Saw bench

I think I would be supporting that shaft from the tailstock end.

Might be OK especially as we don’t know what’s going to be cut on it, could be oak planks or sheets of balsa wood. I know a picture is worth a thousand words, but really.

It is a Cowell saw bench - I am curious to learn if others have fitted Cowell fittings to earlier lathes.

Interesting!

I'd agree with NDIY, though as Baz says we don't know what is to be sawn.

I think I'd also arrange some sort of cover over the open headstock, to keep sawdust off the 'works'.

Still, using the lathe as a saw-bench seems to have been quite common practice at one time, when most model-engineers were lucky to have more than a simple lathe and a bench-drill.

I'd assumed it was a slitting saw for cutting metal?

Doesn't Sparey (apologies if it was Bradley) have a little to say about it's use - "don't hold round stock in the fingers" or something..

Sparey gave much good advice, regarded these days mostly as "Old hat"

I've a selection of "saws" that I cut various materials with - mostly for smaller models. So some suggestions looking at this set-up, which is incomplete for whatever you intend to use it for. Some accessories will be very helpful and save your fingers.

If you are cutting wood (or similar) then use a fence and push the work over the blade (using pushsticks of course). The worktable remains static but you need a fence.

If cutting metals, then clamp them to the worktable and use the screw feed to cut the work - the worktable moves. You can try pushing the work over the blade but it's asking for trouble in my view. So you need a clamping device

Small and/or thin parts require more care than larger parts - especially if they can move or (on a wood saw) you are not using a zero clearance insert. A sliding table for cross cutting wooden parts is very useful, giving better accuracy on cross cuts and zero clearance without changing the tables insert

When cutting thin wooden parts, cut half way down and then flip end-on-end to finish the cut. Much safer

When cutting (or trimming) small metal parts, soldering or attaching them to a larger plate makes the work much safer to do - still clamp the larger part though. btw - You can cut strip metal with a simple table clamped to the top-slide as shown, simper & easier that the larger table shown.

Regards,

IanT

Thanks for your comments - I am interested in the Flexispeed - Perris - Cowell lineage - I was hoping for thoughts and insight regarding the consonguineous history of these lathes.

I had to lookup consanguinity, it could be a struggle to fit in to many conversations. Could be a candidate for a Susie Dent award.

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 24/05/2022 13:10:06

To put it another way - I was amazed when a current Cowell saw attachment fitted a lathe made 56 years ago with minimal effort