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Dimensions on the old Cataract wood and pipe leg benches

IrbyJones

Stainless
Joined
Jun 9, 2005
Location
Poquoson, Va
I know a few of you have an old Hardinge Cataract wooden bench with pipe legs. I'm thinking of making a bench for my Cataract lathe that is similar to the Hardinge ones with the iron pipe legs. Can't make it exactly the same I know, but just close in looks. Tony writes they were made of 1.25" diameter gas pipe and the braces were 1/2" rods. The Hardinge patent on them doesn't give a size. If I scale a few of the photos I've seen here, I get about 1.25"-1.4" diameter for the legs. That is about the same OD as a nominal 1" schedule 40 iron pipe these days. The OD for the next size up, 1-1/4" nominal pipe size, is 1.66". So maybe the pipe used was a nominal 1" (1.3" OD). It's hard to scale the dimensions of the sockets at each end of the pipe and the other fittings.

So if someone who has such a bench could kindly post a few dimensions for the sockets at each end of the legs and the other fittings, and even some photos, I would be very grateful. :)

The bench I am talking about is like the one Larry posted back in 2009:

1936HardingeCataractUnderdriveLa-1.jpg


Thanks guys!
Irby
 
Of course if you're only looking for "the look", there are commercially available pipe structure fittings. Mostly aluminum, there are some wrot fittings out there too.

images


These seem to take 1" diameter - they don't say but I'll bet its 1" pipe.

Google "pipe structural fittings" and you'll find googles.

Joe in NH
 
They used 1-1/4 pipe for the legs. The bottom flange is screwed tight to the pipe and it can be fastened to the floor. The upper flange is bored to a sliding fit on the pipe and has set screws to lock the height adjustment, which accommodates uneven floors. The flanges include spherical sockets for special matching nuts on the cross stays, which act like turnbuckles. There are hex nuts on the outside of the flanges to lock the stay adjustment after levelling. It is a very rigid bench.

Franklin Hardinge patented the bench construction using pipe and castings in 1909. US Patent Number 928045. Patent Images

Here are catalog pages from 1940 (with a TR59 lathe) and 1907 that give a lot of information.

Larry

DSC00430.jpgDSC00431.jpgDSC00432.jpgDSC00433.jpgDSC00434.jpg
 
Thanks Joe. Thanks Larry. OK, the 1-1/4" pipe looked better than the 1" pipe when I held some up to a bench, and that's what Hardinge used. And thanks for the cross stay description, Larry. That makes sense with how the castings look and how to make the fitting easier.

One more thing, Larry. What approximate size is the rectangular part of the fitting at the top and bottom of the legs? Something like 2" x 3" x 1/2"?

Luckily I have a friend with a sawmill to get the bench top materials. May use white oak rather than maple or anything else. I certainly won't ding it easily.

Irby
 
I do not have any measurements on the flanges, but I do have some more pictures. I had a set of legs from a bench that I drove 170 miles to pick up years ago. When i got there, I found that the bench seemed to have been disassembled with a forklift, leaving the top and some castings broken. I repaired the castings and sold the legs. I salvaged part of the bench top and used the old wood plus new maple to make a new top for my Hardinge HSL lathe.

The collet rack was made to attach to the top of a bench, so the board is tilted. The casting to swivel on the front leg mounts the board level.

The extra long bench with a TR37 lathe could be used to add a Hardinge bench miller (horizontal or vertical) to the right of the lathe. I have also seen a short bench with just the mill.

My flat belt drive Hardinge lathe is on a bench that I built. The top is made of semi-trailer flooring. If you have a facility that repairs trucks and trailers, they probably stock the laminated oak flooring. I used two strips to make my top. The center joint is what carpenters call shiplap and that edge was on one side of the flooring when I bought it.

Larry

4C collet rack 1.jpg4C collet rack 2.jpg1940Legs 1.JPG1940Legs 2.jpgWW2 37 long wood bench.jpg
 
"The upper flange is bored to a sliding fit on the pipe and has set screws to lock the height adjustment, which accommodates uneven floors."

Nice touch! Sure beats shims or those hard-to-adjust leveling feet.

Jeff
 
Irby,
I just bought a pre-war Hardinge plain turner to restore and I'm also looking into building bench legssimilar to original. I'll be following this thread closely hoping to get more specifics. Mine has what appears to be the original top but the pipe legs are long gone.

Please check your PM box.


Cheers,
-Roland
 
Irby, I just got your PM,I do have a complete original bench that came with a mill but it's probably the same bench used for the lathe? Let me know if you still need the info on it?

DSCN7649.jpg
 
Ok here's some info on the flange,the pipe is 1.66" in diameter and fits into a 2.20 socket.The pipe on my bench is threaded.This bench was made in the late 1930s.

IMG_1271.jpg IMG_1269.jpg
 
Here is a variant a friend of mine came up with. It uses sliding collars held in place with setscrews (sort of like the McMaster panel collars), but each collar on the long side can have 2 tabs welded onto it, at 90 degrees to each other. The cross-rods do not have to be threaded, as the tension is set by moving the collar up or down. Each cross-rod would have a short tab welded onto it, with a hole to bolt it to the tab on the collar.
Jeff
 

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