Holbrook 10B

Hello Guys.

I'm new here, Ive come across this thread while looking for a lathe.

It has to be a Holbrook, as I have many Holbrook bits and pieces laying around as Richard Anderson was my father in law (by the way, he hated being called Richard and much preferred Dick, in fact Richard just made him angry)

He was a cantankerous old git, and as tight as a fart but the best bloke I ever met, so putting any other lathe in my new workshop wouldn't be right.

Any leads to a 10B would be appreciated

Per the OP query Holbrook lathe headstock bearings tend to run in PB bearings automatically supplied with filtered oil delivered under pressure

This assures longevity when a lot of high speed work is being done

Edited By Ady1 on 17/12/2020 08:39:16

Ady1 except for the B8 which has steel headstock bearings front and rear and has small oil cups on the front of the headstock.

In 1966, whilst at teacher training college ( Trent Park ) we were given the task compiling a treatise on the centre lathe. My school experience was Boxford ( good ) and DST ( c*** ) and at college a huge Laing , Kerry ( knackered) , Harrison with hydro copying and 3 new Bantams for which there was always a queue. Luckily I new of a factory in Harlow new Town that made lathes - Holdbrook - so I arranged a visit.

I was greeted with enthusiasm, given coffee, and escorted round by the “owner” and an old boy who new everything.

I was quite astounded by the whole visit, clean and tidy, not knee deep in swarf and mightily impressed.

They had a lathe set up to machine a large eccentric about 12” by 3” and 2” deep or thereabouts. Just imagine a serving dish. This could be internal or external and no computer in sight. All done with cams as I remember. They actually made lathes on their own manufactured lathes and I think also special milling machines.

Those were the days.

Pete

Alas that was my only visit and they closed some time later - I think became part of the Herbert group.

A 10B has just appeared on eBay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275001782024

Comes free with an overpriced milling machine

Hello. I. Have a 10B Holbrook, passed on to me from a friend that bought it at the end of a London ME show. The display owner delivered it himself on his way home. The number stamped on the bed is HM34. One concern I have is towards the lubrication of the headstock bearings. How does this occur. When running for fairly long periods they do warm up, obviously. But this adds effort needed and spindle speeds sometimes drop due to this. Advice is sought on options that may help introduce the correct methods to overcome this issue. Thanks in advance. Stan B.

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I visited Dick in the 1980's,where he printed me a manual for my B8, I think his house was in Rugby?

He showed me his rare Holbrook with a speedometer dial fitted, I can't remember what model it was, he did a lot of complaining about the takeover and loss of the Holbrook brand but he did end up with the blueprints for some or all of the lathes. He suddenly spotted the little tailstock oil dipper was missing and I'm sure he thought I had nicked it!

What happened to all his stuff when he died?

I may have been one of the last people to visit Dick less than a year before he died. By that time his wife and daughter had done a lot of 'tidying up' a lot of old 'paperwork' went to the tip it seems. He had advanced dementia and much of the conversation was repetitive rather than helpful. Good to meet him though. The only lathe he had left was a Rivett. There were a few Holbrook spares, mostly what looked like sample parts for the 10B and bits and pieces of other machines, both Holbrook and otherwise which I acquired from him. The Rivett I arranged to be sold to a friend of mine in Northern Ireland.

There was no significant records at Dick's, but some years later another friend and I acquired the entire remains of the drawings on microfilm - some 40,000 slides - from a former Herbert service engineer. This does not include the 10B which Dick had designed and had built in India after he finished with Herbert, having acquired the name Holbrook as part of his severance. Presumably those drawings were amongst the aforementioned 'paperwork'........