yet another lathe ID ?

I've just been given this venerable beast, 6 x 12 aprox, maybe a Portass X ?
Any thoughts?

Weigh it in, as they say although scrap prices are not good at the moment.

I just can't do it Kwil, the round bits go round, the screwy bits screw. It's a nice simple solid thing.
I may pass it on to my bro-in-law who's now housebound, he desperately needs a project or he'll go mad. He can spend weeks de-rusting and polishing

An obvious question John. Does the lathe have any I/D plates or cast-in names which would help with the identification? For some reason it reminds me of an elderly Myford I also have. It's in a similar condition and I must did it out and see if I can get it going.

(Later) Go to the Lathes website and have a look at the Portass Junior and the Gamages lathes as they are similar to yours.

Edited By Paul Narramore on 14/10/2015 19:45:25

Check out Zyto on the lathes website.

Mike

That is absolutely identical to my Portass "S", even to the (non-original) colour. You have a few bits missing but otherwise I had to have a double take. Mine actually says Portass on the front but that's the only difference I can see.

I've seen a few very similar ones on here but this is the closest ever.

Murray

You may be right Murray
No makers marks of any sort, not even holes where a plate may have been.
I'm gradually working my way through the lathes.co.uk pages.
Various parts missing, back gears, banjo and dog clutch. They tell me they only threw the motor and layshaft away last week , grrr.
It will go to a good home.
"We never put a good lathe down"
If you would like to sponsor a homeless lathe and receive regular updates on its progress..........

Edited By john carruthers on 15/10/2015 07:27:00

On these machines the name was cast into the front face. If you had one you wouldn't be able to miss it.

I got mine when I was 14 and wouldn't have been able to afford anything better. Cost me £14 and gave me years of passable service. In the ME way, I managed all sorts of unfeasible jobs on it. The most outrageous was probably a full sized baseball bat made from a fence post, with the rear centre positioned about 2 feet away from the lathe and the tool cantilevered way out.

Hope you can find a grateful recipient. If you can't figure out what the missing parts look like I may be able to help you. Can't give you any photos, though, as I'm on the other side of the world from it right now.

Murray

Thanks for the offer, might need it eventually. The bro-in-law is getting busy with the wire wool and parafin.
Part cleaned, it looks like it's never been used, just neglected.

Give a man a fish.... etc
But give him a rusty lathe and you won't see him for days

Have you got to R yet? Have a look at the RandA page. Possibly badge engineered for Gamages.

HTH

Rod

Hi John, Rod could be on the right track. Although the badge RandA didn't seem to be used on production models, I have one where the RandA badge is cast into the bed, however the headstock is a separate casting and is made of bronze or maybe gunmetal. I have no idea if this is how it was made like this at the factory or if someone who had it originally broke the original headstock and had a new one made and fitted it to the bed after cutting the original one off, but it was shimmed up with a W.D. & H.O. Wills Woodbine cigarette packet and a short piece of thin copper.

Bond's O' Euston Road did the same model and called it the "Bond's Maximus" which was apparently a slightly modified Portass Model S **LINK**

I have more photos of this RandA I have, so if you would like to see them let me know.

Regards Nick.

P. S. I don't know what year the advert for the Bond's lathe is from, but in the same catalogue castings for a few of LBSC locos where available including "Olympiade" which was described in Model Engineer from July to December 1938.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 17/10/2015 10:24:41

Thank you gents, so many similar lathes around. Seems they supplied many firms who badged or reworked them.
It's down to the details of the casting and fittings.
I foresee a similar quandary for people in the future trying to identify an Asian 7x lathe.

Catalogue pictures were usually retouched, and adding 'cast in' logos was not unknown. Photoshopping isn't new...

Neil

> I foresee a similar quandary for people in the future trying to identify an Asian 7x lathe.

It's hard enough in the present

Getting there, he's cut some Vs in the 3 step pulley, mmmm.

Edited By john carruthers on 21/10/2015 07:43:31

.

No offence intended, John, but; in my opinion that was a bad move.

Still; at least he is rescuing it from oblivion.

MichaelG.

If I was going to modify a lathe with flat pulleys, I'd go for poly V belts, and possibly 2 or 3 extra sizes, each pulley could easily take 2 sizes.

Ian S C

A man after my own heart! I put 3 vees into mine too, although I machined them on the machine itself using a temporary drive pulley (a pushchair wheel). I'm not sentimental and vees are self-tightening so seemed appealed from an engineering POV. Mind you, 5 flats and a poly V sounds like a good idea. One advantage of the vee pulley is that you can use the segmented belts and avoid dismantling the spindle.

I made a lever-operated 2-speed countershaft clutch for mine based around a large Tufnol pulley and pressed steel friction disk.

Apart from the oversized chuck and the missing cast-in name on the front, this is eerily reminiscent of my own.

Be careful not to overtighten the headstock bearings. There is another recent thread on here about that in which I describe the fix on my machine....

Murray

.

Me too, Ian ... Although, on a small machine like this, in the first instance, I would have probably only bothered grooving the drive pulleys on the countershaft [or motor]; because experience has shown that the traction of Poly V belt ribs on a 'flat belt' pulley is surprisingly good. ... If it doesn't work, the pulleys can be grooved later.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 21/10/2015 12:41:20