Hello Clay and welcome. Come on then, tell us what the cars are! I don't have one any more (getting old) but Austin Sevens were my thing, me favourite being a 1928 Tourer that took me to Holland a few times.

The Stuart will teach you a lot and don't get too despondent if you scrap something, happens to us all.

Please let us know how you are getting on with it and remember, you can come on here any time if you're unsure about something.

Brian

morning Clay just down the road from you Barton on Sea if you need and help give me a shout happy to help

Geoff

Welcome to the forum Clay.

Your background is a good fit to 'Model Engineering' because it's a broad church covering most home workshop activities. If it's technical, I'm interested!

Though metalworkers pretend to look down on 'brown stuff', I think the hobby is really about the skills needed to make things with tools. I'm not aware woodworkers have bother taking on metalwork, though of course there's a lot to learn. Working to within 0.02mm ( 0.001" ) involves some new techniques.

Off hand I can only think of three conversion problems afflicting the hobby:

• Imperial measure and Metric! Many of those brought up on Imperial can't cope with metric and anyone trained in Metric thinks Imperial is bonkers! Although impossible in the UK to avoid working with both, it is worth majoring on one of them. Best to go imperial if your hobby looks to the past due to training, inherited tools, renovation work, or building new from imperial plans. Otherwise, go metric because it's cheaper, imperial sized stock and tooling is gradually becoming harder to find, and new plans are mostly metric, as are most manufactured items.
• If you do design, moving from 2D isometric drawing to 3D CAD requires a kind of mental backflip and a fair amount of unlearning. Though it's excellent for design and vital if you move into 3D-printing or CNC, most workshops don't need 3D-CAD.
• Moving from one computer system to another, whether operating system, application or oven timer! Again the problem is the difficulty of unlearning. Anyone who uses a computer is stuck with this one!

Have fun and let us know how you get on.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 27/01/2021 09:48:15

Hello Clay,I’m a Cabinet maker by trade (oh the shame) metal work is no different to wood work the only difference is metal is harder than wood and you have to be more accurate.Re imperial and metric again it’s no big deal .Just take your time and remember you can’t take as bigger cuts in metal as you can with wood. 😃

best regards Tony Wright

Hi there, Clay, welcome.

I'm the other end of Hampshire.

Regarding metalwork vs. woodwork: metal work is usually more neighbour-friendly than woodwork because the cutting speeds are slower. The grain structure of wood also contributes to the noise. My ML7 doesn't make anywhere near the noise level of my 1300 watt Bosch router!!

Mind you, hacksawing sheet metal can get a bit screechy.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Welcome along Clay. I tinker with motorcycles so no model making here. I spent 40 years running Series Land Rovers but also restored a few cars, could have done with your skills when remaking an Ash body frame. I am to old and lack the space to do another car but still dream of something from the 1920s/1930s to go with my bikes.