Ed Poore

No idea what condition they're in - they came out of a slightly damp shipping container and they're not aesthetically the best (powder coating is peeling off and the aluminium cases are oxidising). Will see whether they work first.

JBC do some very nice soldering irons but they're in a slightly difference price bracket to everything else listed so far This is what I have in the way of my everyday soldering iron but then again it's all usually surface mount stuff. @daveturnbull I literally have a crate of the Metcal soldering irons I've been meaning to sort through and see if any are working. Might be able to cobble something together for you. They might be a bit overkill for what you want (as in physical size).

The Corsa steering racks are becoming more and more difficult to source. The main benefit they have is that they don't have a huge number of safety features built into them which makes them easy to drive. I am supposed to be looking into building a custom motor driver to replace the Corsa steering controller when I have time...

Might be worth giving Roger Hicks a call at Power Steering Solutions - https://www.facebook.com/electricpowersteering/. He's fitted many systems and sold thousands (I should know because we build the controllers for him ). If you wanted to get really fancy we do a remote control version of it used quite extensively in the film industry. [edit]We do the electroncis bit of it but Roger does a lot of fabrication etc., to install them into the vehicles[/edit]

Second, third, fourth whatever everyone else has been saying. I've used and abused my 110 off-road and I have been known to use the chassis as a rock slider on occassion before. The only protection I've got on the vehicle is a front-diff guard, I have changed over to HD steering rods and track rods but largely because the old were shot and as part of my overhaul when I swapped to the Disco style drop arm. The front-diff guard came about because I had Nige (@Hybrid_From_Hell) build up a pegged Ashlocker for the front so it seemed sensible to protect it. I hate it to be honest as it just traps mud and water. When I find the time I'll cut off the front of the diff pan and weld a HD one in in its place. I have had to rebuild my towbar once when at Seven Sisters it decided to have a competition with a large chunk of Wales, it's undecided who won the competition since Wales sheared four bolts on the tow bar and bent a bracket. The 110 managed to remove a chunk of Wales and relocate another bit.

There's quite often some bargains on mig-welding so it's well worth keeping an eye on it.

Looks like it might be sold.

Not quite in the same league but when I snapped my first crank and went to swap a known good runner in it wouldn't fire. Was cranking and cranking and cranking. Two of us who (thought we) knew what we doing double checked everything five or six times. Eventually we came to the conclusion it wasn't getting fuel and after pressurising the tank and all sorts in an act of desperation 2h in we swapped the fuel lines over and it fired instantly

Warco Mini Mill / Seig SX2 clone up for sale for £550 in Essex on mig-welding.co.uk if you're interested Members only link: https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/warco-mini-mill-seig-sx2-clone.119372/#post-2010409

Technically yesterday morning's project but a little bit of trailer re-wiring - Ed style to make it more accessible. And then a bit of an expensive sheet of buffalo board later to make the trailer ramp it had it's inaugural test with the wee tractor on it this morning. Slightly excessive to take my old dishwasher (started leaking around the door) to my parents farm for washing aluminium parts for work but it was easy enough to load the dish washer onto the box on the tractor, drive it onto the trailer. Then could simply drive tractor off at the farm and take the dishwasher into the barn...

A friend sent this video through as well and that was my immediate thought given the way that the snow was being ripped up.

Here here! The amount of stuff he's posted down to me as well whilst refusing some reimbursment is embarrasing. But I have ways and means now...

May be too late to the party but I wouldn't worry about any bracing - I made up these gates end of last year, each leaf is 10ft wide and I can jump about on the end without bending it. I think it was 50x50 thick wall box (can't remember exact thickness off the top of my head) for the outer rectangle. Some 50x5 flat top and bottom flush to the front to provide something for the boards to sit against and then there was also a 50x25 RHS across the middle flush to the back which meant I could actually bend the boards (8ft if I remember correctly) and slot them in, they're not actually bolted in at all. The frame in situ for test fitting, I used standard gate hardware from the local farm supplies and will eventually get around to fitting a set of hydraulic rams when I overhaul them. The only other bit I did was to weld up an 'H' frame that has the cross-brace buried in the ground (concreted in) - this not only ties the two posts together but provides a conduit for running cables from one side of the gate to the other. I think that was 150x150x5mm box. The horizontal long bit is the bit that gets buried underground.

Once you've got it working and dried it out thoroughly take out the circuit boards (but cover the connectors or anything that needs electrical contact) and spray it with a good conformal coating. Moisture issues go away then. This is the one we use for our circuit boards and has been very good for what we've put them through - you can just about solder through it if you need to effect a repair in the future. https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/electronics-varnishes/1368533

@FridgeFreezerwe've got a Peatol mini mill that's been CNCd and it's a pretty potent mill for it's footprint. Unfortunately I think the guy who used to import them has gone senile.

I know they look like mill bits but do they actually have a cutting surface on the edge or is it the bottom teeth that actually do the cutting? I may have a compound table that would work well for that...

@Stellaghost to be honest quite a lot of the electronics now is plug and play (well on par with wiring for Land Rovers). They're a little more but have a look through cnc4you they do/did some packages for multiple axes that just work with Mach4/Mach3 (the software that takes CAD files and controls the magic stuff). I ran some tests on a DIY CNC capacitance scanner I built and the cnc4you drivers (gecko I think) would run the steppers roughly twice as fast as the cheap chinesium ones supplied as part of the PCB mill. With proper steppers as well my father has got them going twice as fast again. So you do get what you pay for.

Fold up CNC plasma table. He may not be to everyone's taste but Colin Furze has built a fold up plasma table (not CNC but you could add that with some thought). He also had a nice inset folder on the edge of the workbench that folds down out of the way when not in use and is immediately usable. I know a mate in Surrey had an idea for a pull-out CNC plasma so might be an option for under the bench.

That reminds me - I need to go and visit a friend's scrap pile. Supposedly there might be a few hundred tonnes there - would be worthwhile stocking up my scrap pile from his (he wants to reduce it).

I've got one from RDG Tools (just checked and about £100) and it's fairly decent for what I've wanted, there are clones on eBay for £32. This one: https://www.rdgtools.co.uk/acatalog/RDG-VERTICAL-SLIDE-DOUBLE-SWIVEL-FOR-MYFORD-LATHE-SUPER-7-ML7-IMPERIAL-76348.html

I cannot agree more wholeheartedly. Shortly after buying the 2CX a two pairs of pallet forks became available on mig-welding. @Jon W kindly picked them up for me and then in-between lock-downs we met up in Builth Wells to transfer them. That evening I got back home and proceeded to fabri-cobble a headstock for the 2CX out of some 20mm plate, some 4x2" box section and some 10mm flat bar. My plasma was technically rated for 24mm on mild steel - was it hell... I didn't have a big enough drill bit for the 45mm pins so a combination of gouging using the plasma and trying to fettle with the grinder it got the job done. MIG ran out of gas, couldn't be bothered with the TIG so ended up doing my first significant attempt at stick. Finished at 3am because lorry was due to deliver the missing items of a 3t order of steel the following morning (including one full-size sheet of 10mm - weighing in at 280kg). Quick check in the morning, successfully lifts a wet bulk bag of sand with no cracks or creaks. Lorry didn't show up until 4 days later...

You can do milling operations on a lathe (albeit limited) but you struggle to do turning operations on a mill. I've got all (two mills, the smaller being a Bridgeport) and a small lathe (Myford ML7), I could lose the mills (in fact they've not been setup properly as I haven't had the time) but I wouldn't be without the lathe despite being rather small.

Ah tiddly one rather than Bridgeport scale... You should have said. I thought you had one?

This was the wee mill I picked up - heavy old beast (Gaston Dufour) 3 phase but only a single motor so can be converted relatively easily unlike most Bridgeports. Powered feed on all axis (including the knee), horizontal and vertical milling setup, table rotates as well. Head rotates too to mill at an angle. Not bad for £400, but does take a wee bit of shifting. Luckily my mate's lorry was at the yard so the 45tm crane took care of it at that end end the neighbours tractor + JCB took care of it at my end. The tractor struggled but starter had died on the JCB so waiting for a new one and wanted the mill off the trailer.

I know of one that was available for £400 at my mates yard in Surrey. Was under 2t I think... Think it was sold but whether its actually sold is another question. The one I picked up was definitely under 2t as my neighbours tractor struggled but did manage to lift it. When I finally got the starter for the JCB that didn't struggle.