What started your interest?

Hi forum,

Just wondering what sparked an interest in model engineering?

This was mine... it's a Chiltern Model Steam Beam Engine built from their kit, and a 3.5" boiler provided by them also. At the time when I bought it, I had no machining facilities, although my uncle has a Myford super 7, so was able to make a few bits for the plant. I have built their Vertical marine single also while waiting for my workshop.

Stuart S50 is being delivered today But that's likely to be my over winter project, once the shed is complete.

I am leaning towards stationary of course, but like anything steam... you just can't beat the smell and sounds of it.

I personally dont do model engineering but my Brother and I were brought up with model engineering and engineering through our Grandfather and Father, Grandad was a taxi driver in London and a self taught model engineer and Dad was an engineering Draftsman so when I came to loooking for work my Brother and I both got engineering apprenticeships with the same company, Grandad made a traction engine and several coal fired steam tugs which we were allowed to assist with, one of our jobs was to break the coal into little pieces to fit the shovel to get into the boilers, we used to tow his Triumph Herald Estate with the 3" scale traction engine and he showed us how to use his lathe to make stuff.

Martin P

Grandpa was a centreless grinder, and as a toddler when the family was at his and Nana's house I came across what I now think was a Vernier caliper lying on a table. Nobody would let me get my hands on it, but I thought it was the finest thing in the world...

Hi Martin,

Ahhh, my granddad was making a Rob Roy 3.5" loco until his passing in 82. That project has been rekindled by Uncle with his Myford It's very slow going but hopefully I'll see it run at some point.

Hi Lainchy,

That is spooky my Gramps making Petrolea and he passed in 82 also, currently I am making Rob Roy will I ever finish it !?. Recently got into Suffolk lawnmower engines and that started when in the darkest corner of workshop I found a 1950's engine that Gramp had fitted to a home made circular saw table, I now have 3 engines 2x 75cc and a 98cc.and that won't be the end of the collection

Mick 🇬🇧

My dad always wanted a lathe so a few years ago we bought one, a Myford Super 7. Youtube videos on machining (I needed to find out how to operate the S7) got me hooked. I was mesmerised by how a cutter could remove material. Adam Booth, Tom Lipton etc. did the rest. And I learn a lot from here. The collective wealth of knowledge is reassuring fro anyone taking the plunge.

The knowledge on here is vast that's for sure. I've spent the last few months watching everything, and getting motivation from "Andrew Whale" - who is a forum member (Hi Andrew if yer reading), and also Ade's workshop, Abom79... Blondihacks... there's SO much online now. Uncle doesn't have the internet, but often uses mine or his daughters to look stuff up. At the end of the day, there's nothing like getting stuck in though... and having a go

There's something about fine old tools and old things generally! Something that's given new life when some people would throw it out. It's all good stuff

Mick,

Be careful, I bought my first Stationary engine over thirty years ago and now have over twenty, restored and waiting, dont leave the engines together as they will breed.

Martin P

I've always had enjoyment from making and repairing machinery, I don't know where this came from because my father was useless at anything mechanical. I completed an apprenticeship with British Rail overhauling Diesel Electric & Electric locomotives at Stratford, Couple of the highlights of my apprenticeship was fitting the side rods on the flying Scotsman after it had been towed to the depot for royal train duties, then removing them so that it could be towed back to wherever it had come form. Also stripping Britannia down for a cracked frame to be welded.

Along with many engine swaps as the class 40, 45 & 50 loco's came out of use. (I mainly worked on 31, 37, 47, 85 & 86's, and the odd HST & 25)

When I left the railway I joined Fords Tractor manufacturing plant at Basildon, maintaining engine & hydraulic machining plant. But not to go on about my whole life story and get to the point I suppose my enjoyment of model engineering comes from the need to fix, improve and make machines, just a case of what gives me self satisfaction.

The opportunity to buy machines for home use only came along 3 years ago and started with modifying an old MK1 MR2 then progressed into model engines.

When I was a boy I saw a Myford lathe in a shop window. I was fascinated by the complexity of it. Ever since then I have wanted one. Sixty odd years later I became the proud owner of a Myford Super 7b. I am halfway through the build of the Elizabeth steam engine as designed by Tubal Cain. It is taking a while as we moved house last year and I had all the usual jobs to do that go with a house move plus build the workshop and renovate the Myford.

Chris

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I started making musical instruments as a hobby in my twenties. I then thought I would get a lathe to make some musical instrument making tools. It was just a downward spiral from then on...

Rod

My father was a senior engineer at Cincinnatti Milling Machines in Birmingham and did all own work on cars etc. My grandparents had a Myford ML2 which was my mothers brothers (he died in around 1941) which I obtained in my late teens (IIRC). I was helping a friend with his R3 class Hydroplane and a guy who used to do machining on propshafts etc had a phenomenal workshop with lathes and mills and all painted white and clean. I decided then and there to have a similarly equipped workshop. Old equipment from Cannock Tech College followed (lathe, shaper and surface grinder). and went on from there. The old Cannock equipment has now all gone and been replaced over the years. As finally decided to retire in 2 weeks (at 69) hopefuly I can now find time to use it.

Colin

An article called 'Making A Dead Centre Lathe' in Model Boats, some time in the 1970s. It was my first encounter with the idea of turning as part of model making.

My dad's [passion for RC boat and aeroplane modelling.

The opportunity to have my own 'workshop' from about 13 in a draughty glass-roofed 6x6 conservatory. I had a vice and a Juneero machine and some hand tools. Played around with electronics and things like making speakers and the usual 70s teenage experiments that would get you locked up these days...

Neil

I grew up in my dads shed and building site of a house, he was a handy man who would take on any job and learn to do it properly. Then at school the metal work class got me hooked on lathes. Mr Wilmshurst the teacher knew his stuff, but was not a patch on Mr Taylor the workshop tech. A man who was so skilled that he wore a white coat in a workshop and kept it clean no matter what he was doing.

As a retirement present from work I received a brown workshop coat, one day I hope to become skilled enough to transcend to a white coat.

Long way to go.

Adrian

I understand my Grandfather used to work at Ephraim Phillips in Birmingham, as a toolmaker. I remember having to go to Cincinnatti to survey for phones... that would have been early to mid 90's... a sobering experience, as all that was left was one CNC machine whiring away in the corner.

Neil, that was what a few of us used to fiddle with in the early 80's, although by then of course... things like astroWars came along and the beginning of computers (zx81 type) so blowing yourself was replaced by blowing someone else up

I always had an interest in mechanical stuff and often got into trouble as a child for taking stuff to bits (and not putting it back together) Started with plastic kits from the age of 8. At school I excelled at metalwork and loved my first experience with a lathe (Boxford). I was lucky enough to get an apprenticeship with British Aerospace. There I ended up working in an Electronics field and then drifted into IT. The reality of the IT industry is that it has no tangible legacy. No project lasts more than 3-5 years, so I had an urge to get back into cutting chips to actually make something that lasted.

R/C cars, model trains and a fascination with the internal combustion engine which eventually lead me to steam engines as well .

Seconded! I've worked through 3 main generations of MRP software over 38 years. What was apparent was that anyone developing a new system got together a bunch of bright graduates with little or no experience and had them work up the design under tutelage from an insufficient number of experienced personnel.

The result was invariably that bodies of knowledge built up at some cost in the previous generation of software were ignored entirely, and even the defining terminology was reinvented from scratch by people with little or no idea of previous usages. IMO the overall effect has been to stultify development and maintain it in a condition similar to, say, motor car design between 1900 and 1910. Almost anything goes.

Always been into model railways from as young as I can remember. My grandfather was workshop foreman for the Post-Master General (PMG) in Brisbane and had a lathe and a collection of ME magazines I would read avidly whenever we visited. The lathe was passed on to me when he and my grandmother died, sat in my garage under a tarp for about 20 years until I had the time and finances to set it up and consider making something with it. That was about 10 years ago, still learning, still loving it. Workshop has a few more machines now but grandfathers old lathe still takes pride of place.