H. Ernault-Somua (HES) Acc 300

Yesterday I helped a friend get the wiring (3 phase from a convertor) sorted out and his new to him lathe running. Allegedly the lathe has always been used to cut wood to make judicial gavels, and he got a box of soft jaws and form tools with it. My guess it is a 1960s vintage but we don't know.

It came with a nice condition factory owner's manual and I scanned that, ran OCR and then dumped text into Google Translate and the PDF of the manual and the text file from Google are on my website if anyone is interested:

Index of /graphics/metalwork/HES_ACC_300

It has a variety of belts on it, all of which need to be replaced. The manual doesn't give any specifications on them. Are there ISO belts that would be needed on a French lathe or is he likely to be able to substitute an SAE belt that seems "close enough"?

The cross slide has a spot for a rear tool post but it only came with the front turret.

It has a Ladner 3 jaw that seems to have had better days. I found the manufacturer's site (ladner.fr) and he'll be checking to see if he can get some replacement jaws. I suspect he might save money by buying a modern replacement, though A1-4 mounting plates/chucks seem to not be very common. I'm going to encourage him to get a 4 jaw chuck.

It is an interesting and sturdy-looking smaller lathe, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on them, so he's lucky the manual came with it.

He plans to paint the lathe so I'll try and get a photo after that happens.

cheers,
Michael

Michael Moore said:

It has a Ladner 3 jaw that seems to have had better days. I found the manufacturer's site (ladner.fr) and he'll be checking to see if he can get some replacement jaws. I suspect he might save money by buying a modern replacement, though A1-4 mounting plates/chucks seem to not be very common.

Click to expand...

He's welcome to a French-made "Handy" 3-J scroll with two-piece top jaws. Ladner.fr definitely carries top jaws for it. The plates he needs as well.

It came in the door on my HBX-360-BC. I need the Cazeneuve-proprietary backplate off it to mount a real chuck, but it should not be any harder for him to mount than any other nominal 8" (200 mm?). IF even he wants one that size.

Well made, seems to be in good condition. I'm just not a believer in 3-J scroll-actuated chucks.

I thot that model was a tracer lathe, and/or CNC'ed, so would have expected a powered chuck, though?


Interesting company, BTW:

History | Somab - Machines Outils - Constructeur Français

He has a 6" chuck, I'd have to check on how an 8" would fit/clear.

thanks,
Michael

Michael Moore said:

He has a 6" chuck, I'd have to check on how an 8" would fit/clear.

thanks,
Michael

Click to expand...

It could certainly put the leading edge of his cross at-risk - at least if the specs I read shortly after posting fit his actual lathe.

Beyond me how the HBX-360-BC did NOT suffer that damage, though it had been shipped as a hydraulic tracer [1], and may have had very restricted use.

The 4-J replacements (SCA, Swedish, NOS, ex "Small Tools") were chosen to be safer (170 mm).

The 150 mm size may be best for his nominal 300 mm lathe. I hear good things about ToS Svitavy as value-for-money if 3-J are your meat and RPM rating matters as well as accurate repeatability.


[1] And may again be. I have Mimik U2 parts to sort toward that goal. The Mimik tracer is still in current production, USA, and fully supported.

If his was a tracer and he wants to restore that, even just for cutting tapers, Mimik might be worth a look. Cazeneuve's one was under yet-another Henre Rene Bruet patent, had some neat features, but gone is gone if only because present-day Cazeneuve are not exactly a registered not-for-profit charity!