Mcilvanie sliding gap bed lathe?

[Mebfab]

Odd duck on facebook marketplace. Mcilvanie "century" sliding gap bed lathe Anyone ever seen one in person?

 

[Andy FitzGibbon]

Not in person, but I've seen photos of a few others. The army published a manual, so that's where at least some of them went.

McIlvanie made standard geared head engine lathes as well, along with woodworking machinery.

 

[rivett608]

Interesting they got the state abbreviation wrong on their name plate. “WN” instead of “WA” for Washington state.

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

Interesting they got the state abbreviation wrong on their name plate. “WN” instead of “WA” for Washington state.

That used to be the abbreviation for WashintoN.

 

[Andy FitzGibbon]

That used to be the abbreviation for WashintoN.

Correct. The current two letter standard abbreviations were implemented in 1963, along with ZIP codes. I don't think "WN" was ever the official abbreviation, but things were a lot more open to interpretation before the ZIP standards.

 

[Lpeterson3]

I have a Century B-40 I use most every day.

 

[Ries]

Interesting that the family only liquidated the factory in 2015. https://trainmuseum.blogspot.com/2015/03/tools-that-made-tools.html

 

[Ries]

The factory until 2014. https://www.cafferyphoto.com/mmw

 

[Lpeterson3]

This is one of the best lathe I've ever run. Despite being old it still holds less than .0004 runout on the spindle and bed. Absolutely the best thing for my home shop. Being able to lengthen it two feet is a great thing too.