[Aussie Mike]

Winter in the shed is quite bearable. It was cold wet and raining most of the weekend but I had the heater going and was quite happy. I bought one of those gas fired patio heaters a while back and I just move it to where I'm working and it keeps you toasty warm.

Sounds like some bargains to be had at the V8 clearance sale. I'll have to get along to one some time. I like doing the odd swap meet as you can find some interesting stuff in amongst the junk. I bought a really nice adjustable boring head to suit the INT40 spindle on my mill at the Bendigo swap. I paid about $120 for it from memory which was very cheap for what it was.

I'd often thought about having a go at machining up my own disc hats as there's probably only $50 worth of Ally in each of them. The problem is there's a lot of material to remove and they are a big piece which is difficult to grip.

Machining stuff is great fun. More people should buy a lathe and have a go.

Cheers