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Post by earthman on Jun 14, 2020 21:48:59 GMT 1
I know that a few folk on here own a lathe, ever wondered how they are actually made? I found this old video of the Colchester factory interesting.  |
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fabiostar
Thrash Merchant
the older i get the faster i was.
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Post by fabiostar on Jun 15, 2020 22:38:27 GMT 1
i actually sat and watched that lol.. iv a pair of drummond lathes here so kinda feel the whole thing..
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Post by cb250g5 on Jun 16, 2020 9:00:19 GMT 1
Bet my Myford wasn't made with such attention to detail. From the days when Britain made things.
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Post by earthman on Jun 16, 2020 9:33:24 GMT 1
i actually sat and watched that lol.. iv a pair of drummond lathes here so kinda feel the whole thing.. It's a good watch for anyone who likes to know how such mechanical stuff is made/put together,....the way each tooth of a gear were hardened is one of the things I learned. |
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fabiostar
Thrash Merchant
the older i get the faster i was.
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Post by fabiostar on Jun 16, 2020 12:09:35 GMT 1
call me sad lol but i love shit like that
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Post by chrisg on Jun 16, 2020 16:25:41 GMT 1
I served my time as a machine tool fitter repairing machines just like that. Very interesting. We had a big toolroom that could make virtually anything, especially useful for those foreigners. Probably all made in China now, comes with CV19 for free.  |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2020 18:24:52 GMT 1
My father had a 3’ myford metal lathe, he got it when he was an apprentice at 16 and it was older than him and me put together, he died at age 57, 30 years ago
Brought it to Australia when we emigrated in 1980, the electric motor that was retrofitted to it burnt out, a school mate here used to fix washing machines and had the exact same motor for it, Crompton and Parkinson 1428 rpm, How good was that
He’d Built, drilled many a boat, trailer etc part on it back in the UK, eventually the white metal head bearings went, I didn’t know how to use it so donated it to a local shire that didn’t have a lot of money back about 10 years ago
They had the bearings measured and made up, and as far as I know it’s still going, it would be close to 100 years old now
Perhaps they don’t make them like they used to back in the 1920’s
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Post by earthman on Jun 16, 2020 20:33:10 GMT 1
I served my time as a machine tool fitter repairing machines just like that. Very interesting. We had a big toolroom that could make virtually anything, especially useful for those foreigners. Probably all made in China now, comes with CV19 for free. I gather that there are very few, if any places like that left in the UK now, that's very sad indeed.  When did being able to make virtually anything in your own backyard become so unimportant shall we say? I don't get it, surely owning such equipment and having/keeping your citizens skilled is a positive for any country to have.  |
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Post by earthman on Jun 16, 2020 20:34:49 GMT 1
My father had a 3’ myford metal lathe, he got it when he was an apprentice at 16 and it was older than him and me put together, he died at age 57, 30 years ago Brought it to Australia when we emigrated in 1980, the electric motor that was retrofitted to it burnt out, a school mate here used to fix washing machines and had the exact same motor for it, Crompton and Parkinson 1428 rpm, How good was that He’d Built, drilled many a boat, trailer etc part on it back in the UK, eventually the white metal head bearings went, I didn’t know how to use it so donated it to a local shire that didn’t have a lot of money back about 10 years ago They had the bearings measured and made up, and as far as I know it’s still going, it would be close to 100 years old now Perhaps they don’t make them like they used to back in the 1920’s Excellent, great story that, you are dead right I think, things were certainly built to last back then too. |
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Post by chrisg on Jun 16, 2020 21:32:50 GMT 1
I served my time as a machine tool fitter repairing machines just like that. Very interesting. We had a big toolroom that could make virtually anything, especially useful for those foreigners. Probably all made in China now, comes with CV19 for free. I gather that there are very few, if any places like that left in the UK now, that's very sad indeed. When did being able to make virtually anything in your own backyard become so unimportant shall we say? I don't get it, surely owning such equipment and having/keeping your citizens skilled is a positive for any country to have. The most important thing these days is the price. Its very short sighted to pay our younger generation to stay at home on the dole and buy cheap imported machines. I thought that with all the issues with obtaining PPE for the NHS the government should have woken up to "buy British", but no. All our skills are being lost. It will come back to bite us. |
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fabiostar
Thrash Merchant
the older i get the faster i was.
Posts: 397
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Post by fabiostar on Jun 16, 2020 22:54:41 GMT 1
The drummonds i have here, the little one is 1947, and thats the young one lol.. the big girl and its a big lump of a thing iv been using to make lightweight flywheels mainly for the honda firestorm world is an old ship lathe from 1917!!!! and its running as true as any new build lathe.. great old bit of kit
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2020 23:11:15 GMT 1
The art of making things from scratch sadly seems to be declining rapidly
It’s more about use, abuse, throw it away and buy a new one, because it’s cheaper to do that rather than fix it or build it well in the first place, take printers that you connect to your home computer, to buy the replacement ink cartridges is generally more than the printer itself, unless it’s really high end photographic stuff
Apprentice mechanics now seem to be taught to remove and replace with new parts, gone seem to be the days when manual test gauges are used to gind faults a computer can’t
A guy I know makes panels, fenders, mud guards, radiators etc for vintage and classic cars by hand rolling them on an English wheel, his son got into drugs and has no interest in learning, he’s been chasing an apprentice for years, no applicants, it’s put into the too hard basket
I’d be talking to him and he starts busily tapping on a piece of aluminium sheet, 20 minutes later he hands me a cup, how’d you do that I asked, it’s all in the way and where you hit it was the reply
Once he retires, that’s it the, trade gone forever
I’m no mechanic, panel beater or auto electrician, but I try to give it a crack
You look at mutts comment on a previous thread about the old school engine builders and the picture is well and truly painted in front of you, once these guys go, it’s going to be darn hard to get things made
There is light at the end of the tunnel, you only have to look at the rebuilds by Yogi, Dusty, JonW, Yamark and lots of others to see that old fashioned part making and refurbishing can still be learnt
That gives us hope
It’s a shame things aren’t made to last, we called the Hyundai cars when they first came out the throw away car, run it into the ground and buy a new one
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Post by tony2stroke on Jun 17, 2020 0:00:57 GMT 1
The art of making things from scratch sadly seems to be declining rapidly It’s more about use, abuse, throw it away and buy a new one, because it’s cheaper to do that rather than fix it or build it well in the first place, take printers that you connect to your home computer, to buy the replacement ink cartridges is generally more than the printer itself, unless it’s really high end photographic stuff Apprentice mechanics now seem to be taught to remove and replace with new parts, gone seem to be the days when manual test gauges are used to gind faults a computer can’t A guy I know makes panels, fenders, mud guards, radiators etc for vintage and classic cars by hand rolling them on an English wheel, his son got into drugs and has no interest in learning, he’s been chasing an apprentice for years, no applicants, it’s put into the too hard basket I’d be talking to him and he starts busily tapping on a piece of aluminium sheet, 20 minutes later he hands me a cup, how’d you do that I asked, it’s all in the way and where you hit it was the reply Once he retires, that’s it the, trade gone forever I’m no mechanic, panel beater or auto electrician, but I try to give it a crack You look at mutts comment on a previous thread about the old school engine builders and the picture is well and truly painted in front of you, once these guys go, it’s going to be darn hard to get things made There is light at the end of the tunnel, you only have to look at the rebuilds by Yogi, Dusty, JonW, Yamark and lots of others to see that old fashioned part making and refurbishing can still be learnt That gives us hope It’s a shame things aren’t made to last, we called the Hyundai cars when they first came out the throw away car, run it into the ground and buy a new one Biggest problem is no one wants to pay what it costs, demand is for cheap throw away stuff now, shame, and there are very few mechanics anymore, they are mostly just fitters, fitting what the computer tells them, and that is not always right, a mate had a merc that was misfiring, he took it to merc garage and they replaced numerous sensors without fixing the problem, turned out after taking to a local old school mechanic it was the HT leads arcing out, but that meant replacing the coil packs as you can't get and fit replacement HT leads on their own for that car, I had similar problem with my Audi A3 with engine management light coming on, garage replaced a couple of things computer told them including the MAF meter, but turned out to be a pipe split, its getting that if you can't do it yourself, its the end of the road for it, and they call it progress, not in my eyes. |
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Post by earthman on Jun 17, 2020 8:33:53 GMT 1
The art of making things from scratch sadly seems to be declining rapidly It’s more about use, abuse, throw it away and buy a new one, because it’s cheaper to do that rather than fix it or build it well in the first place, take printers that you connect to your home computer, to buy the replacement ink cartridges is generally more than the printer itself, unless it’s really high end photographic stuff Apprentice mechanics now seem to be taught to remove and replace with new parts, gone seem to be the days when manual test gauges are used to gind faults a computer can’t A guy I know makes panels, fenders, mud guards, radiators etc for vintage and classic cars by hand rolling them on an English wheel, his son got into drugs and has no interest in learning, he’s been chasing an apprentice for years, no applicants, it’s put into the too hard basket I’d be talking to him and he starts busily tapping on a piece of aluminium sheet, 20 minutes later he hands me a cup, how’d you do that I asked, it’s all in the way and where you hit it was the reply Once he retires, that’s it the, trade gone forever I’m no mechanic, panel beater or auto electrician, but I try to give it a crack You look at mutts comment on a previous thread about the old school engine builders and the picture is well and truly painted in front of you, once these guys go, it’s going to be darn hard to get things made There is light at the end of the tunnel, you only have to look at the rebuilds by Yogi, Dusty, JonW, Yamark and lots of others to see that old fashioned part making and refurbishing can still be learnt That gives us hope It’s a shame things aren’t made to last, we called the Hyundai cars when they first came out the throw away car, run it into the ground and buy a new one That's such a shame and typical that his son is not even interested in learning this skill,....how many of us on here would have jumped at that opportunity back in the day! I'd love to try my hand at that now even but who's going to start off with a 50 year old I'm thinking? I can survive on a 3 day a week job, I've been doing that for 4 years now, trouble is, I'm not sure I'll still have it due to this covid situation closing so many businesses down. |
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Post by cb250g5 on Jun 17, 2020 8:35:24 GMT 1
I'm not dissing my Myford, in the comments above, but I think they were always a "hobby lathe", and built down to a price which made them affordable for home workshops. Nothing wrong with mine, but more of a Mini than a Rolls Royce in the build quality stakes.
Just this week acquired a small milling machine. Again an old British made hobby item. Nowhere near a bridgeport in quality, but there again it's small enough to fit my cramped workshop, and single phase. Not done much milling in years, so back on the learning curve.
I'd encourage all of you to buy a lathe, even a cheap Chinese one, and learn to make a few of your own bits. If we don't keep garage engineering going, who will?
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Post by earthman on Jun 17, 2020 8:42:25 GMT 1
I'm not dissing my Myford, in the comments above, but I think they were always a "hobby lathe", and built down to a price which made them affordable for home workshops. Nothing wrong with mine, but more of a Mini than a Rolls Royce in the build quality stakes. Just this week acquired a small milling machine. Again an old British made hobby item. Nowhere near a bridgeport in quality, but there again it's small enough to fit my cramped workshop, and single phase. Not done much milling in years, so back on the learning curve. I'd encourage all of you to buy a lathe, even a cheap Chinese one, and learn to make a few of your own bits. If we don't keep garage engineering going, who will? 100% agree on all that, I wouldn't want to be without my mill or lathe now, both Chinese of course but they have produced parts for many things over the years. |
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Post by tony2stroke on Jun 17, 2020 9:19:46 GMT 1
I would give my hind teeth for a lathe and milling machine, even cheap Chinese ones, but sadly I don't have a garage to put them in  |
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fabiostar
Thrash Merchant
the older i get the faster i was.
Posts: 397
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Post by fabiostar on Jun 17, 2020 10:10:23 GMT 1
the old girls  |
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Post by earthman on Jun 17, 2020 11:16:38 GMT 1
I would give my hind teeth for a lathe and milling machine, even cheap Chinese ones, but sadly I don't have a garage to put them in Aye, that's the first step, got to have a garage/shed/workshop of some kind. If you are familiar with Mr Pete222 on YouTube, retired machine shop teacher, his equipment is in a basement! God only knows how he got those big machines down there. |
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Post by tony2stroke on Jun 17, 2020 12:14:50 GMT 1
I would give my hind teeth for a lathe and milling machine, even cheap Chinese ones, but sadly I don't have a garage to put them in Aye, that's the first step, got to have a garage/shed/workshop of some kind. If you are familiar with Mr Pete222 on YouTube, retired machine shop teacher, his equipment is in a basement! God only knows how he got those big machines down there. Unfortunately, I stumble at the first hurdle  |
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When did being able to make virtually anything in your own backyard become so unimportant shall we say? I don't get it, surely owning such equipment and having/keeping your citizens skilled is a positive for any country to have. 
