Member postings for larry phelan 1

By the time you work your way through that book, you will have a very good grounding in lathework

It is simple and direct, aimed at the man with little money and no-one should be without it in the workshop.

How many times have I been through it ?? How long is a piece of string ?

Just as an afterthought, has anyone noticed that few new lathes seem to come with a faceplate anymore ?

I would have thought that this would come as standard.

Howard Lewis,

No it wont, Eaten bread is soon forgotten !!

Magpie,

I think that man you mentioned at Chester may have been John. If so, I agree, he was both courteous and helpful, to a fault and I think a sad loss to Chester when he retired. If he is still around, I wish him well.

There is something wrong when you have to make an appointment to go look at a machine in a place like Chester or Warco or any such supplier, none of them are that big, or is it because of this virus ?

At the end of the day, the Sale is only one part of the deal, it,s the service that really counts and this is where most suppliers need to brush up.

First Sale easy

Repeat Sale maybe not so easy !

Just received a travel mag inviting me to travel to the Far East for "Tour of my life".

Comments please ????

I have had good and bad experiences from Chester, have never dealt with Warco, but I suspect they are all much the same. Seems to be very much the luck of the draw.

Reminds me of what a friend of mine said many years ago. He was involved in car sales and said "Any one can sell a car to a customer, but can he sell to him a second time ?" Good question !

Yes I think you are set up for screwcutting, not turning. Can happen, ask me how I know !!

No big deal, I forgot to change my clocks this time around ! Again, no big deal, one hour or one day is much the same to me. Remember the good times, forget the rest.

Remind me again, what was this Post about ???

The Craftsman lathe has a screw on chuck fitted with two simple clamps and never comes loose.

Take a look at my Elevating Barrow in my Album, works a treat ! Sad to say, it was not my idea, I just copied it.

Surely their engineers should have some idea ? the motor is not that old !

Hi Alex,

I have a Chester Craftsman lathe, bought many moons ago and would have to agree with most of the points you make, but bear in mind that they are very much made to a price. They are not toolroom machines.

My experience, for what it,s worth has been ;

A The allen screws used on them were total crap, I replaced all of then with good ones

B Did have a slight problem with vibration at one of the top speeds, seemed to vanish after I bolted the lathe to the floor and wall. Not really much of an issue.

C Overall finish was not great, switches needed to be set right and gibstrips checked, nothing major.

D As an entry level machine, I considered it to be reasonable value. Anything better would have been wasted on me at that time. Might like a better lathe now, but since this one does all I want, perhaps not.

E The "Manual" ??, yes that was a joke, must have been written by the Head bottle washer in the local Takeaway.

F I suppose a lot depends on what you want the machine for, but you must bear in mind that it was not offered as a top grade model. A case of "Horses for courses " perhaps

Overall I am happy with my lathe, not the best around, suitable for purpose, and yes, it does pay to see before you buy. I have been down that road too with other things.

If you wish to sell it on, I don't think you will have any trouble, they are OK for most work, just not toolroom.

With me it,s a matter of making dinner for my two dogs, making dinner for myself, then comes the hard part !!

Which is which ?? Since my dogs will eat almost anything, this is not always easy.

Problems problems, sometimes it,s better to just close your eyes and take a chance.

I thought about looking for those drugs and loose women too, although I,m not sure I could handle either of them now. Still , it,s an interesting idea !!

We are not clever, it has all been done before, it,s just that it,s taking us a bit longer to see it.

Mother Nature has been around for a long time, without our "Help", why don't we just leave her to get on with it ? Spiders webs are the most amazing things I have ever seen, they are well worth looking at.

Just look at them and study them, you will learn a lot, believe me.

Martin,

You might be surprised where help comes from in time of need [By the way, young elephants can be such friendly things !!! ] Friends do not always appear from the expected direction, as I know.. Respond, take up the offer, remember "No man is an island"

I still do turns for some old folk around here who don't get out much, but then, I,m only 81 and still driving, so it,s no be deal.

Reach out, this will pass.

I agree with Tick TOCK. When it comes to asking stupid questions, I am in the Top Ten. I do it all the time, why ? simply because I don't know the answer, therefore I don't regard it as stupid. Maybe others do, but most Members don't and are only too happy to enlighten me. Don't be afraid to ask, it,s the only to find out.

I don't make clocks so I cannot help in this case but I still learn something from such Posts.

I agree with N-D-I-Y, so what if it packs up or the Telly goes belly-up [might be a good idea, in fact ]

There are loads of other things to do, you might be surprised. Last time I bothered with Telly was about two years ago, nothing seems to have changed much.

Now if the beer runs out ?????? That might be a different matter !

Just went looking for spare parts for scheppach mortice machine [not that I need any ] and was surprised to see that a handle for said machine is offered for only £18000, near enough !

Never knew my machine was worth that much. !

Don't think it needs to be fitted into the machine, any standard NVR switch to suit the HP should be OK..

I had a similar problem with a garden shredder last year, switch was built in, so I just by-passed it and fitted a new switch with its own mounting box. Problem solved !