SawyerD44:
Actual, not all that unique, at least 250 of these No.1 High Speed lathes were between 1932 and 1950. In 1929, Hendey started
experimenting with some of the then new High Speed Steels. The object being to produce a mirror finish without having to resort to
lapping. They realized that a lathe with a very high Spindle speed and an extremely fine feed rate would do the job. Experimenting with a 12x5 Cone Head model, equipped with precision Timken bearings, they were able to get the desired results. Because of the high Spindle speeds, it was necessary to balance all of the driving plates and face plates used to cut down on vibration. The Driving Belt was endless, again to cut down on vibration. Because of the difficulty of balance, I would not recommend using a chuck at any speed other than the lowest (455rpm). Most work done on this lathe will be Collet or between centers. While not designed for thread cutting, if you convert threads per inch to pitch, you can calculate the gearing need. A total of twenty feed gears were supplied with the lathe and by using the correct charts, the feed can be set for inches per revolution or millimeters per revolution. Standard finest feed rate is .0006 inches per revolution or about 1600 threads per inch. A Tailstock was not furnished as standard equipment, but as an option with two styles. A built-in Collet Closer handle was standard equipment but the closer had to be installed at the factory when the lathe was built. There are very few Patterns, Castings or Repair Parts left in inventory for this lathe, but all of the original drawings are still in the files, so parts can be made as required. Without the serial number, I can't give a definite circa of manufacture, but it most likely was built after 1937. The standard upper limit high speed was 2000rpm, but it was designed for an upper limit of 5000rpm. Also, when threading, because of the high surface speeds and the fine pitches involved, you will find that Diamond Tooling, instead of High Speed Tooling, works very well.
Hendeyman