How much gear do you need to start Model Engineering ????

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

I found this on another forum about buildind without a lathe.

**LINK**

Paul

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

This has just reminded me of a bit in a book…. Solo or maybe Weapon… where an android needs to make a machine part so files it to shape ( helical gear for truck differential I think)…

Indeed Asimov 's idea of why robots should be humaniod ( or maybe Capek's see RUR ) such that they could use existing tools / equipment.. has yet to come to fruition.. Maybe beacuse flesh robots are currently cheeper to reproduce and train… that balance will one day shift…manufacturing will shift back to the developed countries ( where the markets are ..see why sony manufacture in uk)..BUT labour will not return…

I digress …)mutters THE ROBOTS ARE COMING!(..

My take on absolute minimium ? some sort of work holding a saw plus file. and maybe a drill.

Sane minimum .. add lathe. to the above.

…..

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

I started with a big ommer, hacksaw, cheap pillar drill and a 4000 year old drummond lathe which could turn ovals (it was a real nighmare to use, but if I still had it I could make it work like new!). The end products were rubbish compared to what I can turn out now, but if anything the smile on my face when it ran for the first time was bigger!

[WolfieParticipant @wolfie]

II had a small micro lathe that I bought to make small parts with my plastic modelling head on. I then decided I could make a steam engine with it.

Its true I made the first few parts of my little engine with it, but there's no doubt the addition of a milling machine helped greatly.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

I take my hat off to the blokes on the Stirling Engine Forum where I try to help, most of these people have no machinery, and very little in the way of hand tools, but they manage to get a motor of some sort working, tin can motors are not that easy to get working well, I'v tried, it did work, but I went back to machining up lumps of metal, and getting things as I like them. Ian S C

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