Bradford lathe owners

djones3158 · Sep 24, 2018

Are there any Bradford lathe owners on here that would take the time to lend ad ear to a puzzled Bradford owner? Without making this post too long , does anyone have any experience with the cross/length feed lever? Mine is hard to engage/disengage. I've removed the saddle for the second time trying to find something but again no luck. I've removed the lever to check for burrs or scoring, but everything seems fine. It just doesn't have a smooth action like it should. I talked to the only other Bradford lathe owner I know of today and he says his is about the same to operate. I can't imagine that when this lathe was built it wasn't smooth to stop the feed. It requires a good jerk to disengage. You can easily put the directional lever in neutral to stop the feed but then with the length lever still engaged you can't feed the hand wheel very easily up to a shoulder. Other than this problem the lathe is in excellent cond, so I would like to get this resolved. If anyone would be kind enough to chime in with how their Bradford operates I would greatly appreciate it. A phone number would be great, as I am not much of a typist. Thanks for listening. I would post some pictures but for some reason I can no longer post them to PM..... Dave Jones

mindheavy · Sep 25, 2018

This probably wont help you much, but maybe it'll give you some hope? I bought a Bradford lathe two weeks ago. Don't know much about it yet (not a lot of info out there on them) but it's a MetalMaster from the 40s/50s best I can tell. It was under power when I bought it, I ran it and remember engaging the cross and slide feed - I don't recall it being stuck or difficult to move. This one seems to be in good shape, just dirty/greasy as hell. It's not wired up right now, sitting with the power off engaging the lever in either cross feed or length is very smooth. It will probably be several months at least before it lands in it's new place so I figure I'll be cleaning it up until then...

djones3158 · Sep 25, 2018

thank you for the reply, guess I'll dig a little deeper. Our machine are almost identical. would like to hear from you again after you get it running. As well built as these machines are I know I must just be missing something.

johnoder · Sep 25, 2018

You say you have been in the apron more than once. See any actual CLUTCH ?? (something that would SLIP). Looks like to me you are just engaging and disengaging GEARS . You cannot expect to put direction lever in neutral and expect to hand feed it easily with the feed gear lever still engaged. Do visit again in your other thread the link iwanna10K provided of the manual.

Thumbnail is the instruction. Second paragraph, sentence starting with The lever 9

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...tp://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/2316/16884.pdf

djones3158 said:
Are there any Bradford lathe owners on here that would take the time to lend ad ear to a puzzled Bradford owner? Without making this post too long , does anyone have any experience with the cross/length feed lever? Mine is hard to engage/disengage. I've removed the saddle for the second time trying to find something but again no luck. I've removed the lever to check for burrs or scoring, but everything seems fine. It just doesn't have a smooth action like it should. I talked to the only other Bradford lathe owner I know of today and he says his is about the same to operate. I can't imagine that when this lathe was built it wasn't smooth to stop the feed. It requires a good jerk to disengage. You can easily put the directional lever in neutral to stop the feed but then with the length lever still engaged you can't feed the hand wheel very easily up to a shoulder. Other than this problem the lathe is in excellent cond, so I would like to get this resolved. If anyone would be kind enough to chime in with how their Bradford operates I would greatly appreciate it. A phone number would be great, as I am not much of a typist. Thanks for listening. I would post some pictures but for some reason I can no longer post them to PM..... Dave Jones

djones3158 · Sep 25, 2018

thank you again for the reply. I think I have found the problem. To answer your question there are no "clutches" on the gears in the apron. It's pretty much a simple face tooth design, but after a little more disassembly I found that the shaft that supports both cross and length gears was bent. This explains a lot. Luckily I only had to remove the saddle and not the apron itself. I'll know more tomorrow but I'm pretty sure that's the only issue. Thanks to anyone that has given this some thought. just tried again to post pictures with no luck.

mindheavy · Sep 26, 2018

djones3158 said:
just tried again to post pictures with no luck.

Especially with the lack of information out there on Bradford lathes, I think any photos of work done on your lathe would be a welcome resource for other Bradford owners / knowledge in general. There is a guide in the link below on how to post images to this site. Glad to hear you found the issue with your feed lever! Looking forward to some pictures!

How to post images

djones3158 · Sep 26, 2018

Believe me I would like to share my photos but something changed for the process of posting pictures. I've posted on here in the past by going to manage attachments and choosing from my pictures stored on my computer, It was fairly simple for me. I am not a computer guy so something that is simple for some is not so simple for me. Lately I've gotten as far as the upload button witch I click on and nothing happens. I tried to read some of the "how to post images" and I'm sorry to say, I just couldn't understand the lingo. Thank you for the effort though. I don't know why something that used to be so simple has now become beyond my understanding, which wasn't very much to start with.

mindheavy · Sep 26, 2018

djones3158 said:
Lately I've gotten as far as the upload button witch I click on and nothing happens.

Not sure if what you're experiencing is the same as mine but I've noticed in one of the windows to upload pictures after I select an image and click upload, I had to wait just a bit and the window would eventually refresh - then I could close it and move on. Maybe it takes longer for larger images I dunno, I'm very new to the site. Try waiting it out maybe and see if that works?

djones3158 · Sep 26, 2018

thank you for the reply, the window that I'm seeing now is different from what I used in the past. Having said that what I'm doing now is not much different than in the past, but there isn't any buffering wheel or anything do indicates it's uploading anything. I waited what a thought was a fair amount of time. I also have the pictures on my computer reduced to a small image. Thanks for trying to help. I got them to go but don't know how I did it...Wow!

m-lud · Sep 29, 2018

You have clutches in the apron. Those levers on the apron disengage them. In the back of the gear that's directly behind each lever there is a cone that fits into a matching socket. You may not see them but they are there. Before you put the carriage back on look down at the back of the back of the gear and move the lever. You should see a very small in and out movement

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