"Willofiam"

[willofiam]

Hey Paul, cant wait to see your bench, and I heard from a little bird you picked up some other treasures , yes I would like ALL your tools , This watch cleaning machine thing has got me in a frazzel !!!! Oh and by the way, how come you get all the nice stuff over there???? William

[Arutha]

I will start to post up some of the things I bought at auction, I dont know why we get all the nice stuff, I am not even sure that is true as you have nice stuff too over there that I cant get easily. I will be moving into my unit the first week in November so pics will follow

[willofiam]

Well, it has been a exciting year so far. Another expansion to the shop (probably not the last ) Did this about 3 months ago and thought I would share my hard work. I have been blessed and give the credit to my Lord and God, though I do have to put the effort behind it. The business is growing and I am very happy with the results thus far. As I have said in the past, my family is thoroughly involved and help me out in so many ways. Just to let you know I have sold almost everything else I had acquired in the past years to finance this shop, letting go of things dear to me with the hopeful expectation that in the near future I will once again be able to afford to do those other things I love to do I am sure there are many out there who have done the same with successful results, I hope to hear from you. Thank you all for your help and patients with me on the forum and, as for the good friends I have been blessed with, I will see you soon!

the new area for customers

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coming thru the door

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more room to roam in and store more stuff

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more space for more tools

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[Randy]

It looks great !

Does this mean that you will now have to reduce the foot print of your woodshop ????

[willofiam]

OOOOOHHHHH yeah. I am sure in the next few months I will finish using ALL the former wood shop (ideas have brewed again). I have turned down several cabinet making jobs in the past year. I have not even touched most of the equipment (shoved it all in the other garage) thinking of selling some of it but you know how it is with tools, gotta have em just in case. I will most likely keep it all and one of these days I am going to build my own version of clock cases. I would tell you my ideas on it but its a secret Thanks for the input, William

[clockman1509]

Hi William, just been going back over you workshop photo's. Brilliant. I like the look of your clock movement holder, it looks the same as Bob's can you let me know where you bought it. I bought a movement holder from Cousins in the UK, what a let down , I put the movement on the stand an I can mount the pendulum but not mount the hands or turn the movement round and have the hands on but not mount the pendulum. Paul saw this stand when he visited my shop and was not impressed. I have hunted high and low for your type to no avail. Can you offer any advise.
many thanks
Alan

[willofiam]

Hey Alan, thank you for the kind words, yes I factored in all of those things you mentioned when I decided to buy this one, I use it all the time and it is my favorite, the other ones work well in certain instances. I bought this one from Merritts in US, it is a Parker movement stand, please check their price as I saw one on the ebay for alot more, used....Hope that helps, William

[clockman1509]

Thanks William,I will check Merritts this evening and let you know when I Receive it.
Regards
Alan

[willofiam]

Well.... the new shop expansion, the corn silk colored walls are the new area.

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[Arutha]

Looking good William, looks like you will need some staff soon seeing the size of it
Paul.

[jim1228]

Hey William,
Just how are your customers getting across the moat into your castle to pick up their clocks? Must be quite a challenge. Lol. Looks great William.
I wish you well,
Jim

[Bob Tascione]

WOW!! I love it. Beautiful shop William! Well organized too.
Great job on the expansion.
I've picked up some good tips from your page.
Thanks for putting those pics up here.

Bob

[CatskillPainter]

You've got an amazing shop going here. You'd never drag me out of a shop like that ! You've done a really wonderful job with it.

[willofiam]

Hey guys, thank you for the responses, been extremely busy here and of course I have rearranged since the last post. I am going to add more detail to some things I have done (I am going to copy cat as he did a great job on his) and as always looking for input on better ideas, recently Bob and Arutha gave suggestions and it is working out great. thanks all and have a fantabulous day , William

[willofiam]

O.k. here is the cleaning section, wanted to show the dryer box in particular. A simple box made out of 3/4" melamine, a 1/4" dado set in on the front edge to allow for a sliding door, I would imagine a hinged door would work just fine but I didnt want to take up too much space, (when I started I was in a 9x10 room in the basement). A hole cut in the top and another piece so as to sandwich a heavy fabric between them, hose clamp a hairdryer to the fabric and WHALLAH. I added some 3/4 x 3/4 "rails" with the dado to hold the baskets off the bottom, for venting I cut 3 slots in each side simply by raising the table saw blade thru the side piece, the finger hole also acts as a vent. The smaller baskets are sink strainers from the local hardware store. In another post about keeping things organized for easier reassembly I use these smaller baskets for that purpose also, (each train in its own basket throughout the cleaning process) the larger baskets hold bigger items off the bottom for drying. William

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[Bob Tascione]

That's a nice size William. I like it a lot. Geeze your shop is beautiful!

Bob

[Arutha]

Are you making me one for Christmas?
Looking good my friend. I am using the "gritter cob" medium for drying my movements. My water is not that good quality, if I just dry my movements in a box it leaves water stains so I like an absorbent media instead. Whatever works is good

[Randy]

William..

Two suggestions ?

1. Wear a GPS, so that your wife can find you for dinner.
2. Get a set of roller skates.

Man,..what a nice, well laid out ( and large ) shop !!!!

All the best.

R

[willofiam]

Thanks guys, Bob you can come up ANYTIME and show me how to do stuff, Paul, if you came over I would make you anything you wanted out of wood, for free.....and yes Randy there does seem to be alot more wandering around looking for stuff but I will soon have everything just right if thats possible, one thing I hate is looking for something, every second wasted is a wasted second. with a large area it doesnt mean I am any more efficient than a small space, just allows for more stuff and confusion. organization and familiarity with the shop is key to efficiency. At the least I am ready for when Paul sends the Christmas crate full of all the cool tools and lathes he has over there. William

[willofiam]

Howdy Yall, here are some pictures of how I have my watchmakers lathes set up. Mostly I wanted to show the microscope. I have a difficult time using a loupe while using the lathe. When I bashed my 2 front teeth into the lathe I decided there has to be another way. Previously I had rigged the amscope over the lathe but it did not give me all the room I wanted, many times I would want it out of the way so it was kind of a process, they do make the amscope with the larger booms, I was leaning towards getting one when I found this vintage inspection microscope, I drove 4 hours one way figuring if I left at 1 am I would be back by 9am to get back to work, well.....anyway, what I like the most is that it gives me lots of room to roam under the binoculars, also being a large enough boom I can swing it over several lathes. I liked it so much I patiently kept looking for another and WHALLA , I use this one for inspection, hairspring adjusting, oiling ect...ect...Thru sellers willing to negotiate I purchased each one for $150.00 I hope Paul sends me a Christmas bonus this year . the table is not complete as I am still figuring out how I want things exactly but it very functional so far. have a fantabulous day, William

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