Entrance to Michael Cooper’s Shop
Michael has a 2000 sq. foot shop in northern California. The setting is gorgeous. Six rolling acres boarded by a creek on one side and wooded hills on the other. Michael has another large building just a few feet away from his shop that he built to store some of his sculptures. He called it a storage building, but it looked more like a gallery to me. One side of that building is sectioned off for a weaving studio for Gayle.
His shop is split into two rooms, a small room serves as a machine shop and everything else is in the remaining space. The shop has adequate natural lighting, very high ceilings, and an extra set of doors that are big enough to drive a forklift through.
Mike has an unbelievable collection of old, heavy, cast iron machinery. Sanders, jointer, planer, etc. He also has a 42″ wide belt sander, 7 drill presses, a 36″ bandsaw, a horizontal mill, and a selection of huge heavy duty sheet metal tools.
Just 4 of Mike’s drill presses
This are just four of Mike’s drill presses! This is for efficiency so he doesn’t have to change the set up for repeated operations.
Mike made this giant carving duplicator
It is hard to see in this picture, but that is a giant duplicator. Mike built it for duplicating large sculptures. It took him 6 months to make it. It is easier to see this in the video.
Femi Bandsaw. One of Mike’s favorite bandsaws\
Mike swears by this little bandsaw. But, wow, is it expensive!
Collection of grinders and sanders
You can never have too many grinders! Actually, this is the same reasoning as the multiple drill presses. He can keep working and not have to keep changing cutters.
36″ Bandsaw
Holy smokes, look at that bandsaw! 36″ throat and up to a 14″ cut depth.
Michael’s Vertical Mill
The vertical mill in Mike’s machine shop.
You can never have too many clamps!
Sanders!!
A 30″ disk sander, a 24″ disk sander, and an old spindle sander. Notice the poster above the spindle sander of Mike’s “Chopper” sculpture.
Friction Drive Drill Press
This is a very special drill press. It has a domed shape friction drive for continuously variable speed. Mike did a nice demonstration of this in the video.
Mike’s metal lathe
Actually, this is now Mike’s only lathe and he uses it for everything. Aluminum, steel, stainless steel, plastic, and wood.
Old reciprocating metal cutting saw!
This is a first for me. I have never seen a reciprocating metal cutting saw!
I will also have at least two blog posts on Mike’s sculptures. Subscribe to my blog and get notified as soon as these are posted.
