Boxford lathe???

DimitrisLamia · Sep 20, 2016

Good day everyone, i have bought a lathe that i have partialy refurbish but i still don't know what lathe it is.
It looks like 1960 boxford but i have not seen any sing, serial number or brand on it..
It must have some kind of bolted plate but must have been removed!

Please help me finding out what lathe this is.

All screws are imperial and the headstock bearings are sintered bronze with taper, tighting the outer rings tightens the shaft vise versa.

Thank you in advanced!!

partsproduction · Sep 20, 2016

Maybe I missed something, but looking through Tony's site, lathes.uk, I saw nothing under boxford that looks like yours. Someone will come along with an opinion soon, probably more knowledgeable than I.
It is a nice looking lathe!

Joe Michaels · Sep 20, 2016

I may be off base with this idea. The overall appearance of the lathe, style of the crank handles and the design of the apron and headstock bearings (semi-split tapered bronze bearings & style of adjusting nuts) looks like the lathe might be German in origin. The Germans built lathes using Imperial sized fasteners for sale in England (under labels from the sellers in England).

It's a good, basic lathe and is all complete and does not look to have been abused. I am sure it will be capable of getting out some good work for you. Plenty of "mystery" lathes are out there, no maker's name or means of identification on them. At this point, the lathe is quite old, and as long as the lathe is complete and in reasonably good condition, knowing the maker's name really serves no useful purpose. Parts, manuals and other information probably have not been available since sometime before WWII for a lathe such as you have. As long as you have a good set of change gears for thread cutting, and a four-jaw chuck, that is all a person could hope for when they get an old lathe of this type.

Limy Sami · Sep 20, 2016

I agree with Parts and Joe, ...........the beds wrong for any Boxford or Southbend clone (not enough raised VEES) and like Joe I'm plumping for German, that back back gear is very Un -English, and the Continentals went for cantilevered beds on their lighter machines.

If it has Imperial threads throughout, there was as Joe said a lot of interchange - especially with the Germans, or it could be WW1 reparation - (Germany was stripped naked,) the design copied with Imperial threads being used if it came to the UK.

gwilson · Sep 20, 2016

It looks like the tailstock from a much smaller swing lathe was jacked up with a riser block to fit the headstock.

partsproduction · Sep 20, 2016

The Germans built lathes using Imperial sized fasteners for sale in England

I just restored a German built shaper circa 1934 or earlier (I know because the builders plate has two star of Davids, and Hitler Nationalized the factory in 1934) and every fastener in it is inch based, not Imperial though because one or two are 1/2-13 instead of 1/2-12. I expect it was built for export to the USA.

It looks like the tailstock from a much smaller swing lathe was jacked up with a riser block to fit the headstock.

Sure does, and a good deal of identification goes out the window.

partsproduction · Sep 20, 2016

What does the lever in front of the bull gear do? Oh my gosh, it's the back gear shifter!

kitno455 · Sep 21, 2016

I also am inclined to think it was made in Germany, and that the tailstock is original. The German makers had a very distinctive way of building up the saddle/cross-slide/compound 'in the sand'.

Generally, most German makes used a very thick, double walled apron, but your plain, single wall apron is very thin. However, I do see what looks like an interlock cam on the outside of the half-nut handle. This is a feature often seen on Fischer lathes with power feed. The compound is also a dead ringer for early Fischer lathes. The rest of the details, however, seem different.

Look around for any stamping on various parts of the lathe, particularly around any oiling ports.

allan

DimitrisLamia · Sep 25, 2016

I guess that there isnt a German lathes database anywhere right?

DimitrisLamia · Sep 25, 2016

partsproduction said:
Maybe I missed something, but looking through Tony's site, lathes.uk, I saw nothing under boxford that looks like yours. Someone will come along with an opinion soon, probably more knowledgeable than I.
It is a nice looking lathe!

I just thought it looked like a Boxforth but i think you are right...
It is a nice looking lathe but without the gears is a one leg lathe...it is actualy an one leg lathe.

DimitrisLamia · Sep 25, 2016

Joe Michaels said:
I may be off base with this idea. The overall appearance of the lathe, style of the crank handles and the design of the apron and headstock bearings (semi-split tapered bronze bearings & style of adjusting nuts) looks like the lathe might be German in origin. The Germans built lathes using Imperial sized fasteners for sale in England (under labels from the sellers in England).

It's a good, basic lathe and is all complete and does not look to have been abused. I am sure it will be capable of getting out some good work for you. Plenty of "mystery" lathes are out there, no maker's name or means of identification on them. At this point, the lathe is quite old, and as long as the lathe is complete and in reasonably good condition, knowing the maker's name really serves no useful purpose. Parts, manuals and other information probably have not been available since sometime before WWII for a lathe such as you have. As long as you have a good set of change gears for thread cutting, and a four-jaw chuck, that is all a person could hope for when they get an old lathe of this type.

Joe thank you for your info, it is indeed in a good shape cause it was covered with greese and dust so most of the parts, afte a very...very good cleaning where like new...almost.
Tha fout jaw chuck is already on it but unfortynatly i do not have the gears...that is the reason i want to find out the model cause i want to fabricate the gears.

DimitrisLamia · Sep 25, 2016

gwilson said:
It looks like the tailstock from a much smaller swing lathe was jacked up with a riser block to fit the headstock.

I think the tailstock is it's original.
It is not a riser but an adjuster for tapered cutting.
Indeed it seems like small tailstock and has an mt2 adapter but consider that the lathe is about 600mm between centers, so i think it is ok to work with it.

DimitrisLamia · Sep 25, 2016

partsproduction said:
What does the lever in front of the bull gear do? Oh my gosh, it's the back gear shifter!

Yes, the back gear is actualy an uder gear...lol
The lever enchage the back gear and i have to disagange a pin that is on the big gear in the front.Otherwise all the part are in stop mode.

Limy Sami · Sep 25, 2016

DimitrisLamia said:
i do not have the gears...that is the reason i want to find out the model cause i want to fabricate the gears.

You have the gear size and type on the end of the spindle - I'd work from that, and hopefully find the size and pitch etc etc is an off the shelf item .......look up measuring gears (etc etc) on Google.

partsproduction · Sep 25, 2016

Do you have, or can you borrow, a gear pitch gage? I'm betting 14 1/2 pressure angle, and the date no later than the mid fifties, but I'm far too often wrong.

Once you know the pitch diameter and pressure angle of the gear at the far left end of the lathe, as Limy Sami said, then find the pitch of the leadscrew.

With those three facts you can make a set of gears to cut a range of threads (including metric) by copying the thread data plate on any lathe with the same number of teeth on the output gear at the left end of the headstock and the same pitch on the leadscrew! Then figuring out from that data what #'s of teeth each gear needs you can figure the blanl diamter's of every gear you need to make, and duplicate the data plate from the other lathe. If it is an inch leadscrew it is really easy. I enjoy making my own gears and assume others do too, but a gear house will doubtless make better gears. If they are 14 1/2 PA you can buy gears in America easily as well.

partsproduction · Sep 26, 2016

That back gear shifter at the RH end of the head stock is real unusual it seems to me. Here is what I've found in lathes.uk;
http://www.lathes.co.uk/simonet/index.html (But the legs have "Simonet" cast right in, plus the shifter is totally different. Yesterday I found a couple more with that arraignment but didn't write them down and can't find them tonight, however, nothing that looks exactly the same.
It's truly amazing the wide variety of lathe builders over the last century, but no one can keep track of them all. It is possible that you have the only lathe left by that maker.

DimitrisLamia · Sep 26, 2016

Limy Sami said:
You have the gear size and type on the end of the spindle - I'd work from that, and hopefully find the size and pitch etc etc is an off the shelf item .......look up measuring gears (etc etc) on Google.

I dont even know if the gears are original.

It does have a two gear level to use for changing the direction of the lead screw but it wont engage with the other one, i guess something is missing...like a gear!

partsproduction said:
Do you have, or can you borrow, a gear pitch gage? I'm betting 14 1/2 pressure angle, and the date no later than the mid fifties, but I'm far too often wrong.

Once you know the pitch diameter and pressure angle of the gear at the far left end of the lathe, as Limy Sami said, then find the pitch of the leadscrew.

With those three facts you can make a set of gears to cut a range of threads (including metric) by copying the thread data plate on any lathe with the same number of teeth on the output gear at the left end of the headstock and the same pitch on the leadscrew! Then figuring out from that data what #'s of teeth each gear needs you can figure the blanl diamter's of every gear you need to make, and duplicate the data plate from the other lathe. If it is an inch leadscrew it is really easy. I enjoy making my own gears and assume others do too, but a gear house will doubtless make better gears. If they are 14 1/2 PA you can buy gears in America easily as well.

I do not have a gear pitch gage, is there some type of mathematical type to test the result?

I think i am gonna change the lead screw and the nuts cause they are realy in bad shape..
Is there any way to repair the half nuts?Is moglice a way to fix the threads?

If thing get too expensive i'll eventualy go to cnc convertion.

partsproduction · Sep 26, 2016

There goes another one.

DimitrisLamia · Sep 29, 2016

partsproduction said:
There goes another one.

What you mean by saying that?

partsproduction · Sep 29, 2016

If thing get too expensive i'll eventualy go to cnc convertion.

Trying to change this possibly rare lathe into a CNC will likely ruin it for future restoration, I don't see scrapping as very much worse than turning it into a "CNC". To make it a true CNC will cost a lot more than repairing it.

Boxford lathe???

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