Making a bespoke wooden box.

[AlanBeckett]

I'd love your Drummond if I had the space thank you.

It isn't as big as you might think, about 5' x 2' - see http://www.lathes.co.uk/drummond5inchphotoessay/.
Mine's not as swish as that, although I would claim it's mainly cosmetic, and mine is a slightly later one so probably works better. The one shortcoming of mine is that it doesn't have the big left hand leg with the drive, just a fairly crude pulley and motor behind the Headstock. I wanted one 'cause they were the only ones like that as far as I know, and they have all sorts of facilities which were ahead of their time. The unfortunate thing was that no sooner had I got it home than the Chipmaster became available. Well, I had to have that didn't I?
Mind you, I almost didn't get it home. The Seller did say that it was very heavy so I asked a young strong friend to take his pickup. We found the place, backed the truck up to the garage, got a grip on it and heaved - nothing. It was almost as though it was stuck down. We finished up sliding it across the garage floor to the back of the truck, unbolting the lefs and sliding it onto the truck bed, which fortunately was just the right height. When we got back here we summoned up a couple more heroes and moved it into the garage. It hasn't moved far since.
I'm afraid that it really was a lathe too far and either it or the old Bantam will have to go
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Is my memory correct Alan in thinking it was the Drummond you had the bed "ways" ground?

No, that was the Dalton 6. Once again that one rather overlaps the Longbed Pools Special - see http://www.lathes.co.uk/pools/index.html - so I fear one must go.

I also agree with you that one off turning is a slow job but the old methods just can't be beat for this kind of work; before retiring the place I worked at had lots of CNC machines plus robots but in one department alone there were two centre lathe turners employed full time. It's no fun to watch a CNC get out of control through a fault or to watch the robot painter become bored with life and start to spray the walls and ceiling. Modern technology is very useful for mass production but let me play with my toys any time and use the skills I learned so many years ago.

Indeed so.

Can we entice you into squeezing a nice little lathe into your shed Jamie; I'm sure you would soon find a great deal of use for it.

You might manage one of my Adepts

Alan