Hi from France

[mattinker]

Introduction,
I'm an ex pat Brit, I've lived in France for over thirty years and just outside Paris for over twenty-five. Curiously, I have quite a lot of "imperial" machinery, as the UK market is much better than the French one.

In the order that I bought them more or less:-

Bench grinders
Elliot M10 Shaper
Tig Mig Plasma
Ancient Pan brake, will take 2.05m x 2mm steel
Clark 4x6 band saw.
1944 Colchester Master (6 1/2" UK swing, 13" US swing, x 36") Undergoing a very slow ELS (Electronic Lead Screw conversion)
H.Ernault Somua Universal Mill.
Clarkson T&G
Elu 30cm Wood band-saw usually fitted with a narrow fine blade.
Denbigh "Camel back" Pillar drill, a splendid beast that can easily cope with 50mm bitd. (This replaced at similar cost a Chinese high run-out CM2 pillar drill)
Dewalt radial arm saw.
Metabo mitre saw
50cm wood band saw, a gift! Fitted most of the time with a rough-cut wood blade.
Emco compact eight, a gift missing it's motor, in progress.
Largish Fly press, as yet un-installed!
I also have accumulated quite a lot of miscellaneous tooling.
I have a large assortment of wood and metal hand tools.
I am fortunate in that I have a friend who works for a UK based international transporter, so I get "special" rates on machine transport.

I have built a home foundry, so far only Al, more coming! A forge, Anvil etc. "in progress", a "hot spot", a large hood(2m x 2m) with a chimney. A gas fired kiln to fire ceramics and de-wax "lost wax" moulds is in the pipeline.

I use my machines in my work as a set and machinery builder for television, theatre and the Cinema.

I am more than a little over whelmed by work, and the fact that I moved into an unfinished home/workshop six years ago, the light is at the end of the tunnel but I'm still not there yet!

Regards, Matthew

[spuddevans]

Hi there Matthew Welcome to the club, pull up a chair and join in the fun.


Tim

[saw]

Hi and welcome 

[DaveH]

Mathew,

It's a hello and welcome from me.
 
DaveH

[Brass_Machine]

Hiya Matt 

Welcome to the collective

Sounds like you have a nice tool collection. 

Set and machinery builder? That has got to be some neat stuff... do tell?

Eric

[mattinker]

Hiya Matt 

Welcome to the collective

Sounds like you have a nice tool collection. 

Set and machinery builder? That has got to be some neat stuff... do tell?

Eric

Yep, a variety of "neat" things! You note that I do both set and machinery construction, that's because there isn't that much work around, so I do sets, "dumb" TV Police series,  which have always the same things, Hospital, police station, prison, prison visiting, interrogation room etc. It can be fun, walls that get blown up, ultra thin façades to put on buildings so that they can be painted to look like they just burnt. The fun things this year have been. A pseudo mediaeval ladder with rope lashed rungs, eight metres high, the rungs sliding beneath the stunt man's feet whilst he stood on a discrete roller-skate bearing carriage, which kept everything parallel so that the rungs didn't jam up!  I hacked a 1.10m diameter clock so that it could be made to run fast to fast forward time. I made three doors for three "takes" of the woman judge in the series opening the door with a crow bar, they were made with 0.6mm instead of the normal 1.5mm and the angle 30 x 30 x 5mm folded out of 0.6mm to look like it was 5mm thick. Times have been better, but I'm getting by!

Regards, Matthew