The shaping machine in today's picture did service during World War 2 and continues to do service - to an accuracy of 1/1000" - in my engineering workshop today. Like my fifty-year-old Land Rover, the chances are that it will still be going strong in another fifty years time.
The same cannot be said for a succession of digital cameras and other electronic equipment that have been my lot over the past twenty years. The latest failure being a Nikon camera that my brother kindly purchased and hand delivered to my small Caribbean island less than a year ago. Not only did the Duracell rechargeable batteries leak but a minuscule metal contact for one of the of the batteries - deep inside the camera - broke in two!
Fortunately, like many of the Renaissance artists before me, as well as being as being a painter and sculptor I am also an inventive engineer and much of my time is spent making things "Made in the Far East" work in Dominica.
Mitsubishi manual change gearboxes are a case in point. They contain a spherical bush that fails within a couple of years of the vehicle being on the road. Mitsubishi will not sell the part as a single item but only as a complete gear change assembly. In my workshop I've made hundreds replacement bushes that never fail. The non-original points in the distributor of my Land Rover failed within a few months and cost me the indignity and expense of being towed home. While waiting for genuine "Made in Great Britain" points to arrive I made replacement parts for an old Land Rover set and they are still going strong.
As you might guess, I have now made a modified and improved replacement part for my camera. Needless to say, everything created in my workshop proudly bears the stamp "Made in Dominica"!
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