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First "Later" Putnam Sliding Bed Extension Gap I have ever seen

Interesting. With a Norton style change gear box (later popularlized by South Bend)

Certainly dates from the Manning, Maxwell, Moore transition. It would not surprise me that a dealer plate indicating such is there somewhere.

Joe in NH
 
Kind of thinking its old enough to still have a solid spindle, though lacking some of the ornate details sometimes seen in that vintage machine.

I did a bit of work on the Putnam sliding bed lathe at Tuckahoe, its a bit of grunt getting the bed unstuck and moving if its not been operated in a while- an extensive bearing surface. I think its older than this one though, single back-gear IIRC.
 
The much more elegant 1901 version in the M,M&M catalog - when it was still perfectly acceptable to have woodcuts instead of real photos

16 32 and a half.jpg

Hera is the solid spindle Greg refers to - must of been fun getting the center out

Scan 01.jpg
 
Nice! thanks John, I think thats the exact model Putnam they have at Tuckahoe (which is painted red). IIRC the machine came out of an old plant that got sold off presumably to become a hipster ghetto. The Tuckahoe machine has a faceplate on it, and a 4 spd Lima trans to drive the cone pulleys, sadly also lacking the tailstock quill. I did some work repairing the cross-slide feed.. but its been a while.
 
John's cross section of the headstock is from Joshua Rose's seminal "Modern Machine Shop Practice" first published in 1879. Rose was not bashful about borrowing art-work and I expect this might be seen earlier on Putnam advertising.

I might venture an opinion that by 1879 even Putnam had abandoned the solid headstock - by in large. And Rose probably justified recycling earlier art-work simply by the "this is likely to still be seen" thought.

My 1873ish 20" swing Flather lathe (showing various serial numbers but <1> indicated prominently on the cross bridge of the shears) has a solid headstock - and no apparent way to remove the headstock center. Conveniently, of two centers that came with the obviously NON Morse taper machine, one has a "turning square" to afford the operator a way to loosen the center. I imagine a fork tool (missing) which would have assisted. Even the tailstock is not "self extracting" - a hole was provided and a cylindrical taper punch removes the center.

Flather later made his name by incorporating a hole in the headstock and users of the age noted that Flather's hole was larger(hence more useful) than everyone else.

Joe in NH
 
The differences in the bed traverse mechanism is interesting. On the old woodcut, the 2 binding bolts seen on the right half of the bed are loosened, then the big handwheel projecting down beneath is rotated, a small pinion drives a rack and so moves the bed. On the photographed machine I'm guessing that handle down at the end acts similarly, and probably a better mechanism. I sure would like to see the details of how the feed and leadscrew drives are set up so as to permit the bed traverse.

That said, the newer machine is neat but you can't beat the old "frog foot" Putnam castings... :)
 
We are making good progress restoring the Tuckahoe Putnam. New tailstock ram is finished and the headstock is in pieces for cleaning and painting.

The lathe came from a defunct machine shop that was renting space in a building occupied by a concrete countertop manufacturer - so it was grey with grinding dust. I helped another forum member retrieve it from Baltimore. VERY heavy.
 
I sure would like to see the details of how the feed and leadscrew drives are set up so as to permit the bed traverse.

You can see in the shadows behind the electrics there is a low situated shaft from QC gear box to the the gear "tower" making lead screw and feed rod go - this obviously can be extended as gap is made wider

Putnam Later A.jpg
 
I saw that too- my guess was the support on the left edge of the bed employs a bushing, so it can slide along the feed rod or leadscrew- whichever is being driven by the QC. OTOH that lower rod looks like it stops at the carriage... so something interesting going on.
 








 
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