Hi Eric ,

Apart from lathe etc my best buy has been a really accurate granite surface plate .

Regards ,

Michael Williams .

Best buy was on day one

2 lathes for 115 quid… (have spent about 2 grand on other bits tho)

Most surprisingly useful thing for the money was a digital cross slide DRO for a tenner

The dial indicator was another unknown which turned out to be a seriously useful bit of kit

A tool auction box with a decent internally threaded Myford 5 inch 4 jaw chuck, a new vertical swivelling slide, still in it's grease, a small Coventry die head with some dies, a nice through hardened 4 inch Vee block and a very tired 4MT Brown and Sharp running centre [since remodelled into a Myford nosed tailstock chuck mounting] and a few other bits and pieces. Hammer price £21

Didn't I do well?!

Brian

Kettle.

18" x 12" cast iron surface plate, $NZ 15 ex NZ Post Office Workshops Christchurch. There were two of them, the other one had handles on the ends, and sold for about $NZ 90, according to inside info gained later my one was the better of the two. Thats auctions for you!! Ian S C

My little hacksaw machine:

Didn't have room for a bandsaw. Pretty sure I'd have given this hobby the heave-ho if I'd not had this machine to take the strain.

Joe

One of those little 12x eye loupes from Chronos – about a quid. With that and a nice sharp needle held in a pin-chuck, it makes locating edges and such on the milling machine dead easy.

(The needle needs to be chosen with care – a lot of 'em are bent!)

my ML7 @ £200

The best one however was free – the toolbox of a retired RollsRoyce toolroom inspector – it included plug gauges which were used on Spitfire engines. Bliss.

That Starret micrometer for £1?

Three step drills from Aldi for £5 that cost £35 at Machine Mart (and as far as how they work, they are worth £35!)

Various cheap digital clipers

Aldi cook's blowtorch

Slightly foxed Record No. 3 vice F.O.C. from the tip?

Or things I just use over and again?

Machine Mart carbide tipped scriber.

Set of three 1",2" and 3" squares from Chronos

Ball-ended allen keys

Really cheap 4" files from B&Q – rough as a badger's bum but the chew away anythingand you can finish with a smoother file.

Or the cheap surprise that keeps going?

Woolworths "Dremel type" rotary tool bought 12 years ago and still going strong.

Machine Mart pillar drill?

Neil

Possibly the best bargain ever was the contents of my workshop, which I had to sell before I emigrated

The lucky bloke got a B model Boxford in superb condition, Chester mill, both with DRO's – comprehensive tooling including a Hofmann dividing head, machine vices, parts washer and oxy-acetylene ( full sized and portapack ) for £600

But then he was my best friend, constant workshop companion and £600 was all the money he could scrape together ( being only able to work part time due to disabling injuries from a bike crash )

Still, I took him for every penny he'd got

Hi Michael,

The machine was a no-name Taiwanese import sold by Graham Engineering under their 'Alpine' badge.

I picked it up new for £60 in the mid-80s. I don't remember seeing any of the other purveyors of far-eastern machines selling them and they didn't remain on the market for long. Indeed, I've since only encountered one reference to this pattern, a Canadian guy who reported acquiring one on an American site recently. I suspect they were quickly eclipsed by the cheapo bandsaw machines that were appearing on the market at the same time. Sadly, the only comparable hacksaw machine aimed at hobbyists now on the market seems to be this one from Sieg:

Sieg Hacksaw Machine

At around £400, something like double the price of a basic bandsaw, I doubt whether they're flying off the shelves, though.

My machine is very much no-frills — no dashpot to control descent and a crude auto-cutoff (as arm descends, a bolt head on a bracket knocks off the toggle switch!). Still, it's reasonably light (40/50 lbs), quiet and can handle 2"x 3" blocks or 3" rounds though slowly (an hour or so for those dimensions). It's quicker than me though. Not to be compared with your BCA perhaps, but it's the only machine in my workshop whose loss would cause a real crisis.

Joe