Harrison Alpha "U" Slant bed type - anyone familiar?

Never seen one of these in person, but see them come up for sale occasionally. Maybe possibly might consider buying one, but cautious of the unknown.

The bed arrangement is very unusual, looks like a flat top dovetail bed, with a single linear rail tucked in down on the front, and I guess the ballscrew somewhere inbetween. Can't find a single diagram or photo without covers on google.

I'm guessing this arrangement is probably pretty good for accuracy on light cuts, and probably pretty bad for rigidity on heavy cuts.

Anyone ever been near one of these? Any insights?

barbter said:

Well it's definitely a slant bed!
If you look at the links here and the pic with the headstock cover removed, you can see the bed which looks flat/parallel, which is bolted to the base casting which is slanted Error page | eBay

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That's the one I was looking at.

I think I will skip it. If it was any good they'd still be making them that way...

gregormarwick said:

That's the one I was looking at.

I think I will skip it. If it was any good they'd still be making them that way...

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I'll be getting one of these in time...don't know why you think it's not rigid enough. .same configuration as a flatbed lathe only slanted. ..I'm wanting one because I think it would do better swarf evacuation and being a short arse I'm tired of standing on my tip toes looking over the toolpost.
Look up Colchester combi k2's on youtube in action...same machine.

KB

K Battenbough said:

..same configuration as a flatbed lathe only slanted..

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I'll be interested to hear how you get on with it.

However, I would disagree that it's the same configuration as a flat bed lathe, and it's certainly nothing like a real slant bed.
The main slide appears to be half box and half dovetail, and looks unconvincingly narrow. Then a long bracket where the apron would be, reaching down to the bottom of the front of the bed where a linear guide is mounted.

It's a strange hybrid of ideas, and good ideas tend to stick around. There has to be a reason why they abandoned this design after only a handful of years and went back to conventional beds for the teach lathes.

It's possible that it makes for a fantastic lathe, and they dropped it purely because people weren't buying them or for economic reasons, or whatever. I am sceptical of that though...