A new old boy

I am a returned subscriber to MEW and have been viewing the website for some time and I have at last decided to put my head above the parapet and declare my presence.

During my time as an observer I have marvelled at the wide ranging subjects, depth of knowledge and good humour of the correspondents, it has been fascinating and a credit to you.

I have been interested in engineering since an early age when I was brought up in West London in the 1960s, it was fostered by my Father, Ronald Poole, who was an Electrical Engineer by profession, a senior employee of Dewhurst and Partners and finally the Director running Engines & Electrics who built coolant pumps for the likes of Colchester (600 Group) and Cincinnati. He built me a shed workshop, bought me a pre-war Myford ML4 and refurbished it (complete with Type A drum switch), and a Startrite Mercury bench drill both of the latter I still have. From those days I have some Stuart Turner 7A castings in a poorly half machined state somewhere.

Regarding my changing career, despite my urban roots, I have a degree in Agriculture, then moved back to London and qualified as a Chartered Accountant but then in the 1980s any sort of engineering was abandoned in favour of work, courting, DIY and house renovating. I subscribed to MEW when it was first published but around that time my wife suffered a terrible brain injury which has left her partially disabled and once again my hobby engineering dreams evaporated.

Now I am semi-retired from accountancy and heading for full retirement, by one bit of good fortune in my life, I have a lot of spare room even though I now live in South East London, so I am putting together my dream workshop and as it has 3 phase supply I hope to acquire a lathe or mill, or even both, with a E & E pump one day.

Regarding my plans for “model” engineering going forward, other than general repairs to anything, my two interests are related to my farming days in the 1960s and 70s, vintage tractors of that era and small stationary engines, of which I have a few awaiting attention, and shooting so there might even be some basic gunsmithing one day.

Thank you for reading this far and sorry to run on. Although I cannot foresee the day when I can expertly contribute to the forum I am sure I will be asking simple questions as I go forward. I know I will continue reading it avidly.

Martyn Poole

Welcome aboard, Martyn

Nice introduction, Sir

MichaelG.

Good evening Martyn, welcome to our happy band!

Rob

Welcome! Plenty of fellow enthusiasts on here.

Marvellous to have had the encouragement and guidance early on in life. Like riding a bike, it never leaves you completely.

Enjoy your retirement! You may wonder how you found time to go to work

Howard

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Welcome to the party Martyn, we try to be civilised and happy ! Noel.

Martin, best not to mention gunsmithing on a public forum it might trigger unwanted attention from official sources. Dave W ( fellow shooter )

Nice to have you back Martyn. still loads of interesting stuff going on and people grumbling about this that & the other! No change there.

Take care. Mike

Thanks for the kind words and sound advice.

For now, firstly in closing, I wonder if anyone has a lathe or mill with an Engines & Electrics coolant pump, if so I would love to hear from you how they find it as I have often wondered if they had all been scrapped by now? If not and a lathe or mill comes up for sale with an E & E pump or even just a pump on its own, I would be interested in buying them.

Secondly and finally to demonstrate my “model engineering” aspirations, I have found an excuse to experiment with the website picture uploader and have attached a quite recent picture of me with my first vintage tractor acquisition, a 1953 Ferguson TEF-20 (diesel) which was neglected by and subject to rather unsympathetic maintenance by its previous owner. It is pictured outside my Welding/Grinding Shed. I have had it DVLA registered and it is insured for road use but I am not taking it out until after I have fitted a new clutch. Don’t see many of these in South East London nowadays.

Be seeing you.

Martyn

Welcome Martyn, as you already have 3 phase, you will benefit from the lower prices for machinery as most hobby users only have single phase.