THE LATHE - 2

Fortunately, the tail-gate of the lorry could be opened to a horizontal position and then lowered automatically to ground level, so that eventually the combined efforts of driver and myself moved the crate from lorry, to tailgate, to the ground.

The crate was then laboriously dragged and pushed inside the garage, together with a metal lathe stand that had also been ordered, and which fortunately, whilst strongly made, was feather light by comparison.

At this point the driver staggered off to his next delivery while I staggered back to the house for a rest, after checking that he didn't demolish the wall on the way out.

The lathe stand is shown below 'in situ', but you must not imagine that this was just a matter of unwrapping it and plonking it down where it looked prettiest.

Firstly, because of the weight of the lathe, the chosen position would have to be the final position.

Secondly, there had to be access to an electricity supply, so another double point was added in an appropriate position.

Thirdly the garage had been used, in the dim and distant past, by a blacksmith (honestly, this is true) who must have been visited by some very fractious horses.

Lathe Stand - with busy (untidy) shelves. 

These horses had obviously been stamping around vigorously in the area where the lathe-stand was to be located, so a bit of cement laying was also needed to produce a smooth surface for the stand and secure footing for the operator.

The next step was to drill into the newly laid cement to provide fixing points at each corner of the stand, which was then securely bolted down.

Fixing bracket

There is a SLIGHT slope from front to back of the stand, and this was actually intended, as there is a drain-hole at the back of the stand to facilitate removal of oily gunge.

Now, the only problem was how to get the very heavy lathe up and onto the stand in one piece, and without subsequent need for medical services!