1930s Meccano

How are your Meccano skills? Ever have a set?

Here's one that's going to do well at auction.

Just a shame it was never played with - perhaps it was more a connoisseur's edition?

Like you say what a shame.

I was an avid Meccano modeller as a lad, most of mine was second hand given by relatives, it hardly ever came in any sort of box (the odd biscuit tin perhaps), happy times!

Hi

Right back to my childhood with the mention of Meccano. I absolutely loved it and the freedom it gave me to experiment with different designs for things. Two of my prized possessions were the ball raced large rotary base plate I used for large cranes and a 240 VAC motor with a slow rotating spindle, turned down to the axle dimension, that bolted directly onto the larger flanged plates (11 by 5 ?) which then made up to a gearbox and often had an excess of power; the latter was recycled and modified by my father to fit.

Then there was the Meccano Mag full of projects and dreams that could be realised if you just had a few more parts.

Happy days and a great learning toy/tool.

Thanks for the prompt Patrick

Martin

Edited By Martin W on 14/01/2014 11:15:27

I think more should be made of using meccano to introduce youngsters to 'real' model engineering by making their own pieces.
They can be started off with aluminium sheet accurately pre-spotted so they just drill. Then they can do their own marking out and learn how they need to be accurate to make it fit. Move on to bending, then turning pulleys, and finally progress to gear cutting.