Member postings for Jon Lawes

Our MES has a Myford with a lovely little device that clicks off the feed once its reached the desired travel. Fantastic bit of design.

You've got a lovely finish on those components, nice work.

If it makes you feel any better I've done the same thing. I don't remember having set the lathe to reverse but I know it took me ages to work it out...

The disabled hand controls in my car did this when parked up for a while. I went to use it again and the rubber hand grip for the throttle/brake had turned to blu-tac.

Looks fantastic Werner, sehr schön.

I don't think I'd be going off for a coffee break with a lit fire!

I quite like refining things after I've built them, an improvement here, a tweak there. Nothing is ever truly finished.

I hope its not too good to use, that would be criminal!

**LINK**

I thought this quite an interesting page after googling the locomotive to see what you were referring to.

Sometimes my ML7 would stall and it would turn out the contacts in the Dewhurst switch were grubby, and I think the increased current draw would cause a burn on the contacts. Cycling the switch usually cleared it. Cleaning up the contacts in the switch reduced it, and installing an inline switch to control the power and just using the Dewhurst for reversing cured it.

Those Dewhurst switches are great for changing direction but for starting and stopping they seem to arc and erode over time. If I can respectfully suggest another switch inline which you use for starting and stopping the lathe, leaving the Dewhurst engaged and only changed when a direction change is required. Its is also a good opportunity to include a No Volt Release switch, which is a good safety improvement anyway.

The work you have done on restoring that lathe is superb, good work.

Jon.

They have replied:

"Hello

Thank you for your email.

We do not feel it is appropriate to comment on 'chat-rooms'.

If you have any queries please contact us directly so we can address any issues you may have,

Tasha."

Chat rooms, haven't heard it called that for years!

I have replied pointing out that the complaints are there on the thread, what they do with the information is entirely up to them. Based on what I've seen so far I can guess what they plan to do.

I've contacted the company in question to bring this thread to their attention; it's only fair they have their say. They may not be aware of some of these issues.

Jon.

Surely the best thing is for someone to steer a representative of this company to this thread. Maybe they are not aware of the depth and scale of the problem.

Companies need to be aware of what their customers need in order to keep their custom; although there is evidence in the past there has been a certain amount of "Well its always been good enough for everyone else" bandied about, if they can see how people are feeling they can either a) act upon it, b) ignore it, or as has happened with other companies on these threads, c) angrily tell everyone its the customers fault and resume b). Whatever they choose, there is a chance things will improve.

I complained to the same company (I believe) that their ratchet teeth on a lubricator gear I purchased were far too shallow to work properly, this was the response:

"Hello

Thank you for your email.

We are aware that the teeth on the ratchet wheels are not particularly deep however the same one has been sold for over 17 years now. Builders have mentioned it however that is as far as its gone.

Unfortunately we are unable to offer a different one so if you are not able to use it please return it for a refund.

We are very sorry we could not be of more help."

I was a little surprised at the tone of some of the responses on here, usually its a helpful place. If people are annoyed that a thread has cropped up again maybe just hold back on responding?

I would reiterate though; this will be easier if you can do a bit of research into what sort of work you plan to do; where do your interests lay outside of workshop work? Maybe that will help with the steering?

Although I can understand your ambiguity, maybe its best to pin down a little more tightly what you can forsee yourself making. Although you say you want to be open about the sort of things you will be making, its currently a "What kind of car should I buy" question, with the answer to "what do you want to use it for" currently no more accurate than "everything".

As you can see its a question thats been hotly debated in the past!

How on earth did you make the holes so regular, I can sit for ages trying to line everything up and still end up with my holes looking like Jackson Pollock drilled them...

Previous experience aside, I reckon a broken collar bone is a pretty fair excuse!

Funnily enough I'm about to look at a solution to the trunnion design on my GT6. The high kerbs at some circuits does give it all quite a beating and someday I suspect a trunnion will make a bid for freedom. I see some based on a Caterham design are knocking around but I really would like a better solution. I could be tempted to start from scratch with rose joints.

All the photographers at Boscombe Down complain bitterly that their Harvard was sold. It was a perfect platform for photography.