Member postings for thaiguzzi

Sorry I can't be there. I live over 1500 km away but hope it goes well.

Russell

thaiguzzi - you have a PM

thaiguzzi - Bacton ... you a Norfolk boy?? - I'm not (obviously!! but worked for 2 1/2 years in Bangkok)

rgds

Bill

"Lathe needs some tlc!"

Could be, but then, so might you if you'd been through this...

this ...

and this ...

and then had 2 1/2 years in grotty storage while the house was rebuilt!!!

But as long as it looks pristine, it's bound to work much better?

John S might have generated some more apt phrases - miss him more and more

Bill

In October 2017, one of the best known characters in our hobby, John Stevenson, passed on. Although John professed to be a ‘bodger’, the self-styled Sir John, Earl of Bridgeport & Sudspumpwater. MBE [Motor Bike Engineer], had amassed a lifetime’s engineering skills.

Model and hobby engineering is a field full of many colourful characters, but John was unique. He combined almost effortless skill in the workshop with an instinct for good design. Despite a reputation for being forthright and not always the most diplomatic of posters online, John always had time and respect for anyone interested in engineering as hobby. He helped a huge number of beginners and more experienced folk with advice and often practical help, bits of tooling or good deals. He was a well-known face at the model engineering shows. as well as being a prolific poster on many of the online engineering forums. A huge number of tributes and stories about John have been posted online, and its clear that his passing will leave a big hole in our community.

A number of people have suggested that it would be nice to remember John with a trophy. That said, while John appreciated the skill that went into what you might call ‘glass-case models’ he worried that sometimes these could put mere mortals off having a go. An award that went to the best-finished or most complex piece of work wouldn’t fit with what he would want to encourage. The things John liked to see more than anything else were well-made, practical tools that showed a bit of ingenuity, good design and weren’t over finished.

The John Stevenson Trophy will be for just that, a well-made and practical bit of tooling, a modification to a machine or an accessory for a tool where the fact it works well is more important than scraping every visible surface. Actually, over-finishing should result in immediate disqualification!

Award of the cup should be judged by a popular vote. As he was such a mainstay of the Model Engineer Forum, we propose that users will vote on the best tool featured in MEW, ME or the forum each year, from a short-list of nominees. Voting will be via a poll on the forum and open to all. This will allow the cup to be awarded every year.

What was formerly the ‘Harrogate’ and now the ‘Doncaster’ show was John’s favourite event in the calendar. The organisers of what is properly called the Northern Modelling and Model Engineering Exhibition (NMMEX), have kindly agreed that the award can be made at the show. We will invite the nominees to exhibit their entries at the show.

In order to make sure all donations are accounted for properly, we are using JustGiving to collect them. If you would like to make a contribution towards the trophy, please visit the JustGiving page at:

www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/johnstevenson

Many thanks,

Neil

Realistically, unless you are making special cutters the T&C grinder probably does not earn its keep in the home shop. I am one of those people that wants to have the capability to make or sharpen any tool I want regardless of the economics.

I made one with big brass capnuts on the end of 3 arms. It's *quite* good - will spin for over 90 secs from a finger-flick, but it's still beaten by one of the grandkids' cheapest and dullest-looking examples, which will do nearly 3 minutes...

You have to be surprisingly cute to get the weights in balance with each other.

Ditto. Made a lovely looking alloy one for my lad, brass inserts for weights etc. Would not spin anywhere near as long as a cheapo plastic 40 pence one from the local shop...

Another mistake was buying a quality bearing. After checking everything out, you want the cheapest, sloppiest brg you can get.

Gary

Colchester's and Harrison suffer from the same "everyone has heard of them" issues as Myford and Boxford with similar tendencies for folk in the trade / know / hobby to expect top-line prices for good ones and optimistic ones for ahem "less than good" examples.

The fundamental problem with both Colchester and Harrison is that they were made to offer an excellent price / performance ratio when new and considered disposable machines to be destroyed for the value of the work produced. So most have been rode hard and put away wet.

As David suggests looking at different makes / models will almost certainly give you more bang for your buck. For example my Smart & Brown 1024 VSL, admittedly a slightly smaller machine, cost me just £1,000 whilst the rather smarter M300 standing next to it had £4,500 on the price tag. My 1024 had been rode pretty hard but, being a high end toolroom machine with an ex-factory price tag in the small house region, the underlying build quality meant it had survived just fine. Would have been very dubious of a Student or M300 of similar appearance. All the high end toolroom machines seem to last well.

You can get lucky via E-bay with ex-maintanence shop and similar low use machines either direct or with further low time use from private owner but you could spend fortune running around looking at dross. My pal Mike picked up an excellent, virtually unworn, Student Mk1 1/2 for £650 with loads of tooling via E-Bay so they are about This one had a "why did they do that" redecoration job on it which obviously frightened off other bidders. We were seriously worried that it might actually turn out to be little better than useable rather than the excellent machine it actually was. Thinking back I've probably tripped over 5 or 6 equivalent deals over the last decade by pure happenstance so there is a good chance of finding something if you keep looking.

Smaller dealers will probably offer better prices than the larger ones. For example Simmonds at Cranbrook in Kent, so fairly local to me, have an M300 at £2,500 which looks to be a pretty decent example **LINK** . I've not dealt with them but I have had dealings with MB Machine Tools, who are more or less next door and closely associated business wise, and found them to be more than fair. Can't see them associating with anyone less ethical. Again well off your patch but I've always found Home and Workshop Machinery at Sidcup decent folk to deal with if you want an honest machine at an OK price.

Clive.

John Reese is spot on about the quality of a Pratt & Whitney model B. I grabbed my wartime one out of the hands of a scrap man and it can still turn out superbly accurate work despite some battle scars. But realistically not an M300 / Student replacement and pretty much unobtanium anyway.

Edited By Clive Foster on 09/11/2017 21:06:01

Edited By Clive Foster on 09/11/2017 21:07:29

My Rolex ( 1963) has to be laid on one side or the other at night depending on whether it is gaining or loosing time to allow it to compensate. Still does not keep very good time though. I paid 5 euros for a watch in Dieppe a few years back & it keeps perfect time. price included a spare battery which I have not needed yet.

Does not quite have the "bling" though

Ha! My auto mechanical Oris goes through periods of either gaining 4-5 minutes per week or losing 4-5 minutes a week. Purchased 2000, last serviced 2007, recommended service intervals every 3 years.