Hello:

My Pavoni Shirley finally got her own tamper today. =-)

The tamper body was turned from a valve off a ship's diesel engine and the grip (45 mm. diametre) is from a very old outdoor game called 'bowls'. It is known that the oldest set of balls are in kept in Southampton (UK) and historical archives mention the game being played there as far back as 1299.

Bowls is also called 'bocce' in italian, 'bolle' in dane and 'boules' in french.

And no, this is not a ball from that Southampton set ... =-D !




Cheers,

CIV

Very clever! Nice work

jn_nz wrote:Very clever! Nice work

I'll second that! Resourceful, ecological and elegant also comes to mind!

Hola Carlos!

That was very clever, and it looks great and unique. Thanks for recycling.

Javier

Nice work on a recalcitrant metal!! Stainless steel?
-Richard

Hello:

jn_nz wrote:Very clever! Nice work
:P

Whale wrote:I'll second that! Resourceful, ecological and elegant also comes to mind!

Javier wrote:That was very clever, and it looks great and unique. Thanks for recycling.
Javier

espressme wrote:Nice work on a recalcitrant metal!! Stainless steel?

Than you all for the kind compliments, but it was not all my doing.

I just came up with the idea and the parts; the actual work was done by my good friend and master lathe operator Michele D'Apolito. At 84 and with more than 60 years in the trade, I dare say that he can make a lathe sing the blues.

espressme wrote:Stainless steel?

No Richard, it's not stainless but a special (and quite hard) type of steel, no idea as to the spec. What I do know is that it was quite difficult to work with because of it's hardness, I should have annealed it before having it turned. I'll know for the next time. =-)

These ship's engine valves were quite a find. For a making a tamper or anything with a similar morphology ie: something round with a perpendicular axis attached to it (a grinder's bottom carrier comes to mind) they are great and in general, cheap or free. The thing is to find a large ship mechanic's shop where they will usually have them laying around by the dozens, in all sizes.

Cheers,

CIV