Pirelli bespoke GP Ice Race studded Porsche 550 spyder tires

@Alan Merklin posted:

Sheds : My home Speedster shop in PA was 14 x 38 with heat and AC . It did the job despite looking gigantic when delivered, I managed to " stuff" it so that I could only get one speedster in there on the scissor lift at a time .

38 x 14 would be nearly ideal for a single-car shop - wide enough to move around, deep enough to have a bench with some bigger tools. The fact that it was separate made it almost perfect, I'd guess.

I don't want to give the impression that I travel through the world lightly.

I'm not a mini-storage fan because the stuff is never where you need it, but necessity is the mother of auxiliary buildings. I don't have one now, but I've rented one for at least half of my adulthood.

I don't buy a lot of stuff besides tools (remember the conversation about clothes), but I'm not the "throw it out" guy either. Now that I think about it, I have a spare engine for the Speedster, so there's that. Anyway, I want to be the guy who has the extension ladder, or chain-saw, or leaf-blowers, or tillers, etc. that pretty much everybody needs. I gave the new neighbor a spare Honda push mower (to keep) that I had never liked when he moved in and didn't have anything to cut his grass with.

Generally, the people that advocate "purging" are just throwing perfectly good stuff out to buy new, more fashionable stuff they won't use, and justifying the constant purchases by getting rid of everything they already have. I have a daughter like this - no money, but a pile of Amazon boxes on her apartment doorstep every day. That's not moving through life lightly either. As to my kids needing to deal with it - my stuff is by far the least worrisome part of the equation. I've got a small business with some value that they'd need to keep running long enough to sell if I die unexpectedly. Good insurance covers a multitude of difficulties upon my inevitable demise. I'm hoping to unwind it all before I'm 65.

I've always found the whole, "if you haven't used it in a year, move it along" thing to be bad advice. I have tools I haven't used in 5 years, but when I need them - I want to know where they are, and have them ready to go. More resources means more ability to help people who need it. More is more. When we lived in the big house, I had a 3-stall garage attached to the house, a lawn/garden shed, and a 30 x 40 barn with a 14 ft door and a 13 x 30 lean-to attached. I don't save junk, but I'm not getting rid of any tools or spares unless they don't work, or I've gotten rid of the vehicle or machine they were purchased for.

I've been trying to replicate the space I left ever since I did, and it's tough.

@Stan Galat posted:

I don't save junk, but I'm not getting rid of any tools or spares unless they don't work, or I've gotten rid of the vehicle or machine they were purchased for.

^^That's it, really, practicality driven and not wasteful.

I had a lot of practicality and purging forced on me by a move cross country 7 years ago. It was really expensive to move things, so a lot of calculating went into it. Generally if it was going to be hard or expensive to replicate it came out here, otherwise not. I was priced out of sentimentality. Grandpa's screwdriver was just a screw driver. I still think of him whenever I pick up a screwdriver and for me that memory is the point, not the actual object. (He was terrible with tools. I also think of him when I use a chisel because that's what he used a screwdriver for, mostly.)

Our current garage is 12X30.  That extra 2 feet in width and 8 feet in length would be life changing, but I can live with it as is.

I have a 19 x 19(360 sq.) detached garage with one door and a 6 foot workbench in the back on the other side from the overhead door. It has a side door too. It fits all my mechanics tools, my Formula Vee and one other car on the mid-rise scissor lift. I have lots of LED ceiling lights, and the ceiling and walls are white. Air compressor, Mig welder, bench grinder and a small drill press are complemented by an 8000 BtU window A/C unit and 10K Watts of electric heat. It works.

The basement is huge in my house. It is 5 steps down from grade. It's about 1800 sq. feet. When I'm done cleaning out, I'll have 300 sq feet with benches on 3 sides and a 6 foot stainless table. I have a 14" Clausing lathe, a floor standing drill press, a 12 ton hydraulic press, bench sander, parts cleaner, bench grinder and a couple VW engine/trans stands. It will be a great place to build transmissions and engines. More LED ceiling fixtures will be installed.

I even have an easy way to roll heavy stuff up and down the outside steps.

I've had this basement shop in my mind for a while now, it will be really cool to see it come to fruition.

Unfortunately, I am limited by local rules(setbacks) and property size. I can add a small non-permanent shed, but that's about it.

There are several remaining machine shops in my area that are hidden in otherwise normal-looking residential homes.  Several others have vanished in the past ten years as their owner/operators simply got too old to continue and died off or their bread and butter “pays for the lights” contracts expired.  

Most of them were one-man shops that had two or three contracts with local manufacturers for work or parts that kept them busy and turned a little profit for them.  ALL of these guys used to work at the larger manufacturing places nearby as machinists there and then took their early retirement at 55 but stayed in the field.  Maybe those old companies kept going, and maybe not.   Those old machinists were/are usually very good at their trade and more then reasonable in what they charge for their work.  Plus, they’ll always take their time to talk about what you need and how they could help you out.

I’m just sorry to see them slowly slipping away.

It's CNC all the way these days.  And for good reason, I'm sure.  But a good machinist can do some amazing things.  I had the good fortune to work with one for several years early in my career.  He also helped me with my old 356A, and taught me a thing or two about king pins, link pins and reamers.  Doing it by hand.

@El Frazoo posted:

It's CNC all the way these days.  And for good reason, I'm sure.  But a good machinist can do some amazing things.  I had the good fortune to work with one for several years early in my career.  He also helped me with my old 356A, and taught me a thing or two about king pins, link pins and reamers.  Doing it by hand.

CNC is great. Rather than 80% of a machining job being "set up,” the machinist can do that on a computer, at home in his underwear while drinking his morning coffee.

A couple of years ago I got a wild hair that instead of drum skins, I wanted to have some Alfin replicas made to fit on standard VW spindles/axles. I talked it over with the machine shop that worked on my aborted disc brake kit and he said he’d just need a front and rear VW drum and a 356 Alfin to scan. Once he did that, it’s load the aluminum bar in the machine and go to work.

He figured he could build 10 sets @ $1200 ea.  Then I realized the insurance liability involved with selling them and asked about one set. $3500 was more than it was worth to me.