Thread: Mystery Lathe ...

My Father-in-Law had an un-named lathe, and the only suggestions he had over the years are that it's an old P&W or Rockwell, but we're none the wiser after 35 years.


Distinguishing features are as follows:

- Belt drive from the motor to the the back face of the head stock.
- Single speed headstock spindle, driven by a shaft out the back face of the headstock casting.
- Spindle drive via a worm gear and bronze driven gear in the (wet) headstock
- Tapered Bronze spindle bearing, with hardened steel thrust plates to adjust end float
- Threaded spindle nose for chuck mounting

There were many strange design "features", including:

- Lead screw goes up the center of the lathe, under the bed
- Change gears are located on front face of the headstock
- the Tailstock travels on a slide on the *back face* of the bed
- Tail stock spindle taper is about the size of an MT2, but longer
- Alignment of headstock to tail stock by means of locking screws on the headstock
- Carriage does not have a compound rest: its lantern tool holder is mounted on a second slide on top of the cross slide ... there is no provision for a feed screw on the second slide ... it slides fore and aft, and can be locked in place.

Thoughts on the lathe's origin suggested the odd carriage arrangement was so that the slide for the tool post could be controlled by another mechanism, say for copying to a pattern. One person thought it might have been a production lathe for machining shell casings.

A very unusual lathe indeed. Does anyone have any ideas on what it really is?


.. Gregg

I have no idea who made that machine, however, I have seen another at a used machine dealer more then 20yrs ago.

I've seen something similar in an old book of mine - if I can remember & find the book etc I'll get back.

Feint glimmer??? - Think they were some sort of turret / production lathe.

"Design feature...."

Isn't the bed just a flat piece of rolled steel? Looks like a welded strip/stop on the end of the bed?

As the carriage (very wide for size of machine) only does "facing" cut, maybe a brake lathe?

Jim

It's most certainly built as a machine lathe ... albeit, as if the designer set about to build it the most complicted way he could.

What looks like a steel plate is a sheet metal cover to protect the bed. The bed is a massive/deep no-nonsense casting .

...Gregg

(Sorry about my delayed response, I didn't get a notice that my thread had responses.)

Originally Posted by Limy Sami

I've seen something similar in an old book of mine - if I can remember & find the book etc I'll get back.

Feint glimmer??? - Think they were some sort of turret / production lathe.

Thank you, Sami ! I think your recollection may be correct. It would be great to find out some details after all these years.

... Gregg

Well, another year has passed, and we're still none the wiser as to the origin of Dad's old lathe.

Any chance someone recognizes it now?

Thanks,
.. Gregg

I saw one in a machinerey dealer listing it was called an oster same as the mixer company I think they were made in house. I think that is what it is

My two cents is that the sliding upper carriage means it is a "copy lathe" Sheet metal cover over bed supports this hypothesis, as a copy lathe likely has unattended carriage movement with the operator away un/loading another lathe.

Artilley shells (projectiles) would be a likely job for such a lathe. Millions of pieces were ordered for both World Wars. A shell starts as a forging and needs to be machined all over.

Now we're cooking ... a copy lathe, possibly made by Oster.

The artillery shell application has come up a couple of times during discussions in the past, and so it makes sense that this machine is devoid of some features found in general purpose lathes.

Dad would have been tickled to get this information ... perhaps more will be forthcoming soon.

Thanks!
... Gregg

I have seen the Oster brand of pipe and rod threading machines. Could it have been for threading short pipe nipples? Maybe.

Originally Posted by 47nomad

I have seen the Oster brand of pipe and rod threading machines. Could it have been for threading short pipe nipples? Maybe.

Doubtful. That's generally a high volume operation, ELSE done in the field with dies.

Possibly for making the threading dies themselves for the 'field' machines, though?

Bill

I had an Oster turret lathe. It had a spindle drive that sounds the same as described here. The lathe I had had tapered spindle bearings and looked much newer than this. It was probably WWII era.

Originally Posted by Garwood

I had an Oster turret lathe. It had a spindle drive that sounds the same as described here. The lathe I had had tapered spindle bearings and looked much newer than this. It was probably WWII era.

This one had a tapered bronze bearing at the chuck end, and a ball thrust bearing at the other end, with threaded collars to tweak the end float.

Still boggles my mind that they ran the tailstock on a path machined onto the back face of the bed ... must have been a bear to get it even close to aligned with the main spindle.

The only explanation I've come up with is that maybe this lathe was old enough that certain design patents were still in effect someone was trying to get around them by taking a visibly different approach.

Thanks for the input, guys!
... Gregg

Originally Posted by gregg-k

This one had a tapered bronze bearing at the chuck end, and a ball thrust bearing at the other end, with threaded collars to tweak the end float.

Still boggles my mind that they ran the tailstock on a path machined onto the back face of the bed ... must have been a bear to get it even close to aligned with the main spindle.

Perhaps it was of no concern for what the machine was most often used for?

The only explanation I've come up with is that maybe this lathe was old enough that certain design patents were still in effect someone was trying to get around them by taking a visibly different approach.

Thanks for the input, guys!
... Gregg

Doubt that 'patent' part.

Devices - some foot-kick or drawbow operated - that we would classify as a 'lathe' primarily because, unlike a potter's wheel, they DO have both a HS and TS, and nearly always on the same 'bed', have been around since antiquity.

Bill