Hi everyone, I'm Chris, 58yo from North Wales, just over the border from Chester. I wasted 35 years as a desk jockey in local government until the offer of early retirement was made, I'm gone! Spent a couple of years just kicking back and revelling in the glorious feeling that I had no boring meetings to attend, no Councillors to suck up to and no tie to put on each morning. Nirvana!
A bit of background, my daughter has a giftware/jewellery business, the bulk of which uses pewter castings which she used to get made in a foundry in Birmingham. With all the time on my hands she asked if I would like to take on the manufacture. So a lot of research on the net, watching as many YouTube videos as I could find and I set up a foundry business. The process uses rubber moulds in a centrifugal casting machine. I bought in the casting machine and a mould vulcaniser from the States and started pouring metal. Satisfaction and frustration followed in equal measure but, slowly, the former outweighed the latter!
Now I find myself wanting to diversify my products and, in particular, some wood products, hence my interest in cnc (yeah okay, it's an excuse to get a cnc machine!). In addition I could look at engraving some pewter for personalised gifts.