LeBlond 17" Heavy Duty Turret Lathe

Hi Folks,

As part of my assortment of older machinery is the big old LeBlond.

It's a 17" Heavy Duty, with a Turret on the cross-slide. Flat-belt drive and mounted on four nice cast iron feet and a large swarf/coolant collection tray between them.

I got it (and a number of other tools/equipment) from an elderly friend who was retiring/selling off tools and equipment from his Engineering and Foundry Company in the north of Scotland.

He bought the lathe at a MOD/Government Auction and installed it in the foundry machine shop in the early '50s.
Allegedly it was used during the war to turn brass shell casings in a munitions factory. The volume of brass swarf/dust found when it was dismantled certainly gave credence to this!

Looking around this page I found reference to serial numbers! So I've been busy with some fine emery paper/oil and have found the serial ND3618.

Anyone able to give an approx date?
Would LeBlond be able to provide any info, and is it as simple as sending them a message via their online contact form?

Thanks,
Alec.

FYI (& all I've ever seen for them) http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/2102/18033.pdf

Note what it says about the heavy duty lathe on the bottom of the leaflet, ...................you might find that here R. K. LeBlond Machine Tool Co. - Publication Reprints | VintageMachinery.org

ND 3618 is way way before 1920. 1920 is 6530 - Perhaps shell casings for WW1?

1911 catalog scan can be emailed if you care to Private Message me that address - with something useful in the subject line about what is wanted

johnoder said:

ND 3618 is way way before 1920. 1920 is 6530 - Perhaps shell casings for WW1?

1911 catalog scan can be emailed if you care to Private Message me that address - with something useful in the subject line about what is wanted

Click to expand...

Thanks very much.

I was always told it was during "the war", it could have quite easily been both conflicts as it was definitely an ex-government auction in late 40s/early 50s.

Looking at older images, I always thought it was older, I suspected 1920s.....
I've sent an email to LeBlond, lets see what comes back.

Alec.

How long do LeBlond generally take to reply to dating enquiries?
I don't want to hound them but it's been 12 days so far. I got the email confirmation receipt but that has been it so far.
If it generally takes them a while, no worries.

Alec.

Maybe too old for them to respond. Or maybe that person is working from home - without all the handy stuff to refer to

Whoops - forgot to update!

I heard back from LeBlond after a few weeks.
ND3618 is confirmed as 1914!

There were no other notes/records associated with the lathe unfortunately, just that the serial number equates to 1914.
Interesting to know all the same!

Alec.

NB, I'll take and post some photos when I get a chance.

Rangie said:

How long do LeBlond generally take to reply to dating enquiries?
I don't want to hound them but it's been 12 days so far. I got the email confirmation receipt but that has been it so far.
If it generally takes them a while, no worries.

Alec.

Click to expand...

Ermm... Michael Collins.. chided by the Brits as he arrived 15 minutes late to the ceremony to take back control of Ireland...

"What's another fiteen minutes?

"We've waited 700 years!"

Or, in this case, a mere one hundred and seven years?

I would love to see pics.