Mid September we took the plunge to invest in some equipment to help speed up the prototype production of fan hubs and bases not only for the HT version but also the two new products being developed in the background ... top secret couldn't possibly tell you more at this time without then killing you !

Having searched for what would provide the best degree of flexibility within the available floor space (5ft x 3ft of workshop floor) I plumbed for a centre lathe. Then it was down to either  a new chinese unit from Chester Machine Tools or something from the used market.  The key feature for my mind was to have a powered cross feed to enable me to make good clean facing cuts on the bases - this sealed the fate of the Chester units as the footprints were too large as was the price tag.  I got a small degree of satisfaction when I discovered an old English make and on line forum for owners / users http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BoxfordLathe-UserGroup/

My Boxford AUD, purchased via ebay from a School in Sandbach took 6 lads to lift it into the workshop after my virtually stripping all down to lesson the load.  It now sports a bright red coat of paint, single to three phase inverter and I have stripped down and rebuilt the cross slide, saddle assembly to ensure smooth cross cutting.  Having not used a metal lathe since I was 15yrs old and doing Metalwork O Level at a Grammer School - it was surprising how much I could recall (very little !) The wood turning of the last 5 years has helped to a degree as far as tool grinding etc. 

A new Chinese 125mm dia' chuck was purchased, as the 100mm chuck wouldn't open to take the 75 m base blanks for machining.  The frustrating thing was that the new chuck only just takes them with the jaws sticking out 18mm !  So I looked and found a used 5" Bernard & Pratt 3 jaw scroll chuck - lovely bit of kit unfortunately on the wrong backplate for my lathe - so then we had to make a new backplate from a part machined blank.  This was proper engineering,  working to 0.0005" for a fit !  I managed after a few hours to get the location plate boss machined into the chuck backing plate.  Then all that was required was to drill and tap through the chuck body M8 - a tight fit through the old imperial holes but when complete it runs true as a nut on the Boxford - where-as the 4 jaw scroll chuck from RDG which cost twice the price of the used B&S runs out of true ... quite a bit - something I will try to resolve when time permits

To finish things off, a spare set of inside/outside jaws and some soft jaws also from ebay . Oh , then of course there was the cutting tooling, quick change tool posts, spanners, allen keys etc etc and Oil Can.... all that was left was to learn how to turn .... and determine what the final design of the HT Fan-Ce base would be. Now I had ample time to make samples for testing.

Having now turned a lot of  bases from sawn billets and machined all of the older bases into the new design it all seams to be going fine (kiss of death). I should add, we purchased a milling bracket, collet set and tooling to 'get the job done right' !

Quite a chunk of additional investment over and above the outlay for the lathe & power conversion. But its 75% paid back already so no bad thing !

Sales in October were strong - well over the total sold from the start of the year through to Sept'. November is looking good, as the HT base and some dircet mails to previously found clients looking for a HT version have all resulted in sales. The additional costs, + VAT and recovery of postage costs not previously allowed for have resulted in a substantial price hike - which with the increase in sales numbers has taken my by surprise - economics A level I'm sure sugguested higher prices push demand down - unless we have now entered the real of  'good of ostentation' !

It has not been all good news, we have had a few returns - notable of which was one set of charred remains which were returned apparently not the result of the fan being exposed to temperatures over 200 degrees C.  The fan blades were gone, the copper work looked like that of a twenty year old immersion heater - the soldered tips had migrated - the TEG cooked even the Teflon coated wires had melted. Quite a sad mess - ALL the returns are as a result of high temperature exposure and the resultant TEG failure. With the exception of the Charred remains, all units have been repaired and returned at cost - clients picking up the bill for the new TEG and my changing the base to the new HT version as a preventative measure.

As I type, another order for a Fan-Ce Black HT has been paid for - leaving me out of stock when they arrive already !

Nice position to be in though.