A J Reeves - Workshop Tool & Equipment Castings

I was looking at buying a set of Centaur IC engine castings from them recently. Cost was approaching 500 Quid, but then a footnote explains that does not include the cylinder head, which is an extra 80 Quid and is faulty because "wear and tear on the pattern" means the rocker arm supports are in the wrong place and you can't use the supplied standard rocker arms with it. The head is a complex shape that I could not easily machine manually from solid, so really have no choice. So I decided I would rather not pay considerable money for faulty goods and moved on to other projects instead. No wonder the hobby is not booming like it once was.

Funnily enough, I bought an Iron base casting for a GHT rear toolpost and drawing included some considerable time ago and recently made a start on that project, partly because of the need for something to write about in the club newsletter and partly for convenience, rather than keep messing about getting parting tool aligned in the front QCTP. Included with my Reeves order, were the 2 castings for the multi station tailstock Turret, also included drawing. Not touched them yet. I notice that project is available elsewhere, completely made up with what looks like a ground finish and for what I thought was a good price, given the amount of work involved. A now deceased club member once said I could spend my life making tools to make other tools and never get around to what you really want to make.

Sorry DMB but what if that's what you like?. We are all different.

If that's what floats your boat options are to cut from solid, fabricate or make your own patterns and get castings done. No different really to those of us that like making models of subjects where castings are not available.

If the number of people that like making tools from castings was high enough I'm sure the likes of Reeves and College engineering would still be happy to provide castings. On the other hand if they are a slow selling item and sit on the shelf for a long time then it's not really viable for the suppliers to continue to keep these in stock.