Money was flowing into the Bank from Mr. Granada's coffers and then onwards to various establishments....all in the aid of "enlightenment" about Mechanical Engineering. This was something to do with being "Technical" I suppose , plus I liked doing things with my hands, this gave a great deal of satisfaction and a sense of achievement at this stage in my journey through life.
Firstly, came the "Unimat 3" , a small (but perfectly formed) precision metal working lathe,,(Which I still have in 2015 ). Bought it from "John Hall Tools" in Ham Gardens, Bath for a small fortune..(about £395). It was soon neccessary to purchase the accessories (another small fortune), to enable real work to be acheived with it. It has stood the test of time and has suffered a few modifications during it's life , but has never failed to impress what can be acheived with this supper piece of kiit. Problem no.1 was the fact the drive motor soon over-heated, problem 2 was the drive belts soon over-heated too and snapped. Super glue is a marvelous invention !
Philip Marwood (Roger Heywoods cousin), had already helped me in 1975 with the fitting of a concrete lintel in our new bathroom window, broad shoulders made short work of lifting the concrete into position. He was worknig at "Horstman Gear Works" as a lathe operator and thread grinder in the factory in Bath. The factory took delivery of some surplus equipment from South Wales and I was alerted that a few large (for me ) lathes were for sale. Roger , Philip and I soon made off from "Horstmann's" with an old "Southbend Wade" 3ft screw cutting with back gear lathe, stand , chucls, collets and chuck jaws by the bucket load for the princely sum of £300.
Work was taking place upstairs in Maggs Hill as well, trying to clean up the devestation brought about by years of water infress from the old flat roof. Roger Heywood helped to strip off the old "Stramite" roof and we put some more slope on it to encourage the rain to flow. New chipboard panels were making it look flat (for a while). Got some cheap chipboard from "Gay's" at Paulton , bit rough but serviceable. Refelted and water proof (for a while) at last. Still no new ceilings, couldn't afford to do that as well yet.
It was slow work removing al traces of the old Studio soundproofing and timber work. We made a very large bedroom of the old Studio and it allows space to seperate Andrews bed from ours a bit more. The old shop[ was still empty at this stage because we wanted to change the staircase layout but couldn't afford it at the moment. We had plans to move the kitchen into our old bedroom and move the bathroom when the old staiorcase was filled in. These non-essential thing had to wait until funds were available. Next year perhaps, eh ?
