The workbench was secured to the wall plate and the rafters, to provide storage shelves above. The vertical uprights were a bit of a nuisance, so the plan was to extend the workbench space down the entire side towards the washer and dryer. On each side of the old workbench below the lights, I had set up 2 bench grinders with tapered pigtail adapters for the buffing wheels. While the work was being completed, I wanted to install a custom buffing station driven by a motor.
The first task was the insulation of the garage and installation of the workbenches. Having spoken with a local handyman, he advised the easiest method was to use thermal insulated backed plasterboard. Next is a picture after the insulation work was completed. The plasterboard has 2 inches of special thermal insulation attached to the back, and this was able to be attached directly to the concrete blocks. The same material was used to block in the roof cavity. The floor has been laid with interlocking rubber foam tiles and the benches have been started to be put in place.
The idea for my buffing station was to drive 4 buffing wheels from a single motor. I picked up a second hand motor from eBay for £30. It is a 1hp single phase motor running at 1400rpm. I wanted the area around the buffing wheels to be boxed in to catch and reduce the dust created with the idea of eventually installing dust extraction. The buffing wheels were to be mounted on 12mm threaded steel rod. The wheels would be 8 inch by 1/2 inch. I had been using 1 inch wheels before, but whilst this can speed up the process, they are not good for buffing into the bend of bent pipes. The 1/2 inch wheels make this area much more accessible. I had a motor arbor made locally which would attach to the shaft of the motor with a 12mm tapped hole. The drive shaft would screw into this providing a direct link to the motor. It was going to take a 1m length of drive shaft for the 4 buffing wheels. I decided to get 4 lengths of 250mm rod, so that it would be easier to dismantle and change a buffing wheel. The buffing wheels come with thick leather washers, which when drilled to 12 mm will thread unto the rod. They are then clamped each side with the large cup washers that came with the angle grinders holding on the grinding wheels. The sections would be joined together with 12mm threaded bushes with a 25mm outer diameter. Each of these bushes would be supported in a block bearing. Everything would be locked in place using locking nuts at each side of the bushes and each side of the buffing wheels.
Now whilst this idea was all in my head, it was a work in progress to see how it would work, as I have no particular engineering background. The handyman got to work under my instructions. The motor was mounted to the correct height to leave plenty of working space, and also the block bearings were mounted to the same height from the workbench. The motor itself was also boxed off from the buffing wheels to reduce dust contamination. The lower central section of the workbench is a place where I can sit while working on pipes. The far end is for my future work. I would like to move on to start making pipes and this area will be for the additional machinery. Here is Mark I of the buffing station.
Before even using the new buffing station, I knew there would be a problem. The blocks on which the bearings were mounted were going to be an obstacle when buffing the pipes. We put our heads together to think of a solution. We then decided to install vertical mounts which would be secured to the back of the boxed area and the bearings would be attached to these, leaving the front of the buffing wheels unfettered.
Here is the result after the rearrangement. The wiring has been completed and the lights installed with daylight bulbs for good vision.
The whole thing runs like a dream. I have since installed a machine switch below the motor and will also install an emergency stop button. After getting the feel of buffing at a slower speed, the only further change I will make is to upgrade to 10 inch wheels when the current ones need replaced. I can now run the heater on 1 bar from the far side of the garage and it heats up the room beautifully and retains the heat. This year I will be able to work in comfort.

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