I feel I should update you all as to where I am with my CAD/CAM experience and designing my own engine. Not very far I have to say.

I bought at for me, great expense, BobCad  CAD software.  They seemed far more focused on selling than supporting as far as I was concerned and whilst I did like there 3D side it was transferring the models to 2D drawing sheets that I couldn’t sort out. Without answering my many request and being fed up with the sales people who were told my views on support (they promised to pass on my remarks and help request) I could get no where. As someone once said if you keep banging your head against a wall you eventually find out that it hurts!

In the end I took the salesman’s advice when purchasing BobCad “you could always sell it on eBay as its all yours” (yes he did!) I did just that and listed it on eBay. I did not recover all my costs, but the biggest part, so looked for a cheap 2D drawing package. My confidence in software salesman taking a large knock I decided I would not go for such an expensive solution since I have cooled on the idea of CNC. I saw a version of TurboCad 14 deluxe on eBay for under £30 so sent off for it straight away.

When it arrived with a full training support CD system I thought it was a bargain. It would certainly do all the 2D stuff I wanted but it also does 3D. Whilst it is not as good as BobCad for 3D modeling it was only around a tenth of the price! So I then started to learn a whole new program. When it came to doing some of the tasks I wanted after becoming slightly more proficient, I discovered the natural limitations of the deluxe version.

When searching out forums, the internet in general it seemed that upgrading it to a premium version was the way to go(where have I heard that before!) however I wasn’t going to fork out several hundred pounds again but I found an American supplier of TurboCad version 12 premium for about a $100 or so and that’s what I have now. I shall sell the version 14 deluxe soon so if anyone’s interested then email me.

I am now going to put all my efforts into learning how to use TurboCad 12 premium and have already produced some plans for small items in the workshop. At present I am working on a tool height setting fixture for setting the diameter of an in line boring tool (need it for the Seal build) based loosely on another’s design. A plan of the ball turning tool I made for the chess set featured in Model Engineer magazine (issues 4345, 4346 and 4347) to accompany a build article that may be published some time in the future.

So you see the engine design is going to be later in the year before real progress is made. Indeed it may be a case of building parts, that will be drawn up later, and others that may be drawn first. Something I may not be alone in doing……Experience and a better understanding of CAD may lead me away from this approach……..time will as ever, tell!