This is the sort of sale I feel people should look for when buying a lathe. A little down this page

**LINK**

Boxford VSL.

Be interesting to see how long it takes to sell. Often if there is a lot of kit people are inclined to think the price is a too high. Much depends on wear. I would want to know some of it's history and try it but other than I have to have a bench lathe I would be in for a long drive.

John

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Whilst I can see some people saying it's a bit expensive, it does look like a very nice machine. Provided that it isn't too badly worn it will make someone very happy. You would be struggling to get that spec with a new Far Eastern machine for the same money.

Perhaps we will hear from its new owner shortly.

Regards.

David.

It's the last version of the VSL. Big bore and a neat variable speed. Some have hardened beds.

I'd loose 2 cupboards and 2 draws and have to move a sink.

Nothing to do with me by the way. Just noticed in passing.

John

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Hit Control F5, you are looking at an old page.

Some have hardened beds.

Some Boxfords do indeed have hardened beds - but not the VSL / L00 (or any of the Southbend-type 3 vee bed lathes).

I spent the last year of my apprenticeship at Boxfords & was involved with the installation and commisioning of the Snow grinder & Radyne induction hardening plant installed for hardening & grinding the Industrial 10-20 and 11-30 geared head lathe beds.

Prior to this installation (around March 1981) there was no bed grinder, as the "original" Boxford beds were gang milled (all vees, flats & vertical faces produced in one pass) on a very substantial Russian Duplex horizontal milling machine. I seem to recall asking if the "original" beds would be hardened after installation of the new plant but, IIRC was told that they could not be hardened as they would distort. (There were initially issues with distortion during hardening with the later beds, but a "fix" for this was worked out during comissioning). After milling(one "heavy" pass & a lighter "finish" pass IIRC) the only treatment the bed top faces received was a light pass over with very fine abrasive paper by the fitter prior to bedding on the saddle.

At the time Boxford offered a bed re-machining service - old beds would collect near the Duplex miller & when there were several waiting they would be run through as a Friday afternoon "overtime" job - each one had to be individually set up, so it was a slower job than normal production. I asked whether this service was still available some years ago when I was refurbishing my late father's CUD & was told it wasn't - I suspect that production of the "original" machines ceased not very long after I left (September 1981) & there was probably not enough demand to warrant keeping the cutter gangs set up. I was seconded back to Boxfords during 1982 to wire the last Hayes copy mill & also to wire the first development CNC Boxford based on the Industrial 11-30 & recall a large batch (50 or more) of ME10s in Reseda Green (not the usual for the time beige/brown), which were apparently a "special order" for the US distributor. (At the time Boxford was part of the Brooke Tool Group, which also included Hayes milling machines from Leeds and Broadbent Machine Tools from Mytholmroyd - I had been seconded to Hayes for a few weeks at one point while at Boxfords & went to work at Broadbents when I was out of my time. The Hayes factory closed & remaining machines and spares were moved into the Boxford works & I was seconded from Broadbents to wire the last machine).

At the time the grinder was installed, there were only induction electrodes (for want of a better word) for the later type bed & the grinding wheel profile dresser was only capable of dressing one profile on the wheel. In practice the bed was gang-milled like the "original" bed using a different cutter gang, then the bed was mounted in a fixture on the grinder table. The hardening equipment was mounted at the LHS if the machine & the bed was passed slowly under the "electrode" - the area underneath glowed bright red & was immediately quenched with coolant as the bed passed through. Then the table moved under the grinding wheel, which form ground the entire top surface using a wide profiled wheel. At the RH end of the table was the diamond dresser, which was used to clean up the wheel after each bed had been ground.

I can be pretty certain of the dates, as I got an SLR camera for my 21st birthday & put the first film through wandering around the works -including some of the bed hardening process "in action" - that would be early April 1981.

Nigel B.

I have an AUD which I love I'm always looking out for tooling, I noticed a couple of ex-school AUD's on eBay a few days ago not too far from me. They made £740 and £760. Absolute bargains! Gutted I missed the auctions. The Dixon toolposts fitted to them are worth £200 on there own!

There has been some debate about Boxfords and bed hardening on the yahoo group. One VSL owner seems sure his was. I vaguely remember an ME10 add in one of the model engineering mags that I think mentioned it in a sort of look at all of this compared with Myford. Must admit I am not sure.

Could it be that flame hardening was used at some point? In the distance past I have seen a video of one of the makers doing it like that. Not sure which one and it was years ago, many of them.

John

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Nigel B.,

thank for posting. Very interesting write up.

From a Boxford fan.

(mk II VSL and 8" shaper owner)

Thanks John.

John

"Be interesting to see how long it takes to sell"

Well it's gone, that didn't take long.

I'm not surprised. Sales like that can be a bit strange though. My ME10 was on ebay came equipped much like that one, more so really Collets are smaller of course. Bidding stopped at around £500 hardly more than they usually sold for. I'd asked about turning accuracy, sounded good so plonked in a high bid right at the end. The only one that did and got it for the reserve price of £750. What amazed me was that there was no cheap equipment with it at all, not even the self centring 4 jaw, qctp+ lots of holders or anything else.

John

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