
Click to expand...

Hey Scott.......... I am new to this board and find it awesome that you posted. I should have known that you would have some kind of a machining shop!!!! :) I live near Glenwood, working at the school there, eh? I have a very nice heavy 11x20 Standard Modern lathe that I use at least weekly. I have a very cluttered shop right now that includes a bunch of metal working machines.......along with a lot of kids storage stuff!! I am currently searching for a mill and would be interested to know what model your Busy Bee mill is and what you think of it.
 
DPittman said:
Oh it sounds like you know how to have fun! We LOVE pictures here on this forum.
Click to expand...
I'll post some up in a while. The place is a disaster area right now since I'm still moving everything into place. A lot of it's still in boxes, or dumped on the floor from lack of shelving being up etc! Yuck.

Do you guys ever do get-together-meetups type things? Or are we all just too far apart?
 
I frequent the Magrath area but I'm local to Calgary, and several other members are “local” to you, the stats far as i can tell have only about <5 members in the surrounding Lethbridge area, of course not every member has posted so might be more
 
OK you southern AB guys, its apparent you have some cool projects & interests... which mean there must be some cool pictures sitting on a drive somewhere LOL.
When you're settled in & comfortable, feel free to post. Its always interesting to see what other folks are working on and/or machines & tools etc. We don't judge, we just oggle the metal HaHa
 
Just went through a bunch of my pics, and realized what a crappy collection I have! Really need to take a few more.

Well, here's an external shot of the long side. Anyone an ace at doing siding? That's next on the list now that it's warming up (structure construction got finished up mid November just as the temperature was dropping).
It's 26' across the back, and 62' front to back.
I'll post some interior, and of course machine shots later.
IMG_0012.jpeg
 
Went and took a few shots inside. Please excuse the disaster area!
It's just me out there, and I've been tackling it all myself. When the builder was 'done', I was just left with bare stud walls, and open ceiling rafters. That's where I started to build up from.

All the paneling in there is 5/8 plywood (can't tell you how nice it is to be able to screw anything anywhere on a wall!). Full sheets on the bottom, then 1/2 sheets up top. OMG is that stuff heavy!
Floor is 2 part epoxy (it's usually white!).
All LED lighting. 12x 4' fixtures. 5K (pure white). 3800 lumens each. All combined, they only draw 3.8A (super efficient).
Just finished up the last of the wiring today (whew!!!). You can see it all, it's the exposed AC90/BX up top there.

Here's (some) of the hardware:
IMG_0369.jpeg
Busy Bee 12*24 (mid 80's?)

IMG_0370.jpeg
Cheapie King Canada 4*6 bandsaw

IMG_0371.jpeg
G0704 converted to CNC mill (somewhat dismantled still!)

IMG_0372.jpeg
Older ITC drill press (VFD off the right side)

IMG_0373.jpeg
Manual G0704 mill

IMG_0374.jpeg
Powder coating setup

IMG_0375.jpeg
Anyone need fuel injectors cleaned and flow tested??

IMG_0377.jpeg
And.... the giant mess!!
I'm almost embarrassed to post this one...
(I hadn't even swept up!)
There's about 25ft still behind me where I'm standing.
Has an 80Kbtu heater on the ceiling off to my left.

So yeah - it's a work in progress. Gotta get rid of some stuff, put up more cabinets & shelves on the walls.
 
Are we talking just the garage/shop space here?
Dr.Fiero said:
Yep - the house is on the other side (detached). It has to go (as in, get demolished!). But that's another 2-3 years off at this time I think.
Click to expand...

You moved all that stuff from LVA to Coledale! Why Coledale if you don't mind me asking?
 
YYCHobbyMachinist said:
You moved all that stuff from LVA to Coledale! Why Coledale if you don't mind me asking?
Click to expand...

Well - all that stuff, and about 10 times more. Hahaha....no, really.... there was a LOT more....

Why Coaldale? I guess... why not? Was sick of living in a big city.
Even Lethbridge itself was too big. At least here it's still close enough to 'stuff', but far enough to say I don't live there.
I've accepted (more or less) that a lot of things aren't right around the corner anymore. So, I have to plan a bit more ahead. I get a LOT of stuff shipped to me now. My Amazon yearly shipping count has gone up by a huge number.
My lot is about 21,000 sq ft. - that would be about 6 million in the lower mainland suburbs...
or 50 mil in Van itself (and of course, it essentially doesn't exist). Gas hit just over $2/L a few blocks from where I used to live. Property taxes were more than double. The list goes on!

Just made more sense to live here.
 
Dr.Fiero said:
Went and took a few shots inside. Please excuse the disaster area!
It's just me out there, and I've been tackling it all myself. When the builder was 'done', I was just left with bare stud walls, and open ceiling rafters. That's where I started to build up from.

All the paneling in there is 5/8 plywood (can't tell you how nice it is to be able to screw anything anywhere on a wall!). Full sheets on the bottom, then 1/2 sheets up top. OMG is that stuff heavy!
Floor is 2 part epoxy (it's usually white!).
All LED lighting. 12x 4' fixtures. 5K (pure white). 3800 lumens each. All combined, they only draw 3.8A (super efficient).
Just finished up the last of the wiring today (whew!!!). You can see it all, it's the exposed AC90/BX up top there.

Here's (some) of the hardware:
View attachment 5147
Busy Bee 12*24 (mid 80's?)

View attachment 5148
Cheapie King Canada 4*6 bandsaw

View attachment 5149
G0704 converted to CNC mill (somewhat dismantled still!)

View attachment 5150
Older ITC drill press (VFD off the right side)

View attachment 5151
Manual G0704 mill

View attachment 5152
Powder coating setup

View attachment 5153
Anyone need fuel injectors cleaned and flow tested??

View attachment 5154
And.... the giant mess!!
I'm almost embarrassed to post this one...
(I hadn't even swept up!)
There's about 25ft still behind me where I'm standing.
Has an 80Kbtu heater on the ceiling off to my left.

So yeah - it's a work in progress. Gotta get rid of some stuff, put up more cabinets & shelves on the walls.
Click to expand...
Wow!
 
Cool stuff Dr. Fiero. One day I'd like to learn more about your drill press VDF conversion. I have a very similar model.
 
PeterT said:
Cool stuff Dr. Fiero. One day I'd like to learn more about your drill press VDF conversion. I have a very similar model.
Click to expand...
It's a REALLY common platform. I was a parts guy at JET equipment for 10 years and learned a lot about the various brands coming out of here and there (mostly Taiwan).

The only tricky part was making up the motor bracket. And even then, if you've got a MIG and a bandsaw, you're good to go.
If you find the right motor "frame", it'll already have the flange/mount, and a simple straight keyed shaft.
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/nema-electrical-motor-frame-dimensions-d_1504.html
 
Very nice large shop - you could not go that big in Calgary. My garage is max without special development permit -i.e. 800 sqft.

Need to add some more heavy iron to your setup - you have plenty of space!
 
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