Hi everyone, been looking for simple starter projects and came across this site.
I started playing with machines during my apprenticeship as an electrical engineer, we had a workshop with colchester and myford lathes (large and small), beaver milling machings and surface grinders. We had to make tools and fixtures for the work we done and thats how I got into it.
I have just started a new job where they were using a clarke cl500 mill/lathe combo to make their fixtures, tools and some prototype work. I still don't know how they managed to use the mill effectively/accurately as the whole thing jumps about! I have managed to talk them into a small Eagle 30 mill and now use the clarke purely as a lathe. So far it has saved the company a fair bit of money as we have had to make some parts for machines that were going to cost a fortune, and were going to take days if not weeks to get here. I have also had to modify various standard parts for one off jobs that our customers need but can't buy them anywhere.
Looking forward to some more digging about and looking for some good ideas to improve the functionality of the lathe and milling machine, and then on to improving and learning more skills.
cheers
daz