What do you make?

Most of my bench tools are highly specialised, but among the general tools I've found two to be indispensable. Funnily enough they both do the same job ( sort of ) despite centuries of technology dividing them. The first is an simple Archimedes drill, bought from Proops for a couple of quid, and the second is a Dremel mini-drill.

Regards,

Ah - I see I have made an ambiguous post. Apologies.

I am trying to get at - what do you make with all these lathes, mills and so on?

Do you actually mainly do steam engines as the Brighton Exhibition seems to indicate - or do you (as seems to be the case with most of my tools) use it to mend and repair stuff with an occasional foray into a new project?

Ken

Swarf

Regards, Tony

The more serious answer - I originally bought a lathe to do clockmaking. I have made a clock (just one so far); in the process, I got side-tracked into making the additional tooling that I needed (dividing heads, depthing tools, ...) and into building CNC machines that would make the job easier (wel at least, more fun!). I also do odd bits of repair, making bits and pieces for my cameras, the occasional bit of engraving, etc.

Regards, Tony

I restore RC models. I make all sorts of replacement parts.

I use a Myford ML7, just got a baby Mill with is pretty damn good for me, a small pillar drill, and a grinder. Oh, and half a ton of tools.

I do actually use most of it, my main problem is time. And of that, most of it is spent planning and setting up. Actualy cutting represents about 2% of my time.

AC

mills and so

tools) use it

project?

No models, just make tools to make tools to make tools . . . . . . ad infinitum !

AWEM

In which case.... My lathe is used almost exclusively for making replacement parts or repairing existing parts - after which it gets used for tool and jig making.

Perhaps the most interesting thing I've made on it was a replacement collar guard and key for a 15th century ivory tenor recorder ( one of three in existence ) - which was so valuable that the recorder itself could not be removed from its secure location...so it had to be measured on site and a copy of the relevant section reproduced in Delrin...to which a new ivory collar was fitted. Further hand fitting had to be done on site. The item was subsequently bought by a museum in Edinburgh, and the working sketches, jigs etc. were requested as records of provenance - so if it pops up on Antiques Roadshow in a couple of hundred years, I might get a mention!

I always seem to be making bits for vintage cars, my wife has a 1921 GN, my son has one and I have a 1925 Frazer Nash which means a never ending supply of jobs. I have a Grand Father Clock for restoration for the last 35 years, I have a turret clock restoration project, I need to make a rear tool post for the CVA at work, I need to make a tool grinding rest not to mention the I.C.engine I want to build gosh! he list goes on and on. oh yes therse the variable speed gear box for the lawn mower, there's the boat plus all the George Thomas bits that I so admire........................ It's interesting actually it writing down as one writes more and more projects keep coming to the fore, what a dreamer I am. Still I'm never never bored. roll on full retirement!

Rockets and associated bits and pieces.

Chris

Lots of swarf

I mainly make jigs and fixtures for use with my work. I originally bought the lathe, mill etc. to make bits for my motorbikes, then the machines became the hobby and the bikes went.

Now I've got another bike to restore no doubt it will get used for making a few bits.

Peter

As most people on here will know - R/C submarine(s)

Though it has to sit outside as at just under 3m the centre section is too big to get in the shed.

Which reminds me - tomorrow I finally have time to weld up the bow steel frame. :-)

Michael

The problem is better looked at from the machinery point of view.

If the machinery comes first, then the jobs done on it tend to be dictated by what you have. If you have space for a decent set of tools then all the better, although collecting as opposed to using can be expensive!

Very few people are lucky enough to have unlimited funds for workshop/machinery, and there are always other things like household funds etc etc to think about. A machine shop/shed that earns its keep is always useful and less likely to come under scrutiny thatn a plain hobby shop.

I think I would be close to the truth if I said that a lot of guys here also like collecting and playing with machinery per se, not just machine tools but general engineering stuff, so the pleasure can be expanded across other areas as well.

I have a business to run in my day job, and after a recent factory move we are busy and I don't have much time to spare, but that's not to say I don't go into the workshop now and again and have a look over the machinery there, and plan forthcoming jobs and projects....

We have a Beaver Turret Mill, a few Ward capstan lathes (4 or 5) a big Elliott Progress 3A pillar drill, Clarkson T&C grinder, Ajax pillar drill (13mm) and a Rapidor hacksaw, plus a ton or so of steel stock...

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Web:

Just a few brackets I did today

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

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Well, my Dad gave me this lathe you see and it was a bit shagged. So first i got it got it into good shape and added a brand new chuck. Then I decided it needed a new top slide, so I bought a Mill to machine that. The mill needed allsorts of clamps and T-nuts making so I could fasten things down. Then I made a new tool post or two and a nice locking handle. I cleaned up the tailstock and bought a nice new 12mm chuck and new cntrres. Then someone said I needed to be able to do screw cutting so I bought another lathe. The new lathe was a very nice chinese variable speed lathe, but it didn't have much torque at low speed so I did a load of work cutting new pulleys and doing maths with excel until I had a variable speed lathe with a high speed and low speed range. Then I decided to build an four stroke motor but the z feed on the mill wasn't accurate enough for some of the operations so I modified the mill and added a very nice digital readout. Then I needed a rotary table so got one of those but needed to make a special backplate so I could mount the chuck off my lathe and the dance goes on...

So what's on my workbench?

A box of bits from Great grandad's model mill engine circa 1910 key bits like the piston and flywheel are missing - Project Refurb underway A single cylinder four stroke OHC petrol engine - running out of easy bits to make so going to have to tackle the hard stuff soon A steam crane courtesy of Tubal Cain design - not using the specified casting but have made a fabricated cylinder which is sound to avoid £38 for a casting.

But much more time is still spent making bits to make bits than making the bits them selves!

Steve

The drill stand (is that what it is ?) looks interesting .. features of a press (vertical action) and a suspended chuck (wide movement).

-adrian

If I look back over half of a year, I only see me buying tools to repair other tools. But every tool I buy needs to be repaired first with other tools to be bought and repaired. Or something like this.

I won't buy new tools this year!

Nick

I think it is for tapping.

Nick

Ah, tools to make other tools?

Wes

And it doesn't get better with time. A machinist I know runs a big old Wilson in his "workshop" (The footprint of the Wilson is more that 50% the floor area) he has been at the engineering game around 60 years, but always has the latest new tool or mod to show off.