The Edifice
Welcome to The Edifice...
This half round hay barn that was a freebie from Cavalier carpets nearly 20 years ago and replaced a home made "shed" (using the term rather loosely) which was the original Edifice, made from scrap wood and iron, hung off the side of a falling down fence.
Excuse the mess, we had birds nesting in the chimney again...
Coming in the door, there is the welding bay on the right, with the compressor and Archdale lathe straight ahead and on the far side of the building is the forge area with the anvils and power hammer. the green machine in front of the hammer is my dyno.
The forge area has a coal forge and a couple of anvils (150kg) and the usual blacksmiths tools, and the hammer on the right. The thing that looks like as gas bottle on legs is basically that - a gas forge based on Ron Reil's most excellent page.
The welding bay has a 1942 Ashton 350A SMAW (stick) welder (right). This came from NZ Rail when they closed down the Otahuhu workshops in Auckland. It was a very sad day, with big old lat
hes and steam hammers going for scrap.
There is also a 1970s vintage EMC Lynx mig with Lynxpak II wirefeeder. I got this modified to take a Euro fitting so that the modern Binzall guns and leads will fit since the old gun was stuffed and no parts were available.
There are other miscellaneous tools as well, such as the big Denbigh pillar drill - another score from the scrapyard (before they closed down). It had been in a fire and somehow painting never quite happened. Probably early quarter of the 20th century. It was made for an electric motor, but still has a flat belt drive. With the back gears, it has a very low bottom speed and will drill 2" holes in steel without breaking into a sweat
The other good score was the James Archdale lathe. A friend pulled it out of the rubbish bin where he was working, along with some tooling. About 1911 vintage as far as we can tell. I don't use it much as I have the Colchester in the basement, but for the price....
The compressor is another oldie, from The British Aerograph company. 3hp, and the quietest compressor I have ever used. Another buy of a lifetime from a panel beater who had done a runner - the landlord needed it gone...
The other tools are a homemade sander.
The cutoff saw is the generic Taiwanese 6"x4" bandsaw. Must be the best value tool on the market - you couldn't make one as cheap and it has cut literally miles of steel in the last 15 years or so.
The punch and shear below doesn't see much use, except for cropping stock instead of the saw. There is another shear on the end of the workbench which can handle thick stock
