My first lathe, a restoration project

Hey all
Finally managed to pick up most of a lathe today after a few months of looking for something cheap, managed to get this for the solid price of free. I was aware it was not complete when i went to get it but its better than i expected, very dirty but looks to be ok under the muck and very substantial for the size, i really struggled to carry it down the hallway.

I don't know metal lathes, yet, i'm not sure what it should have to be complete so no idea what might be necessary but missing? i can see I need to replace the faceplate, replace a bit of metal that holds one of the crank handles, get a motor and give it a serious clean up but can anyone see anything else ?

I would say that is Drummond B type 1912-1921

details here

**LINK**

best of luck.

regards Martin

Hi,

That is a Drummond B type. Early 20th century. Some photos and info from the uual source

http://www.lathes.co.uk/drummond/page5.html

Robert G8RPI.

Martin can type faster than me

Well it's a Drummond B-type so plenty of information in the Drummond Yahoo at groups.io and on Lathes.co.uk.

Looks like you need a counter shaft for the motor drive, a layshaft and gears for the back-gear, and later a banjo to hold those changewheels. The 'faceplate' may be a catch plate for between centres turning or a chuck backplate (the fact that it fits the nose thread puts you one up) 1/2 hp motor will be enough as it was originally treadle powered.

Don't rush to buy bits until you understand what you actually need rather than trying to make it 'complete'. Lathes were sold with fewer bits than you have right up to the eighties.

Hello Liam. Your lathe looks to be this one; http://www.lathes.co.uk/drummond/page5.html

At a quick glance you seem to have most of it so you are off to a good start.

All the best with it and please keep us up to date with progress.

Brian

Looks like everyone types faster than me!

Edited By Brian H on 07/11/2020 22:17:00

Thank you for all the quick replies, will definitely come back to keep progress updates and probably ask for advice. In regards to the backgear gears i was hoping it was the gears that came with it, it looks less in the photo of the accessories but they are 5 in total, looks like the same 5 in the pictures on lathes.co.uk. I should have a motor laying around, if not i might just run a belt straight from the wood lathe for the time being; maybe even make what i need and can from wood to get it running and replace them with better bits as i go, i mostly work with wood, or an anvil, so i just want to get this in running condition far more than a factory restoration.

Edited By Liam Pocknell on 07/11/2020 22:31:10

Just give her a good clean and check out the bearings/leadscrew nuts

A good project to get for free, don't mess with the headstock bearings until you have some detailed knowledge, some of them have little fiddly bits lurking in hard to see places, shims/loose bearings etc

GL

The head and talestocks spin freely, the handles and cranks all move smooth. I can't check for alignment yet as its so dirty itll take some serious working to get the sliding parts moving. Ill get to cleaning it tomorrow, the photos had good flash lighting but to the eye, i can't see that its green; its black..

Edited By Liam Pocknell on 08/11/2020 00:12:16

The gears you have are not the back gears. Those two holes you see at the top of the bearings - they need oil, lots of it, and a bung to stop your sawdust getting in there. You can make adequate pulleys out of ply and use plummer blocks for the layshaft. Instead of backgear you can slow it down with a large wooden pulley like 18in dia, just carve out some spokes ot lighten it.

When cleaning off the rust don't use anything coarser than 00 wirewool on the smooth machined surfaces, think of it as a Chippendale chest.

Thank you, i think i might have some pillow blocks laying around so ill see if any of them will fit the bill. I didn't plan on using on abrasives, just cloth and some grease remover for now.
Having had a read over lathes.co.uk, a picture i initially took but ignored made more sense and it looks to be the b-type BS model made for naval use. not sure how clear the picture will be from my phone but ill get a better one when clean

Hi Liam, you will need a chuck (or two). Most of us have a 3 jaw self centring chuck and a 4 jaw independent chuck for holding non round objects. Chucks don't often come with their backplates threaded for a specific lathe. You will have to find out what thread you have on your lathe and dimensions of the spindle etc.

You will also need a drill chuck to fit your tailstock

Talking about the bits that come or dont come with lathes, I was lucky that my Craftsman lathe came with a full kit, including faceplate and steadies.

Are faceplates still supplied as standard ? dont see them mentioned in adverts these days.

Nice little project there !

Hi Liam l have an M Type Drummond lathe and it is very similar go yours.

It may give you an idea of what it can be. Have a look here https://groups.io/g/drummondlathe/files there are many pieces of information and ideas about your lathe and also another group of helpful people although only about Drummonds etc.

David

Luckily i have a faceplate, a chuck, a taper chuck and a few others bits inc. HSS cutters for the wood lathe that i haven't checked yet but look like they should fit for some testing in the short term

Does anyone have experience and opinion on which would be better, the B-type or a ML4? I might be able to get a ML4 at a good price locally, complete and working well. Tempted to get it and then transplant my wood lathe motor and tool rest on to the b-type body for more weight and rigidity than my tiny axminster hobby lathe

Hi Liam, note that most of the threads will be Whit or BSF and you will need the appropriate spanners for them

Ed

Hi Liam, I don't know if I'm reading you correctly but it sounds to me as though you're thinking of possibly using the B-type for wood turning as one of the options. If so you need to be aware that the headstock bearings on the B-type are only good for an absolute maximum of 1000 rpm - and that's pushing it. The lathe was originally meant for foot treadle operation where the max speed would have been about 500rpm - a bit slow for woodturning I'd suggest -I've tried it!

An ML4 is another lathe with plain bearings, and without seals for the bearings, so given its age, not really suitable for high speed, nor able to keep out dust..

You will already be aware that some woods, the dust is corrosive, so the machine should be kept scrupulously clean.

Although that goes for all of us, whether working with wood or metal!

Restoring the Drummond to working order would be a useful and informative project.

Howard