This posting is just to introduce myself.

[artist]

Hi SZ5, Yes you are right, but I cannot see if they are wind-up like a wind-up jack or pump-up jack, but the principal is the same, but mine will not have bricks up against the front wheels, having straps hooked from the ramps to purpose made blocks to go in front of the wheels still on the ground, I am looking for a 12v Hydraulic pump that can be run from a 12v spare battery or a Hydraulic hand pump so both can be connected together so you can lift evenly, you can get hydraulic pump and piston from China, when you look at the price of the ones you have sent details of, I have over £300 to play with.
I have every type of welding gear MIG with Gas / Arch / Tig and every other type of machine I have made myself a 4' bending rollers that will bend 2mm sheet steel also a Jig for cutting 8' x 4' sheets of steel up to size with the plasma cutter, plus aload of other machines, that I found to be over prices for what they where, I made myself a rotational casting m achine computer controlled, as the ones for sale would not hold the moulds I wished to cast, when others had seen it, that do what I do, where asking me to make them one, anything that would have done for me would have run into thousands and not as good as mine, so I made my own for less than £300, if you look around you can find anything you want, for very little, as I find a lot of sellers do not know the true value of the items they are selling, I love the ones selling something that say "do not ask me as I do not know anything about it". so if I can find away of putting a video link for you to follow, so you can see what I do to pass the time, I have a load of visitors turning up just to see what I am upto, can be a pain at times, as I have a lot to do. Thanks for the info you sent.

[SZ5]

No bother mate.

Good to have another member who is interested in make it yourself and fixer on the forum. Will be interesting to see your projects. By the way feel free to start new threads relating to your projects in the appropriate sections.

I've recently bought a lathe and have been using MIG for ages. The workshop is slowly getting equipment but sounds like you are way ahead of the game here.

Cheers SZ5

[r-nottz]

Nice little project there, expect you payrd £250-£300 fpr it?

[artist]

Hi SZ5, I have to make must of my machinery to do what I want, as you know must are over priced and last a couple of jobs before something go's wrong with them, unless you go for more industrial type 3 phase machines, my drill press is 3 phase, as it is more accurate than the DIY toys, I got myself a phase converter, with this I can run 3 phase motors off single phase in my brick garage, this is where I do all my metalwork, I have a very large studio I built at the back off my garage that I do all my other type of work, before I retired I had a 7000 sq feet factory to work in, with full 3 phase, I had all the machinery you could think of having, but I sold 95% of it. I have a large Laser cutter for plasitic it will engrave cloth / carpet / leather, also a plotter for vinyl for doing stickers, I have on my suzuki truck a sign saying, DO NOT FOLLOW ME AS YOU WILL NOT MAKE IT. my son is the master of doing this type of work.
If you send me some details of the lathe you have acquired and I will see what I have in some of the boxes of tooling, I am sure I have some cutters and a large chuck with key somewhere, you can have them, that is if I can find them, I have that much stuff that I had left after selling up on retirering.
I will start a few new post on new topics, as I find my way around the forum, as I am a newbe, I am a member of a lot of art forums, so I have to spread myself around with my time.

[ScottieJ]

A belated welcome to the forum.

Sounds like you have a lot of engineering experience so I'll be looking forward to future posts

Machinery is where my workshop is lacking hopefully one day I'll add a lathe and mill to the tool collection.

[SZ5]

artist How very kind of you Sir, a very generous offer.

I am rather at the other end of the scale - I have a hobby lathe (Chester DB7VS). I did look at the old British lathes but the prices for old well used Myford M7's and the like appear to be seriously over inflated. Added to the fact I'd never owned a lathe I didn't want to go there for a first lathe. So I went for new with guarantee and availability of parts Chester lathe. Chinese job, but they can knock out some reasonable stuff for the learner / hobby end of things.

I'm very much a beginner at turning but learning all the time. Every day is a School day, if you don't try to fix things you'll never understand how it works. After a complete rebuild of a series 2 landie it felt like I really knew that old truck. Hopefully it will be some time before I have to rebuild the Suzuki

SZ5

http://www.chesterhobbystore.com/db7vs-lathe-3969-p.asp