Manley Metal Lathe York Pa.?

I came across an add on Craigslist of a Lathe for sale that the owner claims is a Manley lathe built in York Pa.? I am familiar with Manley and their start in Hanover back in the early days... Manley built gas engines and garage shop type equipment and at some point moved to York Pa. I live in York and love it’s rich history and involvement in the agricultural and industrial revolution. Many great things were built here including many automobiles back around the turn of the century. I have owned a few York built gas and steam engines along with several other locally made pieces but I have never seen of or heard of a Manley lathe? The seller might be wrong or mislead or perhaps this may be a Manley built lathe? Can anyone identify this as another maker or would anyone have any knowledge of Manley ever building machine tools?

Metal Lathe - tools - by owner - sale
Not sure if this link will work or not?

I'm pretty sure it's not a Manley lathe. Manley made belt drive conversions for cone drive machines, that looks like one in the photos. I had a L&S of about 1908 vintage that had a Manley drive on it and that one looks just about identical. It had Manley cast in the belt guard and some other parts, so if there's no name on the lathe I can see why someone not knowledgeable about vintage machinery would assume that is the name of the lathe manufacturer.
I've seen a couple Manley tow truck hoists, and i think a Manley press, what else did they make?

I'm no expert, and I've never heard of the Manley firm. But that is a nice looking lathe, and failry old, having no quick change for the gears, having tee-slots in the saddle, having no compound, having the old style tailstock, and having plain old legs, not pillars.

Do you know when Manely moved to York? What else about the firm?

The lathe looks fairly well tended, too.

edit: the note above was written at the same time as mine. It is fairly common for lathe describers to mistake a name on a component for the name of the lathe maker, so that seems quite possible to be the case this time. Perhaps some one can identify that lathe, which doers have all those old features and looks good.

Perhaps there's a maker name on a thread chart hidden under some of that guarding.Maybe it's a Philadelphia made lathe.

The seller says it's a five foot bed, and it sure looks longer to me.

I don't know the maker but it looks to be from the 1870's.

enginebill said:

I don't know the maker but it looks to be from the 1870's.

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Agreed. Possibly F.S. Perkins (Lowell, MA) His designs VERY similar to Flather - almost as if he was taking on Flather's patterns after they upgraded design.

I confess I have not seen a Perkins lathe with the lead-screw on the backside. If so this would put this early in Perkin's production. All of Cope's illustrations save one show both lead and feed on the front.

Joe in NH

I can't say for sure who's make this is.
It has some resemblance to both Fifield and A.L. Wright of Lowell, Mass.
It is not a Perkins.
This lathe looks to be from the late 1880's.

Larger pictures of this lathe.

Rob

Just a quick search on the net and I brought up a few pictures... the twin cylinder set engine showed here is called a “United” engine built by Manley... a good friend of mine owns a nicely restored example of this engine and to my knowledge the only example possibly...I will try and get a pic of his when I get some time and post it. Another friend collector who has passed in recent years owned a hopper cooled single cylinder engine built by Manley but I’m not sure where that engine ended up...also one of a kind if I remember right. The other pic shows a manual depicting the items Manley produced in York.

Hit Miss, I can't really read the illustration of the Manley items from that photograph, though I can identify a jib crane and a press. I'd like to know what the rest are and what the date of that illustration is. Nice lathe.

Looks like tire spreaders, jib cranes, floor jacks, presses and even wreckers for tow trucks.. they seem to have been really invested in tools for the automotive shop... I’m not sure the years in which they operated? they eventually moved on to building valves... I have to do a little more research... I know the pictures I posted are hard to see... but if you google Manley Mfg. Co York Pa and look under images you will find the picture of that book... they seem to show all the different machines in a shop setting... there is a picture of a lathe top middle but I think it’s just there to illustrate a shop setting.

Here's a photo of the Manley drive on the Lodge and Shipley I had. sorry for the graininess, it's a heavily cropped scan of a 40 year old photo. You can see the construction is the same as the drive in the CL ad. It had Manley, York PA cast into the cast parts. What became of Manley? Is there any connection to the current day Manley auto valvetrain company?

I'm in Lancaster. That lathe is still in a friend's shop in Intercourse. Another friend restores cars and has a very nice Pullman touring ref. your interest in York mfg.

I really like that 2 cylinder engine. Is it a boxer or a single throw crankshaft?

Robert Lang said:

I can't say for sure who's make this is.
It has some resemblance to both Fifield and A.L. Wright of Lowell, Mass.
It is not a Perkins.
This lathe looks to be from the late 1880's.

Larger pictures of this lathe.

Rob

Click to expand...

I'm thinking Fifield. The lathe above is kind of a style blend of Cope's Fig. 1 (1879) and Fig. 2 (1893) under this heading.

Good call Rob. I vote you winner of "Name that Lathe."

Joe in NH

Mud, I am familiar with the Pullman automobiles..I have a collector friend just a couple of miles from me that has a touring car and another gentleman by the name Fred Rosenmiller who has since passed was a big York history buff.. Fred had several Pullman autos along with a Best car made in York... Fred use to tell me there were like 14 or 17 auto manufacturers in York at one time.

A couple of pics of the Manley twin cylinder internals..

Guys I inquired to the seller about this lathe. One of the images he shared showed a lever on the back side of the lathe? Must be the lead screw half nut engagement lever? I've never seen anything like this. Any insights? I read somewhere that some old english style lathes had the lead screws on the back side of the lathes. Seems like an awkward place for any controls. He also said there was no name plate on the machine. But I did see The manley 912 cast into one of the pulley covers of the drive arrangement.

Many lathes built in Worcester Mass had the lead screws on the back of the lathe.

interesting. I wonder why? Ease of manufacturer I would guess, but inconvenient to use.

Less likely to get chips on the leadscrew.

I was wondering if there was any name cast into the lower brace between the legs as shown in the example shown here ?
matching set of c. 1911-1917 american antique industrial low-lying solid cast iron factory machine shop "mulliner" lathe bases or legs
Perhaps somewhat hidden under multiple coats of paint.
I tried a Google image search for Lathe legs but didn’t see a match there so far .
Not a place to look if you hate seeing the legs without their lathe attached.
Jim

chipkid said:

interesting. I wonder why? Ease of manufacturer I would guess, but inconvenient to use.

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Machining threads was done "engaged." One engaged the lead screw at the beginning of the thread cut - and STAYED ENGAGED until the thread was fully formed.

In those days with overhead countershafts, one withdrew the tool after a cut and then reversed the ENTIRE lathe back to the starting point without ever disengaging the lead screw.

No need for a thread dial. Nor for many lathes, any need for half nuts.

My 1860ish Shepard, Lathe & Co. lathe has a "dogleg" which is threaded to the lead-screw and normally just "floats." When threading is practiced, the dogleg is bolted to the carriage by a single bolt - and left attached.

Threading is a bit more time consuming under this system - but perhaps less error prone?

Threading with a lathe of this type powered by a single phase reversible motor is MOST time consuming since you have to wait for the motor to "spin down" on stopping a thread cut, reverse the motor and then spin up for reverse, and then the spin down/spin up on restarting the cut. I don't recommend using a reversible electric motor as your drive on these early lathes, rather set up a countershaft driven by two electric motors face to face and belted to the counter. A large motor for the thread cut, and a smaller, possibly fractional horsepower motor for the return stroke.

Uncle did this with two motors, non-clutch pulleys, and an electric switch to power either motor "A" or motor "B" - but not both at once. (DPDT)

Even in the day, the speed of the return of a countershaft driven lathe (i.e. idle time) was of concern and speed could be increased by varying the sizes of the pulleys between main lineshaft and the countershaft - or changing the pulley diameters at the countershaft clutch themselves.



Joe in NH

My N.H Baldwin has the lead screw on the back... I thought I might have a pic of that setup on my phone?? Maybe not but here are a couple pics showing the gear drive and some other detail... well I apologize for those pictures...they are poor quality and flipped ... I will post a picture of the lead screw when I get a chance.