Trekking in from the monster mountain region of deepest North Wales, came our favourite glass valve hi-fi man, Darren.
After a while of gum beating and supping fresh brewed coffee, we went to a place Darren had never been before.
A model engineers dungeon (sorry, workshop).
After running round like a kid in a sweet shop, he eventually came down to earth, and I showed him the way our machines run. Darren has only been dabbling on the outskirts of machining and I think he came away that maybe he can achieve what he wants to do, and there is no black magic involved in what we do, just plain and simple thinking (in my case, emphasis on the simple).
Then came a bit I didn't think would impress him much. But when I got my engines up onto the boil with the new compressor, they surprised even me. Especially the turbines. They actually screamed, a thing that my old compressor could never get them to do. Now I know that my three rotor turbine was a good design as I could never get it off the simmer. The elbow engine, as is usual, mesmerised him for while, until it sunk in how it actually worked.
Anyway, the time came for his excuse for venturing into deepest Cheshire.
The poorly lathe.
I had visions of having to do major surgery on it, but as it turned out, with the correct measuring instruments, it showed it was only a minor scratch, and could easily be fixed with a bit of sticky tape (well, an hour on the mill).
There is a slight bulge under both sides of the bed in the same position on both sides. Almost certainly caused by original bad machining. So the jibs had to be adjusted to go over this 'hump', and invariable, anywhere else on the bed, the saddle would be wobbling about because the jibs just wouldn't be tight. Once these 'humps' have been hacked off, the jibs should be able to be adjusted to a much more stable setting.
So once my shop has been sorted a little more, this bit on minor work will be carried out, and hopefully the lathe will be brought back to full health.
I don't know how his first impressions were when meeting a model engineer full on, complete with missing top teeth, but I am sure he went away with the feeling that we no longer lived in caves, and don't eat the offspring of our enemies.
It was a long trek for Darren, I just hope he thought it was worth all the effort.
Bogs