Member postings for John Field

ME for Jan 14th 1943 had a handy article on "Improving the Mark 2 Sten Gun"

A saying I used to hear as a kid when things looked as if they were going from bad to worse was ........."It looks a bit black over Bill's Mother's"

Anyone else come across that?.....and where did it come from?

Another good old UK make is Parkinsons. I have a model F......probably pre-war. Plenty of old Parkinsons vices on Ebay all the time.

I run a Milnes type R lathe, and my lathe is shown on the lathes.co site under "Milnes type R". It's the second one in grey-blue paint with its original overhead countershaft. It is the standard bed length version, whereas the current Ebay ad looks like the long bed version.

I acquired mine about 9 years back and was very fortunate in that it was complete with a great deal of tooling, three and 4 jaw chucks, faceplate, driver plate, all its changewheels, (seemingly unused), overhead countershaft, bench and motor etc. etc. It was dirty and oil-soaked but had been little-used. The original frosting is still visible on the bed surfaces. It is a very accurate lathe for its age....headstock to tailstock alignment is excellent and taper on turned work is minimal. From advertisements in ME vols. from the 1920's and 1930's, my guess is that it dates from that era. My understanding is that Messrs. Milnes did not make the type R after about 1939.

I think it is a very fine machine for its time and still capable of very good work. LBSC ran one for many years. It was known as the "Rolls Royce of small lathes"...and I wouldn't dispute that.

Back in 1995, I was looking for a s/hand English lathe having been bitten by the bug after inheriting and reading multiple bound vols. of M.E from 1900 onwards. Found a circa 1915 Drummond BS type + a mountain of tooling in a shed in Devon, and bought it. Collected in a Citroen AX (or tried to) as the weight had the body rubbing on the rear tyres.... Made it home (slowly) which was a 200 mile trip. The lathe (with its original stand and treadle gear) was 100% complete and unmolested, but it was well-worn, although still capable of some good work. At one point I also had three other Drummonds (all B-types), and all rather worn out. Sold them all circa 2008 when I was the only successful bidder on Fleabay for a 1920's/30's Milnes type R. This too came with a load of original Milnes tooling, a complete set of changewheels, the original countershaft, motor and bench and an oak machinist tool chest stuffed with hand tools...all for £150. I'd read that Milnes R's were known as the "Rolls Royce" of small lathes in their day and LBSC used one for several decades and wrote enthusiastically about them in ME. This lathe (under years of oily grime) turned out to have very little wear. The frosting was still visible on the ways and headstock/tailstock alignment was near-perfect. I've used it for quite a few jobs, including making a new mandrel for a friends disc-cutting lathe. I reckon that its accuracy is only limited by my embryo machinist's "skills". Any other Milnes type R owners/users on here?

Stephen....yes I went to the classes at East Berks College in Maidenhead from (I think) 1994 to 1997. They were really good I thought. The tuition from Messrs Eatwell and Phillips (I think those were the tutor's names) was first class. The site is now a housing estate I believe.....such is "progress". I wonder what happened to all the machine tools and tooling??

Thanks gents.....welcome much appreciated.

Just joined and looking forward to being a member of this great site. Interest in M.E. started in the 1990's when I inherited a near-complete set of bound vols. of Model Engineer from Issue 1. Attended M.E evening classes for 3 years and learned some of the basics, but still a beginner and just getting the shed organised as a retirement project.

Machine tools are a 1930's Milnes type R lathe, Fobco Star bench drill, motorised Adept no 2 shaper, hand operated Adept no 1. shaper and a Drummond round-bed lathe. Also have a Coronet Minor wood turning lathe with a tool grinding head. The Milnes and Adept 1 are fully operational but the others are "works in progress". Should have the Fobco back in service this week. The Drummond is one of the very last made circa 1943 and I'm currently getting it back together.

Main interest is limited to toolmaking and accesories for the machines, but I do have a Hemingway Atom Minor kit as a project.