Vintage Workshop
Services for Brough Superior motorcycles and their contemporaries

Workshop main page last update: 07/2005

Now, this is my workshop! It is only 25 m^2 big, and is in the basement, so I cannot accommodate very big tool machines I am afraid.
Not everything is in the state I would like it to be. The problem is time; either you do some work or you improve the workshop; I always try to find a viable compromise...

To start with, we need a little drilling machine. I make do with a cheap far-eastern one, but at least it has double pulley gearing giving a speed range from 200 to 2000 rpm.

I intend to upgrade it with a variable speed drive in the near future...

On the ironwork bench, there is also some grinding and polishing equipment.

Nothing to be very proud of, indeed, but better than nothing at all.

But I am proud of my little Robling lathe.

Thanks to the frequency converter I have installed, it runs from 5 to 2000 rpm, and I have a lot of accessories that make it quite versatile. But please do not ask how long I took to organise all of these in an acceptable way....

Of course we need some materials, as I do not have any engineering supplies around the corner.

Hex bar in stainless and in imperial dimensions, bearing bronze and a lot of odds and sods - throwing anything away is giving me a hard time!
(I know, the lower part could do with some re-organising...)

For the above mentioned reason, I do also keep a stock of imperial and metric nuts and bolts.
For cutting a piece off from the above materials, I use a cheap far-eastern band saw. I nearly fell for a good old German one recently, but it was a bit too big...

But now, this is my BABY: A Deckel FP1 milling machine.

I bought it in a pretty sorry state and spent a few months refurbishing it and organizing all the necessary accessories.

6/2005: The FP1 is a lovely little machine, and I have made many nice bits with it. But for some jobs, it is just a trifle too small! I am not sure how to accommodate two milling machines, but I have now bought an FP2.

As you need a few precision ground bits when building an engine from scratch, I also bought myself an old Fortuna cylindrical grinding machine. Alas, this is still a full restoration job...

1/2003: Now I have finally started to work on this!

11/2002: I have now added a coil winding machine to my stable!

12/2002: Thanks to ebay, I have now replaced my DIY store grinders with a decent AEG grinder. In fact a bit on the hefty side (grinding wheels 12" dia. x 2" wide) but it runs so smoothly!

It has 1.5 kW power, but is half as noisy as the 350W Taiwanese one!

If all of the above fails, I take the odd bit to the place where I work.
This is only the lathe section, but we have got milling machines as well...

 

Any kind of feedback to is appreciated
(sorry, this is not a clickable 'mailto:' hyperlink. If you want to write me, please type my address in your mailer. )

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