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Lang 30" lathe

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arielht500

Aluminum
Joined
Jun 5, 2012
Location
bedford united kingdom
Have just spotted a Lang 30" lathe on ebay uk. Can any of you learned gentlemen give me any information. Looking on the Lathes website it would seem they are of Australian manufacture. The seller has a phone number listed but So i will contact him on Friday after the Christmas break. Would just like to know if it is worth saving.
Steve
 
You need to look a long way from Australia ,try Scotland ,Johnstone near Glasgow to be precise. The one you are talking about is prolly pre war.

PM member Ruston3w bought a similer one but I don't know if he has done anything with it yet ,I would say his lathe is bigger than that one.

Lang lathes seem to have a good reputation and if it runs well it should be a goodun for its' age , it will be an old fashioned machine to use for regular work but I would think good for those big jobs that come up from time to time.
On Edit
After having another look it is a bit more modern than I remembered ,I would be very surprised if it went for anywhere near the starting bid ,especially now you have advertised it on here.
 
Ah well not too far out then. Will post on here if and when i find out more. I wouldnt be using it for regular work but as you say, handy when you need it. TBH i had never heard of John Lang.
Steve
 
'fraid I haven't found any books to help with dates....yet.
Looks a little bit newer than the one here, the only date I have for that is a patent date of 1908 on the motor plate, not that it tells us too much.
Looks like a separate rail for taper slide? I haven't quite sorted that bit on mine. Also note separate bed for motor...mine has a separate cast stand, similar only my motor started out life direct gear driven, with stand bolted up to headstock casting. Your guards suggest it was always belt driven??
My lathe is a dog really, I was sold on it's capacity and age/looks, will be a year or two before I get workshop turned around for it .48" long lever W&B VBM to shift first.
Good luck, I should buy it!
Richard
 
arielht500 said:
Looking on the Lathes website it would seem they are of Australian manufacture.
Click to expand...

Having composed myself, I checked the famous lathes website - I can't find Lang or even John Lang listed!

I can't help think something is wrong, perhaps this well-known maker has temporarily disappeared from the website, but surely not as far as Australia :eek: :willy_nilly:
 
THE website does mention John Lang in the list of names on bottom of page....what is the significance of appearing listed there please?

Edit; how do you go about earning 75% pos feedback??
 
Last edited:
The Lang on Ebay would be worth a buyer to a lot of people in the UK.I can not see it going to Australia and useful as it would be to me it's not needed to me unfortunately and we need to be shifting machines not buying more.
 
Thank you for the comments and links. I am sorely tempted to bid on it although it may have to be stored out side with cover until i make room for it. Hope to contact the seller tomorrow and get a few more details. I missed out on a DSG of similar size a while back by dithering and hope to be a bit more decisive this time. Once again thanks for your interest.
Steve
 
Steve

Although not pertaining to that exact machine I have a few snippets of information which may be of interest given that most machine tool makers had a "house style" which carried on for decades.

The Caxton three volume set entitled Centre, Capstan and Automatic lathes has a couple of pictures and paragraphs covering the Toolroom and "Junior" machines saying that they are basically the same but the Junior is simplified for more general purpose work not needing the extra sophisticated features of the Toolroom version. Headstock in the Junior picture is similar to that of the E-Bay machine whilst the toolroom version has a gate change speed selector. Junior shown has a sealed two lever screw cutting / feeds gearbox whilst the Toolroom has a full, open slot, Norton version. Both in 13" and 17" swing with a 20" Junior also offered. My set is first edition, print date 1950.

Newnes two volume Complete Lathework set has a lightly captioned picture of the same toolroom machine in the book. My set is first edition and undated but presumably mid 1950's.

Newnes six volume Engineering Works Practice has a loose single page data sheet with picture and a fair bit of closely spaced text. If you are interested I could scan that for you. Its a little under A4 size. My set is first edition and undated but presumably mid 1950's.

That toolroom lathe picture sure gets around as I've seen it in several other places but none with any useful information attached.

Clive
 
Last edited:
Hi Steve

Scanned OK as grey-scale despite faded print & yellowed paper. PM me with your E-Mail and I'll shoot it over as a PDF, about 250 kB worth.

Clive
 
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