This week, the venue switched to Stephen's house. This was partly at the request of G & L, who wanted to see progress on the workshop and various projects, but also so that Stephen could pick their brains about a lathe.
Many, many years ago, John (of Worton Court fame) descended on Stephen and delivered a 'spare' lathe, mounted on it's own bench. However, it subsequently lived in the garage with a sheet over it and saw virtually no use as Stephen had little experience or need. All such work being carried out at Geoff's, under expert supervision. With the demolition of the old garage to make way for the new workshop, the lathe was stored away, but the bench had to be securely wrapped, under-cover on the patio. With no likelihood of the lathe being used in the new workshop, especially sitting on the bench, Stephen sought advice on what all of the components actually did and where it might be sold. It turned out to be a Stringer EW model engineers lathe, possibly owned by John's father, a very early exponent of 2mm fine scale railways. John was also an experienced engineer and the boxes contained many handmade additions as well as the original lathe parts. Everything will be cleaned and a more discerning/deserving owner sought.
After Laurence left early for an appointment, Geoff and Stephen retired to the workshop to examine some trackwork problems on Belfield Engineering (Gn15). All was not as bad as feared, and the session proved key to a new phase of work.
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| Tea break on the patio - the Stringer lathe to the left and the workshop behind. |
Back to normal next week.
