Happy New Year to all.

To introduce myself, I brought down the curtain on my second career in early 2020 and am now finally looking forward to an active retirement. I have always enjoyed playing with old cars but have never done any engineering per se. I discovered model engineering some years ago, via a detour into model railways, which had been a childhood interest.

Whilst still working I built a workshop, bought some old British machine tools and joined my local ME club. However, to date I haven’t done much beyond trying to ‘improve’ my lathe [Myford 254+] and mill [Tom Senior E-Type].

I have fitted DROs and VFD controlled 3-phase motors to both the 254 and the E-Type. Both machines also now have Hall effect tachometers, and I was able to renew the mill spindle bearings by following Glenn Bunt’s guidance in MEW 258.

My next goal is a stepper motor power feed for the mill x-axis and I also hope to start properly on the ubiquitous Stuart 10v before too long. Ultimately, I plan to attempt some modifications to the cylinders, pistons and valves of a rather asthmatic second hand 5-inch gauge loco. Given my lack of relevant experience I’m afraid that all of these aspirations are likely to generate questions for other members of these forums ….

Jonathan Richards