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is anyone on Nottstalgia interested in machine tools ,lathes millers and stuff?what have members got to play with?

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Raglan Little John Mk 2, Atlas 10F and Myford ML7 with a milling attachment on the back of it it. Metal working lathes of course. Ancient bench drill. Small sensitive drill made from kit of castings. Myford ML8 woodworking lathe with range of attachments.

 

Edit;  Just noticed that adds up to a good few Nottingham products  :)

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Absolutely  foreign  to me any Machine tools do enjoy comments on here about them though......want to make funny quips but i'm fighting the urge........even hand tools i steer clear of,, can manage an Hammer when the need arises,but mostly miss the Nail,,can't even manage a screwdriver nowadays with the 'Shaky hand' not that i used one very often.

               Chap today started telling me about what he'd replaced 'Plumbing wise'' in his house ,felt suicidal when he'd done...........then got home and wife tells me 'boilers on the brink''......told her they mostly are duck'' what she mean ? lol

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  • 7 months later...

we helped to clear the last bits of gear from the Myford site at Beeston  last year, so sad to see all this and all the skills and knowledge come to an end,

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I could do with a few Myford bits. Mine is getting a bit of a headache through overloading. Need something a bit bigger. Phil's Harrison sounds good. Have a decent heavy bench drill with milling vice. Also have a heavy Sears cast iron saw table. I need a wood lathe. Got the bits to build a fishing rod building lathe.

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I remember going to Myfords when they were still trading and I picked up a few bits. Sad to see them go. I bought my Harrison from an engineering works in Mansfield through an advert in the Post. It was a bit scary bringing it back on a trailer as it was somewhat top heavy so I had to be careful when cornering! It had a 3 phase motor which I had to swap for a single phase and work out the appropriate wiring for reversing. I do remember going to a place in Derbyshire, close to Buxton where a schoolteacher sold used lathes as a sideline. I don’t know if he’s still there. Might be worth a troll. I know he had Myfords but I would imagine they’re at a premium now.

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Thanks Pianoman, that's the place. Probably not that far from P.P's. Well worth a visit. The guy was very knowledgeable. Must be over 15 years since I last visited. I did have a suitable single phase motor in stock - I can't remember why, so It only cost me a few bits from R.S. Components to do the conversion. I remember I turned off the main road where someone had a large collection of Trabant cars in a field. I don't know if they're still there.

Edit: just checked. The planners made him move them. That was around 2008.

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Only just spotted this post -  have a usefull early sixties Harrison L5a, gap bed, 38mm throughway mandrel, very usefull, plus a Tom Senior vertical mill, couldn't do without them now, classic cars and motorbikes always need some sort of machining. 

A friend of mine knew Chris Moore at Myfords, on one of those great open days, Chris said "gather what you want, I'll work you a price out ". Did me proud, rotary table, alsorts of essentials.. He said at the time the Chinese copies (lathes)were so good looking people bought them, ignoring quality. Mind you, the rotary table was made in Poland and badged Myford !  (same stuff Chronos flog )

He was a good man. An elderly model engineer I knew here in Hull had bought a fantastic new lathe and a milling machine from Myfords, top stuff. When his eyesight was failing, he rang Myfords who sent two guys , they collected the two machines and gave him THE SAME money back for them. 

I think those days have gone …...

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I seldom use my Harrison lathe and all the other workshop kit I acquired over the years. My son was, at one time, interested in agricultural engineering and spent a lot of time in the workshop turning and welding. He ultimately became a lawyer but you should see his own home workshop now. I drool over it - always good to have other interests away from the job!

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  • 8 months later...

Lee & Hunt, Arkwright Works Crocus Street Nottingham also made machine tools particularly saws and radial drills in the late 1800's

William Watts of Canal Street was another well known and long lived Nottingham machine tool company, I'm not sure if they were manufacturers or just merchants. Must have been near Widdowson's factory.

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As an ex toolmaker I have been fortunate to see the industry develop from rudimentary copy/duplicating/pantograph machines and spark eroders in the 60's where the final fitting was done by hand to the muti axis cnc machines supported by CADCAM software have almost made hand skills extinct except that of polishing moulds and dies. However I did see some automatic polishing machines in a toolroom that only made one type of mould.

My workshop choice would be as follows

1 For plastic components a reasonable sized 3D printer

2 A Colchester Student lathe, large and robust enough for most jobs

3 A Bridgeport type turret mill with dividing head, rotary table and slotting attachment.

I reckon I could do most jobs with these.

I don't "need" any of these as I am lucky enough to have several mates that still run and own toolrooms so for now I still have access to all the kit I could ever want to use..

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3 hours ago, Oztalgian said:

Lee & Hunt, Arkwright Works Crocus Street Nottingham also made machine tools

 

My dad worked there from the days of his apprenticeship until the day he simply walked out thirty years later. No amount of asking why or the efforts of Lee & Hunt would get him to give any reason...

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My own father worked directly over the road from Lee and Hunt at Moore and Company, the paper packaging manufacturers, until he volunteered to join the RAF for war service. As maintaining the machines was a technical engineering job he was trained as an aircraft instrument technician. The company made all of the packaging for the Boots Company shops, flour bags for McDougals and Be Ro and the majority of paper cash bags used by the major banks. In the adjoining factory, Cooks, the sheet metal workers, made tractor cabs.

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