My good and faithful old lathe, which must have been at least 20 years old when I bought it 20 years ago, finally gave up the ghost today.  For those that know anything about lathes, part of the drive on the tail-stock had worn so much that the keep (that’s supposed to ‘keep’ it in place) would no longer hold it and the tail-stock wheel simply unscrewed from the tail-stock spindle.  Not very helpful!.  I was int he middle of a run of large pepper mills (the drilling of these does put a lot of strain o the tail-stock drive) when it went, so I now have a stack of half-drilled mills one week before my first Christmas fair.  Thankfully, I have the small lathe that I take to fairs, so I can still produce some small items, although I’ve had to strip down the old lathe to make room for it.  However, I have no chance of doing any more mills until the old faithful is repaired or I get a new lathe.

I have found a man with a small engineering workshop who is going to try to effect a repair, but not sure how durable it will be.  But won’t get that back for nearly a week!