For some reason probably best left unexplored, I have decided to build a Hurdy Gurdy - specifically the Nerdy Gurdy design by Jaap Brand of the Netherlands.

The design is intended to be laser cut from Birch Ply, so I embarked on a quest to find a local outfit offering a laser cutting service, and ended up at a place called The Cuttter's Den in Dursley.

www.cuttersden.co.uk

They were extremely interested in helping, knew exactly what I was talking about, and gave me a very attractive quote - less than a third of what I had been quoted. They were also very keen to show me the accuracy and quality of their work before I decided to proceed, and so I popped over to their shop today to have a look.

I was really quite impressed, they appear able to do much finer and more accurate cuts than you typically see in these kind of kits (think UGears for example) so I was happy to tell them to go ahead. They can cut poplar, birch ply or hardwood in thicknesses from 1mm up to 12mm, and they can also do stuff like acrylic and other laser-compatible plastics.

They do a cutting service based on you giving them designs (mine were on .pdf) and they also sell kits, they have some nice little aircraft kits but as far as I could see they only do Land Rovers in the car range.

They're of course happy to correspond by email and post the finished products out if you don't want to visit in person. I don't know what their maximum size is but it's at least 650mm x 350mm. Maybe worth considering if you want a cheap friendly laser cutting service. Tell 'em I sent you.

Dursley-I expect they know their way around a Lister air cooled too.

Sadly Listers is all but gone these days. Just a small operation doing the shearing kit, and they've moved out of Dursley to Stroud. The original factory site is all housing estates now. A bit of a shame, but there's not many people who still want a stationary engine, and there are flippin' loads of them still around anyway. Dursley is now mainly a commuter town for Bristol or Gloucester.

The last dealings I had with Lister-Petter was back in 1996 when we bought 24 three cylinder air cooled gensets (for standby use) off them built to our spec in almost sealed cabinets with a fuel tank underneath - very reliable units too. These were for our Radio Navigation Transmitting Stations covering the UK and Eire.

A long way from the HA6's we were use to, they were a little heavy to start by hand but the decompression levers were ganged so it could be done if you had eaten all your Shredded Wheat

You can still see the odd Lister park bench around, which was a great little sideline utilising old packing crates I believe.

Many years ago when I built our first Narrowboat we bought a new Lister marine engine, part of the deal was you got a maintenance course and factory tour, brilliant day, back then they made almost everything in-house, they even still had their own casting shop

The next boat, I used a 4 cyl Kabota based unit, and I'm still a little embarrassed that I didn't use a Lister

IIRC, Richard V6 knows his stuff on vintage marine Listers

Did Lister make water pumps as well? I think we had one for our domestic water supply when I was growing up.
Only gave up the ghost around 10 years ago iirc.

Yes Gordon, we still see quite a few down here being exhibited at our agricultural machinery shows - nice little single pot units mostly.
This is a library image.

Yes Richard, that's the one. Quite a unique sound when pumping but dad had ours driven by a motor from a washing machine 😂

Just remembered that the dumper trucks on the building sites had Lister engines as well, I can remember cranking like a maniac while somebody flicked the half compression lever over! Must be older than I think

Aren't we all Gordon

Yes I was selling some Lister powered water pumps into the Pacific up till 15 years ago, they seemed to last under the conditions (and operators) better than more modern options