Hi, I’ve previously browsed the forum a number of times but never quite got around to registering so here I am.

I served my apprenticeship as a centre lathe turner in the late ‘70s and have been involved in machining ever since but mainly only for work with my biggest reason for not doing much machining at home being lack of space. I’ve had a Myford Super 7 for about 5 years but it’s a bit tired and hasn’t enjoyed its time in a wooden workshop so it’s due at the very least a new motor and a cosmetic tart up but I may go a bit further…

We’ve recently moved to Lancashire and I decided that because I actually work as a self employed on site machinist I’d got the perfect excuse to purchase a decent sized workshop where I can indulge my main pastime of working on motorbikes alongside having a small home machine shop where I can make my own motorbike parts, machine small fixtures for work and do whatever else I please. In addition to the tired Myford I now own a Chester B which is a bit of a joke machine really but I picked it up cheap with a lot of tooling so it’ll be ok for for making spacers, drill bushes etc and I went a bit mad and bought a new Osaki mini mill which although it’s Chinese made and needs some modifications isn’t too bad.

I’ve already drilled and tapped holes in the cast feet of the mini mill so I can level it and purchased a large drip tray to sandwich between the feet and the bench to act as a swarf/coolant tray. Next on the list is to fit an air spring conversion to get more height under the quill and make a support to strengthen the back of the machine where it can be swivelled to allow angles to be drilled/milled.

I own a tig welding set so I made some brackets to bolt on the sides of the base so I can fit leveling feet in the Model B which should take out some of the wobble that’s not going to help when it comes to machining anything more than nylon bushes and I’ll be fitting the same type of feet to the Myford rather than just bolting it to the floor which is what I’d done previously.

that’s it really, if we get another long period of lockdown this year and I finish a couple of bike rebuilds I’ve got on the go I’ll be looking for projects to use the machines on so stand by for questions.