Small machines and accessories
On this site I will list the machines and accessories that are not worth a dedicaded site, but are absolutely necessary to run a shop.
Garant Surface plate
Hanninger TK200 table saw
Festool CTL Mini and Cyclone seperator
Bench Grinder Metabo DS150
Air compressor
Tig welder
Blast cabinet
Garant Surface plate
Looking for a reliable surface plate with a inspection protocoll that I could trust, I ended up buying a surface plate from Hoffmann/Garant. It is a relabeled plate from a german manufacturer, 640x400mm, Grade 0.
This is the test report that came with the plate. If you google the test equipment used to inspect the plate, you will end up at the very reputable company Wyler.
The spec for a grade 0 plate actually alows for up to 7/1000mm, but the plate I have, has only 3,5/1000mm deviation from flat.
Hanninger TK200 table saw
I was looking for a small table saw to cut plastic and aluminium in the shop in a simple and precise way.
Then I came across a used Hanninger TK200 table saw, which was made in Germany, it has a proper induction motor, so it runs relatively quiet and it is an all diecast construction:
I added a fence made out of cold rolled steel that runs along a rail that I added to the front edge of the table:
I put a new fine toothed flat/trapezoidal blade with 5° negative rake on it and it has proven to be a very precise saw that handles aluminium up to 20mm without a problem.
The saw gets most used to break down PVC sheet in different thickness. Prior to the table saw I used my Festool tracksaw, but that is very slow with small parts.
Festool CTL Mini and Cyclone seperator
I had a Festool CTL Mini for very long time in my shop, I like it because it has a very good filtration, but in the recent time I do a lot work with plastics and end up with a lot of chips that fill the dustbag very quick.
I decided to order a very cheap cyclone seperator and a 12 liter steel bucket, which work very well to seperate all kind of chips and swarf out of the airstream into the bucket, almost nothing ends up in the dustbag of the vacuum cleaner.
China Nantong
Bench Grinder Metabo DS150
A basic 150mm bench grinder used for generic tool grinding.
It is setup with a coarse 36grit wheel on the left and a 60grit wheel on the right side, both aluminum oxide.
Air compressor
For many years I had a very loud one zylinder, oil lubricated, direct drive compressor with a 50l tank. Most of the time that compressor was up to what I needed it - Airgun to clear chips, a nailgun and a paint sprayer.
But in the recent time I use more and more compressed air with tools like a rightangle die grinder or the Fogbuster lubrication system. That made the loud compressor run very often to fill the tank - And while the compressor sits in the storage room next to my shop, it is still annoyingly loud.
For that reason I decided to buy one of those "silent" compressors with the two Diaphragm pumps. Those run without oil and are reasonable quiet - While delivering a good amount of air.
The unit I have choosen puts out 240l/min, has a 50l tank, a total power rating of 1500W and tops out at 8bar. It is also an import machine that is sold by a variety of suppliers and you should not have problems to find one similar to this.
Tig welder
My Tig welder is a 200amp DC/Puls machine - While it is a chinese import it works quite well. Almost all my work is steel, so I don't have need for a machine with AC capabilities.
The standard 17 size torch and the CK worldwide 9 size torch - Both gas cooled:
Consumables - Standard hardware and stubby gas lens for the 17 size torch and normal hardware for the 9 size torch:
Blast cabinet
A very cheap 90L volume blasting cabinet - It got outsourced into a shed as those cabinets create quite a lot of airborne dust which you don't want to have near your precision machines.
I run 50µm aluminium oxide for cleaning and finishing surfaces in it. I have my old compressor dedicated to it and added a water trap - Otherwise the blasting media tend to get wet and lump up.
