Boxford Tailstock Accessories

I have recently bought a Boxford C lathe but it has no accessories so could some one advise me where to get the correct Tailstock Centre & Drill Chuck?. I have tried the home of Boxford but nothing doing!

Steve

Hi Steve,

Hope you are happy with your new lathe - I have an ME10.

The Boxford tailstock is standard MT2 so you can get accessories (new or used) from all the usual places. The arbors should have a tang so they auto eject. I have a few nice chucks from ARC and also used ones from eBay (Rohm, Jacobs and Albrecht).....and a very nice Skoda live centre I picked up on eBay.

Regards,

Mike

The usual places being the model engineering tool suppliers who advertise on this site and in Model Engineer magazine etc. ArcEurotrade as mentioned being one with a good reputation.

Beware cheap "bargains" on eBay. Quality can vary (very) widely. Better to spend a little extra and get the better quality units from a reputable supplier.

Tailstock accessories such as chucks and centres are universal across all machines, the main variation being the size of the tapered arbor that fits in the tailstock. In your case, that is a No. 2 Morse Taper, usually listed as MT2. Larger lathes use a larger taper such as MT3 and will not fit your Boxford. 

Get yourself a revolving or "live" centre to save having to lubricate the point of a dead centre. And the keyless chucks are very handy, if good quality. No searching for lost chuck keys and quicker in operation.

Edited By Hopper on 14/04/2020 02:47:24

My answer would have been to visit autojumbles. But that will not happen any time soon. So as above answers.

Steve.

Thanks Guys for all your advice, I will definitely be getting some accessories from ArcEurotrade as mentioned above.

Because I’m a novice to using a lathe I was wondering if anyone could identify my boxford lathe model because the home of Boxford said I had a Boxford BUD, but I think I have a Boxford C lathe?

The lathe is stamped: C8234

see pictures below. What do you think?

Steve.

Edited By Steve Jones 20 on 14/04/2020 14:17:06

You are right , it is a model C made in 1958.

Your lathe has the same rear drive as the original South Bends.

Most later Boxfords had the motor inside the stand, or a under drive UD.

Edited By Yngvar F on 14/04/2020 14:16:58

Brilliant, thank you Yngvar F,

I thought it was a Boxford C. I've had it a couple of weeks. Is there a user manual somewhere out there?

fThe Boxford manual is called "Know your lathe". Can be purchased from various on-line outlets. Also, if you search for "Know your Lathe pdf" I'm fairly sure that there's a download out there somewhere.

Hope that helps

.http://www.pulse-jets.com/boxford/bo...your_lathe.pdf

Edit, here's a link

Edit again, link's not working but can be found by google search.

Edited By Clive Brown 1 on 14/04/2020 15:12:31

Edited By Clive Brown 1 on 14/04/2020 15:13:50

Know your lathe

Correct URL

Martin C

The Boxford book is very good.
A search of south bend 9 inch lathe on you tube will give lots of results. Except for the spindle bearings your lathe is very similar.

A classic how to book is The amateur`s lathe Link .

There are a lot of previous threads on this forum about the Boxford and South Bend lathes.

One additional thing about centres, applicable to all lathes. They come in 3 main forms.

A soft or 'live' centre. This is intended to put in the head end where it moves - hence 'live' and is unhardened so that it can be turned in situ to a perfect cone in live with the spindle. It maust not be used in the tailstock as it will wear and may even weld to the job.
Next is a 'dead' centre. It is for the tailstock where it doesn't move so must be 'dead'. It is hardened so don't try to put it the other end and turn it. It would have to be ground. Don't let it overheat or it way lose its hardness. Obviously it need lubrication in use and the little hole in the tainstock by the front of the barrel is an oil container that used to have a little did stick for you to frequently put oil on the centre in use. Having it right there conveniently shows how important it is.
Finally there is the revolving centre which is often described by ignorami as a live centre. It incorporates ball bearings to enable it to turn freely with the job.

Most of the people advertising old ones on ebay or jumble sales have no idea of the differences or what they are selling.

Steve,

Have a look on the gandmtools.co.uk site under the machine accessories and spares section. I have purchased a lot of good used Boxford accessories from them at a reasonable price.

Outstanding,

Thank you to, Clive Brown1, Martin C, Yngvar F, Bazyle, Mike E, Mike Clarke,Hopper and Steviegtr, you are all amazing. I have ordered the live centre and chuck. I have also ordered “The amateur`s lathe” book and downloaded the pdf version of "Know your lathe".

Later I am going to have a look at gandmtools.co.uk recommended by Mike E and some previous threads on this forum about the Boxford and South Bend lathes recommended by Bazyle.

Thank you all very much for your help and support to a novice.

Steve

Edited By Steve Jones 20 on 14/04/2020 18:42:32

Edited By Steve Jones 20 on 14/04/2020 18:43:46

Hi Steve

I recently acquired C7812, the Boxford bench type C, but it's mounted on a modified under-drive cabinet. Still sorting out my garage/workshop, but hope to start doing a bit of a tidy-up, clean and possibly repaint of the machine in the near future - it's been refinished in blue Hammerite, so I'd like to get it back to its original colour at some point. Apart from the chuck guard (which mine doesn't have), it looks pretty much the same as yours.

Does anyone know the paint code for this model/year? Or something pretty close?

Regards,

Rob

Paragon Paints do "Boxford Smoke Grey", they advertise on Ebay, a bit pricey but OK for a full paint job. For small accessories, I've mixed Humbrol grey with a bit of blue until it looks near enough.

The less common green that they used is given on Lathes.uk website as BS RAL 6011

In my experience, Boxford 'Smoke grey' comes out almost light blue. It is a similar colour to the blue/grey Boxfords and may have been correct when the machines were new 50 odd years ago but it won't match now. It is the same with enamels from both Paragon and Craftsmaster.

To match the blue/grey colour of the older Boxfords I mixed Boxford smoke grey with black around 60/40 by volume and got it near perfect.

The enamels in brown, olive grey or green of the later machines match perfectly.

I painted mine bright red, like a post box. Seemed a good idea at the time. An all grey workshop could be a bit depressing.

Thanks chaps

So it would be Smoke Grey then?

The Paragon paints are a bit on the dear side for me and it doesn't have to be exact, just close enough to look something like the factory finish. I was thinking of something from the Tractol range maybe. Their RAL 5014 Pigeon Blue looks similar to Boxford Smoke Grey to me, but of course the on-screen colour charts may bear little resemblance to the actual. I'm guessing the type to use would be their single pack 329.

Or I could, like Bazyle, go with something totally different of course, not sure yet.

Thanks,

Rob

The paint isn't so dear when you consider 1/2 litre will do a whole machine and doesn't need undercoat or primer. You can prime it but it's not essential. Just thin it slightly, roll it on with a small sponge roller then run a clean brush over it to remove the stippling effect.

You will be disappointed with the colour match if you use 'smoke grey' see my post above.

Also, if you intend to take the cast components like the bed, headstock and tailstock back to bare metal, when they were manufactured the finish quality of the castings was never that good, they are full of filler and will need to be re-filled to get a nice result. The sheet metal parts like the base and belt cover can just be sanded back to bare metal and painted.

Edited By Gavin Freeman 1 on 15/04/2020 13:35:24

Thanks Gavin, didn't think half a litre would be enough, but then again, I've never painted a lathe before