Help finding information on a lathe

Came across this lathe on letgo, have wanted one for a while and the price was right even if it needs "some" work...ive spent about 3 hours searching everywhere to find who made this lathe as its pretty unique and has no name plates or numbers(that i can see) especially with the oilers but the spring loaded removable rod in the center of the spindle has me curious along with the obvious.the bed length is 34" havent measured between head and tail yet..want to be able to use this for my needs which is mainly light duty turning like firing pins, boring tubes,among other gun parts.

thanks in advance and hopefully someone can shed some light on this!

Images are in the link below due to the large size.

Album — Postimage.org

Your lathe Questions

Looks like it is an 1880's vintage lathe that may have been made by Baldwin. (because of the shape of the headstock - looks like one on a foot powered version I have.) It was likely sold as a wood lathe and with the addition of the compound, sometimes called a "speed lathe."

You can do very limited metal work when compared to a true back geared, screw cutting metal lathe. This one would not hold the accuracy as well compared to todays lathes.

Really think a lathe such as a South Bend 9 would work oh so much better.

Am sure there are others on this site that do gunsmithing that can advise you. Suggest you save your money on this one, Hope this helps. Thanks Ed

Cope's lathe book does not list Baldwin as a maker. But he does have a picture of a W. F. Bancroft, Worcester, MA "hand lathe" with a headstock that looks very much like the one in post #1. Bancroft was founded in 1880 and was still operating in 1892. Probably other New England makers built similar lathes with that style of headstock in that era.

These small lathes were very common for decades and were made by at least a dozen companies. Look up Rivett, Hardinge Cataract, Ames, Hjorth, American Watch Tool, Wade, Van Norman, Pratt and Whitney and Elgin for examples. Hardinge was still making them in the 1950's. They could turn wood, but most were meant for metal turning. They did not need back gears because they were meant for small work where high speed was an advantage. Many of these lathes could be bought with threading ability, but those versions are rare because there was so much work that did not require threading and shop owners bought the cheapest machine that could do the job.

In general, such lathes were capable of very accurate work when new. After decades of use, most are severely worn, broken and/or abused. Rebuilding them can be fun and educational.

Larry

Larry's got it. Tony's lathe site (Ames of Chicopee Lathe) refers to this lineage of "toolmaker's" lathes in his reference to my Ames-Chicopee lathe.

One wonders if the Ames Chicopee design had any influence upon the precision plain-turning bench lathe made by Stark in 1862 - a machine that enabled America to take the lead in the manufacture of such machines and as exemplified by Levin, Bottum, The American Watch Tool Company, B.C.Ames, Bottum, Hjorth, Potter, Pratt & Whitney, Rivett, Wade, Waltham Machine Works, Wade, Pratt & Whitney, Rivett, Cataract, Hardinge, Elgin, Remington, Sloan & Chace, and (though now very rare) Frederick Pearce, Ballou & Whitcombe, , Sawyer Watch Tool Co., Engineering Appliances and Fenn-Sadler the "Cosa Corporation of New York" and UND.

Click to expand...

Your lathe would be of this ilk, albeit early by the look of your headstock and layout.

As Larry says "watchmaking on steroids." The Ames-Chicopee version had its origins in the 1850s, was among the earliest (although a similar Horton is known which is earlier) and Stark put the application to more general availability - and was more widely copied.

A worthy find. You've come to the right place. Based on styling, I would put this in the 1870s to 1880s range.

Joe in NH

Thanks for the help figured it was old only paid $100 for the lot, the chucks are worth that...any idea what that two jaw is used for?..not a die, only half inch of space opposite of the jaws, no bearing in it...have no idea what its use is(maybe larger tap holder?)...also still trying to figure out the purpose of that spring loaded rod in the spindle..ill use it for light duty for now.just need vairable speed for the motor and a flat belt pully..thinking i could use a honda power steering pump pulley, cut the middle out and make the outside from wood and sandwitch it all together.

I am crazy about lathes and Mills. Wish I ran across some good deals yet I am not as lucky attracting them as some are on PM.

Made progress, decided to put naval jelly on the ways to clean surface rust...used a scrub pad and out came the manufacturers mark! It is h.n fenner, cross slide is camann. So now i have a starting point...anyone know of this manufacturer?