That could be good news. Mortons have been a major force in motorcycle and classic motorcycle publishing for as long as I can remember. Their mags are top notch and their archives go back to the days of the first motorcycles. Plus they do heritage railway mags too. So should be a good fit for model engineering. And a good stable, longterm publisher in the field too, which in this day of dwindling print markets is reassuring.

The bike enthusiasts on here will be familiar with Mortons' products such as The Classic Motorcycle, Classic Mechanics, Classic Racer, Old Bike Mart, Real Classic, plus a slew of modern bike mags such as Motorcycle Sport and Leisure, Back STreet Heroes, Island Racer and more. So, good company for ME and MEW to keep.

Edited By Hopper on 04/04/2022 13:08:53

I haven’t been a regular reader of motorcycle mags for a few years but it seems Morton’s have acquired many of my old favourites. My loft was creaking under a collection going back to the ‘70s until I started chatting to a chap in WH Smith, he was interested in collecting them and he called round with a Landrover which was handy as they would fill a reasonable estate car. I have a significant collection of ME and MEW and MEW is still growing. It would be good if a Model Engineering show could be restarted but of course the Meridienne shows have become established and to me they are finding it more difficult to fill the trade stands, Ketan took the time and trouble to explain how a modern business is disrupted by shows so time to put on our thinking caps to put on an event.

Mike

Do they operate any online fora like this? Maybe we might see some improvements to bring it up to date.

Interesting. I read EIM on Readly as well as Garden Rail and a few others. My eyes are too bad for printed copies anymore.

I think I saw MEW on kindle but did not get around to reading it.

Perhaps I rejoined the forum at the right time.

This forum is custom designed so I can’t see Morton’s changing it any time soon.

I see the security certificate has changed and triggered my browser – I understood one of the problems in getting rid of the damn’d smilies was they were essential for other sites – I guess now they can be got rid of,

I have been thinking about this bearing in mind I knew the net profit up till the end when I edited both magazines. Virtually all the sublets have stopped advertising which mast have bean a huge drip in profits.

It would be interesting to know the figures now. Especially with the complaints about MEW issue 300,

You don’t sell a business making that amount of money if it is making a profit like it was. lt will be interesting to see if the publishing schedule remains the same? Or maybe they will combine both magazines, bad idea, two distinct demographics, or refuse Model Engineer to 13 times a year, again a bad idea.

I suspect sales will increase especially in news agents because of the reach of the motorbike readership. I expect Neil will be publishing more motorbike articles (tools) in the future.

Long term they may decide to go digital only which would be a pain when you want to refer to a drawing in the workshop.

Oh well, we will have to wait and see.

Hi All
A quick ramble from a grey haired machinist.

A spring clean in the UK with a new broom, maybe a good thing, Model engineering or as I prefer to call it DIY Home shop machining is changing. Like it or not Automation is coming. While there will always be traditional hand guided precision toolmaker level machine work. CNC Automation is here to stay.

I have always wondered why ME and MEW focussed so heavily on Hand work. There must be a balance. The magazines need to increase their readership in order to prosper. MEW needs to change. They must embrace new technology. CNC Machining, CNC Plasma cutting, 3D printing, CNC routing . Essential for the up and coming around 30 something younger readers.

Once you get over the shock of new tech you will find that all the hand skills learnt over a lifetime are not lost at all, they are needed to run that new fangled CNC widget. You are still dealing with different materials, cutting tools, feeds and speeds etc.

Before I press the send button on this and no doubt ruffle many feathers, a bit, but not, like the new duckling as painted in Alfred Noyes poem, please take the time to consider where our special hobby is heading?

Tn this case the duck needs to survive just like the magazines. Change is a good thing if it is balanced.

Regards
John

PS:
A while back I posted in the MEW forum under "DIY Epoxy Frame based CNC mill" Regrettably not finished due to life's pressures, I will get back to it as soon as my new home workshop shed is built. Waiting on the council approval, fingers crossed it is soon.

This thread alone has had over 62,000 views on this forum and counting. 62K views shows there is genuine interest in CNC from this forums viewers in this sort of machine build.

Well I'm in agreement with John Mc particularly where MEW is concerned and would like to see it cover more of the up to date technologies and wouldn't this be an ideal time to think about the title to put the emphasis into WORKSHOP and try to draw in those who buy or make their machines to support other hobbies like vehicle restoration and building RC Models, etc. Maybe now that Editor Neil is getting his workshop back up and running we may even get to see his CNC making some chips and featured in the mag.

I also get the German equivalent of our two titles MiM and they have a lot more on CNC mills & Routers, CAD, CAM, 3D printing and so on even publishing specials on these subject on a regular basis. It certainly has a big following and as John says ME and MEW are a bit behind the times and stuck in the mud.

I was a bit disappointed to read here the other day that we may be getting a new series on setting up a lathe based on a Myford and a new one at that. Chances of many newcomers being able to start with a NEW Myford are slim and most will be buying far eastern machines that do need a bit of a different approach to get the best out of them. Not least using metric as anyone coming into the hobby now is likely to have been brought up working in metric from school age.

We also had a similar series based around a Myford only a couple of years ago, maybe time for a bit more variety and aiming articles at what many readers and potential readers can relate to. There is still a place for Myfords and other old iron in the mags as many still like that and if the restoration of that rusty dog could be featured that would be more suitable as it will be dealing with issued anyone buying an old used lathe may be faced with though hopefully not quite as extreme.

There is also the usual thing that assumes those buying a new machine want to make tooling so these series all seem to have the beginner making tools. Today it seems many have the means to just go out and buy what they want for relatively reasonable sums and get on with using the machine to make their bits for their motor bike, RC crawler truck, or whatever which is what they are actually interested in and the lathe and for many a mill is just another power tool used to make something.

J

….. ME and MEW are a bit behind the times and stuck in the mud.

….. the lathe and for many a mill is just another power tool used to make something.

Heresy !

Nigel B.

Agree wholeheartedly with John McNamara and Jason. New owner, new ideas, lets move into the 21st century. Just because we are, perhaps, modelling an 18th century machine doesn't mean we should use 18th century techniques.

I would like more perhaps on 3D printing in relation to both making items but also as to jigs and tooling to aid the production process. Printing metals can be done commercially how about developing this in the home workshop.

I would also support a change of name for MEW to promote the wider home workshop ethic. Not everyone builds models but there are plenty of people using machine tools with a vast range of interests.

New owner, new name, new era!

John

Yes, no doubt put off by a page full of G-code to do something that would take a couple of minutes on a manual machine, certainly put me off the idea. However now I have seen the light and can happily produce parts on my CNC without even writing a single line of G-code maybe it is time to show others that modern CAM does a lot of the work for you these days.

Who knows we may even get a change of forum software that will allow for attachments of things like .stp and .stl files, combine that with authors running a concurrent thread on the forum as the likes of Luker and I do then no need to waste a page of the mag with boring code, just load it to the forum.

In a similar vein it would be nice to get more threads running to go with articles that can contain additional info and photos rather than bulk out what's in the mag with things like large photos of padlocks and hinges which I seem to remember went down as well as 4 pages of car restoration in MEW300 . Also allows subscribers to raise queries about articles in the mag and encourages discusion.

Yes it would be nice to get a bit more variation in subject matter in ME rather than the large proportion given over to Locos. Plus more new designs rather than repeating the same old subjects from the same old designs and castings.

And as you say keep the workshop subjects for the workshop mag rather than the mix ME has gone back to.

I suppose you could also say we only need one setting up a lathe, rear tool post, VFD, etc article too. But there are quite a few options for the would be CNC owner from articles about tuning up the basic 3040 routers, building gantry type router or ATC spindle equiped machines through converting manual mills and updating older CNC with upto date electronics not to mention buying new or building from scratch such as John Mc