Owner of one Barnes No. 5 and TWO Barnes 4-1/2 here.
Barnes provided lathes in these patterns beginning with the Barnes 4-1/2 in the early 1880s and expanding to the Barnes No. 5 by 1885ish.
The Barnes No. 5 came in a couple of iterations, basically differing on "details" and arrangement of the pedal drive. By 1890 or so, the design had settled down to what today we think of as a "Barnes Lathe," with few changes henceforth.
Originally offered in a pedal drive, and even a "treadle" type arrangement, the Barnes lathes were common in a "pre-electrification" age. The joke today is that a Barnes lathe is commonly found in a "chicken coop." Farms were generally the last to be connected to modern grid power, and the Barnes tools were a common adjunct to life on a farm.
The "creme de la creme" of Barnes lathes today are those with the velocipede or treadle. The velocipede is much more common and actually easier to use, even though the user has to pedal "backwards" compared to a bicycle. The treadle versions are less common and can have issues with "flywheel inertia" - the velocipede generally will do more and larger work. Still, some period users preferred the treadle as that is what they were familiar with, and Barnes offered both . And being made in lesser numbers "in the day" makes the treadle version "more desirable" in modern perception. Rarity and uniqueness augments value.
But, as grid power became more common, Barnes had to change with the times and offered the machines without manual drive, and in fact had a line of (first) lineshaft driven overhead counter shafts and (later) electric motor driven counter shafts. The overhead clutch counter shafts for Barnes lathes are QUITE desirable, the regular bearings/cone pulley/motor pulley of the electric motor drive less so. It is fairly easy to cobble a motor to an extant lathe and do it with parts on hand.
Today, the most common finding of a Barnes lathe, either No. 4-1/2 or No. 5 is without the manual drive and converted to a motor. One wonders where all the flywheels and supporting pedal/treadles have gone - likely lost in WWII scrap drives?
I have bought an incomplete (no legs) Barnes 4-1/2 lathe for $150. Another 4-1/2 was bought with legs no manual drive but WITH flywheel for $375. I added the pedals and gearing to make it complete. Legs alone are worth $200 or so. A complete Barnes lathe velocipede drive runs anywhere from $750 to $1750, depending on completeness of the tooling, or the patience in sale of the seller.
A typical price for a typical usable motor converted Barnes 4-1/2 or 5 is $400, and this is a price point typical of a metal lathe of similar size of ANY make. A Barnes lathe of this ilk is NOT special.
There are some Ebay sellers of the Barnes lathes who price themselves at 2x or more beyond what I named above, but these exist on Ebay apparently to satisfy the sellers in the resolution and durability of the image/posting. One I know has been on Ebay for no less than 10 years. The free market will out, of course.
As to parts, you will find that parts for a Barnes lathe ARE available - there are some who "dissolve" existing incomplete lathes for parts and sell these parts. But for someone making a complete lathe from parts, a better deal is found is buying a complete Barnes lathe, and let the parts pass.
Still, and I am victim of this, there is nothing quite so satisfying as "bringing something back" even if the result is financially non-viable. It's not always about the money. Perhaps more about "how do you take your pleasure." And "Life is short."
So if you decide to sell, try first to sell the complete lathe as it is, as usable as it is. Give it half a year or so to move, and if not moved, then "part it out" - and always price yourself as the "proportion-fraction" of a complete electrified lathe (perhaps $400?) and add a little for your trouble.
Another respondent to this board did exactly that - and he may respond with his (I think) successful experience - and conclusion.
Good luck however this goes. It is a "survivor" - a little large in a No. 5 size to put on one's porch for "machine shop ephemera" but in many ways a more "usable" lathe than the small No. 4-1/2.
Joe in NH
