About the blog

In common with a lot of people, I like to make things. In recent years it has been miniature steam engines. Before that it was farm machinery. And there has been an ongoing passion for making furniture. And a few years ago I made a farm shed, more of a factory really, because it was designed and set up to be an olive oil processing building. But that is another story.
I have found the internet to be a fantastic resource for information about occasional projects, and I decided to document some of my own projects. Maybe something of mine will be of use to others.
Me. I am a semi retired medical specialist. (fully retired from Jan 2015). I live in southern Australia. A blacksmith friend taught me how to use an arc welder when I was in my 20’s (thanks Tony). When I was a kid my Dad taught me that with with some books and a few basic skills and tools, you can fix or make anything.
I thought that my Dad was amazing. He was a public servant, checking workers wages and working conditions. But in his spare time he would tackle any repair job after reading up about it… repair a TV, a car automatic transmission. Build a boat. He built his own house from scratch 60 years ago, and it is still there, almost unchanged. I guess that I inherited his ‘can do’ attitude. Of course that means that many skills are acquired by the ‘not repeating mistakes too many times’ method. ie: you make a mistake. That is fine, you learn from it, and try not to do it again. Make the same mistake again? That’s when you call yourself a dumb bum. Make it a third time?? Maybe you should pay an expert to do it for you.
So, a few years ago I bought myself a lathe and a milling machine and an auto feed bandsaw, and I jumped into metalworking. I was building the farm shed at the time and I needed to make many structural steel items. That was when I really caught the bug for metal working, and the blogs on this site document that disease.
Re the blog. I am still getting the hang of blogging, and making many mistakes, so bear with me….