What started your interest?

I've always had an interest in mechanical things. It probably started when my dad bought me a TRIX construction set (similar to Meccano). I also remember a plastic Ferguson tractor kit and a Kiel Kraft rubber powered Spitfire, all birthday or christmas presents. Anyone else remember the JETEX rocket engine.

I got a motorbike at 16 and of course had to buy all the spanners etc to let me work on it. My first real employment was with a AEI at Rugby as a student apprentice on a "sandwich course". This meant 6 months at college and 6 months in the works. I was taught the basics of operating lathes etc in the works but struggled with the maths at college and eventually packed it in.

I had a growing interest in electronics and having passed the RTEB ( Radio and Television examination Board ) I became a tv repair man. Then moved to Leeds and worked for a communication company who did just about every thing in that field. Moved on again when CCTV was developing and worked in that, until retirement.

I maintained an interest in electronics and took Practical Wireless and Practical Electronics for years, until most of the projects seemed to involve a PIC and a page of code, at which point I lost interest. Over the years I've repaired every thing from audio systems to washing machines and done my own electrical work until it was no longer permitted. I've also built my own PC's from bits mainly bought from the now defunct Maplin.

Following my last and hopefully final house move I found myself with a reasonably sized garage to tun into a workshop and proceeded to buy machinery to go in it as I approached retirement. I have now been retired for 10 years and despite various setbacks health wise, I am enjoying my metal mangling.

Edited By Anthony Knights on 17/07/2019 07:05:10

Hi, I guess it was Airfix and my dad as he showed my how to glue them together from about the time I was five or six. I also got to watch him in his shed and help him in my little way, with DIY jobs and of course he taught me the basics of using tools.

Regards Nick.

Hi, I am pretty new to model engineering. Bought my first kit last year. Stuart 10V.

As a kid, i had Meccano, and a large hornby trainset. A car accident prevented me from doing some sporting activities, so i figured i'd start building things instead.

Hello Anthony, I have a friend who is selling the contents of his workshop and wondered if you need any thing. If you do please contact me via a PM . John

In the late 1950's, whilst still at secondary school, I was shown how to braze, tin solder, screwcut using a tap & die, and how to use a lathe, both a belt driven job which I understand was the property of the craftwork teacher and a Portass lathe.

Many years later, as described on another thread, I wished to make some replacement 00gauge wheels. A lathe was the obvious requirement and having gone through an attempt at homemade lathe, and a Unimat 1, I ended up with a Hobbymat MD65 with which I started doing other things, eg making a replacement axle for my son's bicycle (wrong steel, but that's by the by). Realising the possibilities together with a book recommendation from a work colleague and the discovery of places like Blackgates Engineering, I started taking much more interest in what I was doing. Ultimately, after getting sick of catching my hand on the Hobbymat tailstock, and finding the Hobbymat too small for some of the things I tried to do, I bought the Warco 220. That was in 1994.

I realized early on that I didn't really have any specific reason for the lathe, just an interest in learning how to use it - Self Education by Experimentation - and that still stands today. Obviously, it isn't only self-education because I do also make or repair articles for which I have a need.

Originally, I had no intention of writing anything for the magazine, I had sent in a small number of letters to ME which got published. One of these lead to some correspondence with one of the ME regulars, hence when one of Neil's pre-decessors in the Editorial chair kept making requests for articles and as I had successfully completed a self-releasing mandrel handle, I submitted it, and much to my surprise it got published. And that lead in turn to me submitting what in effect is a very slow blog about what I have done, mostly about the Warco 220, but along the way some other repair jobs.

One thing that I have realized is that I simply do not have the knowledge or the abiity of some of the other magazine contributors. As a result, my articles are always aimed showing how I did it, what compromises I had to make, and the mistakes I made, believing as I do, that not all of us are capable of turning out first class work first time.

All in all though, I do find it satisfying to accomplish something, no matter how small or insignificant.

Peter G. Shaw

Made Airfix kits from about 7. Had Meccano and Lego. When dad left home I was 17 and had to learn how to fix and maintain things around the home for mum. Always did the brakes and exhausts on my first cars, fixing holes with baked bean tins and jubilee clips!

Motorbikes came along at 23 and in 2009 I was looking at adapting bits off other models to fit to mine. All the info I got from owner's clubs (plans and specs) required access to a machine shop so I decided to teach myself how to use the machinery to get it done.

One Barker 5x24 lathe, Champion round column mill and an Elliott 10" shaper later I love the hobby and this site and the magazine and just long for more time to be able to devote to it

One day in the mid-1950s, my mother returned from her shopping trip with a copy of the New Model Engineer for me. I think it was the first issue of the re-release of the magazine in a larger and more glossy size after the smaller wartime issues. If you had known my late mother you would have realised how far out of character this was. She had absolutely no interest in things mechanical and she probably thought that it was similar to the Meccano Magazine which I already got. So an eleven or twelve year old was introduced to model engineering with absolutely no knowledge of machine tools. But I did start to pick things up as further issues appeared since Mother had gone as far as putting a firm order from day one. I think I remember that it was the LBSC articles that I understood best. I eventually got my hands on a lathe at school in my later teens but it was a few years more before I got my first lathe.

Jim.

Had been making Airfix kits ( 60 odd years ago) and then later on Tamiya and Historex (detailed model figures) modifying and detailing them following articles in magazines. One of the magazines must have had details of the London shows as I then started going to the Seymour Hall swimming baths and later on Wembley when every aspect of modeling was on display. It was there that I then decided to move on to metal but it was another 50 years until I had enough disposable income to buy machines.