The MB Developments workshop story
Photographs in workshops make it difficult to portray the actual size (or lack of it!).
The can't show how cramped we got, but they also don't show how neatly we used the space we had.
These photos really make the place look a mess, but believe us when we say we've been to many scooter shop that are a LOT worse.
Many visitors have said how clean and tidy our shop is compared to other scooter shops.
This page will tell the story of the workshops that MB Developments have had over the years, from Mark starting out on his own in Grimsby in 1987 to today, when there are four of us moving into the new unit next year.
You can see the wide variety of machinery we have on site which, we feel, allows us to claim we have the best equipped scooter engineering workshop in the world!
The page is split into four parts, each with a tale about the location.
We don't have many photos of Mark's first place in Grimsby or Unit 15 Broomhouse Lane but the page will tell the tale of Unit 31 and the current move to Unit 5!
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This show Marks bench where he strips down engines and rebuilds them. It is in a separate area from the workshop to cut down on any dirt getting into an engine when it is being rebuilt. As you can see Mark likes to keep all the tools he needs to hand, seperate from the tools in the main workshop. |
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This is the really dirty area of the workshop, where the 2nd hand spares live - along with the degreaser and the barrel of acid. |
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Believe it not, this rack is home to over 30,000 stainless steel fasteners. At the bottom you can see the scales where we weigh them to count them - you didn't think we'd sit there counting to 30,000 did you? |
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The most important area of any workshop - where the kettle lives!! In the foreground you can see a bench which at the moment is used for getting orders out on and letting things dry after they have been degreased. In the new place these two things will be done in seperate places. |
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Another view of the fastener/sink area. |
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The stores of the parts MB Developments make, a hotch potch area of bins and shelves with our parts crammed into every hole. |
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A major reason to move was the lack of space in the stores area. |
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You can see a GP frame hiding on top of the cupboard where we keep all the seals and gaskets. Mark learned the hard way from the fire at Grimsby and now we keep a lot of these kind of things in metal cupboards. |
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The customers view from the far side of the counter. Unit 31 was not made to have a shop. At the time we moved in there we were mainly an engineering and manufacturing company specialising in mail order spares. |
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A nicely set out shop wasn't needed at the time but demand for our products brought people from all over the UK and the world. The shop area needed increasing but we had no space again so another reason for the move. |
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Young Carl "The whistler" caught in action on the milling machine. |
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All space is needed so we used as much wall area as we could. Above our machines lies all the steel to be machined or welded. |
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Whistler doing something on the manufacturing bench. |
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A good old Ward 3 capstan lathe. It should be in the scrap bin it's that old! It lived outside for 2 years under cover. We bought it cheap and with a little renovation it works no problem. Ideally we need a CNC auto capstan lathe but parts made for scooters don't sell in sufficient quantities to pay for a new lathe. All MB employees have, at some time, spent time on this machine, including Debbie. |
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Our Smart and Brown lathe, the first one we ever bought. We now have 5 different lathes to do different jobs. This lathe had been used to machine thousands of cylinder heads and cylinder and paid for itself in 6 months. |
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The TIG welding corner. This 350amp welding machine is mostly used to weld aluminium, mainly broken and damaged casings. It is also use for fabrication where we use it for special jobs on iron and stainless steel. |
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The little tuning bench, a major part of the alloy welding process. All alloy welding needs to be cleaned or ground out first. Contamination with oil makes welding difficult to do. |
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Marks tuning bench area with vice, small bench, polishing wheel, various tuning tools and a number of polishing pieces. |
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A "Cincinatti" tool and cutter grinder. This machine originally would have been used for a number of jobs but we only use it to grind crankshafts and shims. It cost us £50 in perfect working order and was supposed to have come from a factory near Hull that made Lancaster bombers in World War 2!! |
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Space was so tight we sometimes had to stack machines on top of machines! But it all worked. |
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The MBD tool box! Never one to borrow tools Mark has always bought the right tool for the job in hand. Mark being a bit of a trainspotter with tools was always a sucker for a new tool and could easily have been a tool rep!! The photo shows numerous toolboxes welded and bolted together. Thieves go for money first then look for tools to pinch. These boxes are locked up every night! |
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Cramped conditions around the engine and bike rebuilding area. This area was taken over by the need for storage and things got a bit tight!! |
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The bench where cylinders were sorted out before and after being tuned. Over 800 cylinder kits have lived here over the years. This area was also where the boring bar lived and God knows how rebores that has done. |
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Another view of part of the workshop showing toolboxes, roller, small band saw, drill, tuning area and welding machines. |
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Part of the machine shop. All these machines can be very expensive. If we replaced all our machines with new ones we would be looking at around £100,000 but over the years we have picked up all the machines second hand, some pre-war, for small amount of money compared to buying new. They are old, English, well built and last. They look shit but work. Sometimes Mark becomes a plant fitter to repair them! |
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The machine shop at Unit 31. Some machines were so close that we couldn't have them both going safely at the same time. |
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The machine shop was set up for one machinist, but as we progressed to 2 and 3 people working in here it became very difficult to all work in there. We became less efficient but adapted to work round each other and delegate certain jobs to certain times. |
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The main work-bench for welding, grinding and fabrication. It's made up of old scaffolding poles and a big flat plate. For the amount of use it gets we don't know how it's lasted but it has!! |
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Mark's little area. Only small but very efficient -everything within arms reach. This area is where Mark has tuned over 800 cylinder kits. |
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Our spare band saw, not used in 4 years, it's just sat there. We cannot do without a bandsaw for all the manufacturing we do so if the main one fails this was the backup. We could have used the two but just didn't have the room. Unit 5 will have both of them set-up permanently. |
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This area is the grinding, polishing, reboring and tuning area. |
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Over the years we gained a hotch potch assortment of shelving. Shelving and racking is not cheap to buy. The stores area has always been a mixture of shelves that we have begged, stolen and borrowed and cut and modified to fit the small area we had. |
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Some pictures of the old workshop now it is nearly cleared out. |
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It looks massive now it's all empty! |
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It looks a bit grubby and with a lick of paint would make an excellent workshop for anyone. |
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The big question is do we have to rip down the upper floor and all the partitions to stay in line with the council contract, or can they let someone take it over as it is? We hope we don't have to scrap it is as it is a waste of what cost us £4000 at the time. |
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This shows the view from the street, the external doors leading into the courtyard. |
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The street doors open showing the courtyard and the large sliding doors which open into the workshop |
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The building has a his and hers outside toilet block with small office area leading into the very large workshop. |
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This unit has been empty for 5 years and you can tell! The building needs totally gutting. We took over the unit to do all the work ourselves. This way we get an even better workshop, shop, office and stores!! |
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The doors open and look at the state that the workshop is in. The first workshop in Grimsby was similar but smaller. |
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Our agreement was rent free for 2 months to gut the workshop and do with it as we please. |
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1st Phase is to rip everything out, paint the walls and ceiling and put in electricity to where it's needed. 2nd phase is to brick up the large doors for security. 3rd Phase is to put in a second floor, partition off workshop areas, machine shop, grinding - tuning - polishing shop, welding and fabrication shop, stores, dyno - degreasing room. |
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4th phase build in a brick reception area and offices in courtyard.
5th phase supply electrics to all rooms, fit an extractor and heating system. |
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We were given the keys on the 1st of November with 2 months to sort the new unit out and clear unit 31. |
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The empty courtyard has had a shop/reception area and large open plan built. This picture shows the bare outside walls viewed from the road. |
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View from the inside of the new office/reception area. |
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Lack of space is always a problem but, until we win the pools or lottery, money is the other problem. We have had to make use of the area we have to work with. Behind the new shop area we have built an upper floor. This picture shows the framework for the new floor with some shelving being painted for the stores area which will be here. |
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View from the shop/stores area doorway looking down into the workshops. |
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Young whistler has worked for Mark for 8 weeks with no days off! Well he's had a few days off maybe, Mark hasn't! Some days we were like zombies we were so tired, doing 10-14 hour days isn't fun. |
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The unit has been designed to work well and make us more efficient by giving everything its own place. When we've saved a bit of money we will be getting a dynojet rolling road. We have designed the unit so when the dyno arrives it can go straight into it's own purpose built room. |
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Until the dyno arrives (Late 2002 by the time we have caught up after the move and saved some money) this room will be the dirty degreasing and boring bar room. We were going to get the dyno last year but decided we needed to move so we have spent the dyno money fitting out the new unit. |
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Next to the dyno room is the manufacturing area, "Whistlers area". Round the corner, tucked away, is the polishing grinding area. |
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This is the polishing/grinding area. It's not large - it doesn't need to be! It's completely enclosed to keep all the dust and crap in one area, this in turn should keep the rest of the workshop a bit cleaner. This area is where Mark will hide away and tune barrels. There will be more pictures when it's all finished. |
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At the bottom of the workshop away from the stores, office and shop area is the machine shop. The six large machines live here for all our manufacturing and machining needs. All four of us, including Debbie, can use every machine. |
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At MB Developments we like to think that we can do most jobs in house. 90% of the time it would be a waste of time having the machine to do each job. Machines like CNC lathes or millers, laser cutting machines etc are very expensive so it's better ot sub out jobs like there. Where the machine is affordable and practical we try and get it. The machine shop and manufacturing area requires welding and cutting equipment. We have designed the workshop so several people can work in the same area without getting in each others way. This was impossible in the old workshop. |
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The new office, very boring looking at the moment but it's practical. Desk on the left is Debbies then next to that is Marks. To the right out of shot is Ian's desk. The office will be getting Debbies touch with a bit of decorating soon! |
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The stores/office/reception area has been designed in a triangle shape for efficiency. The stores area is cleaned and well set out and is now really part of the office. Note the computers everywhere, no more taking down orders on scraps of paper. |
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A major part of the work undertaken by MB Developments is engine rebuilds. Mark now has his own room just for him, no more interruption! This is the engine bench with all tools at hand. A nice clean area to do quality work. |
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Engines need crankshafts so the engine bay had the press and crankshaft spares at hand with an open flat surface to work on. |
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The new machine shop which is not yet wired up. The machines were the first things to be moved. 15 tons of tools moved by Mark and Whistler in 2 days!! They were physically knackered by the first weekend! |
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The new shop or reception area as we like to call it! Slightly larger than before. We haven't sussed it out yet, we have some ideas and it should be different to other shops. The door on the right is the office door. The open door looks into the stores. We have only done the basics to make it functional, Debbie is working on the ladies touch for the area. |
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The new building. Thanks to Chris "Bob" the builder for all his hard work. It's finished and functional and waiting to be tarted up! |
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Some of the tuning work that has accumulated over the months of the move. Now the real work begins!! Mark has tuned 8 barrels already this week to try and catch up. |
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The new tuning bay. After 2 days of solid tuning Mark is pleased with how much better it is.
Designed to be efficient and it is. With approximately £1000 worth of new tuning equipment Mark is able to tune cylinders in a more efficient and professional manner than ever before. |
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The tuning, linishing, grinding and polishing area. Designed to keep the dust to a minimum and away from the clean areas. Better for us, making MB Developments a more professional tuning company. |
As of the first week in January 2002 all the basics are done.
We have moved in.
The shop, office, cloak room, toilet, stores, upstairs and engine bay are all totally done.
The machines are working with an extension lead.
The main bits that need doing next are the electrical work to the dyno room to be and then electrics to the grinding area, fabrication and welding area and the machine shop.
That should all be done in a week.
No rest after that though as we have 3 months of engineering work to catch up on.
Some finishing touches are needed but these should be done by the end of January, then we can start getting back to normal.
All this extra work has taken it out on Mark and Whistler.
Whistler has been off sick.
Mark has not been well for 2 weeks but is soldiering on, he even worked on Christmas day!!
We apologise if you have been waiting for work to be done or for specialist parts but as you can see we are nearly there!
We have a new machinist, Martin Webb, who as well as being Mark's ex-brother in law is also a well known local scooterist due to his custom scooter "Brothers in arms" - a Lambretta featuring the Kray twins.
We unfortunately had to let Carl "Whistler" Williams go in the spring. It was a sad decision to make but he was not fulfilling his obligations with regard to timekeeping and attitude. The signs are that Martin is capable of beating Whistlers manufacturing output and he's not a bad welder.
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Mark opening up Unit 17 to have a look round and plan things out. |
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Bare empty walls again! Well at least these don't need painting before we can do anything. |
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Mark ponders where and how everything will fit in. It looks like a big space but it soon filled up! |
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The toilet and cloakroom. The skylights make it much brighter than Unit 5. |
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The Berlin wall goes up as we brick up the wall we knocked down opening the small office out into the courtyard to make the larger open plan office. Mark mashes the tea in the background while Jeremy Caine (customer and ex-builder now multi-millionaire property developer) mucks in with Bob to point up the bricks. |
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Utter chaos!! What goes up must come down, or in this case what comes down must go back up.
We had to brick up with window we knocked out. This meant having a brick wall running across the middle of the office for 2 weeks! |
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This made life a pain as you had to go the long way round the get to the toilet, kettle or fax. Invariably you'd get round there to find you'd left something behind or the phone would start ringing and you'd have to scuttle round to answer it! |
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Ian stops for a rest while waiting for the kettle to boil!! |
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Some last views of our very nice new shop at Unit 5 before we knock it down! |
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Our nice yard has now been turned into a builders yard! |
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This is where you could park your scooter or work on it, now there is just a pile of insulation! |
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The plants were just getting settled too! |
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Unit 17 underway. Mark is getting to be a dab hand at shopfitting. All very well, but who is doing the tuning? Answer, Mark did a bit of shopfitting after a days work each day! |
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Studding and wall by MB Developments!! |
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The new stores area. |
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The new open plan office. |
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We were glad that this move was in the summer because it meant we could work without the electricity being connected yet |
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Ian's desk was the last to leave Unit 5. We waited as long as we could until the phone man turned up then it was a mad rush to set it all up in Unit 17 while he moved the phone line. |
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The shop more open plan than it ever was! Mark took down the wall to "recycle it" round at Unit 17 so it meant the shop and office was one big room for a day or two. Luckily it was a quiet week! |
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What was the stores is now Mark's massive office!! It will probably end up being a combined office/bike bulding area/counter for Mark to entertain visitors etc. Nice big space, opens up some options. |
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A view over the "Berlin wall" into the open plan shop/office. This was the day that "windows Andy" came and fitted us a lovely window in the gap! |