Man from England, UK

[gazatteer]

Hi

I am a newbie to steam engines. I accidentally came across a model steam engine on utube. Since then I have trying to build an engine. What kind/plan, I have no idea. The horizontal steam engines look cool.

My background is software development and I have no idea about lathes and mechanical engineering/cads.

I have looking on feebay for a while now to buy lathe but there are so many, no idea which one and they cost a lot of money for a hobby project.

So I decided to use Autodesk Inventor to design one before I build it.

After a lot of searching I cam to this website and I have to admit it's excellent.

Thanks

 

[ironman]

Welcome gazatteer, lots of plans here in the download section and information is abundant. ironman

 

[student123]

Welcome gazatteer to HMEM.

As ironman said you'll find lots of info here.

I too have a software engineering background, as have several of the members.

for starting out places to look, theres this link:
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=9413.0

Joining a local model engineering club, or meeting someone who can give you guidance would be a good way to start, before buying a lathe, if you have no prior knowledge.

Mike

 

[GWRdriver]

I know England is a separate country within the United Kingdom, but England, UK still seems to be a bit of a redundancy to me. Is this now the British country location convention? Anyway, whether England, Britain, UK, Realm, no matter, welcome to the board.

 

[gazatteer]

Thanks for the welcome lads

 

[Omnimill]

Welcome to the forum! Have a look at some of the other stuff folks have built on here, may be an easier start than a steam engine?

Vic.

 

[picclock]

Hi Gazateer

You may find that

http://madmodder.net/index.php

or

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/7x12minilathe/

may be useful groups to look at. madmodder has lots of UK residents and there is a list of locations where you can locate local members.

If you want to check out stuff or just have a good day out go to

London Model Engineering Exhibition - Alexandra Palace 21-23 Rd January

Its well worth a visit with some great models, tooling and machinery.

FWIW when I bought my lathe it was a decision based mainly on cost. It was a low price and very good value for money but (there's always a but :), the trade off was the amount of time I spent making adjustments and improvements which would be unnecessary if I'd spent more money at the time. However the upside of this is the knowledge and experience you gain from doing it - almost like a right of passage.

Good luck with your new enterprise.

picclock

 

[gazatteer]

Thanks

Will try going to London for the exibition, weather permitting.

Thanks

 

[tel]

I didn't know they had weather in England! Rof} Rof} Rof}

Welcome gazatteer

 

[krv3000]

hi and welcome jump in and have fun