Greetings from (Old) York, (Old) England.
My official name is Paul, but Mrs. L. prefers to use terms such as, "selfish, self-centred, thoughtless and inconsiderate", on account of all the Engineering equipment I am always procuring and giving up ("our") valuable time and money for.
I have spent all my working life to date in Engineering, leaving school in 1973 and serving a 4-year Indentured Apprenticeship, City & Guilds, General Mechanical Eng', as a Fitter/Machinist, followed by a 5th year as a Trainee Draughtsman (Drawing-board) and have worked in various Design Offices and disciplines since.
I am an advocate of S.I. Units. The company I served my time with officially adopted metrication in 1976 and I immediately realized it's superiority over the imperial system of measurement (Comments on a post card please)
Graduating from a drawing-board to AutoCAD 2D (1990) was easy - it was just a drawing-board on a screen. But 3D catches me out a bit. "You can't teach old dogs new tricks" as the saying goes, and now all the the young dudes (that I used to boss around) are teaching me a thing or 2000. AutoCAD "Mechanical" was a disaster (in my opinion) and I do not feel that "Inventor" is as good as "SolidWorks".
I have passions for Willys MB 38's, Honda Pan-European ST1100's, Gibson SG's, Lambretta's and Miniature Railway Live-steam Loco's in 3.5", 5" & 7.25" gauges. Unfortunately, I do not own either of the first 3 items on my shopping list (yet) but my Scooter has a pretty good tuned engine (as far as Scooters go) and is in the process of being totally rebuilt (again) I have two 5" & two 7" loco's under design/construction and a very sorry 3.5" Rob Roy rescued from a hammer & chisel merchant. I also enjoy renovating and repairing Machine Tools - it is very satisfying.
My interest in Miniature Steam Loco's led me to set-up a workshop with an old Harrison L5 and an Adcock Shipley 1ESG (Bridgeport M-head) + the usual Bench/drill/grinder etc, some years ago. Moving house recently, my Harrison was damaged and when Chester Machine Tools (UK) offered their Conquest Lathe & Mill at reduced prices, I took the plunge (more grief from she who must be obeyed) This led me to the Chester forum which in turn , led me to this one - which looks AOK
Hopefully, I'll get some photo's of my workshop together this weekend and post them on. I know I always enjoy an insight into the El Dorado's of others, without being nosey - there's always something you see that makes you think, "that's a good idea".
This site is very inspirational from what I have read and seen and long may it continue to be/do so.
Best regards, Paul, York, North Yorkshire England (On Ilkley bar t'at, On Ilkley bar t'at, On Ilkley bar t'aat, etc)