CHARLES: I've worked here for 11 years since I was 15 years old.
I love using my hands and the uniqueness that’s present in every single job that we do.
My name is Charles Tanner.
I cast white metal bearings and I live in Salisbury.
White metal bearings are present in engines from the 1900s all the way up to the 1960s.
We're having a look at the bearings we have in front of
us for this Singer Nine horsepower from the 1930s.
It's got three main bearings with white metal coatings on a steel back shell.
White metal’s a really interesting material that's
designed to keep crankshafts safe with a soft malleable material.
As we can see, the white metal has broken up and become damaged.
We're going to have a look at the fit of the bearings in their housings
and proceed with repair, removing the old white metal and putting a new coating on.
We're using this very special clay that we're going to push into the holes.
When it sets, it will prevent any of the poured white metal from leaking through these areas.
Now that we brought the metal up to temperature, everything's nice and molten,
we're going to remove the old white metal coating from the bearings that we have for the Singer.
We're going to put them inside of our scrap pot here in the middle
and we're going to allow the metal to melt into this pot.
It’s now incredibly important that we re-tin these bearings and ensure that we have
a consistent surface across the entire bearing.
Now that we've prepared our bearings, it's time to pour the white metal into them.
Now it's time for the hard work.
We need to clean up all of the excess from the casting process.
This is a milling machine.
I'm now going to use it to remove the excess material from the mating faces of the bearings.
I’m now cleaning the block to ensure a higher degree of accuracy when I fit the bearings.
Now that I've rough machined the bearings and the block is clean,
we're ready to nip the bearings in.
Sometimes this process can take hours.
Now it's time for Keith to get involved.
He has been line boring and crank grinding for 60 years.
Line boring is the final machining process.
We maintain an accuracy of tenths of a thousandth of an inch.
It's now time to fit the crankshaft.
The crankshaft’s now turning freely and I'm very happy with how it feels.
I'll now remove the crankshaft and the job is then ready to
go back to the customer to rebuild his engine.
This is a unique trade and I would very much like to pass
it on to another generation as it has been passed on to me.