Hello from the Garden of England!

[jimi43]

Hello everybody!

My name is Jim and I live about 1 hour south east of London in the beautiful county of Kent.

I make and restore Victorian woodworking tools at the moment but I would dearly love to restore or make from scratch a steam engine suitable for fitting into a small 18ft wooden boat.

Whether on not I finish this ambition will depend on luck in finding a suitable candidate and somewhere to launch it!

I have joined this excellent site to gain as much experience as possible in deciding if I am capable of achieving this ambition.

I have a weird collection of tools...from old wooden planes and turnscrews to recent model lathes and milling machine.

I still own an old Myford ML1 but sadly, I spend more time fixing it than making with it so I luckily found a Chinese lathe...the ubiquitous SIEG C6B for £180 on FleaBay...(yeh really!) and found it to be from an era when the Chinese were trying to prove themselves and before the accountants got involved!

This really is a nice machine...once I fettled it a bit and added a few vital organs such as a new tool post....a four jaw chuck and a tool-holder system.

Pleasantly buoyed by the quality of this Oriental stuff...I shelled out on a mill from the same company...the fine SX3 Super Tilt....

This a really able machine...just about small enough to fit in my workshop and with the addition of a proper DRO....amazingly versatile.

I think I may very well have obtained quite a few tips from people here in the installation of this last modification.

I also have a workshop dog called ALFIE....he likes to help out!

Anyway...that's about all for now...see you all later!

Jimi

 

[Propforward]

Hi Jim!

Welcome to the forum. That's a very nice setup you have.

Folks here are real friendly, and there is a ton of good advice here. Great to have you aboard.

 

[Chris-J]

Hi Jimi

Welcome

 

[Beachside_Hank]

Welcome aboard Jimi, your plans and hopes are in tune with this site.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Looks like the dog is more interested in learning about machine tools than some people I know. trying to teach an old dog new tricks ?
Tin

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Welcome aboard.--Is Alfie a Staffordshire?

 

[Philjoe5]

Welcome to this forum.

You have some great machines there, and they're capable of building a steam engine that will push a boat. This site is a good source for what you're looking for.

http://hasbrouck.8m.com/

I used machines of that size to make this reversing column engine #10

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWdDjgFcARw&list=UUJ58AqMIsHO70dpkmwYw2Rg&index=2&feature=plcp[/ame]

A dog apprentice and a Hendrix avatar...I can't help but believe you have a good attitude!

Cheers,
Phil

 

[skyline1]

Hi Jim

Welcome from the Cotswolds, I worked in Kent occasionally some years ago Beautiful part of the country. Coming from here with all our hills (and valleys full of water at the moment.) I couldn't get over that it was so flat.

Alfie seems to have got the mill sussed out.If you find bits of Bonio in the T slots he's probably been doing a bit of "machining" himself

Regards Mark

 

[jimi43]

Hi Guys!

WOW...ALFIE and I thank you for your wonderful welcome!

I look forward to spending many a wet winter night trawling the threads and chatting!

Tin/Brian/Mark

Yes...ALFIE is a great help in the workshop....here he is helping me to clean the shipping grease off the mill....

...and he's getting used to the lathe too!

He's a cross between a Staffordshire and a Cruise Missile Brian....Thm:

Great engine Phil....and such good taste in soundtrack!!

Thanks guys!

ALFIE and Jim

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I had a Staffie that looked identical to Alfie for 14 years here, from the mid 1980's to about 2000. She was a wonderful, loving dog, great with my 3 young children. This was right at the peak of the "Pit bull" hysteria in North America. My God, it was just like having your own pet dragon!! She was a very powerful dog, so I had a very heavy chain to keep her from breaking it and running away if she was tied outside. My kids would take her for a walk and people would be literally diving off the sidewalks to get out of her way!!! Little did they know that if she had ever got them down, she might have licked them to death!!!

 

[jimi43]

I had a Staffie that looked identical to Alfie for 14 years here, from the mid 1980's to about 2000. She was a wonderful, loving dog, great with my 3 young children. This was right at the peak of the "Pit bull" hysteria in North America. My God, it was just like having your own pet dragon!! She was a very powerful dog, so I had a very heavy chain to keep her from breaking it and running away if she was tied outside. My kids would take her for a walk and people would be literally diving off the sidewalks to get out of her way!!! Little did they know that if she had ever got them down, she might have licked them to death!!!

ALFIE is a Staffordshire/Lurcher cross...which means he has the speed of a lurcher with the muscles of a Staffordshire. It makes him virtually uncatchable, so I don't bother!

He is one of the most loving dogs I have ever met...they say dogs are not the problem...it's the owners! I think this is true!

Take care

Jim