Greetings all;

Just acquired this "wood lathe" and thought I would share it with all. I assume this was maybe a depression era conversion?

Thanks for taking the time to look.

Craig Donges @ yahoo.com (delte the spaces)

I know a local sculptor that has a wood lathe identical to this.I rebuilt the tailstock for him two years ago.The only differences are his has been raised eight inches and it's driven by a DC controller with all the bells and whistles.It's amazing to watch him load a log in this thing and spin over and watch the wood shavings stream off at an incredible rate.And when I say log a mean just that.A piece of wood 12 inches or more in diameterX6' to 8' long.

Craig

Nice score if your into wood working.

I saw one about like that one when I picked up my ATW, A member here got it for a 100.00 and it was in great shape!

Paul

Timbers for the bedways? 3x8 or some such dimension? Are they topped with anything to reduce wear like plate or angle iron? The Ag. Museum has a similar lathe, built from salvaged parts.

Reggie;

Good eye. The timbers are 3 1/2" X 8" and have no steel save and except the cross bolts. Tag on the headstock reads Strong, Carlisle and Hammond.

Maybe Hardinge copied the "split bed" design for their line of early lathes? LOL!

Craig Donges @ Yahoo.com (delete the spaces)

You could replace the timber bed with longer timbers, and turn porch posts !

Or go totally overboard and make it into a spar lathe for sailboat masts and booms!

NICE find! I think you will get your money's worth of fun out of that one!

John Ruth

Some companies sold lathe "kits" back in the day- they included a headstock, tailstock, other sundry parts, and sometimes legs. You built the bed yourself, out of wood- that way you could make it as long as you wanted or needed. This may be one of those setups.
Andy

Nice looking and not at all unusual. We had one--longer--in the millwork shop I worked in in the mid-1970's. I own presently a W.W. Carey wood bed lathe; this one has the unusual features of 1), a unpainted maple bed 'ways' applied to painted wooden shears (this lathe has wooden legs also), and 2), a removable section of 'ways' in front of the headstock (not new, perhaps original), so it is a gap bed wooden bedded lathe.

My memory of woodworking machinery catalogs from around the turn of the 19th to 20th century is that lathes were very often available for sale in a number of forms at the same time, ie iron head- and tailstock and tool holder with or without wooden or iron shears and legs.

Your example is a nice looking one, thanks for showing it.

I have one (or the parts for one) very similar. It originally was used at a shop somewhere on Long Island that made marine accessories - wheels, flagpoles, ladders, etc. When I first encountered it, it had its wooden bed, made of beautiful clear 3x10 or 12 timbers. Unfortunately the owner chopped the bed up and burned it before I could get back, so all I got was the metal, and I had to build my own bed of 2 inch lumber to get it working. I'm quite sure this was a machine designed from the git-go to be installed on a wood bed.

Nice lathe, Craig!

Craig said: I do like my hardinge *split* bed lathe for the purpose do to the convenience of their workholding system, and the interchangeability with the dividing head.





smt

SMT,

WOW! Nice Posts.

Paul

Craig,

Nice machine. I like it! But then I like them all

Mike

Earnie Conover of Ohio made woodbedded lathes for many years, ending production in 2002. The iron parts came boxed with instuctions to make the bed rails, usually of maple or oak. You had the choice of your motor or theirs. and any length you wanted to make it. I did see 18' 6" porch columns come off of one. Four posts sold at wholesale for more than paid for the lathe. I think ABS plastic has killed that market. Progress you know, is not always a good thing. The wooden bed did an excellent job of dampening the Vibes normally found while roughing in large wood projects. With a good headstock and tailstock (junk ways) A clunker lathe would be a good candidate for making one of these! http://www.lathes.co.uk/conover/ Image from Tony's site