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Rare wood desk-type bench with 1942 Hardinge TR lathe

L Vanice

Diamond
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Location
Fort Wayne, IN
In 1937, Leigh R. Evans was granted patent no. 2,066,560, assigned to Hardinge Brothers. The patent was filed in 1934. He designed an underneath drive for the Cataract enclosed head bench lathe, possibly the first new product introduced by the new Hardinge Brothers company after setting up in Elmira, NY. The patent drawings show both a newly designed wood desk-type bench and the original Hardinge wood top/steel pipe leg bench (Patent no. 928045, filed 1908). I have had a couple of the pipe leg benches, but I have only seen a couple of the desk benches on eBay. I think the the desk benches were all maple, but I know the top and splash boards on the pipe leg benches were maple. They clean up to look very pretty.

The lathe in 1934 had a mostly round bed and was once the logo on the Practical Machinist pages. Around 1940, Hardinge designed a new lathe with what I call the skirted bed. The enclosed headstock version was called model TR when sold with a slide rest and tailstock or model ESM when sold with a lever cross slide and turret. There were also open headstock flat belt drive models. Any of them could be ordered with a T-slot on the rear of the bed to mount a thread chasing attachment.

Anyway, there just turned up on eBay a 1942 Hardinge TR59 lathe with the rear T-slot mounted on the desk bench. That is a very rare lathe, though the $2950 asking price is the usual silly dream. I thought some of you might be interested in seeing what one looks like.

HARDINGE 9" x 28" METAL LATHE | eBay

My 1944 ESM59 was purchased on a pipe leg bench, but I swapped it onto a standard steel cabinet when I rebuilt it. Mine has the complete thread chasing attachment, lever cross slide, slide rest, turret and conventional tailstock. Most of these veterans of WWII production are found on steel cabinets.

Larry
 
Are you saying that model is rare because of the T-slot and Wooden bench? Or are you considering that actual model and shape rare, whatever options it came with? I've got a couple, though no wooden benches.

Also bought one of the old PM logo lathes this past spring, but stripped it for parts to make (eventually) a long bed lathe to mount on my planer.

smt
 
"I have only seen a couple of the desk benches on eBay." Yes, it is the bench that is especially rare, but the beds with the chaser T-slot are also rare. Not much use without the very rare chaser attachment, of course. Actually, I did mount a work light to the back T-slot of mine, out of the way of the chaser, so the T-slot is not totally useless.

Larry
 
I'm going to post the pictures so 5 years from now when someone would love to see the lathe Larry is talking about, and the ebay listing is long gone, here it is.
 

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