It's ages since I posted on here; I've been extremely busy on other forums learning new skills currently on two stringed instrument forums learning to play a violin which I hope to cover after adding threads of other things I've been doing.
Please watch this video first;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FgXTi2ikvA
This project started quite innocently one Saturday morning whilst I attended Rufforth Auto Jumble near York; I was wandering around the outside stalls when I noticed a rather tatty cardboard box under a stall so being nosy I had a closer look; inside the box were two vintage coach lamps is very poor condition needing lots of TLC; they were mine for the huge sum of £3 the pair including cardboard box; I thought these will make a lovely restoration project; boy I sure was in for the unexpected.
Back home I made a start and stripped both lamps; they were indeed rough and having never worked on such lamps I was surprised to find three reflectors in each these were all different in design so in total I had three pairs of reflectors and they were in very poor condition their surfaces badly pitted and however hard I tried I couldn't improve on them much; obviously I couldn't just pop out and buy new reflectors which would have been easy but I never do "easy" so could I make copies out of aluminium the originals being aluminium.
I'd already bought a scrap Graduate wood-turning lathe and rebuilt it much modifying it to variable speed 3 phase with inverter rated 1.5hp motor perhaps I could spin new reflectors so I made a new strong spinning tool rest after watching a number of YouTube videos and having lots of HSS wood-turning tools I visited our local scrapyard and bought some scrap sheet aluminium. This proved an awful long story so to cut it shorter I tried and tried metal spinning using this scrap aluminum and became increasingly frustrated at each attempt.
I was going backwards so needed to try a different approach; I browsed the web and found a metal spinning company I could reach by car so armed with a pocketful of cash I headed over to this company and parked in the yard wondering what I was in for. I entered the big building and immediately noticed a row of very heavy powerful metal spinning lathes along the far wall with guys busy manually spinning; a guy approached me with welcome smile he shortly turned out to be the business owner and very strangely right from the start we clicked; I explained what I'd been attempting to do and he patiently listened until I'd finished; I was gobsmacked at his reply; he generously spent well over an hour treating me to a royal tour of his works; I was allowed to watch professional spinners in action and even speak to them; he showed me the entire works even the CNC spinning lathe and his TIG welding section; the place was alive and wide eyed I was shown the finished products just having come off the lathes; he showed me one of the stacks saying this is just an order for 6,000 of these; I sure was most impressed and was taking everything in.
I then asked if he would sell me a few aluminium blanks or even off-cuts of this correct quality spinning aluminium by the way its grade is "1050" he asked what size I'd like then he handed over ten blanks refusing payment of any kind but now he said put them down a minute and he took me over to where the lathes were and from a large bin he pulled out an old professional metal spinning tool and gave it to me also from this bin he pulled out two more spinning blades handing these to me; next he took me to the store where he handed me a huge block and a big tub of hard lubricant; as I sit here I'll never ever forget such kind friendly generosity; as I departed I was told I was very welcome to visit anytime not needing an appointment and I promised to keep in touch with my metal spinning progress; all this just because I had the cheek to drop in without appointment.
This must be over three years ago and I've visited many times for a good natter; the reason I was so well treated was that I was so interested in learning metal spinning unlike everyone else who visits just pestering him to get orders out as fast as possible and he could talk to me on the same level because of my mechanical engineering background hence as I say we clicked and still remain friends; this guy has recently sold the company and is now retired living abroad although we keep in touch via email; in my lifetime I've known very few genuine people but he is top.
Here's some of my many failed attempts at metal spinning;
- Metal spinning coach lamps (23).JPG (186.96 KiB) Viewed 1725 times
- Metal spinning coach lamps (21).JPG (180.9 KiB) Viewed 1725 times
- Metal spinning coach lamps (17).JPG (180.21 KiB) Viewed 1725 times
- Metal spinning coach lamps (15).JPG (170.77 KiB) Viewed 1725 times
- Metal spinning coach lamps (13).JPG (166.32 KiB) Viewed 1725 times
- Metal spinning coach lamps (8).JPG (171.54 KiB) Viewed 1725 times
A serious word of warning; metal spinning is extremely dangerous; a metal spinning disc at high speed is similar to a circular saw blade under full power and will if given chance remove limbs or if the lathe ejects the disk it could kill; further to this which I'll add here is that I fractured a rib whilst metal spinning; the spinning tool is 42" long and needs a great deal of force; I not only felt my rib fracture but it went with a loud crack; I was then taking light breaths for over two weeks.
I'll continue a bit later as I move onto how to do metal spinning which I hope will prove interesting.
Kind regards, Col.
Welcome back Colin, seems to me that as a retired person you are busier than most people who are still working... I'd not heard of this spinning until today. Good luck with your project.
If gloom had a voice, it would be me.
