Drummond M type

Hi All, I recently bought a Drummond M type lathe which is in good condition but the electric motor mount/conversion isn’t very good. My intention is to re-do this conversion completely and I’m looking for some advice on this.... Can anyone let me see some pictures of their conversion so I can work out a new set up!?

Many thanks,

Bamber

Hi Bamber here is the picture of my M Type with original mount it may give you some clues. Please look in my albums for some of the mods I think some are essential especially the plug for the bed to stop you fishing tools and parts out of bed casting.

David

Mine's much more basic. Two pillow blocks mounted on top of two pillars welded to a baseplate that is bolted via slots to the lathe bench top. So belt tension is set via the slots and that's it, no release lever. It was like that when I got it and i never got around to changing it, yet.

One thing I did was move the electric motor from between the countershaft and headstock where it got full of swarf to underneath the bench.

Since the below pic was taken, I have changed to a Poly-V belt running on the old flat pulleys. Works a treat.

Edited By Hopper on 09/11/2018 09:34:07

There have been a few over the years

ME2545

ME2596

The best one I ever saw was made of wood and angle iron but I'll be damned if I can find it

It was like the system in the first picture but ran from the eye at the foot of the lathe leg and used 2x4 inch wooden struts, some threaded bar and some angle iron

It was so simple and practical and easy for a new user compared to many systems, and used the weight of the motor to self tension the belt

Edited By Ady1 on 09/11/2018 09:45:01

Sounds like the one described by LH Sparey in The Amateur’s Lathe?

Hi Bamber

Is your lathe bench mounted or is it on the Drummond stand.

If bench mounted the the duplex designed countershaft in the earlier message is a good design, not simple to make but if you have the time and facilities is well worth making. If you pm me I can let you have detailed drawings..

I assume your lathe uses flat belts, if so and the lathe is on the Drummond stand then the L H Sparey design is fairly easy to set up. You would need to get a copy of his book to see what the design is all about

If you have flat belts it easy to convert to vee belt drive but you would need to get the vee pulley parts from the later myford made m type

Geoff

Sounds like the one described by LH Sparey in The Amateur’s Lathe?

That's where it is, page 37 to 39

buy the book if you don't have it yet btw

Thanks very much everyone for such a great response, it’s all really helpful. I’m going to buy some books as recommended so I’m sure I’ll be back with more questions once I get going.

Bamber

If you plan to mount on an ordinary bench and are short of space I have a couple of concept sketches and application notes for the 2 narrow, 6 speed with slack belt clutch, designs I used to fit a pair 9" swing Southbends onto 18" (ish) wide benches. Concept sketches because these were engineered by eye from what I had or could find inexpensively so no drawings were ever made. All done way before digital cameras made taking pictures of the actual installation routine. The machines in question were traded on long ago.

Nothing exotic needed. Easy enough to find something that will do the required jobs for not much money.

I originally produced the sketches for an American friend so there was no point in specifying components as what he could find over there would have been different to what I had. Odds are that even if I had noted what I used the specific parts would be long obsolete by now.

Nowadays I'd use a poly-Vee belt ribbed (rubber) side down on the flat belt pulleys rather than a proper flat belt. Works very well, especially at the inevitable short centre distance between lathe and countershaft.

Hopefully you have matching stepped drive pulleys. If not its far easier to make one by bolting three separate pulleys of the requisite size together rather than trying to cut it in one.

Clive