Work done with limited equipment

Hi all.

I read recently in an old ME magazine of a double acting steam engine built with nothing more than hand tools and an 'Adept' lathe. Does anyone have any examples of good work done with very limited facilities? I find it fascinating and very heartening to hear of such achievements.

Well one of my interests, shooting, has led me to look at some of the high end shotguns out there. Most of the older British, Belgian, Italian and Spanish guns, were made with little more than hand files, hammers and chisels, and very limited machinery such as maybe a pillar drill.

All changed now of course, machinery takes away a lot of the drudgery , but old fashioned hand tools still have their place.

There was an article some time ago (possibly repeated can't remember) about building a Stuart 10V with hand tools only. Required a large drill to finish the bore. Probably not often done as the 10V is usually the introduction to lathe work.

There was also Sally, another Stuart model that did use a Myford but not a lot else, just change the last number of the URL to get the next installment. Hand Maiden was the one done with even less.

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You may be interested in an account by R Bradley of secretly constructing a small screwcutting lathe together with many accessories in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during WW2. The article was originally published in Engineering magazine in Jan 1949, and was reprinted in Guy Lautard’s “Bedside Reader”. It’s amazing what was done with extremely limited materials and resources.

As Jason says, Hand Maiden was made with hand tools only but it was made by Tubal Cain. (the 'real' UK version!) so maybe not for everyone

rgds

Bill

Ship models, largely in bone, by French prisoners of war in the Napoleonic wars, trench art, a full-size glider and various models by WW2 POWs, medal-winning models made with machine tools most would think incapable of any kind of precision, and then, of course, all the works of craftsmanship and art in history and pre-history, made using hand methods, with tools often made from materials that we would consider hopeless, clocks and watches and so on and so on. Once I start thinking about what has been done by people who know how to achieve the impossible with nothing, I start to think that I should just pack up and slink quietly away. I need all the help I can get from precision machinery to de-skill tasks, as much as possible.

I made a GH Thomas Versatile Dividing Head from scrap metal welded together with a 1950s arc welder and machined in a 1937 Drummond lathe, including cutting the gear and worms and drilling the index plates. One step better than an Adept I know, but similar vintage and no milling machines involved.

It would be an interesting project to get an old Adept going and actually make a working model engine on it plus hand tools. I'm sure any number of models were made on them back in the day, so should be do-able. Hmmm. Good thing I live so far away from the nearest Adept or even similar lathe...

Ah... I've just sold my little Adept to fund a more capable machine! and obviously now I'm 'resting between machines' I'm back to hand tools...

Great stories of work done with limited gear guys. Love it. I always think of Mr (Longitude) Harrison's sea clocks, and how they would have been made. Certainly no digital precision back then. How on earth did he manage those extraordinary clocks?

Rev Stew.

Edited By RevStew on 04/09/2018 14:24:31

And don't forget the Antifkera machine made over 2000 years ago would definitely put me to shame. I can only dream at producing such things.