Heavy 10 lathe - War Dept. tag?

standingbear · Feb 20, 2011

I found a good deal this week on a Heavy 10 with a 3.5 bed it is an older one with the single tumbler. It is in excellent condition needs cleaned and painted missing some minor parts.There is a metal tag rivited on that says it was made to the specifications of the dept of war board. I was wondering if it was sold to uncle sam for the war or if anyone knows what this tag ment. By the way i dont post much on here but i am always reading there is alot of good help on here.

grandtools · Feb 20, 2011

No, that tag doesn't mean it was sold to the government. What that tag does mean is that during the war machines were built to a slightly different standard of materials and finish. They may have used steel rather than brass on a nameplate and the paint finishes weren't as nice. This was done due to shortages of materials due to the war effort and also the finish standard was to produce the machines faster.

standingbear · Feb 20, 2011

Ok thanks for the info.

Bassbum2 · Feb 20, 2011

grandtools said:
No, that tag doesn't mean it was sold to the government. What that tag does mean is that during the war machines were built to a slightly different standard of materials and finish. They may have used steel rather than brass on a nameplate and the paint finishes weren't as nice. This was done due to shortages of materials due to the war effort and also the finish standard was to produce the machines faster.

Does this mean that these machines are of lesser quality?

Russell

SBLatheman · Feb 20, 2011

The tag is in reference to the finish. They didn't spend the time to fill the castings and make them pretty. Time was of the essence, after all, there was a war on.
Ted

gbyoung · Feb 23, 2011

SBLatheman said:
The tag is in reference to the finish. They didn't spend the time to fill the castings and make them pretty. Time was of the essence, after all, there was a war on.
Ted

I think mine is beautiful. Dirty and oily right now, but beautiful none-the-less.

standingbear · Feb 23, 2011

I llike mine too it is cleaning up real nice. I need to find a couple of parts but it was worth it. I have completly disasimbled it and im in the process of cleaning it all up and giving it a quality paint job. If it would warm up here. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

fastback · Feb 24, 2011

When I tore my 10L down and removed the tag I noticed that it was recycled material. On the back was the original stamping from the QC gears. It is brass. Like the rest of you I am proud of my machine.

BakoRoy · Feb 24, 2011

fastback said:
When I tore my 10L down and removed the tag I noticed that it was recycled material. On the back was the original stamping from the QC gears. It is brass. Like the rest of you I am proud of my machine.

Wow! Mine is brass too, but I never took it off so I don't know if it is recycled or not. That may explain why some machines have both brass and steel tags. Actually, it must be some sort of alloy because it doesn't seem to rust, maybe the same stuff pennies were made of.
Interestingly, something on a South Bend that I have never seen made of an alternate material is the brass thumb lever on the feed reverse. They must have cast a lifetime supply of those!
BakoRoy

nojrs · Feb 24, 2011

I had seen some posts about refinishing tags and I tried my had at it. Here's the refinished War Dept. tag from my 1942 Heavy 10 lathe. It turned out so good, l haven't put back on my lathe.

BakoRoy · Feb 25, 2011

Yep, looks exactly like mine. Well, if it was all tarnished and missing most of the red paint, that is!
BakoRoy

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