Well,
Here goes. What happened is that my next door neighbour's uncle was an engineer, dealing with abrasives...there are no end of grinding wheels. He lost interest in his own stuff when his wife died. Later he got Alzheimers or something similar. The garage with a flat roof started to leak years ago and was not repaired, leading to more and more damage and rot. Evidently he used to hang buckets under the leaks
All the workshop was promised to my neighbour years ago. The old boy has now had to go into a home and the house being sold off as is to pay for it. My neighbour is not interested now so gave everything to me for a very nominal sum. Everything would have been skipped! If the house had not been sold by the time the bad weather starts again then nothing would have been salvageable; I got there just in time!
It is lovely to get all this stuff, but I am mindful of the circumstances by which it came to me, as well as the circumstances that have led to the damge and think to myself that it could be me in a few years. I am planning now where it goes when I croak or clap out. I too, have a nephew...
Anyway, enough of the maudlin....
on...
The lathe:
The tray behind is full of chucks, angle plate and other stuff soaking in kerosene as part of the rescue mission.
The box under the bench is full of ferrous metals of various kinds. There were also 2 lumps of brass round nearly a foot long and a bronze (I think) bar 3" x 3/8" and about 3 feet long, and various bits of aluminium...
I spent yesterday trying to sort the boxes of stuff. I had to give up!
There is just so much
To be honest though, some is just scrap now because of water damage. There are boxes and boxes of drills and reamers, straight shank, 1MT and a few 2MT. I found a box of burrs and small grinding wheels, another of measuring equipment, a box full of bearings of different sizes, and one full of wood-butchering hinges!
It is a mixed bag but too much and too mixed to be able to sort and put away...which was my plan!
This only half of it! There is more on my new workbench; handy angle topped with a ply and steel sheet:
I stole a small table from SWMBO's shed (don't tell her!!!) that fits underneath as a slide out marking table:
This is the drill:
The brown on the column is actually the original protective grease...it is not that old!
As I said, big rescue mission! I have found that all the lathe bearings have been greased
So it is a full strip down and clean out. The apron handwheel bearing is badly worn so has to be replaced...no doubt because of using grease!
Now to tidy up so I can use the extra space I just made...
Andy
