New to workshop engineering.

Hi, I am 74years old, worked as a plumbing and heating engineer. I would like to find a hobbie that would occupie my time, model engineering seems to be a interesting pass time.

I will be kitting out a garden shed with all the bells and whistles soon, and would like to start with making Stuart steam engines. As yet I have no experence in using lathes and milling machines,hopefully, with the members help I will get some sound advice.

David.

Welcome! You are planning to take up an interesting widely varying, and sometimes frustrating hobby. But an extremely satisfying one.

As you read the MANY threads on the Forum you will see the huge range of activities undertaken, and learn a lot.

You will get plenty of advise on here; Sometimes contradictory!

Old vs new, Chinese vs old European, levelling a lathe, tooling, etc. You name it, and we will come out on riding our hobby horses! .

Where are you located?

Try to find a local Model Engineering Club and join. You will find fellow enthusiasts, willing to help, guide or demonstrate methods.

If you are new to machining, some books will help increase your knowledge and understanding.

"The Amateur's Lathe" by L H Sparey. Old but the basic principles are the same.

"The Amateur's Workshop" by Ian Bradley. Covers fitting work and tools as well as lathe work..

"The Model Engineer's Handbook" by Tubal Cain. An invaluable reference book.

Certainly buy a set of Zeus charts, for the data on drill sizes and equivalents, threads etc and mathematical tables. I still use mine regularly, bought in 1958.

You will need Allen keys (possibly two sets, Imperial as well as Metric. Feeler gauges, ditto )

Mine would be , since you seem to have decided what you want to make, find a lathe that will do that sort of work; and then buy one a little bigger. i.e. if you think that a mini lathe such as SC3 suits, buy a SC4.

Your horizons will expand and you will avoid the frustration of almost being able to do the job. The larger machine is likely to be more versatile, also.

Having said that, superb work is made on old machines, sometimes beyond the claimed capabilities of the machine. There are folk on here doing excellent work on machines that are a century old!

But the budget needs to be considered, not just for the lathe, but for the measuring equipment that you will need to complement it. A digital calliper, DTIs (ideally plunger and finger clocks) as well a magnetic base to hold them (Scribing blocks are OK but cannot always be fixed in the same places as a mag base. )

If the lathe does not include tooling, you will need to buy (My advice would be High Speed Steel so that you learn how to grind tools correctly. That lets you in for a bench grinder as another purchase )

You will need a drill chuck for the tailstock, if the lathe does not come with one Depends on the sort of work that you want to do, but steadies are perhaps less necessary, certainly early on.

If you do not already have them, you will need drills, possibly Imperial and metric. You will eventually acquire more sets, because of the need for drills which increase in size in smaller increments.

As you gain experience and confidence, you will be able to make tools and accessories. This will save money, increase experience and probably produce a device which cannot be bought, but is essential for your needs.

The you will start collecting Taps and Dies. You need to choose which you need at first. (Whitworth, BSF, BA Unified, or Metric ) You won't need all sorts at once.

Complete sets in a box are a nice way, of storing and keeping safe. But some you may never use, I have never yet found a need for a M11 thread! On the other hand, jumbled together in a tobacco tin is no way to keep them sharp and undamaged.

Enough of my ramblings.

HTH

Howard

Hello David and welcome. Howards response was spot on and it may help if you could indicate where in the world you are, there could well be people near you who would be willing to show your their workshops and help you to make a decision on machinery and models. Just a County would so if you are in the UK.

Brian

Welcome to forum once your kitted out you can play all you want

H

God help you, You have no idea what you are letting yourself in for !!!!

First thing you need to do is increase the size of your shed by a factor of four, at least. Why ?, you will find out once you get started.. Workshops are NEVER big enough, remember "Junk expands to fill the room available " , tools likewise.

Yes, get the biggest machine you can manage, remember "Big machine/small job= no problem. Small machine/big job= big problem. Some good books mentioned there, Sparey is still good after all those years, sound, simple to understand advice.

Wishing you well on your new hobby and one extra piece of advice, get a BIG WOODEN BOX for scrap, you will need it, believe me ! How do I know ? dont even ask ????

PS You dont have to be nuts to be here, but it helps !!

Welcome David & yes to all the above. You will end up with Dr who's Tardis eventually. Then trying to remember which draw everything is in. I have just bought a Brother Label printer, guess why.

Steve.

H David,

Good advice, already given is to join a model engineering club. After you have the basic equipment, buy materials and tooling as you need them for a particular project. Tooling is expensive and can cost as much as the machines. I still have some that I bought years ago and have not used. When you buy material for a job, get a bit extra and keep it for spare stock. (it is a size that you actually use).

Harold Hall has published a lot of books for model engineers to learn how to machine and has made most of his articles available online at: **LINK**

There are lots of vidios for machining on a lathe or mill on Youtube. One of my favourites is Joe Pieczynski who is a professional machinist and has some great tutorials. He has recently produced a series about making a Stuart model steam engine.

**LINK**i

Paul.

hi guys i'm really new at this so am probably asking a really silly question but here goes,

I was given an old flexispeed lathe with a 1/2" 16 tpi spindle thread, i have 2 chucks so was going to mount one onto a rotating base, i bought a 1/2" 16 tpi die to make a spindle for it but the 1/2" 16tpi die wont fit the 1/2" tap... am i missing something fundamental here?

jason you would be better off starting a new thread of your own , with your questions. This thread is just an introduction from a new member.

Edit. You would probably be best to call your thread, something like. Flexispeed problem so any flexispeed owners would see it.  

Steve.

Edited By Steviegtr on 29/12/2020 13:56:33

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thanks for the advice guys, and i'm sure ill get used to how to use the forum properly, my bad