Hi,

I’m a retired ex-pat living in The Netherlands. Lived here for almost 40 years and for most of my life was involved with cars, motorbikes and all sorts of motorsport. I attended the Model Engineer Exhibition once back in 1977, I believe that was at the Wembley Conference Centre. Ever since then I promised myself that one day I would build a live steam model but until about 8 years ago I couldn’t get the petrol out of my veins. Eventually I had had enough of lying underneath old classics and sold up, although I still possess a ’78 Harley Davidson. Being involved mainly with restoration and customisation I have built up a reasonable workshop through the years which has helped the transition to Model Engineering.

Back in 2010 I had finished the build of a much larger workshop (42m²) and was looking around for a lathe. I looked rather enviously at the UK second hand market as there were a number of English made ex tech school machines for interesting money but the shipping was a problem. I ended up buying a Chinese machine from a local reputable supplier and spent some time setting it up correctly with some small modifications. A couple of years later I added an X2 Milling Machine from the same supplier and a lot of the repair and customisation work on the cars was done on these machines. After the sale of my BMW E24 I replaced them with more modern machines from the same supplier. A 330x600mm lathe with Sino DRO and coolant pump, also a BF25 mill which I have converted to CNC. That probably deserves a separate post as there is only the basic left from the original machine left. It runs on ballscrews, NEMA24+34 close loop steppers with a Mesa 7i96 interface board – controlled by LinuxCNC on a RaspberryPi 5 with a touch screen. It won’t machine any large items but I’m more than satisfied with the results. If I do need to do larger things I have a neighbour with a large Fadal from the 90’s. Other machines: Bench drill press, hydraulic press, blast cabinet and parts washer (leftover from the automotive time), 3 in 1 sheet metal machine, 3D printers, MIG, TIG, OxyAcetylene, Propane – plus of course cabinets full of hand tools and cutting tools for the machines. The list is endless but of course most of you would understand. My wife says I have a tool fetish but I’ll resist telling my reply;-)

Present projects are an LBSC Evening star on 3½” scale and a refurbishment/upgrade of a Leapfrog Creatr HS 3D printer. Also setting up a home foundry as I was dissatisfied with castings purchased from a well known UK supplier a couple of years ago. Model engineering in The Netherlands is on a completely different level to the UK and those interested in English steam history and the purchase of supplies etc from the UK are finding life difficult since Brexit. There is also a movement more interested in German loco’s but that doesn’t float my boat. anyway, I hope you get an idea of who I am. By the way – I have no formal training, apparently I am a polymath.

Regards,

Martyn