Well I have finally received my cast iron bar from Reeves 2000. Unfortunateley to late to make the new psiton. However tommorow it will be the first item to be made. After that it will be over to the starting, or trying to start the engine....watch this space.
My day was therefore spent checking out the fretsaw from Axminster tools, prior to listing it for sale. The fault was found pretty quickly. The owner who returned the tool to Axminster (I bought a pallet load of catalogue returns!) must have over tensioned the blade, or dropped the thing as the tensioner bar was bent. So it was a simple case of removing the parts and straightening up the bar. I then decided to try it out to make sure it works when I list it. Next year I will be building the Westbury 4cylinder Seal petrol engine and to put it into a large scale model boat. I have the plans and decided that I would try and cut some 1/4" ply used for the bulkheads. The job will be a joint project with my younger brother, Stephen (runs a very good silver eBay site since retirement http://www.silver2treasure.com )
It is a very impressive piece of kit! Cutting 1/4" ply was very simple and it is very tempting to try and find some space for it in my workshop, however it is mainly woodworking so it will have to go sometime soon. The only other fault I could find is a crack in the casting base. However it doesn't have any bearing on its performance as it is in the base. So some one will get a real bargain.
The second part of the day is the subject of a second post under the fowler heading.............
About Mike Freeman
Hello, my name is Mike Freeman and I am a retired Chief Fire Officer from the United Kingdom with a keen interest in model engineering, silver caddy spoons and sea fishing. I live in the pretty fishing port of Brixham, South Devon, in the United Kingdom.
I am a sufferer of degenerative osteoarthritis, which impacts on the amount of time I can spend in the workshop, and is the reason why you will see seats and a stool in some of the photo's. I have only recently added the above sentence after a discussion with one of my Doctor's from the excellent pain clinic, based in Torbay. This does affect concentration one of the reasons why I double then re-double my measurements and set ups.
Before completing nearly 30 years of public service I and my wife Sandy, owned and ran, a small restaurant in Okehampton Devon. Prior to marriage I worked for my father in his various businesses, in the early days these were garages, which he bought in a run down state, then built them up before moving on, to start again.
I took every opportunity in those early days, to work in his workshop's
learning 'on the job' rather than as an apprentice. This, I suspect, is the reason why my building various model's in the early days, turned into model engineering, when funds allowed the required equipment to be bought.
My workshop comprises one half of a detached double garage. It has a
stud wall separating the two halves and unusually perhaps, its own
shower/toilet/washbasin compartment! (the true reason for buying the
bungalow - don't tell the wife!!!)
It is fully insulated with a ceiling and fluorescent lighting supplementing the one window. Several double electrical sockets are dotted around in
relevant positions.
Equipment consists of 2 lathes (1 Myford ML 10 and 1 Chinese variable
speed motor with etched glass DRO's), 1 milling machine (RF25 far East) floor standing pillar drill, Proxxon bandsaw, Warco bandsaw, 6" wire brush and polishing mop motor, 6" coarse and fine grinder, Proxxon mini drill, various benches and an engineers vice. I have just acquired a third lathe, a Myford ML7 which I am at present evaluating so I can decide which of the Myford's I will keep.
I have only just bought the Chinese lathe and had it fitted with DRO's prior to delivery. And what a bonus they are! So good in fact that I decided to buy another set for the Milling machine. Whilst my engineering experience can only be described as limited, I find the use of DRO's has affected my accuracy levels which have improved tremendously (although that's not saying much!) and would recommend their fitting to any model engineer.
Prior to retirement I built for my son's 17th birthday a Locost car. This
was a tremendous project and a great feeling when it passed its test. The book it was based on suggests it can be built for £250. Ours was nothing special in the sense of all new parts but still cost about £900 to build!
