With all the negative comments over the last couple of years about the future of home machining, the loss of traditional skills and the end of an era etc; together with the moaning about the current lack of good ME press,. I thought it might be worth posting a link to this site, it goes someway to show where all those secondhand and new import lathes go these days:
Rather than a reducing fraternity, my feeling is that we have a changing one. Steam engines might well be giving way to other types of constructive activity and manual machines might be showing the very first signs of eventually giving way to CNC even in the home shop, but home engineering on the way out - I think not. It is just changing as it always has. I can't believe that there has ever been a stronger market for small lathes and mills than now. No wonder one has to wait a few weeks for that new Chinese machine to dock these days.
My question then, with all of this in mind why are the ME press getting narrower and narrower in the scope of their articles and appearing to pander more and more to a specialized and reducing interest. I understand that they see this as their "core" market but to me, there is a vast untapped mass of potential new customers out there. Perhaps we need a new "Practical Mechanics" together with a "Practical Digital Mechanics".
Just a few thoughts, not trying to start a "range war"
Best regards
Keith