John R. Bentley 2010.



... at the computer - working on this website!

I live on an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Canada's Atlantic Coast, where I was born over seventy years ago.  I began building miniature engines after the purchase of a Taig Micro Lathe in the mid 1980's.  My background is in broadcast electronics where my work regularly required me to design and construct various custom equipment, so a move to machining was more of a shift than a leap.

While visiting England for a couple of months in 1984-5, I saw a television ad for the 54th Model Engineer Exhibition at Wembley.  I attended that show and my life hasn't been the same since! Within two years I was back in Britain, armed with an empty brain ready to soak up all that I could about machining model steam engines.  I returned home and learned to use my lathe by trial and error with the help of a couple of books.  To this date I still have never watched anyone else make something on a lathe.  I believe that learning is like most things, the more you work at it, the more you will accomplish.

Fortunately amateur photography is a hobby of mine and this has left me with a number of pictures taken over the years.  Many of those I have presented on my earlier web pages, along with newer digital images on these pages which were taken since 2004.  Perhaps through this site I may spark some interest, especially among our younger friends, in making model machines of all kinds using traditional methods to help preserve our industrial heritage.