With both of my Myford 7's I knew something of the history and often reflect on it and wish I was able to talk with the previous owners!

My first Myford was bought from an estate sale organised by the deceased's son, but I'd actually gone to buy his Boley watchmaker's lathe!
There was a rather sad element to this, because the son hated all his father's equipment so much he just wanted rid of it, the reason being his father spent more time in his converted coal shed working on his loco's than with his ailing mother who died some years before his father …… a lesson to be learned by us maybe!

The seller's father had made most of a 3.1/2" scale Jubilee and to a high standard, along with it came a kit of bits for an original M.E.Minnie traction engine plus a full set of build notes for both, plus a set of MEW mag's!
The lathe also came with its own enclosed cabinet purpose built by the owner, and more tooling than you could shake a stick at!

When my friend became terminally ill, he asked if I would like to buy his workshop equipment, which included the Myford 7 I now own, he built several small steam engines plus several clocks on this machine, but my first Myford was sold to fund the purchase, but most of the equipment from the first machine is still with it!

The Boley is the machine I use most though and which the previous owner (deceased estate) purchased at an antique fair in Belgium where he spent most of his later years!
The suprise for me with the machine was finding inscribed in the lid of the box 'André M, Stalag XA, 20543'
How did this lathe find its way into a POW camp and get permission to be used, or was it smuggled somehow? was it used to manufacture escape materials, spectacles, tools etc, what did it repair, how did the owner wind up in Stalag XA anyway (tons of stuff on the camp via Google) and what happened to him after WWII, did he even survive the camp?
So many unanswered questions with some of the stuff we become custodians of!

John.

My Dad still has the Britannia's his Grandfather bought. One is in service, having had new screws cut for the cross slide and compound a couple of years back. The other is in kit form, think the treadle is still about.

So I do Wonder what stories those lathes could tell…

Steve

If my machines could talk, I'd probably pay them to keep quiet!

I have a very old Excel filing & sawing machine, it bears a label, Rovex scale models, Dover. I read an article in ME several years ago about a well known contributor who got a job there in the 50s, he said that he hated the job, so boring. I often wonder if it was this machine that caused him to move on.

Dave