Monday 21 June 2010

Hail Midsummer

Well it must be midsummer - we had to put the heating on on Saturday night!  What happened to global warming?

The weather at Melford Hall was awful as usual on Saturday and brightened up, as usual, on Sunday.  The new lathe behaved quite well on it's maiden outing...

Except for some reason the back legs kept trying to lift off the ground even with the cover and guy ropes on?  Perhaps the ground was too uneven or I haven't given the legs enough splay.  In the end I had to resort to lashing it down to some pegs.  When I tested it out a few weeks ago with no cover I didn't have this problem at all - maybe it was the massive gusts of wind from behind me?


A fine old, stag-headed Oak in the grounds of Melford Hall - it's in a long line of very old Oaks.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This pulling forwards problem has happened to me too a couple of times. My work lathe is too massive to move at all, but these 4-legger mobile jobbies are prone. I have reverted to my inverted Y- framed lathe in place of the four legger and it doesn't have that problem. I reckon the 4 leggers are good for bowls as the treadle pulls down, but with spindle treadles the force is outwards and there is bound to be a tipping tendency. I solved it last time with a windlass to a peg. Brilliant economy in the shelter incorporating the bungee poles!