New here, request Boley Lathe Help (Not a Watchmakers Lathe).

ghilliesuit · Feb 25, 2021

I acquired this Boley lathe in an auction. It works great, however both of the chucks have a jaw with broken raceways that prevent it from clamping anything larger than 1". I measured the threads at approx 27.8mm and some change with a pitch of 2.5, I'm guessing its about M28x2.5 but i can't find any hex nuts that size to test it out. Any suggestions on how to proceed getting a replacement chuck? I took the whole lathe apart to learn how it works and replaced the oiler felt on the bronze bushings. She turns like a safe dial, very smooth for an old gal. Please see the attached images.

PS i have searched the entire forums, everything is ref the watch makers lathe.

Rob F. · Feb 25, 2021

From the pics it looks like you have a plain (flat) back chuck mounted on a spindle adapter that fits your lathe. Just get a new chuck of the same size and fit your adapter to it. You will probably need to turn a new pilot on the adapter as well as drill new screw holes to fit the new chucks pattern.

ghilliesuit · Feb 25, 2021

I think i'm tracking what you are saying. Remove the old back plate from the chuck and fit it to a similar one of the same size. New holes to match the new chuck. I'll have to take some measurement and see what i can find online. Here are some more pictures of the spindle mounted and the chucks, and a pic of the spindle removed resting on the ways.

Rob F. · Feb 25, 2021

I forgot to mention that when you put the adapter on the lathe to turn the pilot to locate the chuck, you should also take a tiny skim cut off the face. This is to insure it is running true before attaching the new chuck.
Or at least put a good indicator on the face to be sure is has zero run out.
Looks like a nice small lathe :cheers:

L Vanice · Feb 25, 2021

ghilliesuit said:
...PS i have searched the entire forums, everything is ref the watch makers lathe.

Have you found Tony's site? Plenty of larger Boley Brothers lathes there, along with history, etc.

Boley lathes

Do you know what a collet is? Your lathe has a lever collet closer and the spindle is machined to take some sort of collet. Collets are used to get maximum accuracy and are preferred over 3-jaw chucks for small work.

I have several Boley WW pattern watch lathes, which were fairly popular in the USA for several decades. I think the industrial size Boley lathes were not popular, so are quite scarce in the USA. Likewise, the collets to fit your lathe will probably be difficult to find if they were never used in a lathe popular in the USA. But you have to know what they are (size/model) before you can look for them. If you are very lucky, it takes Schaublin W20 collets.

Larry

ghilliesuit · Feb 25, 2021

Thanks Larry, yes i have e-mailed Toneypictures of my lathe and a request for any information he may have on it. I have not heard any word back from him. Additionally, I have not found a single image anywhere that looks like my Boley. I even went through every single unidentified lathe picture on his site. No Joy as of yet. If I could just confirm my measurements for the spindle, i would have some extra back plates made just so i don't mess up the original chucks. If those are the originals that came with the lathe, they have seen a lot of history, and i hate to damage them further.

Edit, I forgot to mention yes, i have one collet that came with the lathe and i figured out that's what the lever was for when i took her apart.

ghilliesuit · Feb 25, 2021

Here are some images of the spindle measurements and the chucks the chucks read Arowa No2.

L Vanice · Feb 25, 2021

ghilliesuit said:
Here are some images of the spindle measurements and the chucks the chucks read Arowa No2.

View attachment 314936

The picture above seems to show a 2.5 mm thread gage sitting on a 10 TPI thread. I suggest you try a 10 TPI gage on your spindle. Yes, inch threads on a German machine seems strange, but they have been known to do strange things with threads. I lined up a 2.5 mm gage on a 10 TPI gage and got the same mismatch as shown in your picture.

I have a NIB Arowa Germany 125 mm 3-jaw combination universal-independent chuck that I got about forty years ago and never used. It is a beautiful chuck, capable of setting to zero runout.

Larry

ghilliesuit · Feb 25, 2021

Vance, Yes Sir, it measures at 10G or 10 TPI. I used metric in the pictures because I figured it was German so... In Imperial it measures about 1 3/32 (1.09 and some change)with 10TPI. The 2.5mm fits, its just I'm trying to reach over with my thumb and snap the pic while (trying) to keep it straight.

Harold Mulder · Feb 25, 2021

A few years ago I owned a Boley 4L lathe. Probably the next model up from yours. I still have a PDF of the 4L manual however it is in German.
I remember working on a chuck plate to get it to mount easier and for some reason I seem to recall that the thread angle was not the normal 60deg but instead a 55deg angle. If you want to get an electronic copy of the manual just PM me and we'll talk.

Harold

dalmatiangirl61 · Feb 25, 2021

ghilliesuit said:
Thanks Larry, yes i have e-mailed Toneypictures of my lathe and a request for any information he may have on it. I have not heard any word back from him. Additionally, I have not found a single image anywhere that looks like my Boley. I even went through every single unidentified lathe picture on his site. No Joy as of yet. If I could just confirm my measurements for the spindle, i would have some extra back plates made just so i don't mess up the original chucks. If those are the originals that came with the lathe, they have seen a lot of history, and i hate to damage them further.

Edit, I forgot to mention yes, i have one collet that came with the lathe and i figured out that's what the lever was for when i took her apart.

It appears that both of your chucks have backing plates, removing them in no way will damage the already damaged/non-usable chucks. Save the old chucks if it makes you feel better, get new/used plain back chucks.

ghilliesuit · Feb 26, 2021

dalmatiangirl61 said:
It appears that both of your chucks have backing plates, removing them in no way will damage the already damaged/non-usable chucks. Save the old chucks if it makes you feel better, get new/used plain back chucks.

I hope i can figure it out lol, glad you have confidence in my ability. I'm going to order one here in a few days and see what i can do. I don't know any machinist here in my area. Maybe someone in our forge does machining, i'll find out this weekend at our club meeting. Hopefully i can find someone to teach me. I can only get so far with videos before i need hands on training.

michiganbuck · Feb 26, 2021

Might you use a usable chuck back part to become an adjust-true backplate for a new chuck?.

Rob F. · Feb 26, 2021

ghilliesuit said:
I hope i can figure it out lol, glad you have confidence in my ability. I'm going to order one here in a few days and see what i can do. I don't know any machinist here in my area. Maybe someone in our forge does machining, i'll find out this weekend at our club meeting. Hopefully i can find someone to teach me. I can only get so far with videos before i need hands on training.

If you are lucky you can talk L Vance out of the one he posted a few posts back. He did say he got it 40 yrs ago and has't used it yet....

L Vanice · Feb 26, 2021

Having one collet makes it easier to get accurate dimensions of the thread, body diameter and length. A good picture and a list of any maker marks and an identification of the thread form will complete the description.

If the spindle nose is 10 TPI and a little over 1 inch in diameter, there is another solution for chucks and back plates. An old USA lathe maker used 1"-10 spindle threads years ago. The lathes are still common enough that it is easy to find used and brand new chucks and back plates with that thread. A good and patient machinist could enlarge a 1" -10 female thread just enough to fit your spindle. He would need either your spindle or a piece of steel with an exact duplicate of your spindle nose to use as a gage.

Larry

ghilliesuit · Feb 27, 2021

yep i can pull the spindle, god knows I've done it enough trying to figure out how to put this lathe back together. Lol i was working on it and had it all apart, then had to have a surgery and was out of the shop for a few months. Not by choice either, my wife wouldn't let me back in there. Well i forgot to take pictures as i was taking it apart, and yep sure enough i had to figure it all out from scratch.

I'm going to find me a 1"-10 nut and see how close it is to the spindle size. I ordered 3x 27mm nuts at various threads (this was before my gauge came in from Amazon) and none of those fit. I can't find a M28-2.5 anywhere.

Igor T · Feb 9, 2022

Boley lathe

ghilliesuit said:
yep i can pull the spindle, god knows I've done it enough trying to figure out how to put this lathe back together. Lol i was working on it and had it all apart, then had to have a surgery and was out of the shop for a few months. Not by choice either, my wife wouldn't let me back in there. Well i forgot to take pictures as i was taking it apart, and yep sure enough i had to figure it all out from scratch.

I'm going to find me a 1"-10 nut and see how close it is to the spindle size. I ordered 3x 27mm nuts at various threads (this was before my gauge came in from Amazon) and none of those fit. I can't find a M28-2.5 anywhere.

I have exactly the same lathe with a number of accessories. It is one of three lathes I have and I use it occasionally for small stuff. The collets for this lathe are 15mm with a 13x1mm thread. In Europe they are known as 324E collets, but are not very common. I may have some duplicates if you are interested. To email me directly, try ianmoss at shaw dot ca and we can have fun discussing Boley.

ghilliesuit · Feb 10, 2022

i haven't messed with it in almost a year now. I've used it to hold a few pieces of steel while i grind it down with the disk grinder. I was making a Hardy Hammer for my forge work. Christ centered iron works sells the plans and i needed to shave a bit off the 2in diam hammer so it would slide freely in the hammer guide. Maybe I'll mess around with it this summer, but seems like all i'm doing is honey do's during the winter. In the meantime i'll do some research on the collet size you suggested. Thanks for the Info!

D. Lyons

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