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I've often wondered what would happen if our cats ate some metal chips. I'm always paranoid about it and try to sweep up any that have fallen on the floor ASAP - which is probably for the best anyway I guess.

I believe that the Midge's designer, Mark Lubbock, is British. I couldn't say for certain, however. Its a nice simple little engine that one.

Beautiful! Does it help you out around the workshop?

Bengals and Abyssinians are beautiful cats :) The Ocicat breed is a cross between Aby and Siamese with some American Shorthair thrown in - hence their crazy social manner. Our cat's favourite fetch toys are those little sponge balls that are dimpled like golf balls. She talks (can't say meow...

Lovely engines Ramon! IC model aircraft engines are my main machining interest, so threads like these are great to see :) Are you planning to fly any of these engines? I have an ML Midge in progress at the moment (on hiatus due to life getting in the way) that I'm planning to fly.

I dunno - there's something soothing about working quietly with hand tools. Its relaxing. No motor whine or safety goggles required. Very different from eg parting off steel in the mini lathe! She's an ocicat - another extremely social spotted cat. She'll happily play fetch all day long, so she...

Don't worry - these were all pulled straight from the cabinet for the photo so the irons were all retracted. I never put them in the cabinet with their irons set for use. When in use I always place them side down!

I like that idea! I'll have to convert the mill to CNC some day, I think.

Well I figured you lot would be more into the metalworking machinery :D My collection is small but useful: A Bedrock pattern No 6, Bedrock pattern No 4, Bailey pattern No 4, Union X8 (my pride and joy), Record #043, Marples M44, Hock plane kit and a little block plane. I've spent many a happy...

After moving into our new place I managed to talk the missus into letting me have the smallest bedroom as my workshop - its a pokey little thing, 2.2m*3.5m (about 7.2' * 11.5'). I've taken a break from building my ML Midge for a few weeks while I complete a bunch of storage projects so I could...

I'm another user of the X1 - in my case, Arc Euro Trade's Super X1L. This one has an extended X & Y axis and a tilting column. It has more travel than the standard X2, in a lighter, cheaper machine. Of course it has less power, so you have to take it slower. As HS93 says, Arc's X2 now uses the...

After procrastinating all week I decided to get back into it by making one of the simple parts - the carburettor body. This was pretty straightforward - I turned down a length of aluminium bar to 8mm and centre drilled with my biggest drill to create the venturi: Then I drilled through with a...

Thats fantastic, Steve - you are an inspiration :bow: :bow:

I didn't take any in progress shots for the next few turning steps, but I flipped it back around in the chuck, turned the front of the shaft down to just over 4mm and the rest to just over 6mm. I then machined the 15 degree angle transition, which was rather tricky as the electronics box for the...

I finished the conrod faster than expected last night, so I started on the crankshaft. It starts out as one M10 50mm high tensile steel bolt (look for the 8.8 on the head), ~17mm across flats: It is set to run fairly true in the 3-jaw chuck and delicately centre drilled so it can be supported...

Tonight I thought I'd tackle the connecting rod. I prepared a blank of aluminium, marked out for the holes, centre drilled and drilled them undersize: Then I ran them through with the reamers I made last night: As per the plans, I lightly countersunk the big end bearing: Next I marked out...

Where can you get the plans for this these days?

Tonight I thought I'd make the D bit reamers needed for the conrod. I started by turning down some silver steel to accurate diameter, and gave a light chamfer on the end to ease entry to the hole. I made one of these blanks for each of the two diameters required (3mm and 2.5mm): Next I filed...

Time to start the main bearing. I started by squaring up a piece of aluminium bar to 25*25*20mm. I drilled it through in the centre and tapped it M4: I affixed the drilling template and drilled down to about 10mm depth: Then I removed the template and enlarged the holes to an M3 clearance...

When I drilled for the M4 template fixing holes this time I countersunk them a good amount. Due to this I was able to use a dead centre in the tailstock to give a very good guide to when I had the piece centred in the lathe: I started with the centre wound further out and as I adjusted the...