[Woodsmith]

Originally Posted by SimonRafferty

Shame you are so far away - I have a pretty good workshop with CNC lathe & mill. A Lathe is definitely worth buying - probably the single most enabling tool I have.

If you need any quick stuff turning - send me a drawing and I'll see what I can do.

Si

Cheers Simon, I will do that. It may be help in making up the adaptor plate.

The lathe I was after was old and on a cast iron legged frame but big enough to get a motor armature onto it. It would be easy to dismantle and take into my basement workshop where my engineering stuff lives. And it was local too to make collection easier. I should really up the bid and borrow the cash to cover it as it is too good to let slip. It should still be cheaper then paying a local engineering firm to do work, I would hope, plus I get to keep the lathe afterwards.

[Amberwolf]

Originally Posted by SimonRafferty

A Lathe is definitely worth buying - probably the single most enabling tool I have.

I heartily agree with this. I was lucky enough to find mine on Freecycle, and even though it is a 60-year old rustbucket and missing parts it is still extremely useful. (It's a South Bend lathe from the 1940's; for the whole story go here: http://electricle.blogspot.com/2008/...of-heaven.html )

There are things on the bike project I could not have done without it. Well, maybe I could have, but they'd've been handmade and filed and nowhere near as "precise" as I got using the lathe, and would've taken days or weeks to make!

If you need any quick stuff turning - send me a drawing and I'll see what I can do.

I wish you were in the USA I have a piece I need for the bike that I can't make on my lathe, since I'm missing all the threading gears except the one that's on it (not the right one unless I swap out the AC motor for my treadmill motor and use my ebike controller to get the right speed).