Hello to all members. I'm very happy to have found this excellent forum and look foreward to participating.
My name is Ian Martin and I live with my family in Rome, Italy - hence my log-in name
"romartin". My wife Anna Maria is a real Italian; we have two daughters and three grandchildren all living nearby. My eldest grandson (nearly 8) is building his first crystal radio in my workshop.
I was born (Dec 1941) and grew up in the Natal province (now Kwazulu) of South Africa; my parents were school teachers. The passion for model engineering of my twin brother Duncan and I was triggered when we were 12 or 13 by the workshop, lathe and encouragement of our father, the presence of "The Model Engineer" mags in the house (we absorbed those LBSC articles like sponges!), and the stimulus of a friend, son of a watchmaker, who proudly showed us the very precious parts he had made in his father's shop for his first oscillating steam engine. I still have two of the steam engines we made while at school (I will post photos when I learn how to..) The smaller one was mounted, together with a boiler and a couple of spirit burners, in a 3ft model tugboat which left a trail of oil on the surface of the town's public swimming pool. I remember swimming with goggles under it to watch the propeller turning. We were not popular ... During those school years we also built a Stuart Turner No 7 engine which has remained at the school.
My university qualification is in Maths and Physics. My professional life has been in Europe and based on the design and application of computers both to industrial engineering and production processes and to the reliable performance of control functions in real time systems. No place for time consuming hobbies and so, although I bought a new lathe (Prazimat DLZ 180x450) in 1986 and used it to make some parts of a telescope I was building to try to see Haley's comet for which I'd been waiting since I was 12, I resumed model engineering as a hobby only after retiring.
Since then I have built an oscillating steam engine and a horizontal Mill Engine and am now engaged in building a two cylinder vertical engine. My workshop is a small
attic room 2m x 4m x 2m which I consider myself lucky to have in this expensive city.
Other passions of mine include tennis and music.
My name is Ian Martin and I live with my family in Rome, Italy - hence my log-in name
"romartin". My wife Anna Maria is a real Italian; we have two daughters and three grandchildren all living nearby. My eldest grandson (nearly 8) is building his first crystal radio in my workshop.
I was born (Dec 1941) and grew up in the Natal province (now Kwazulu) of South Africa; my parents were school teachers. The passion for model engineering of my twin brother Duncan and I was triggered when we were 12 or 13 by the workshop, lathe and encouragement of our father, the presence of "The Model Engineer" mags in the house (we absorbed those LBSC articles like sponges!), and the stimulus of a friend, son of a watchmaker, who proudly showed us the very precious parts he had made in his father's shop for his first oscillating steam engine. I still have two of the steam engines we made while at school (I will post photos when I learn how to..) The smaller one was mounted, together with a boiler and a couple of spirit burners, in a 3ft model tugboat which left a trail of oil on the surface of the town's public swimming pool. I remember swimming with goggles under it to watch the propeller turning. We were not popular ... During those school years we also built a Stuart Turner No 7 engine which has remained at the school.
My university qualification is in Maths and Physics. My professional life has been in Europe and based on the design and application of computers both to industrial engineering and production processes and to the reliable performance of control functions in real time systems. No place for time consuming hobbies and so, although I bought a new lathe (Prazimat DLZ 180x450) in 1986 and used it to make some parts of a telescope I was building to try to see Haley's comet for which I'd been waiting since I was 12, I resumed model engineering as a hobby only after retiring.
Since then I have built an oscillating steam engine and a horizontal Mill Engine and am now engaged in building a two cylinder vertical engine. My workshop is a small
attic room 2m x 4m x 2m which I consider myself lucky to have in this expensive city.
Other passions of mine include tennis and music.
