So it's that time again....winter pasttimes?

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Yeah , it’s Lawry , which was next door to my warehouse in Caledonia. No idea the back story ( I’m sure there’s a reason) we don’t buy his birds , we import from Spain. Makes no sense to me and I find the Spainish targets are very inconsistent ( different weights and hardness)
This should probably be in the shooting thread lol , but I do this all winter .


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I’m gonna switch off motorcycle tinkering this winter and go back to hobby machining. It’s been years since my wood lathe was fired up, and I just got a new metal lathe and mill.

I just started machining some lift blocks for the old beaver lathe to increase the bed clearance from 12 to 20” and changes out the motor to a VFD 3 please to up the HPs and eliminate shifting belts to adjust speeds.

Got 3 projects planned:

First wood project is a sheet metal forming stump.

Then I’m gonna try and mill a steer metal anvil from a railway rail.

Finally I’m gonna try turning some pulleys and brackets to motorized my bead roller.

I’m gonna need this stuff to redo some body stuff on my 69 Spitfire.

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Do you have the rail? I know where there's a length along a trail. No rail lines were ever in the area. I suspect a farmer left it there and then a forest grew around.
 
I would not try machining rail track , it’s hardened so the wheels ( which are replaceable wear) and the track stays good for decades. It’s friggin hard , I would go buy the twenty five pack of zip discs on sale at CTC for ten bucks and whittle away . Does you Beaver lathe have an outboard fitting ? Early ones didn’t , later Beaver/ Rockwell did . You may have enough clearance to swing big stuff on that end .
My first career ( if you could call it that ) was autobody , I worked on so many MGs , Triumph Rovers and Healy’s I see them in my sleep . Easy enough to work on but geez those Brit’s had some unusual ideas . Working on a crashed Lancia and I couldn’t get anything electrical to work , owner said if everything worked it would be an Audi , but it’s a Lancia …..


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crankcall said:
I would not try machining rail track , it’s hardened so the wheels ( which are replaceable wear) and the track stays good for decades. It’s friggin hard , I would go buy the twenty five pack of zip discs on sale at CTC for ten bucks and whittle away . Does you Beaver lathe have an outboard fitting ? Early ones didn’t , later Beaver/ Rockwell did . You may have enough clearance to swing big stuff on that end .
My first career ( if you could call it that ) was autobody , I worked on so many MGs , Triumph Rovers and Healy’s I see them in my sleep . Easy enough to work on but geez those Brit’s had some unusual ideas . Working on a crashed Lancia and I couldn’t get anything electrical to work , owner said if everything worked it would be an Audi , but it’s a Lancia …..


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I've considered grabbing a piece of that rail and making an anvil. Cost of disks needed probably exceeds cost of buying a decent anvil. It's a hobby where you lose money but gain enjoyment.
 
I'm gonna try to get my 3D printer back into functioning state. It's been an exercise in frustration, but it's just sitting there forming dust. It's an Ender 3 v2.

Also, will work on getting our BOWFLEX M7 functioning again as this $1,000 clothes hanger is frustrating me. Just not to the point of throwing it out yet. I'm sure it would sell for $200-300 in current condition...but I'd like to try to fix it first.
 
Lathes. Dad handed me down an old BSA lathe (Birmingham Small Arms -there was a small tri gun logo decal on the chuck). When he passed and I got his little Maxi-Mat I gave the BSA to a friend. He's become a hoarder and I fear it's just buried in his garage. If anyone could make a really good case for having it I'd be willing to approach him and see if he can admit it's he'll never use it. Looked something like this
1790362110234.png
 
Third generation machinist here. Looks like the lathes we had in High School. Standard Modern I think they were. Two range gearbox. I always wanted one. I inherited a milling machine from my Dad. Seldom used it; sold it. Lots of tools, cutters, carbide tips, etc. left over, if you need something.
 
I have a small metal lathe and a mini milling machine , but I never took any machine training in high school so it’s all brand new to me . It’s fun but equally frustrating.


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crankcall said:
I would not try machining rail track , it’s hardened so the wheels ( which are replaceable wear) and the track stays good for decades. It’s friggin hard , I would go buy the twenty five pack of zip discs on sale at CTC for ten bucks and whittle away . Does you Beaver lathe have an outboard fitting ? Early ones didn’t , later Beaver/ Rockwell did . You may have enough clearance to swing big stuff on that end .
My first career ( if you could call it that ) was autobody , I worked on so many MGs , Triumph Rovers and Healy’s I see them in my sleep . Easy enough to work on but geez those Brit’s had some unusual ideas . Working on a crashed Lancia and I couldn’t get anything electrical to work , owner said if everything worked it would be an Audi , but it’s a Lancia …..


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I was given a foot of RR track to use as an anvil. Wanting a flat top, I machined it down. Unfortunately I didn't do a good job of making hold downs and it cost a lot of end mills when it jammed.
 
crankcall said:
I would not try machining rail track , it’s hardened so the wheels ( which are replaceable wear) and the track stays good for decades. It’s friggin hard , I would go buy the twenty five pack of zip discs on sale at CTC for ten bucks and whittle away .
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Good to know. I have a mountain of grinding and flap disks - I’ll start there.
crankcall said:
Does you Beaver lathe have an outboard fitting ? Early ones didn’t , later Beaver/ Rockwell did . You may have enough clearance to swing big stuff on that end .
Click to expand...
Yes, it has an outboard fitting and I have a 9” faceplate and standalone tool rest. I don’t think I could realistically swing anything longer than 8” without a center.
crankcall said:
My first career ( if you could call it that ) was autobody , I worked on so many MGs , Triumph Rovers and Healy’s I see them in my sleep . Easy enough to work on but geez those Brit’s had some unusual ideas . Working on a crashed Lancia and I couldn’t get anything electrical to work , owner said if everything worked it would be an Audi , but it’s a Lancia …..


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I started working in a garage at 15, I mostly worked British cars - MG,Triumph and Austin’s. People also brought me weird euro trash that was sold for a couple of years in Canada. Simcas, Renault and Fiats were constantly in line as there weren’t many shops willing to work on them - and their owners were always super frugal.

Until the 90s, British cars were always a years behind in everything, and the manufacturing consistency made them challenging to fix.

Mr Lucas was my hero. He was responsible for my weekly paycheque.
 
My bane was the Chrysler / Peugeot and then the AMC / Renault deal . The local dealers would send us stuff for warranty body work . They may as well sent us a Messerschmidt rocket , we couldn’t figure out much on how it went together.


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crankcall said:
My bane was the Chrysler / Peugeot and then the AMC / Renault deal . The local dealers would send us stuff for warranty body work . They may as well sent us a Messerschmidt rocket , we couldn’t figure out much on how it went together.


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I didn’t do bodywork back then, mechanical and electrical was my deal.

Both were primitive and simple in Brit cars, but still horribly undependable. My standard plan was to rip out the factory wiring and replace it with an 8 circuit $20 hot rod harness.

I still do that on vintage British leyland cars
 
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