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I was going to reply with similar to Vince. One of the downsides of screwcutting metric on and imperial machine is you need to use change gears and the same applies for imperial on a metric machine. This in itself is not a problem however you need to keep the half nuts engaged so the machine needs to be stopped and reversed after every cut. I run a remote speed and direction key pad controller on my Chipmaster so reversing it is never a problem. The Harrison is a lot easier as I just tell it what the pitch, angle, major and minor diameters are, length of cut (Always a negative value) and the number of passes and walk away/watch carefully! The real difference is speeds between the Chipmaster and Harrison.

Alpha, did you look at the little table top Boxfords? They are fully programmable so you can churn pens out as quickly as thread barrels :) Only down side is no tail stock so a PITA To chamber with. Having said that, I have chambered short parallel wall and short bottle neck chambers on my CNC with a solid carbide boring bar.

Ovenpaa wrote:I was going to reply with similar to Vince. One of the downsides of screwcutting metric on and imperial machine is you need to use change gears and the same applies for imperial on a metric machine. This in itself is not a problem however you need to keep the half nuts engaged so the machine needs to be stopped and reversed after every cut. I run a remote speed and direction key pad controller on my Chipmaster so reversing it is never a problem. The Harrison is a lot easier as I just tell it what the pitch, angle, major and minor diameters are, length of cut (Always a negative value) and the number of passes and walk away/watch carefully! The real difference is speeds between the Chipmaster and Harrison.

Alpha, did you look at the little table top Boxfords? They are fully programmable so you can churn pens out as quickly as thread barrels :) Only down side is no tail stock so a PITA To chamber with. Having said that, I have chambered short parallel wall and short bottle neck chambers on my CNC with a solid carbide boring bar.

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I have not seen the Boxfords you describe I will have a look.
I have got the pen thing covered I have two lathes I use for pen turning. I have an Axminster pro variable speed woodturning lathe with chucks and all the tooling plus gouges both HSS and carbide insert tools etc.
I also have a Chinese metalworking lathe similar in size to a Myford ML7. This is the one I fitted the uprated motor to plus an invertor and forward-reverse speed controller it also has a jogging facility.
I build the pens on these two lathes.
The Chinese metal lathe is metric it came with a full set of change wheels. I have used it to cut imperial threads using the half nut method with some success. I have cut threads on bespoke reloading dies etc using that method and I cut the internal thread on my spider to fit on the back end of the lathe. Not that I have used it my problem is the hole through the headstock is only 21mm so a bit limiting. I did try using a steady rest for longer work but the steady that comes with the lathe isn't the best I am currently trying to fit small bearing races to the steady to make the workpiece run smoother. But that's another project. The Myford ML10 is back at work its in my store. It never got used and I don't have any room for it. Someone at work is interested in it.
The pens can go for good money but people only tend to buy the type of pens I make for Special occasions. Retirement presents Weddings Graduation that sort of thing. Or people who want a really nice top end fountain pen. If the pen is what is known as a kitless pen wich means the whole pen is made by hand except for the nib and clip using a lathe as well of course you are talking well over a hundred pound for the pen and depending on what the material is it could be several hundred pounds. Then again I can make a bullet pen for £25.00.
Any way thats enough of that I will look at the Boxford.

Pippin89 wrote:

Alpha1 wrote:I haven't checked the delivery yet. I am concentrating on what kind of base at the moment. A local company builds garden sheds workshops etc. They also install them. They are also a lumber yard so you can choose the material you want it built from and importantly the flooring material. As to getting it installed. I am a qualified lifting person. I plan and organize the lift in and out of all kinds of machinery including complete distillation columns. I also have access to lifting equipment. I know getting it in place is going to be a challenge but I am in no rush. I reckon it will be the end of the year before I am done. Unless I run out of money but we will see.
(1) The first thing is the base. Currently costing and looking at options.
(2) Design and build shed. Install. Fit electrics. (Order Lathe)
(3) Plan how to get it round to the back of the House and installed. (level It) Wire it in.

You would have loved a task I had a couple of year ago. I was designing corrosion monitoring equipment for the oil and gas industry. I designed this massive spool that sat inline with the pipe (imagine a piece of oil pipeline with a big bulge in the middle and then a load of electronics housings on top). We had to do hydrostatic testing but inside a environmental chamber.
So we had to lift the spool into the chamber. The spool was 6.5m long, weighed about 10,000kg, had to go through the door of the chamber end first (so lifting from the end), the door for the chamber was about a meter back from the door to the unit and there was a bad concrete ramp leading into the unit so any equipment couldn't get past that point. The total height of the spool with electronics housing was about 3m and the doorway height was 3.3m.... How do you get it in there??

I outsourced it in the end. We didn't have the equipment or expertise to do it really. Not safely at least...

I know exactly what you mean I have seen them out in the field.
The biggest lifting job I ever did was lifting four very large redundant vessels out of the middle of a running online Chemical/Oil and gas plant.
They had to be de-commissioned purged with nitrogen then disconnected from the plant. Lifted up repositioned then lifted up repositioned then lifted over the top off a building.
Then lowered onto very large flatbed trucks. Moved to a holding area where they were cut up to a size suitable to fit on the back of a conventional large then lorry removed from site decontaminated then cut up and recycled. (Scrap metal)
The whole thing was videoed and shown on the Company web site.
Over the years I have been involved in lots of interesting Engineering feats in one way or another. Installing pipelines in tunnels under the River Tees. Fighting Green piece off in the effluent outlets to the River. Digging up bombs in footings dug for Water treatment plants and having to get the Bomb squad in to remove them. But that was many moons ago nowadays I am just called on to do the paperwork.
All in all, I have had a very interesting career and I have loved every minute of it.

I know exactly what you mean I have seen them out in the field.
The biggest lifting job I ever did was lifting four very large redundant vessels out of the middle of a running online Chemical/Oil and gas plant.
They had to be de-commissioned purged with nitrogen then disconnected from the plant. Lifted up repositioned then lifted up repositioned then lifted over the top off a building.
Then lowered onto very large flatbed trucks. Moved to a holding area where they were cut up to a size suitable to fit on the back of a conventional large then lorry removed from site decontaminated then cut up and recycled. (Scrap metal)
The whole thing was videoed and shown on the Company web site.
Over the years I have been involved in lots of interesting Engineering feats in one way or another. Installing pipelines in tunnels under the River Tees. Fighting Green piece off in the effluent outlets to the River. Digging up bombs in footings dug for Water treatment plants and having to get the Bomb squad in to remove them. But that was many moons ago nowadays I am just called on to do the paperwork.
All in all, I have had a very interesting career and I have loved every minute of it.

It was fascinating to see how the lift was done. Effectively they lifted with a crane arm from the back of a lorry and put one end into the chamber. Then lowered that end down onto dolly wheels inside the chamber. Then a support was put under the other end so the crane could be repositioned from the middle to the end of the spool and then pushed it in on the dolly wheels.

I still have the go-ahead for a new lathe.
The shed and base is a different story due to the COVID thing it ain't going to happen any time soon.