The Classic Machinery Collection.

The Classic Machinery Collection.

As a youngster my Uncle Bert taught me about machines. He was a toolmaker by trade – the best artisan that I have known. He bought machines when no one else could get them to work, fixed the problem and then either sold them or used them in his machine shop. As my interest in woodwork moved from the home workshop to thoughts of manufacturing furniture I started looking at machines with a more critical eye.

As a young man I soon became aware of the Wadkin Bursgreen range of machines produced in Leicester, England. The firm was started by John Wadkin in 1897. The company at one stage exported worldwide and soon became known as the Rolls Royce of the woodwork industry. Made mainly of cast iron, superbly machined shafts, gears and bearings from steel, over sized motors all painted in Wadkin green. They made it all – table saws, cross cuts, spindles, planers, thicknesses, band saws, belt sanders, you name it. Sadly, they went out of business in 2010.

In the seventies the main competitor to Wadkin was SCM, a company founded by two Italian engineers in 1952. The business had grown from making woodwork machines to metal work, forestry and CNC routers. The still operate worldwide. The machines are built like the Wadkins – solid, cast iron and superb machining and of course painted green!

Both Wadkin and SCM produced radial arm cross cut saws, but by the seventies there was a formidable competitor that had emerged – OMGA Machines, also from Italy. They decided to take on the giants in the field of cross cut machines designed for joinery, flooring, logging, construction and furniture manufacture. The specialisation of design and manufacture paid dividends. It is generally acknowledged that Omga radial saws are the best in the world, although expensive compared to Wadkin and SCM.

Over the years I have, like my Uncle Bert, bought badly treated classic machines and made them healthy again in my workshops. These machines are used daily and have been restored to their original condition and all painted green!

At My Grandpas Workshop I am privileged to offer my students tuition using a good number of these classical machines from the sixties and seventies. A number of them can be viewed on this website including an OMGA radial saw, a combination SCM planer, thicknesser and mortiser and the greatly prized Wadkin collection!