Need help identifying a foot pedal lathe ,Maybe Ornamental

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Slatebeltsalvage

Plastic

Joined

Oct 3, 2021

• Oct 3, 2021

• #1

I was wondering if anyone had any info on this lathe before I find a home for it. I only found two with some similar traits in the ornate castings but they were much smaller and only had a single solid beam for a bed and of course there was no name attributed to them. I received the lathe in pieces and still need to reassemble to see if anything is missing,the photos are from when it was being disassembled. It was in an attic workroom room of a mini mansion in Montclair NJ. The owner of the house was a banker and inventor and built the house in 1896. I assume the lathe had been in the room since the house was new but to me it looks at least a few decades earlier. As much as I love pedal lathes I would not have bought it because for me they have been hard to move along but this one looked too special to be an ordinary machine. In trying to research I came across ornamental lathes which I had never heard of. There is the small belt pulley and shaft system on it. The knobs are too ornate to be average as well as the tail of tial stock.

 

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L Vanice

Diamond

Joined

Feb 8, 2006

Location

Fort Wayne, IN

• Oct 4, 2021

• #2

Better and more pictures would help, like the tailstock and cross slide.. I would have had fun in that attic.

The lathe is a back-geared screw-cutting engine lathe. I can see in one picture that it was driven with an electric motor in its later days. It has some ornamentation, which does not make it an ornamental turning lathe. I suspect it was built between 1865 and 1885 (fancy legs), maybe in central Massachusetts (apron shape).

Larry

 

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Joe in NH

Diamond

Joined

Jul 28, 2007

Location

Stratham, Cow Hampshire

• Oct 4, 2021

• #3

Pretty sure this is a Baldwin Lathe - Made here in Cow Hampshire.

One site (he is a respondent here) at Baldwin - Foot Powered Machinery

Another Photo Index - Nathan H. Baldwin - Lathe | VintageMachinery.org

Pix at link 2

Joe in NH

 

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L Vanice

Diamond

Joined

Feb 8, 2006

Location

Fort Wayne, IN

• Oct 4, 2021

• #4

Joe in NH said:

Pretty sure this is a Baldwin Lathe - Made here in Cow Hampshire.

One site (he is a respondent here) at Baldwin - Foot Powered Machinery

Another Photo Index - Nathan H. Baldwin - Lathe | VintageMachinery.org

Pix at link 2

Joe in NH

Click to expand...

Thanks, Joe. The VM picture has the same distinctive bevel gear arrangement on the left end. It was called a wood lathe on VM, but back gears and threading gears make it look like a metal lathe with missing parts. Ken Cope did not get Baldwin in his lathe book. At least I got the date range right.

Larry

 

rivett608

Diamond

Joined

Oct 25, 2002

Location

Kansas City, Mo.

• Oct 4, 2021

• #5

I was in that attic shop about 20 years ago. Did you get all the stuff that was up there? Is the lathe for sale? I think it is a Baldwin.

That was a pretty amazing shop from my memory.

 

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Ed Hobbs

Cast Iron

Joined

Jan 25, 2006

Location

Raleigh, NC

• Oct 5, 2021

• #6

Yes, SK Baldwin of Laconia, NH. They made both wood and metal lathes. The distinctive shape of the legs are Baldwin!! Have a small metal lathe, say 18 to 20 inches between centers that I thought I had pictures of but evidentially did not get any before I took her apart for storage - Out of space!!

The one in the first link is also in storage. It is an earlier one I think and does match those in an early catalog.

Thanks Ed

 

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Slatebeltsalvage

Plastic

Joined

Oct 3, 2021

• Oct 7, 2021

• #7

Rivett609, Yes it is for sale and would love to find it a proper home. That is the only thing I have from that room. Unfortunately I bought it from a guy who got it at the contents sale but I would have loved to see that house

 

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Slatebeltsalvage

Plastic

Joined

Oct 3, 2021

• Oct 7, 2021

• #8

L Vance, Thanx for what its use was. It wasn't the ornamentation that had me thinking it was an ornamental lathe ,it was the little open gearbox on the left the drove the thin shaft along the front. I was assuming it was a way of directing power to a cutter on the cross slide but now see it is for power cross feed. I will try and get you better phots of what you asked,its been very dark out here lately and the storage unit is also very dark inside.

 

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Slatebeltsalvage

Plastic

Joined

Oct 3, 2021

• Oct 7, 2021

• #9

Joe, without doubt you are correct,Thank you!. I spent two hours trying to figure the maker.

 

rivett608

Diamond

Joined

Oct 25, 2002

Location

Kansas City, Mo.

• Oct 7, 2021

• #10

Do you have a price in mind? Contact me through a private message which you'll see in your profile.

 

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Slatebeltsalvage

Plastic

Joined

Oct 3, 2021

• Oct 21, 2021

• #11

Finally had a chance to put it together.

 

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Slatebeltsalvage

Plastic

Joined

Oct 3, 2021

• Oct 21, 2021

• #12

 

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Metalurgent

Cast Iron

Joined

Feb 14, 2013

Location

New York City,

• Oct 22, 2021

• #13

Sure is pretty.
If that was closer to me at a fair price it might be irresistible.

 

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Metalurgent

Cast Iron

Joined

Feb 14, 2013

Location

New York City,

• Oct 22, 2021

• #14

And I thought it was in NH..
Montclair is just down the road..
PM incoming..

 

rivett608

Diamond

Joined

Oct 25, 2002

Location

Kansas City, Mo.

• Nov 22, 2021

• #15

I now can report I am the proud owner of this lathe. It is amazing, both condition, history, complexity and in so many ways. To me it is so special because I had seen it in the mid 1990s and loved it then, never thinking I would ever get a chance to own it. Also, not counting the 2 dealers it passed through recently I am basically the this lathes 2nd owner in about 150 years!

More to follow someday.

 

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holtzapffelFan

Aluminum

Joined

Dec 31, 2015

• Dec 30, 2021

• #16

Congrats slatesbeltsalvage & rivett608. I had to look up the lathe online as Rivett608's facebook post left too many questions... we watch FB marketplace for lathes, if we see it in the Chicago area, will let you know....