John Stevenson

Hi Tony,

The wake went fine. A good mix of friends attended from his motor bike racing days, people from various forums including some members of this forum including Neil Wyatt and Howard Lewis, through to people he did various sub-contract work for, along with various family and friends in general. It was a good evening, and a good number of stories were shared over a few drinks and a good spread of food, laid on by the family.

Ketan.

That's nice Ketan.

Sorry I couldn't be there either.

It was good evening, and good to re-meet several folks and a few new faces who all knew John.

Neil

Blimey. Two years gone by.

I'll raise a glass to you old mate, although not Newccy Brown.

Charles

I'll have a Famous Grouse with him - but never before 5 o'clock. Didn't know the chap well, but he helped me install my lathe (at minimal cost) as well as helping with a lot of other things. 'We'll make a fitter of you yet Robin' he said when I fell on my arse trying to lever the machine round a corner with the rusty 6 foot crowbar he produced from his van. He was a good man, and still when I try to work something out I often find myself asking 'what would John have said?' His legacy will live on. A champion of pragmatic answers.

Robin.

Edited By Robin Graham on 24/10/2019 01:30:35

Edited By Robin Graham on 24/10/2019 01:45:33

John was in my thoughts last week when I drove to Long Eaton.

Hi, I thought of John last week when I was first used a solid carbide slot dill that he had sharpened for me the last time he was doing it for free at Doncaster MEX. Gave him a posthumous thanks for doing a good job of it.

Regards Nick.

I think of him every time I read back issues of ME I got from him and when turning the Y-axis handle on the Marlow.

Geoff - Walking 1.5 miles with ease with double soon.

Three years now mate.

Not forgotten and still an inspiration to many.

c

Yes - a great loss. My ML7 was his workhorse for many years, so it reminds me of him whenever I use it.

In a similar vein the tailstock on my CVA came from his one.

c

John was well respected, not only in Blighty, but on the other side of the pond as well.

Of course I wish John a speedy recovery, I do not know him but have seen his many posts, people like John are the backbone of this forum who help out us beginners.

Also all repect to Ketan, probable most people have heard of him and many people have met him as I have, shows what a caring person he is.

Get well soon John.

Bill D.

Unfortunately, it is 3 years too late for John to make a recovery, speedy or otherwise.

An inspiration to many, me included. Had the pleasure of chatting to him and learning whilst at Doncaster.

Didn’t realise it had been 3 years now but his words and many favours to others live on which is, I think, how he’d like to be remembered.

A good solid no nonsense bloke that didn't suffer fools gladly. He would tell you how it was even if you didn't want to hear it.

I was always in awe of his problem solving skills, they simply didn't seem to exist for him. Never saw him prevaricate either he just 'did'.

I decided yesterday to fit a new chuck that had been sitting around for some while to a spare backplate, and reduced the backplate diameter and register to fit the recess in the back of the chuck. At this point, as this chuck is of the kind that has 3 blind threaded holes at the back for the mounting bolts, the question arose as to how to (quickly) mark out the backplate for the 3 holes. Marking out the first was easy enough, move a sharp lathe tool to 1/2 of the PCD, use it to lightly score a PCD circle on the backplate, centre pop and drill the first hole, easy peasy. But short of messing with a rotary table (still not sure which box to look in since the move!), what about the other 2? At this point, as has happened often over the years, I remembered a tip that came from one of my many phone conversations with John. Machine a sharp point on a short length of threaded rod (or a length cut from a spare matching bolt) and thread it into one of the threaded holes in the back of the chuck, leaving the point sticking out and enough thread to grab onto to remove it later. Offer up the backplate, sight through the first hole to one of the empty threaded holes in the chuck, give the backplate a light tap where it touches the pointy bit, rotate the backplate 1/3 of a turn to sight through to the other empty hole, another light tap. You now have a rather blunted pointy bit but enough of a mark on the backplate in the other 2 drilling positions so you can make decent pop marks and drill the last 2 holes.

Another of John's immensely practical methods.

His death is a great loss to Engineering, whether in commercial terms, or to the hobby of modelling.

John could turn a basket case into something as good as if not better than before.

There will be many who regret his passing..

Howard