Some of you may remember the gorgeous pictures Martin P posted a few years ago on this forum under title Deckel Pics II
A first tour project was then discussed with a few members here, that sadly didn't come to completion.
Nonetheless, our discussions inspired member Peterve to invite me to join him in Holland for a little "Iron Tour" of our own.
The idea was for me to fly to The Netherlands to meet him, and then drive south through Germany, Switzerland and France to visit fellows PM members Kees and Martin P, fascinating shops like Rüdiger Kramer's Ruemema, and dealers.
On the list were nice adresses like the very famous Franz Singer shop, FPS, Wallima, amongst others.
Humhumhum... what to do... did I really have the choice ?
During our trip, we've seen the very best and the worst of machine tools.
Fine machinery rebuilded with skills and care by craftmen in small shops like Franz Singer's one, but also rows of porch painted machines of the finest brands aligned in dehumanized gigantic warehouses.
We've seen real artists scraping Deckels with love and obviously doing a great job rebuilding old machines back to new condition, and we've seen the ways of a Schaublin 150 butchered with some leopard camouflage scheme scraping type....
We've seen how old quality machines like Deckels mills can have a second life after rebuilding, and we've seen how FPS build absolutely brand new machines from scratch (that is, new castings to begin with !).
We've seen the same quest for quality and detail in a shop litterally flooded with pieces of equipment, parts in wait for inspection, spare parts and machines bits all over the place, cardboxes of all sizes stacked up to the roof and shelves full ot accessories, and in a huge ultra-organized factory where one could use a bicycle to go from a place to another.
We've seen how different people can have different ways of doing things, but undoubtly with the same quality in sight and comparable results in the end.
We've seen dealers who care and obviously stand behind the machines they sell. The visit at Wallima was a moment of pure pleasure and Mr Draca senior an incredibly nice host. But we've seen other ones, where the main rebuilding tool may be the brush.
We've seen snow storms and sunshine, centuries old stone houses and and cutting edge factories and warehouses...
Meeting Martin and Kees was of course also extremely pleasant. It's nice beeing able to put faces on names of posters you've been reading for years litteraly...
I'm just back, and all the images of our "Iron Tour" just begin to settle down in my head. I tried to make as many pictures as possible but it is very difficult and always frustrating when living something so unique (it was for me) trying to enjoy it as much as possible, to back off behind a camera. Anyway, I did my best and we thought there would be some interest here for what we saw, so here are a few pics of our journey.
For me, all that began at the Marseille Provence airport for a nice flight to Holland where I met Peter.
It's always a bit of an experience to jump in for a week confined in a car with someone you never met before, but considering our schedule I was optimistic... time would fly.
Want more ?
A first tour project was then discussed with a few members here, that sadly didn't come to completion.
Nonetheless, our discussions inspired member Peterve to invite me to join him in Holland for a little "Iron Tour" of our own.
The idea was for me to fly to The Netherlands to meet him, and then drive south through Germany, Switzerland and France to visit fellows PM members Kees and Martin P, fascinating shops like Rüdiger Kramer's Ruemema, and dealers.
On the list were nice adresses like the very famous Franz Singer shop, FPS, Wallima, amongst others.
Humhumhum... what to do... did I really have the choice ?
During our trip, we've seen the very best and the worst of machine tools.
Fine machinery rebuilded with skills and care by craftmen in small shops like Franz Singer's one, but also rows of porch painted machines of the finest brands aligned in dehumanized gigantic warehouses.
We've seen real artists scraping Deckels with love and obviously doing a great job rebuilding old machines back to new condition, and we've seen the ways of a Schaublin 150 butchered with some leopard camouflage scheme scraping type....
We've seen how old quality machines like Deckels mills can have a second life after rebuilding, and we've seen how FPS build absolutely brand new machines from scratch (that is, new castings to begin with !).
We've seen the same quest for quality and detail in a shop litterally flooded with pieces of equipment, parts in wait for inspection, spare parts and machines bits all over the place, cardboxes of all sizes stacked up to the roof and shelves full ot accessories, and in a huge ultra-organized factory where one could use a bicycle to go from a place to another.
We've seen how different people can have different ways of doing things, but undoubtly with the same quality in sight and comparable results in the end.
We've seen dealers who care and obviously stand behind the machines they sell. The visit at Wallima was a moment of pure pleasure and Mr Draca senior an incredibly nice host. But we've seen other ones, where the main rebuilding tool may be the brush.
We've seen snow storms and sunshine, centuries old stone houses and and cutting edge factories and warehouses...
Meeting Martin and Kees was of course also extremely pleasant. It's nice beeing able to put faces on names of posters you've been reading for years litteraly...
I'm just back, and all the images of our "Iron Tour" just begin to settle down in my head. I tried to make as many pictures as possible but it is very difficult and always frustrating when living something so unique (it was for me) trying to enjoy it as much as possible, to back off behind a camera. Anyway, I did my best and we thought there would be some interest here for what we saw, so here are a few pics of our journey.
For me, all that began at the Marseille Provence airport for a nice flight to Holland where I met Peter.
It's always a bit of an experience to jump in for a week confined in a car with someone you never met before, but considering our schedule I was optimistic... time would fly.
Want more ?
