Rod Born's projects

Many thanks to Rod Born of Australia. We received this letter and photos from him several months back. Rod has done some great work. And his power feed is a stroke of genius. We look forward to an update on progress of his other projects soon . . . Vince

Dear Dave,

Many Thanks for your series of books on Metal working tools. I started on them some years ago and now have a very useful Lathe and Drill Press, the Milling Machine project has just started.

You have no idea the amount of satisfaction and enjoyment your projects have brought. There was absolutely no way that I could have justified to myself the expense of purchasing such machines new or second-hand. And the LEARNING experience is unobtainable any other way.

You will notice from the attached photos that I have taken the liberty to make numerous changes to your designs but have kept the principal of no outside tooling, hand tools only (I only had hand tools) and never spend a dollar when 10 cents will do. Even the Multi Stage pulleys are home made. Actually multi stage pulleys are very limited in sizing and are quite expensive in this country (Queensland, Australia).

I included a photo of my Power Feed Driver. It is a 12V Car Windscreen Wiper Motor with 2 universals and spline. It takes less than 10seconds to install or remove and will attach to the cross feed and compound on the Lathe and will also fit the Miller.

I hope to complete the Lathe, finish the miller, make the dividing head and then the Gears.

I intend to also make the back gears, could you suggest a Ratio for these Gears?

Dave are there any internet forums that builders of your designs can swap ideas, successes and problems, modifications etc.?

Finally MANY MANY THANKS.

Regards, Rod Born

drill press

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