Can you ID this vintage lathe?

Apologies for the poor quality images. Can anyone identify this lathe? It looks a bit Britannia-esque and I have trawled the usual websites with no success. I'm told it has a throw of about 14".

A curious machine, big, but not heavy at the headstock end, an unusual box bed design and a powered cross slide absolutely brimming with t-nut slots

It looks very reminiscent of a Drummond 5 inch, particularly the heavily T slotted cross-slide, see www.lathes.co.uk/drummond5inchphotoessay

Iooks like a 5" Drummond to me.

Plenty of info on www.lathes.co, plus a group on facebook and what used to be a yahoo group which has now migrated elsewhere.

The Yahoo group is now on:

**LINK**

Brian

I agree, the bed design is unusual and not like anything else I can find. The cross slide looks like a boring table.

Thanks

Yes Drummond . Note the double bed.

I wonder if dating back to 1912 explains the double bed? It's about the time HSS forced lathe design to change. Before HSS lathe knives were made of ordinary Carbon Tool steel. Works well provided the temperature is kept very low, which is achieved by flood cooling or light cuts only.

Victorian lathes are quite spindly compared with 20th century lathes. Most small machines were built to take light cuts only and treadle powered.

I suggest the double bed is an early attempt to beef-up an existing lay-out to use HSS, which cuts about 5 times faster than carbon tool steel and puts much more stress on the machine. Later, the complicated double bed was discarded because it's cheaper to make a stubby conventional bed, reinforce it internally, and stiffen the legs.

Bed design is 'quite interesting'. Gaps, flat tops, prismatic forms, and two or four legged ways, are all either rubbish or wonderful depending on who is asked. Been lots of experimentation over the years.

I've seen claims carbon tool-steel is better for fine work than HSS because it takes a sharper edge. Not sure it's true, though it might be. I can imagine time-served Victorian turners rejecting HSS as newfangled rubbish!

Dave

It kinda said heavy duty precision woodwork to me

From the old days, grand pianos, mosquito aircraft, that kind of thing

But probby lighter metalwork, as mentioned previously

Edited By Ady1 on 24/01/2021 14:06:53