New Member- Mike M from Nottingham, England

[Mike M.]

Hi, I'm Mike and just a few words about myself. I have a had a workshop of sorts for many years, but up until now I have been working full time and haven't had a great deal of time to spend in it. I am now approaching retirement and am now going down to 3 days a week working to double my time off. Yippee! I yearn for a tidy organinsed workshop, but always seem to have to prioritise geting things done over clearing and organising. My wife no longer works and thus she has all week to find jobs that just have to be completed right now. I have enclosed a few pics of my workshop and a few of the projects I have made in the last few years.

Here's the workshop in it's natural state, hopefully in the future I'll be able to post a picture of it all cleared and organised(?). In the forground there are a couple of Transmission line speakers that I'm building with my son.

Other projects include stands for a belt sander and a planer/thicknesser that I fabricated to test my aluminium TIG welding skills...
I have recently made a Oxy-propane brazing trolly ( Acetylene is difficult in the UK, If the you have any sort of fire, and the Fire Brigade learn that you have Actylene in the property, they set up a couple of fixed hoses and then evacuate a 100m radius around it and let it take its course for 24hours.) Easier just to use oxy-propane and tig or mig weld the rest. Also there is a stand for a small kiln I fabricated from steel and both items were powder coated.

I've included a pic of an earlier project, a centre height gauge for my Myford ML7 lathe. This came from Hemmingway kits, who supply materials, drawings and instructions for all sorts of useful engineering tools and attachments.
http://www.hemingwaykits.com/productsequipment.html
Also here is the stand I made for a JD² tubing bender. It also mounts a Tubing Roller and a Bead Roller from Harbour Freight.

The bead Roller was bought in the USA. I left the main frame there ( because of the weight) and brought the rest back to UK in my luggage. When home, I made a new frame and strengthened it up around the edges.
I'm currently working on a box to organise my Whitworth taps and dies. They have mostly been bought from car-boot sales and I have filled in the gaps with a few new bought items. I will mill out recesses in a 1" ply board you see the standing on. Some were made br Pratt and whitney in the 1940's. I guess they were made for American servicemen maintaining British kit during the war.

Anyway, I look forwards to hearing from like minded members of this forum and getting down to sorting out my workshop and being a bit more organinsed!
Mike M.