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Warner & Swasey No 5 Turret Lathe

SWA Guy

Aluminum
Joined
Aug 28, 2007
Location
Elk Grove, CA
I am helping the Widow of a friend clear out his extensive workshop. Before I post it for sale, I thought I would reach out to try and get more info on it. Can anyone tell me anything about this turret lathe? How about the year based on the serial number 1279501

Thank you,
Guy

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Thanks Jess. It really is a beautiful lathe. I wish that I had more space, I would take it myself. I am finally able to gather up all of the tooling that goes with it, so it is now complete. I will be listing it for sale as the owner doesn't want to part it out, and I agree. Besides PM here, do you know of any other places that might be good to list this? Thanks, Guy
 
Maybe surplus record , I have looked there for my own stuff in the past. I have a #4 that I am looking after also . I wish I had 12,000 sq feet and a fleet of guys working . The market is just not that good right now.
 

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I just missed a #3 that auctioned for 35 dollars. I am looking for one that I might be able to afford. Do these turret lathes have the capacity to thread? They seem awfully large. What is a good rule of thumb for lathes, get the biggest that you can afford and still have room for?
 
Do these turret lathes have the capacity to thread?
A variety of die heads (Geometric, Landis, H&G, or just plain old acorn dies) were used as turret tools for modest lengths of threading at the end of the part. I think there were "native" threading accessories for the later A series, don't believe the earlier series had such attachments, but don't have the W&S books in front of me here to look.
They seem awfully large.
A W&S #5 is rather large for a manual chucker, although nothing compared to the "superlathes" in overall size, nor anything in length to lathes used for shafts and rolls. If I had room in my shop, I'd be looking for a #4 or a #2A, based on bar capacity.

Turret lathes were made much smaller, even petite. A Hardinge DSM-59, for example, is basically a 9x18 lathe, and there were specialist machines make quite a bit smaller than that.
 
The No. 5 my step-dad had in his shop was a Square Head 1960's model. If I remember correctly Square Head models started in 1960??. She looks well cared for, maybe late 40's-50's model.

We had a # 2, 3 & 4 that I had run and did threading with Geometric Heads. We also had a 2A & 3A from the late 40's rebuilt by W&S in early 60's IIRC. All were round heads
 








 
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