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A lovely lathe - your comments, please

Lovely is the appropriate adjective.
The only thing I can add is it has the oversize front way like a Wade 8A Toolmakers lathe.
 

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Wow, that's sweet. I love the moving way covers. I'm guessing a hobbyist. No commercial venture would have put that much effort into a general purpose machine plus all the accessories. More likely a highly skilled retired machinist. It reminds me of the sort of work I see every year at our local Steam Pageant by machinists that spent 40+ years at places like Kodak, and now spend their spare time making small engines and such. OTOH, the problem with that theory is the machine is a bit too good and well thought out.
 
Apotheosis is used of normal humans whose abilities caused (allegedly) their elevation to the Pantheon.
Eg "The Apotheosis of Penelope Boothby".

But if you want to use apotheosis of lathes, that is fine by me because my intention is not to criticise your English but to thank you for your marvellous site from which I have learned much,

Rich
 
An interesting item, there does not appear to be a way of driving the carriage except with the lead screw. No rack, no drive screw in the center of the bed. There is no threading dial or stack of gears. Perhaps not designed for threading.

Kind of reminds me something Westbury may have built.

Tom
 
Man..every once in awhile I see something which causes me to have butterfly's in my stomach and this is one of them. What a gorgeous lathe! I can add nothing except to say it is beautiful with accessories as gorgeous as the lathe. What a marvelous machine!
 
TDegenhart said:
An interesting item, there does not appear to be a way of driving the carriage except with the lead screw. No rack, no drive screw in the center of the bed. There is no threading dial or stack of gears. Perhaps not designed for threading.

Kind of reminds me something Westbury may have built.

Tom
Click to expand...

Its quite common for small machines to use the leads crew instead of a rack.
What makes it lovely to me is its use of full size machine bed and construction but with the adaptability of a high end model engineers lathe but with the detail of a watch makers lathe.
It reminds me of a lathe my old mentor made, let us not forget once upon a time there were many people with the skills to make such a thing even if it took thirty years of evenings!
 
Conrad Hoffman said:
Wow, that's sweet. I love the moving way covers. I'm guessing a hobbyist. No commercial venture would have put that much effort into a general purpose machine plus all the accessories. More likely a highly skilled retired machinist. It reminds me of the sort of work I see every year at our local Steam Pageant by machinists that spent 40+ years at places like Kodak, and now spend their spare time making small engines and such. OTOH, the problem with that theory is the machine is a bit too good and well thought out.
Click to expand...

Almost as though someone worked for a machine builder for years, then when retired decided to build one the way he thought they all should have been.
 
ManicMetalBasher said:
Apotheosis is used of normal humans whose abilities caused (allegedly) their elevation to the Pantheon.
Eg "The Apotheosis of Penelope Boothby".

But if you want to use apotheosis of lathes, that is fine by me because my intention is not to criticise your English but to thank you for your marvellous site from which I have learned much,

Rich
Click to expand...
Thank you rich, I delighted that you enjoy it. I've now cheated -and modified the Apotheosis reference to pretend that I knew all along....
Tony.
 
Does anyone have any idea what influences there are in this build and workmanship? There might be elements of style that reveal country of origin, or maybe what company influenced it. Why is so little of the lathe painted? Maybe the answer is because the builder spent so much time making it shine. Tony, do you have any idea where the lathe is now? BTW, I would gladly pay shipping on this lathe to my doorstep.
 
The lantern-type toolpost has a convex base instead of it being concave; I've never seen that before. Can anyone mention an advantage in tnat shape?
 
#10 tonylathes

You cheat all you like.
The thanks, I am taking it upon myself to speak on behalf of other PM users, are all going in your direction.

I am sure you could add much useful information, including corrections, to PM.

I conclude that the reason you rarely do so, the reason you have only 100+ posts to PM after eight years, is that running your own site and associated business is a full time job for more staff than you have.

Best wishes.
Rich
 
Interesting, what a lot of iron casting work for an amateur. The tiny start stop buttons would indicate to me it is not something like a factory built piece

Handwheel mounted to the left of carriage would not be very useful, runs out of screw before carriage meets the end of travel.

There are supports hanging on the leadscrew for another shaft of some sort, perhaps the missing traverse device?

interesting

yet another reminder of how short my attention span is
 
RODELU said:
The lantern-type toolpost has a convex base instead of it being concave; I've never seen that before. Can anyone mention an advantage in tnat shape?
Click to expand...

Cutting forces will be bearing more down on the convex surface rather than trying to push the rocker back round on the concave groove.
 
It's very pretty but I've never seen the handwheel on the back side of the tailstock before ... wonder if that is convenient ? It would not be on a bigger machine but maybe this small, reaching over the top is okay ? Or would you run this kind of kitty-corner, like at a 45* ? Does the whole thing swivel around on that round base in operation ?
 
Staff are so hard to get these days...

ManicMetalBasher said:
#10 tonylathes
I conclude that the reason you rarely do so, the reason you have only 100+ posts to PM after eight years, is that running your own site and associated business is a full time job for more staff than you have.

Best wishes.
Rich
Click to expand...
Hi Rich, thanks for the well-observed comment. Yes, it's just me - with some help from my long-suffering wife (who, by a process of what must be a form of osmosis, has picked up enough information to give useful answers to many phone enquiries without ever having laid a hand on a machine tool!).
That's why, to my regret, I often can't manage to get on top of the email load each day. Should anybody be kind enough to send pictures or comments about machine tools and not receive a reply within a day or two, just keep sending reminders (make them ruder each time) and I'll be in touch...
 
What a wonderful machine that I know nothing in regards to its origin. Home made or factory build? If someone built that themselves they would/should IMHO be proud of their accomplishment. Regardless of my lack of time I'd be hard pressed to make something as elegant as that if I tried. Thanks for sharing that!
Dan
 
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