All the gear and no idea !

Hi all,

Quick intro from me.

I have a mini mill, a small Clarke lathe and an ex musical instrument workshop vertical mill with a big Clarkson Autolok chuck

I turn up quite a few tools for working on cars and bikes, and have an interest in getting into steam stationary engine building.

I'd love a bigger lathe but space and spare cash don't permit such fripperies !

Hope to soak up some tips and I'll pitch in with any help I can give.

Cheers,

Paul.

Welcome, Paul. Always nice to see more folk joining in. Lots to see on this site, and lots of opportunity to pitch in your tuppenceworth.

There's a Forum Topic on bikes; and lots of interest in cars and bikes - as well as just about everything else in engineering.

Regards,

Marcus

hello Paul, and WELCOME.

Quite a few bike enthusiasts on here, and there are always folk prepared to answer questions, and some, if near to you, to provide practical help.

Howard

Bikes, Cars and All manner of things, the interests and Knowledge that can be found here is VAST !Adding to Howards comments where are you in the UK ? Welcome to the party, Check out the WASH MONSTER this keeps me out of trouble. I'm on the N Norfolk coast. Noel.

Thanks for the welcome.

I trained years ago as a car and HGV mechanic and worked in the trade for a few years so i'm no stranger to the workings of oily bits.

Then i got out and retrained as an Electrical and Electronics engineer.

I drive a desk and keyboard now for a living, so it's good to get out to the workshop to make some swarf.

I'm an ex-pat Englishman living in the rainy island of Ireland !

Cheers,

Paul.

Hi Paul,

You should move to the "Sunny South East" where the rain is warmer !

From another Paul welcome there is a lot of great advice and help if you have machining problems just ask.

Paul

If you are real newbie to machine work, it may pay to read some books to explain things.

A set of Zeus charts will often be used for reference.

For lathework, L H Spaey's "The Amateurs lathe", Ian Bradley's "The Amateurs Workshop" (deals with other workshop techniques ) then there.are books by Harold Hall and Neil Wyatt on "Lathework".

If the small Clark lathe is a mini lathe, both Neil Wyatt and David Clark (No connection to Machine Mart as far as I know) have written books on it

As an aside, you will get far more help and advice from Arc Euro Trade than Machine Mart. The difference is knowledge of the the machines and their accessories.

Harold hall has also written a book on Milling, and the Workshop Practice Series will cover similar ground and MANY other aspects of machining and benchwork.

When you find a need for a four jaw chuck, measuring instruments, and other accessories, look at the established Model Engineering Suppliers. They are more likely to stock what you want, and will know what they are taliking about to guide you in the right direction.

HTH

Howard

Hi Paul,

Welcome to the Forum and also to this sometimes rather damp Isle!. There are not nearly so many clubs and back-up sources here as in the UK so meeting up with like-minded individuals to discuss problems and projects is not always easy, which is a pity.

However the forum members are a really helpful and knowledgeable bunch and distance is not an issue. You might find though that sourcing / importing materials and tools etc here is sometimes not as easy. You tend to hoard "possibly useful bits". And don't forget to protect those "nice bits" against rust!

John

Many thanks for the warm welcome. I look forward to having a browse & a natter.

It's nice to see a traditional forum still active in these Facebook oriented times.

Regards,

Paul