Strange mini "turret" lathe?

Browsing through ebay, as you do on an evening I came across item 334008021715 - which looks like the offspring of a WW lathe and some sort of screw machine or turret lathe.

Can anyone shed more light on it?

It's clearly solidly built and certainly the tool you need to do whatever job it does.

I have no connection,and SWMBO is quite certain I don't need it...

Dave

So you must have asked whether you need it then?

need? - not sure that is relevant

Would look good on a coffee table or mantelpiece

Maybe for the mass production of tiny screws?

Certainly has a look of quality

If you get it do not remove the "patina", apparently it increases the value

Has the look of the gunmaker about it, to me.. ..I see the seller is is close to Birmingham - there were a huge number of workshops operating there by the eve of the Great War..

I'd think watchmaker. The pulley in the tailstock turret suggests one or more of the spindles there could be powered, but I'm struggling to imagine what for.

It's a precision production lathe. The sticky out rods at the back are depth stops. A sequence of pre-set operations are applied to the same workpiece and the lathe was probably only one of several different machines on a production line that produced the finished item.

Watchmaking is a possibility but my guess is almost anything in the instrumentation line. D'Arsonval meter movements, gas & electricity meters, rev counter, telegraphic, barometer, navigational, dial caliper movement, dial pressure gauge, range finder, etc etc. I think it's too small for gunmaking.

Whilst wonderful for repetition work because they leave manual lathes in the dust, it looks too specialised for comfy general purpose machining.

Dave

Drat and botheration

I was outbid

Did anyone here buy it ?

MichaelG.

Not me either but I reckon somebody got an interesting bargain at that price.

Edited By V8Eng on 30/05/2021 23:38:10

I wasn't implying that guns were made on it, the tooling set-up suggested repetition of ?shouldered screws to me ..

Edited By DiogenesII on 31/05/2021 08:06:51

Wasn't me, currently keeping free machine slot for a rose engine build...

Dave

Me neither. I did have a punt on this one a week ago but was outbid...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184838331000

Did anyone else have a look at that one? Some sort of small gear hobbing machine as far as I can see but doesn't look like the Jacobs to me.

Not sure I needed it, but I think everyone likes a hobbing machine... in the same way that everyone likes a shaper.

Well-spotted, Andy

But what a shocking presentation by the Seller

MichaelG.

Yep. My theory is that his logic was... 'I have no idea what this is... so I will pile stuff on top of it, call it a mini lathe and hope that nobody notices'

I don't have a shaper but I love my hobbing machine and I use it often.

.

So ... on the rebound, I have just bought this

**LINK**

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/George-Nissel-Contact-Lens-Lathe-engineering-lathe-/254995003598

Don’t worry, folks ... I’m not about to start making contact lenses !

It will, in due course, be lovingly down-cycled to machine more mundane optics, etc.

... It has the makings of an excellent general purpose radius-turning machine.

Now ... does anyone happen to have any diamond tipped tools going cheap ?

MichaelG.

.

http://www.lathes.co.uk/nissel/

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 06/06/2021 22:12:50

That seems like a bargain.

Dave

Michael is going to hate me for this but :-

Nearly 30 years ago I gave £15 (plus finacing a trip over t'other side of the Thames) for a pair of those Nissel lathes in slightly worse condition with ideas of doing something with them. What the something was I now longer remember and the lathes have slid back to the "3/4 hour to dig out" end of storage. Anyone wanting them needs to bring a strong shovel and weightlifters belt. They may be small but they are heavy!

Clive

Duplicate post

Edited By Clive Foster on 07/06/2021 22:29:28

.

I’m collecting it on Wednesday ... hoping to detach the top-plate, etc from the box, for ease of handling.

Grace’s Guide has this rather nice ‘cutaway’ of a different model in the same family :

.

.

It will be a while before I can do anything with it ... but I’m looking forward to seeing how something with such solid foundations will perform.

MichaelG.

Michael

As I recall it getting the beasts apart is not as straightforward as it seems. Dim memory suggests that this was a prime reason for the rapid evaporation of my "do something with them" desires. Hafta say that if www.lathes.co.uk had existed then I'd never have bought them. E-Bay ad pictures didn't really show how they were made. Not having a conventional bed is seriously limiting for most turning purposes. Good basis for a baby Britan tho'.

Hope your pick-up trip is less stressful than mine was. The SAAB 900 I had in those days decided that it was a nice evening for the rubber doughnut bushes in the the connection between the gear leaver and gearbox to start failing. Bit slack and not quite right going up turned into the something seriously wrong feeling about a mile into the return journey. Nursing it through south London at around 10 pm with a minimum of gear changes and not abusing the clutch was seriously stressful. Managed the 60 odd mile run home on about 20 - 30 gear changes!

A side benefit of driving lessons from my godfather, who claimed to have been trained as a chaffeur by a Rolls Royce, whose mantra was "don't touch the brakes". Pretty much essential if rich bastard in the back is gonna get a smooth ride but also excellent for honing traffic reading and anticipation skills.

Investigation suggested I had about 10 gear changes left before it all went whaooie shape.

Clive