Member postings for Lee Rogers

The problem with ebay prices is that people who know nothing about what they have see a good condition machine with a ton of accessories sold at 500 and think ,YES , it's the same as mine. What they have is clapped out , abused , missing parts and rusty to boot. A good Drummond M Type is better than an ML7 but just try finding a good one. My Drummond Admiralty Bs Type of 1913 is great fun to use and capable within its limits. Tweeking it to get it on song takes time but twice the time is twice the fun to me.Not for some but we all pursue the hobby to please ourselves.

Nice work. Prototyping and getting back in there to refine the job can be frustrating at times so well done for sticking at it.

Info is a bit scant at this early stage. It seems that a very quick decision was made, neither carriageway was clear enough so it was straight down the middle . The pilot kept flying it all the way to a stop and power to his very cool elbow for that. The Fournier does stand quite high on its u/c so that's probably what saved it .

Aviation history is chockablock with flying cars and personal transport for the everyman. They all fail and god help us if the muppets I see on the road ever take to the air. If Uber and minicab drivers take to the air it's hard hat and bunker time .

As a confirmed Drummond nut I must say it's been a pleasure to see the Drummond community pulling together to keep the old things going. No names but there are a few that go the extra mile to help other genuine enthusiasts with spares and advice. Parts are sold at sensible prices and help is offered patiently to those who ask the same questions that have been asked so many times before. Drummond groups are a very decent bunch, proud to count myself in.

You will find a very decent bunch of people at the facebook Drummond/Myford Lathe Owners and Enthusiasts group. A great deal of experience and knowledge I know that many have reservations about FB but I have no problem with it. A photo here would be most helpful too.

Numbers on Drummonds are as Bazyle says assembly marks . Flat bed lathes have the serial nmbr on the bed at the tailstock end . Unfortunatly a serial number is not a reliable guide to anything on a Drummond , there are known duplicates and the factory system was odd to say the least.

French ! That'd be metric then . No use to me and my Drummond.

My Dad was an aerospace design engineer who worked on everything from homebuilts to air launched weapons and satellites . He told me that he occasionally worked in a unit he called an elephant . Eg; If dimension A is 1 elephant then dimension B must be 2 elephant , dimension C becomes 1/2 an elephant and so on. The point of course being that the dimensions were all relative , so for the purposes of determining a general shape and layout an elephant would do the job.

lathes.co.uk. Phone and speak to Tony Griffiths . Tony will advise and you can advertise on his site.

It will cost but in my view well worth it.

Tony's website and his knowledge are world renowned, Tony is an absolute gentleman and a pleasure to deal with.

No connection other than I have sold a lathe on his site.

Kiwi Bloke points out the inadequacy of standard tool rests on grinders. Replace it with the simplest one you can think up. Mine just has an adjustable fence and I only use that for the final cuts and as a visual reference for initial cuts. The satisfaction of your first job done with a tool that you ground yourself is priceless.

Worth remembering that for fine cutting feeds you can use any set with the correct bore, with a bit of imagination you can compound 2 different sets on the same banjo.

HDPE plastic. One long string that wont break , wrap around nightmare. For rough cutting I resorted to scoring lines on the part to get a break.

Laid the Vinyl floor in the new workshop. The floor is a sandwich of 22mm OSB, 60mm Kingspan Greenguard rigid foam ,18mm OSB t&g floor panels with the vinyl as a finishing touch. The rest of the building is 100mm SIPs.

For those tricky to hold jobs spot tack with cyano and build up the epoxy at leisure. Spare specs repair still good 2 years on.

A good example of design to do the job. The bolt is taking sheer load , the captive nut is simply stopping it from moving and subject to very little load. NEAT !

I think David George has it right . 6082 T6 is as cheap as chips and well up to the job, the only reason to use expensive (in the UK) 6061 T6 is its availability in very thin walled tube and thin sheet.

That is a strange one. The hole in the gap bed for a start . The bed looks complex for such a small lathe, more like a tool room machine but they are usually plain turning lathes. Have you spoken to Tony Griffiths ?

We sold a huge stamp collection at auction a few years ago , divided into several lots the bulk of it was sold at face value , a ten year old 1st class stamp was still a first class stamp whatever it's original price. I wonder if the barcode now retains face value? IE. you will have to pay more if the price has gone up .

So the ritual that begins with sorting the brown envelopes from the others, bin unopened the ones from Virgin, Saga, Sky etc . Butter toast, look on the back for the return address, stir tea. Decipher handwriting, spoon out marmalade..............study postmark ! Another small pleasure consigned to history. I'll just have to open them to find out who, where they came from.