I was thinking about the effort that Wilkinson put ito making his tools attractive and here's another example.  When Johnny made the 1937 copy of the Birch Lathe he needed a detent to register the dividing plate in different positions.  I can think of a lot of simple methods but here's what he did.  It's complicated, beautifully shaped and totally functional.  Look at the plug in the oil hole for the headstock bearing.  dead accurate, slghtly flared so that it fixes firmly and shaped before knurling.  A wooden peg would have done the same job!  He was right of course because a mundane industrial tool was transformed into a work of art....  Now that's craftsmanship!

Stanley said, "A wooden peg would have done the same job! He was right of course because a mundane industrial tool was transformed into a work of art.... Now that's craftsmanship! "

That's it exactly!  Much of American engineering is merely mundane industrial application.  Brits took the extra time and energy to turn out works of art.

Tom, a lathe is the most versatile machine tool ever invented.  You can do milling in it and use almost any stock material from wood and ivory through brass and gunmetal to steel.  Think of a lathe sood on its end and you have eaither a vertical borer or a milling machine.

Karl, you're right.  If you have a look at the history of machine tools you will see that the US went for cheap and cheerful with light beds in the early days and the Brits went for weight and looks.  The reason was the economic circumstances, availablity of skilled labour and culture.  This doesn't mean the US machines were bad or all the British good.  There is a lot of literature on this.  Where the US scored heavily from 1890 onwards was in tooling and small items like lubricators.  A tremendous amount was imported into UK.  Look up Lunkenheimer for a good example.  Eventually some great machine tools came out of America and major innovations like the pocket micrometer.  I have one of the originals made by Brown and Sharpe, Providence, RI.  Tiny and still accurate.

Here is the Brown and Sharpe 1868 micrometer.  There had been earlier attempts at a portable measuring device but this one, the 'Pocket Sheet Metal Gauge' was the first practical instrument that combined all the features of the modern micrometer.  It won't be 1868 manufacture but is certainly the 1868 design and is still dead accurate.

Stanley,is it a 0 to1/2",we always used a 0to 1" for gauging the thickness of steel chimneys which were either 1/4 " plate or 3/8" plate,until the introduction of ultra sonic testers ,the design of the micrometer as not altered at all,wonderful tool.

Without the benefit of a shed most of my "playing" is done in the house. The ongoing kitchen project is nearing completion. I just need something to put up on the wall above the cooker. Suggestions so far are a large clock or an old metal advertisment (OXO or similar) but I'm open to suggestions....

Looking good Kev here are my 2 suggestions for what to put on the wall

Item 1

Item 2