Box-Ford travelling steady

Can anyone help me with the size of thread to bolt the travelling steady onto the cross slide of a Boxford AUD, I assume it is Imperial but only have metric bolts in the workshop so cannot try them to find out.

The usual options are to use thread gauges if you have some. If not then get either a piece of dowel or coiled paper/card and screw it in and out then measure the marks on the surface. Diameter and thread pitch will give a few possibilities to try.

Martin C

Find the minor diameter (with a drill, or other rod, plus micrometer) and check charts for likely imperial candidates?

Using a dowel and/or piece of paper as suggested is much easier than thread gauges on an internal thread.

On a British lathe, most likely If it looks (or feels) coarse it will be BSW or if it looks fine it will be BSF. Diameter will be the next standard fractional size up from the hole down the middle as measured with digital calipers or a rule. Threads tapped into cast iron on old Brit machinery seem to most often be BSW but not always.

Edited By Hopper on 31/03/2020 09:28:08

Hi Joe I'll measure them later on my Boxford for you and let you know

Micky T

Edited By Micky T on 31/03/2020 09:40:30

They are 3/8" BSW x 2" skt. hd. cap screws. Supplied with my steady by Boxford for my ME10.

Someone asked me to correct the thread title.

To be pedantic, although the company was Boxford, the lathes were marketed as Box-Ford

Neil

All the paperwork & name plates on my Boxford have no hyphen in the word. I have several Boxford name plates, change gear plates & books I have collected over the years and none have a hyphen. I Googled Box-ford & got no results apart from Ford roof boxes. I can find no reference to Box-ford any where. I would be very interested to see any examples please Neil.

regards

regards

A quick look at the lathes.co.uk website confirms the presence of the hyphen, a picture and mention in the text.

Mike

The lathes database **LINK** Shows that the hyphen disappeared sometime around 1960

Rod

Edit:  Too slow yet again!

Edited By Roderick Jenkins on 31/03/2020 13:11:27

although the company was Boxford, the lathes were marketed as Box-Ford

It was just Boxford when I started working there September(ish) 1980. The logo was the same bold blue font as the current version. Standard lathe colours at the time were the two tone beige/brown & I have a suspicion that the threads may have been all metric at that time, but can't find anything to back that up.

Nigel B.

Don't forget that Boxford was originally an off-shoot from Denford of Brighouse when lathe production moved, or was setup in Boxtree mills, Halifax, hence Box-Ford.

Peter G. Shaw

There ya go! (Must get a replacement for that when I get round to it...)

.

Clearly the real pedant would have checked the vintage of the lathe in question ... and then [if appropriate] used ‘all caps’ in the hyphenated thread title.

Thanks anyway, Neil ... The resulting discussion has evidently grabbed people’s attention, and we’ve probably all learned something along the way.

MichaelG.

My lathe has an each-way bet!

The title being changed to ‘Boxford’ (while perhaps not wrong at the moment, means that anyone making a search for just that topic in the future will likely not find it.

Makes no odds to me, but it might be useful for many forumers.

1969 VSL here - 3/8 BSW.

.

But it’s much better than ’Oxford’ ... Which it was before Neil kindly changed it.

MichaelG.

But it’s much better than ’Oxford’ ... Which it was before Neil kindly changed it.

yes, maybe. But a search for ‘Boxford’ brings up ten pages. A search for
Box-Ford brings up one thread.

KISS