Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

If you loiter on eBay, there are still great bargains to be had with machine tools. The relatively cheap availability of electronic single to three phase converters means that a whole raft of industrial machines can now be used at home without paying a fortune for a three phase supply. Often three phase machines trade at a significant discount to single phase equivalents. Although we are coming to the end of it, over the last few years many schools have removed their machine tools - I am not sure whether it is 'elf and safety' or whether there is no demand for practical skills anymore. My own lathe is a 3 phase ex-school mid 70's British 'big iron' lathe and is a pleasure to use. Depending on the phase converter you buy, you can run multiple machines - so I am on the lookout for a nice three phase upright mill.

As for a compressor, I couldn't live without it. Clarke (Machine mart) in the UK make some very questionable quality tools, but if you pick and choose, some stuff isn't bad. The Clarke full polish professional spanners are not up to snap-on standards, but aren't bad and cost a fraction of the snap-on price. Their compressors are also pretty good. Stay away from the hobby range, but the 'air industrial' range is good value and OK quality.

I have had the following compressor for 10 years, always on, never a problem. It has a 3HP motor which is right at the limit of a 13amp fuse, so I had to wire it directly into a spur as it would blow the plug fuse 1 start in 10.

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/se16c150-air-compressor

I've spent the last few weeks trying to rearrange my garage so that I could get some tools set up and actually make progress on the car. Here's the update:

Blasting Cabinet - What a wonderful, fabulous piece of kit.


Takes a nasty old bit of metal and gets it ready for paint in less than 5 minutes. Once I really get rolling, I'll have much of the rolling chassis ready for reassembly. If nothing else, this tool gives hope! I think someone else mentioned that they have one and never use it. I can easily see how that might be the case once I'm done on the car, but I think it's worth having just for this round of work.

Horizontal Bandsaw


I'm probably more excited about this as another restoration project. It's a Craftsman Commercial, supposedly a pretty good US made piece of iron. I've rebuilt the downfeed cylinder (if you call replacing the hydraulic fluid a rebuild) so that it feeds nice and slowly, and expect to have a new blade on it this weekend. Hoping I can get it to cut straight. I doubt I'll use it much for items that go straight on the car, but more for items that help me work on items that go on the car.

Tool Chest


Stumbled across this at a sale and picked it up for US$40 (retails for $190) and is in great shape. I've never had a proper, rolling tool chest, so this will be cool. And just fits under my workbench.

Perhaps I'll become a real mechanic/restoration guy before this is all done.

Happy weekend motoring. In Seattle, full project weather approaches.

Dave

Maybe not machine tools but I guess they are machined tools; this is my Lotus tool board, but I still find it difficult sometimes, maybe I need some bigger ones!

AussieJohn wrote:Maybe not machine tools but I guess they are machined tools; this is my Lotus tool board, but I still find it difficult sometimes, maybe I need some bigger ones!

But seeing your location reminded me!

Someone (who shall remain nameless ) got hold of an old pic of mine....and sent it back to me!!!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/45450049/NEC%20 ... 20Show.htm

Thanks for the link Ardee, best laugh I've had for ages, cheers, John.

AussieJohn wrote:Maybe not machine tools but I guess they are machined tools; this is my Lotus tool board, but I still find it difficult sometimes, maybe I need some bigger ones!

"If you cant fix it with a hammer it must be an electrical problem"

someone said that here i recall !

With that many hammers you cant have any electrical problems

cheers
Rohan

AussieJohn wrote:Maybe not machine tools but I guess they are machined tools; this is my Lotus tool board, but I still find it difficult sometimes, maybe I need some bigger ones!

'kin 'eck! you've got a hammer to "fit" everything; that makes the rest of us look poor losers!

John

I really need a bigger one to hit me over the head with to try and jolt my memory into working again!!! PS I do have a few more but didn't have a big enough board.

AussieJohn:

Have to ask.....which one's your favorite? And does each one have a story?

Dave

P.S. Hope everyone had a good weekend. Finally got the lathe/mill set up, and went about making swarf. Great fun, that. Used some calipers, did some math, then a travel indicator and what do you know. Got it within a thousandth. That's damn satisfying when you normally spend all day looking at a computer. Cheers.

rgh0 wrote: "If you cant fix it with a hammer it must be an electrical problem"
someone said that here i recall !

With that many hammers you cant have any electrical problems

cheers Rohan

Wouldn't one of the two mallets for be used for electrics? Rubber for HT & plastic for LT?

Cheers - Richard

My hammerboard is the only tidy bit of the garage, [I just reordered some gearbox seals to replace the ones I lost last week somewhere in it] Dave, my favourite hammer was the only one not on the board [my late Dad bought for me about 45 years ago.] Rohan, if I thought more hammers would solve my Lotus electrical problems I would quickly add another dozen or two, [but I have a sneaky suspicion it doesn't work quite like that] cheers, John.

AussieJohn wrote:Maybe not machine tools but I guess they are machined tools; this is my Lotus tool board, but I still find it difficult sometimes, maybe I need some bigger ones!

I like hammers. Best tool bar none, moves things, gets the attention of the object you are communicating with, feels good, relieves stress, localizes pain - sometimes on your thumb, and I am sure other benefits. My favorite is "AH", thats August Holmgren my great aunts husband, I or my father or grandfather have had it since. It used to have a longer handle but its been shortened a few times by me. It was a full length handle when I got it. Its that best damn beating tool going even with the chipped face (August must have been a hell of a Swede to fracture the face).

The other 2 are from a mold I through together at work one morning. We molded polyurethane parts for floating oil curtains at B F Goodrich. Like any place I worked it was good to have a hammer (or 30) around so these developed into a 2 or 3 hammer a day production for a month or two. Most were 40 durometer urethane but white is a 60 rating and its pretty solid. The first prototype was without any lead or fiberglass shaft but without a 2 lb hunk of lead and the urethane uncased fiberglass shaft it was useless. I molded these in 1977, I like these as they just work.

Gary

Hell Gary, they would look good on my board, cheers, John.

John, Gary,

There's no hope for the pair of you, orgasmic hammers or not

John