Show Us Your Lathe

[Richard_S]

Good evening fellas,
I've been lurking round here for a while and not bothered to register, but happened across this thread and just spent the better part of 3 hours drooling and taking notes.
Here are some photos of my lathes:
The Portass Dreadnought was bought by my grandfather, new in 1946. It's a 'PD5' and not as heavy as the older model which was actually a nicer lathe. I cut my teeth with machine building stationary steam engines aged around 10 and went down hill from there - just ask my wife!

No. 2 is a Halifax, a British licence made version of the Atlas, a nice lathe and in good mechanical condition except for some deliberate vandalism to the handwheels.

No. 3 is a Smart & Brown Sabel. A British built slightly modified Southbend9A. It has an enlarged spindle and was built to a generally higher quality than the original SB.

No. 4 is my personal pride and joy. A Smart & Brown 1024 - just manages 11" over the bed and 24 between ctrs. A three speed pole switching motor and 2 speed gearbox plus backgear gives 12 spindle speeds. Dual reading metic and Imperial dials with Imperial threads in the quick change box. I have a full set of change wheels for metric threads and DP gear cutting, collets, two steadies and added a QCTP after the photo was taken.
It weighs around 22cwt (2500lbs) and is in the Monarch/CVA/Weiler toolroom bracket and came from a pharmaceutical company research workshop where it only ever cut perspex(lexan) and alloy so it's almost unworn. I love it!

Rgds to all
Richard

 

[lathe nut]

Richard, glad you here, these fellow are good and know how to share, so let's be the dry sponge and soak up all we can, very good looking lathes, I love them all but guess the lathe on is the pride and joy, glad to see you with so many make me feel a little better know that someone has several lathes, I have 8 and if the price is right there will be more, will need to stop getting them and make something on them, hope you enjoy here as much as I do, Lathe Nut

 

[Maryak]

Richard S,

Welcome to our forum

Best Regards
Bob

 

[Plushy]

Plushy / James.

Those chucks are Taylor chucks with inclined scrolls so they reach further out as they open.
good chucks, very expensive and usually very accurate.
Used to have one on a real old beat up Harrison L6 but the chuck was repeatable to a thou, pity the machine wasn't.

John_S.

John thanks for the heads up on the chucks would they be marked anywhere that they are taylor chucks ?

Bob just noticed your an aussie so any time your over in Vic drop in for a Stubbie and a chat .

cheers James

 

[Richard_S]

Richard, glad you here, these fellow are good and know how to share, so let's be the dry sponge and soak up all we can, very good looking lathes, I love them all but guess the lathe on is the pride and joy, glad to see you with so many make me feel a little better know that someone has several lathes, I have 8 and if the price is right there will be more, will need to stop getting them and make something on them, hope you enjoy here as much as I do, Lathe Nut
[/quote]

Thanks for the warm welcome Lathenut,
As you say, the old Portass isn't the best I have and certainly not the most valuable, but it is the one that is nearest my heart and absolutely not tradeable. Call me a sentimentalist and I'd have to agree - but you could call me worse ;-)

I ran out or attachment space in the previous post, but have to admit to this as well. Might cheer a few of you blokes the other side of the pond.
This AV Carroll is in need of a fair bit of TLC - the bed is badly worn - but it's a beast! Approx 15" swing x 55" ish BCtrs.Obviously originally with overhead flatbelt shafting drive, it has been mod'd with a 4sp+rev gearbox from a 1920's Crossley motorcar. Probably the box is worth more than the lathe to the right guy. It's a background project, and whilst I had thought of scrapping it, I really can't do that to something like this, that's outright vandalism - the domestic management despairs......

Rgds Richard

 

[gt2ride]

Richard Nice collection. I have been told with the right tool you can make any thing you want.
I still can not make what I want so I keep on buying tools. I am up to 11 lathes but one of them is
a wood lathe. I hope that counts. There is also a Boxford lathe in my collection which you might like.
my collection is on page one reply 12
gt2ride

 

[BillH]

Here are my lathes
Lathemaster 8x14 with 5c collet chuck

And the Taig

 

[Maryak]

Bob just noticed your an aussie so any time your over in Vic drop in for a Stubbie and a chat .

cheers James

Thanks James,

We are off too Qld, (Harvey Bay), in April for my 50th Anniversary Reunion of joining the RAN. Plan to make a real deal of it and spend some time in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, on our way home. At this stage we plan on driving

so we can stop where and when we, (SWMDBO), want.

Our schedule will be governed to some extent by the progress and inspection requirements of our new house.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[zig 2007]

ive been roaming around this site for a while and felt compeled to add my lathe to the collection. it is a 1940-50s demco lathe (hercus copy) it has a single phase 2hp motor and a flat belt for drive. still needs work should make a good a project.

the guy who sold it to me didnt have the change gears so im stuck with really fast power feed

ps: if any one has a similar lathe and is wiling to sell parts im very interested

 

[Kermit]

WOW Zig!

Are you sure thats a 1940's machine? Sure looks like it is ALOT older than that.

1904 maybe? That would sure be closer to how it looks, with the drive "cone" and the leather belt with over head attachment.

I'm a newbie dummy though, so what the freak do I know!

Impressive that it is working none-the-less,
Kermit

 

[Stan]

I never heard of Demco, but if Demco is clone of Hercus and Hercus is a clone of Boxford and Boxford is a clone of South Bend, where does that place the Chinese clones?

 

[lathe nut]

Zig, that toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool cool, love it, Lathe Nut

 

[BMyers]

My Pratt and Whitney Model B
someday I will upload a pic of my SB 9" Jr.

 

[Maryak]

BM,

That's a serious piece of machinery.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[joeby]

BMyers,

Take the hobby seriously? ;D
Nice lathe though, I was after one a couple years ago; but the price was out of line, I thought.

Lots of nice machinery pics on here guys, keep it up.

By the way, as far as Pratt & Whitney goes, here's mine as taken two years ago.

Kevin

 

[BMyers]

joeby,
the price was right. It sure will chew steel. Nice old P&W you have

 

[mogogear]

Well after just 6 months with my little Unimat... she moved on.. some of the accessories are headed to live the good life in Hawaii with Kludge!! Don't forget the sunscreen guys!! Mahalo :-*

I found a nice little Atlas 618 tooled out pretty well. She is awaiting a new linkbelt and a banjo bracket and crossslide knob - all of which are in transit and I am soon to be moving on to my "intermediate " lathe learing!! This saved me from going the Chinese lathe route and then spending much more on the tooling....Look out chips !--here I come

 

[Kludge]

some of the accessories are headed to live the good life in Hawaii with Kludge!! Don't forget the sunscreen guys!! Mahalo :-*

I do hope machine oil will be a good substitute.

I found a nice little Atlas 618 tooled out pretty well.

Sweet! You're also ready to do some horizontal milling as well. I tend to like horizontal milling better but I have other peculiarities as well so this should come as no surprise.

(Okay, guys, quit smirking!)

I am soon to be moving on to my "intermediate " lathe learing!!

Yes, lathe learing is an important part of the process, one through which we all must pass at some point or another. When the smell of machine oil outweighs even the most alluring perfume, you have passed the first major milestone. :big: :big: :big:

Best regards,

Kludge

 

[shred]

Sweet.. I have a very similar 6" Atlas/Craftsman, though somebody long ago managed to convert it to a cabinet under-drive.

Somebody will be along shortly about that chuck key though...

 

[NickG]

Some fantastic machines there!

I started off with my grandads Myford ML7, when I was young and stupid I thought it was too small to do the project I was about to start on, so stupidly sold it for peanuts and bought a Portass Dreadnaught and a Dore Westbury Milling machine with the proceeds.

However, these turned out to be not brilliant so I recently sold those and bought a Harrison L5 which is superb and a chinese milling machine the same as the Chester Century seen here: http://www.chesteruk.net/store/century_vs_mill.htm. I have only used the milling machine for trivial stuff so far and it seems ok, as long as you lock the spindle, there seems to be some play in there somewhere. The geared / variable speed head make it quite noisy too but it does have a lot of torque. Paid much less than chester want for theirs, got it for £600 from a company on ebay.

Will get some pics up soon.

Oh, I also have a Centec 2A horizontal milling machine which is a great machine. I was originally looking for a vertical head but they were always a fortune. I sould have kept the Dore Westbury as you can adapt the heads from those to fit the centec. But now I have the larger vertical which is more versitile, it will never get used much. A fellow model engineer suggested just setting it up with a large slitting saw to cut things off accurately and put slots in things but think it may be wasted just on that. I might sell it (they go for good money) and use some of the money to buy a metal cutting band saw. A lot of time is taken up sawing stock!