45 - A new addition

 Wow - four months have gone by and I haven't posted a thing. Well to tell the truth I haven't done much to the bike over the summer. I eventually left the tank with Brian the boat repair man and it's kinda been sitting there since. The rest of the bike is pretty complete so there wasn't a lot to do and I get easily side tracked with other things.

 I took a notion to buy a lathe for the workshop. After studying the internet I ordered a 290V from Warco. This is about as big as the variable speed model bench lathes go. It has a 6" swing and 28" between centres. 1 1/2" spindle bore and 3MT tailstock, so it should do most jobs on the motorbike for me. Also it comes with 3 and 4 jaw chucks, face plates steadys etc. 

  Warco 290V lathe


It arrived on a pallet inside a packing crate, luckily the shop at the end of the road has a forklift so he was able to lift it off the lorry and set it in my garage. When it came time to install it I borrowed an engine lift from a mechanic and put her in place in the corner of my shed.

I've been very please with it so far. It's accurate, the digital read out makes things real easy, and you can machine at a decent rate with the power feed, so it's no mickey mouse machine even if it was built in China.