Newbie from Newfoundland!!

[Carbob]

Howdy! Been lurking here for a few years, and finally figured it was time to say hello! Have been bitten by the home machine shop bug, and have purchased a Craftex CX600 mill, a King Canada KC-1022ML lathe, and myriad accessories and tooling. Have also purchased a Stuart S50 set of castings, and the Stuart Victoria castings, as projects. Might be a long winter!!

The only training I've had in machine shop practices was almost 30 years ago while I was a student at the Marine Institute in St. John's, NL, in the Marine Engineering program. I'm still working at sea, and most of the ships I've been on have had lathes, and one had a Korean built Bridgeport knock-off mill. Have made bushings, wear rings for pumps, odd things like that, but nothing that was really precise, so we'll have to see if my patience level is up to snuff.

As an aside, where are people buying their stock (brass, phosphor bronze, cast iron, etc) and tools in Canada? I tried a couple of the local sellers here in St. John's, nothing exotic to be found, and unless I wanted full sheets of material, I'm out of luck.

Thanks, who knows, may even be posting some progress pics at some point in the future!

Rob

 

[trlvn]

Rob:

Welcome! Looks like you are off to a roaring start!

There are a couple of Youtube channels that recently been featuring a Stuart models build, step by step. Some very creative fixturing was required for the raw castings. For a raw newbie like me, it was very eye-opening.

Re materials, I don't know of a good online source. Shipping metal from the USA tends to be pretty expensive. With your day job, is it possible to add some personal supplies to an order for the ship? Or maybe a local machine shop or boat yard might be willing to sell some drops? Possibly an accessible salvage yard?

Craig
PS Strangely enough, there is another Canadian marine engineer on another board that I frequent. He works on a Coast Guard vessel mostly on the Great Lakes, though.

 

[Michel_Mike_Chaput]

Welcome Rob !

 

[Tim Wescott]

Welcome! I can't help you with Canadian supplies, except to say that for stuff where the precise alloy doesn't matter, I buy from a local surplus yard. Every yard is different, but my local place has a bunch of aluminum cut-offs that have the alloy marked, which is good luck.

If you find yourself in a machine shop, you might just ask them where they get stuff.

 

[Carbob]

Thanks, gents, much appreciated. We'll see how things pan out going forward.

Rob

 

[GrahamJTaylor49]

If I want bits of sheet, rod or bar I have found that the local manufacturing factories are very helpful, have a chat with the managers or shop foremen and ask if you can have a rake through their scrap bins. Have found many real gems in these bins. See if you can get bar ends that are colour coded, you can then cross ref. them to find out what you have got. I found a bar end of ally bronze 2" dia. by 3 foot long in one bin. Asked the foreman before taking it and he said they wouldn't be using it so help yourself. Have a good stock of off cuts.

 

[teeleevs]

Hi Carbob, welcome to the swarf makers and chip throwers group. There are Model Train Clubs in Canada, one called British Columbia Society of Model Engineers. If you Google them they will be sure to help you find supplies.
Ted from down under

 

[L98fiero]

Hi Carbob, welcome to the swarf makers and chip throwers group. There are Model Train Clubs in Canada, one called British Columbia Society of Model Engineers. If you Google them they will be sure to help you find supplies.
Ted from down under

Rob, while not in Nfld , Metals 'R' us, in Dartmouth, NS is a closer source than BC, I came up with that address by doing a Google search. There are online companies that will help you out but generally, you can probably get the amount of metal you'll need from a local machine shop from their scrap bin or offcuts, brass and bronze will probably be more difficult to get but that's where places like Online metals are handy. You can also ask at the machine shop if there is a local company the sells cut to size material.

 

[gmac]

Rob;
These guys - Metal Supermarkets - are across Canada with an outlet in Halifax;

https://www.metalsupermarkets.com/halifax-dartmouth/
I used them 5 years ago (Vancouver outlet) - they'll cut any length, have a fair amount of inventory, shipping was quick but packaging didn't impress. Price was ok at the time but I was able to get material out of the USA - Seattle area for cheaper. Haven't used them recently so I can't say what the current situation is.