First Project

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Puffa,

You mention planning on a 6ft x 6ft shed for a workshop, thats currently the size of mine and I have a small lathe and a mill in there and a reasonable workable area of bench space. I dont think keeping your lawnmower, hedge trimmer and the like in the shed is a good idea though, yes you can take them out each time you want to work but that will soon become a pain. Obviously the larger the shed/workshop the better and if you can go larger I would, if your garden equipment have to live in the workshop then go for the biggest shed funds and garden space will allow.

Ron

So I was looking through the Myfordboy blog, and it does look good and clear. However, it claims that all the parts can be done on a lathe, yet they use a mill to flatten the side of the cylinder and drill the holes in the cylinder for the steam in and out. I thought I'd heard that those processes can be done on a lathe somehow. Can anyone point me to a site/video/similar which shows how that can be done?

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Have a look up of Ade's Workshop on YouTube. He is entertaining and is easy to watch. He is using a Warco WM180. Some of his videos show milling on a lathe, especially his home made qctp.

Thanks guys! Yes I see now, if I'd put a bit more effort in the search I'm sure I would have found it. Sorry about that!

It seems that the Clarke CL300M is quite an easy to get hold of small lathe, and a couple are on Ebay for around the £500 mark. Which doesn't seem too bad to me (though pretty sure the wife would disagree).

You can hold the cylinder in the four jaw chuck in the lathe and machine the flat on the side of it quite easily.

Drilling the steam port holes can be done with a bit of care in the drill press. Or job can be held in the tool post or on a bracket, angle plate etc attached to the cross slide and hold the drill bit in the lathe chuck. If you want luxury, get a vertical milling slide for your lathe. Milling machines in the home workshop aare a recent luxury. Many thousands of steam engines were made entirely with a lathe and drill press prior to the current century.

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Check also... motor on the Clarke is quite small I believe. I'd be looking at the Chester Conquest Superior and the new brushless Warco. I'm no expert by any means... but don't rush into purchase. Lots to consider including swing and horsepower

I've just bought my first lathe, which is a Chester DB7, but straight off, the size of the spindle is a little limiting at 21mm. OK, not the end of the world, but if I got a bar that's 25mm round, and 300mm long, I have to cut it down first for the parts I wish to make.

Just things to consider. Enjoy though, as much as I am

This SC3 is still available and open to offers as far as I know.

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Puffa , Axminster Power Tools do a very good one week basic training course. Usually taken by a chap who served his time at Colchester lathes . Even though not cheap at around £600 , the courses are well supported . I've done two courses there and thoroughly enjoyed both . Trevor.

...ooow, also of note, is that the smaller lathes I noticed didn't usually come with a 4 jaw chuck and steadies. When you add those to the price + tooling, you may get a better deal going to the bigger "bundles". Trevor - I'm booked on the two day lathe course and really looking forward to it.