Holbrook CB8

Simon, the apron is fairly easy to remove, not much harder than taking off a Myford apron. Trouble is that it won’t make that much difference to the weight. I owned a B8 Holbrook until fairly recently and during the 40 years of ownership it was moved four times and from bitter experience the best way I found to lift it was with a ladder and rope. The lathe was lashed underneath the ladder and with two people it could be lifted quite easily. The cast iron base was another matter, the top was basically a four foot by two foot surface plate and was seriously heavy.

Like to see others have the same lathe as I do. Wonder if someone can help me. I have no manual and would like to make the metric change gears for my C8 electric. Does anyone out there know what dimensions the metric change gears are?

Also the apron on my lathe has tight operations so won't engage cross feed full. I will attempt strip clean and rebuild. With the help of a manual the task would be smoother I feel.

Hello Stig,

The gear dimensions are:-

Bore 0.500 inch with 0.125 inch keyway. Wheel width is 0.500 inches. All the gears are 20 DP of 14.5 degree pressure angle. I imagine genuine Holbrook gears will be hard to find so it might be helpful for you to know that Myford change wheels will fit. They are also 20 DP, and of the correct pressure angle and of course readily available. They are a bit narrower at 0.375 inches and the bores will need to be sleeved down from 0.625 inches and have a new keyway cut

I have a factory copy of the metric tooth chart for those lathes but you might like to know there is another full set of gear charts in my book 'Gearing of lathes for Screwcutting' which also gives tables for Metric, BA, DP, Module and a number of more obscure pitches.

ArcEuro stock the book which was written and published before I was kindly sent the Holbrook metric and BA gearing tables.

I can't however help you with your apron cross feed problem, I don't own one of these lathes but I do not imagine it is too difficult.

Regards Brian

Have you still got the Holbrook lathe? I have the same model C8 electronic that I am slowly restoring.

The cross feed needs adjusting on the cone drive clutch with some simple to make pin spanners.

The saddle and apron are removed easily within minutes with care. Taper pins make removing the driving shafts easy. The stationary shaft is a mystery to me, I have made clamp blocks to hold it in place. Mine was loctite in I believe.

I run a 2.4Kw motor via a VFD it is pie feck and can run the lathe to 5,000rpm easily as it's 2 pole 3,450 rpm motor. The lathe originally had a 3hp DC motor driven via a three phaze convertor setup. It takes .050" per side cuts with easy in steel. Although being a toolroom lathe I suspect it is not supposed to take such deep rough cuts.

That lathe appears to be identical to my Model B No8 except for the geared headstock, All the lower bed etc is identical.

This is a superb lathe, I rarely use it these days but this morning I utilised the indexing bullwheel to file a square lug for a chuck key, the original locking pin tool is with mine as is the oil dropper in the tailstock and these are often missing on secondhand machines.

I have the original rotating collet stand with some ( rather poor) collets, original Oak box for the gears, original traveling and fixed steadies, original concentric toolpost, original backplates for the chucks etc.

I went to see Richard Anderson in Rugby about 30 years ago, having worked there he bought the rights to Holbrook and had many original blueprints etc. The number of my Lathe is 5554 with initials ET, he told me that was final inspector Eric Transmere in 1942 .He told me that the top of the cabinet ,whether it was the Oak or cast Iron version, was machined as a precision faceplate.

He printed me a copy of the model B owners manual whilst I was there.

Vic Newley, you have a PM

I've finally got around to making a taper turning attachment for my B8, I also had to make the slotted extension to the cross-slide as the original was broken off some time in the past and it always bugged me. I did intend to make it as near to an original as possible, seeing from photo's that the main bracket & top plate are all cast as one piece made that a step too far so the bracket & top plate were made separate.

It's complete enough to actually use it now, I just need to devise a way to add a graduation scale.
I did a test run on a 1" bar and it works perfectly, the sliding block that connects to the slot has an adjustment gib & two screws, there is no play whatsoever so seeing it now looking like it actually belongs is very satisfying!

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