After being offered a "Ward 2A" Capstan lathe for free by a friend saying "I know you've been wanting a little lathe", I was thinking how could I refuse, I'd always wanted a metal lathe of my own, and the price was right, but after my first look at it,I've got to admit I was very reluctant for the following reasons, one it weighed 1 tonne, it was much larger than I imagined and it was a 3 phase industrial machine not to mention a capstan lathe, Capstan lathes are often confused with Turret lathes, not exactly your lathe for a home workshop, yeah little, I guess compared to my friends lathe it is but to me it was a large machine and being a capstan lathe does have leave it with some limitations, but also some advantages which I am only starting to find out, For some reason I still said yes, and now after having it for a couple of years I am so happy that I bit the bullet and brought it home and saved it from becoming scrap metal.
Being a Carpenter by trade, this all has been a very big learning curve for me, but one I've thoroughly enjoyed and will continue to, I have a new found respect for people that work in the engineering industry.
The first of my blogs will be centred around my lathe and why I wanted one, but I might get back to some carpentry , motorcycling and woodwork topics at a later date.
This Blog is to share my experience with making and repairing things. Hopefully I might inspire a few people to fix something rather than throw it away.
