Hello, Now retired I spent 35 years managing in the IT industry and then 15 years as an academic (getting a PhD and teaching management).

I am interested in clocks, and am teaching myself to service and repair the ones I have as well as "fiddling" (my wife's term) with other things. I am (slowly) learning the skills needed to be a machinist.

I have had a small Taig lathe (ER16 collet head) and an old 6mm watchmakers lathe for several years. The Taig has a vertical slide, and I have been able to mill bits and pieces on it. However I have run into the limitations of my (very) old drill press (hand drill on a stand) and was finding setting up the Taig to mill a pain. So I have just invested in a SX1LP mill from Arc Eurotrade with an MT2 ER16 Adapter.

I now seem to be spending most of my time now making tooling, clamps and other bits and pieces for the mill and lathe rather than clocking! Next project is a Harold Hall grinding rest so that I can sharpen the broken drills and blunted tools properly.

Thanks. No plans for clockmaking! I have rather too many clocks as it is. In any case clockmaking would involve gear cutting and (after so many years in IT) I am averse to highly repetitive activities. That is what computers are for.

So clock making probably lies on the far side of a timeline that includes CNC – and I have a LOT to learn before I even contemplate that.