Peter S
Diamond
- Joined
- May 6, 2002
- Location
- Auckland, New Zealand
There is a (1926?) Butler Machine Tool Co. lathe advertised for sale here in Auckland, New Zealand.

Because I haven’t seen a Butler lathe before, I have been looking at the advert photos for the last couple of weeks and thinking that it looks like a decent old machine.
At the same time, I have seen a couple of Lodge & Shipley posts on this forum.
It has slowly dawned on me – Lodge & Shipley and Butler share some features; in fact, they are identical in many ways!
There surely must have been an arrangement between the two companies.
By strange chance, the photos from the NZ Butler advert also appear on Tony’s lathes.co.uk entry for Butler Vintage Lathes:
http://www.lathes.co.uk/butler-lathes/
There is one photo he doesn’t show - the electric motor name plate is dated 1926. I would guess this is the original motor for the lathe.
The carriage looks almost identical to the Lodge & Shipley design of similar era.
The L&S and Butler bed way design look the same.
The tailstocks look the same, that was the first thing I noticed.
However the geared headstock doesn’t look like any L&S design I have seen.
The second Butler lathe (red, cone head) on Tony’s page has the above shared features plus the distinctive L&S threads/feeds gearbox arrangement.
BTW, the Butler in NZ has me scratching my head regarding the screw cutting chart. It seems to offer only 2-8 TPI options. This is very odd as the catalogues offer a much wider range, e.g., 2 – 64 TPI on the 1917 8” centre height model.
For those who don’t know – Butler was a well-known and respected British machine tool maker. In latter years they were known for their reciprocating machines – planers, slotters, shapers, but in early years made a wide range of machine tools, including lathes.
J. Butler & Co was founded in 1868, in 1917 became a founder members of the Associated British Machine Tool Makers and in 1919 became the Butler Machine Tool Co. The Butler name survives today as Asquith Butler.


Because I haven’t seen a Butler lathe before, I have been looking at the advert photos for the last couple of weeks and thinking that it looks like a decent old machine.
At the same time, I have seen a couple of Lodge & Shipley posts on this forum.
It has slowly dawned on me – Lodge & Shipley and Butler share some features; in fact, they are identical in many ways!
There surely must have been an arrangement between the two companies.
By strange chance, the photos from the NZ Butler advert also appear on Tony’s lathes.co.uk entry for Butler Vintage Lathes:
http://www.lathes.co.uk/butler-lathes/
There is one photo he doesn’t show - the electric motor name plate is dated 1926. I would guess this is the original motor for the lathe.
The carriage looks almost identical to the Lodge & Shipley design of similar era.
The L&S and Butler bed way design look the same.
The tailstocks look the same, that was the first thing I noticed.
However the geared headstock doesn’t look like any L&S design I have seen.
The second Butler lathe (red, cone head) on Tony’s page has the above shared features plus the distinctive L&S threads/feeds gearbox arrangement.
BTW, the Butler in NZ has me scratching my head regarding the screw cutting chart. It seems to offer only 2-8 TPI options. This is very odd as the catalogues offer a much wider range, e.g., 2 – 64 TPI on the 1917 8” centre height model.
For those who don’t know – Butler was a well-known and respected British machine tool maker. In latter years they were known for their reciprocating machines – planers, slotters, shapers, but in early years made a wide range of machine tools, including lathes.
J. Butler & Co was founded in 1868, in 1917 became a founder members of the Associated British Machine Tool Makers and in 1919 became the Butler Machine Tool Co. The Butler name survives today as Asquith Butler.







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