Old lathe identification

I rescued this from a scrap heap approximatly 18 inches long with a centre height of 2 1/2 inches, looks commercially made. I dont know wether it is a wood or instrument lathe. Spindle looks 1/2" BSW and solid Thanks Paul

It appears to be a wood turning lathe - probably of anonymous maker.  Likely home-made.

Edited By not done it yet on 29/05/2022 15:02:04

I would have said very old clock makers turns.

A couple of points, but no identification

1. The base is very distinctive, which may aid identification as either a specific commercial lathe, or a ‘made from’
2. The nuts on the headstock mount have, perhaps, the right proportions for early Whitworth.

MichaelG.

The base does not look as if originally made for the lathe even if on this lathe from new. It might have come from a small milling-machine. That raising block - is it a casting? It looks like a piece of angle or Z-section found for the purpose.

What do the isolated nuts and bolts in the base hold?

Oh, probably commercially-made parts but the headstock doesn't seem quite to match in style to the saddle and tailstock. I wonder if it came from a different source; or perhaps the same manufacturer but a different model.

Intriguing and rather pretty little machine anyway, and it would be good to see it all bright and serviceable again, even if just for small items of wood-turning or brass-work by hand.

It was probably driven by treadle originally, possibly the type advertised as a "foot-motor" when sold as a stock item for driving any small machine.

I would guess homemade from the way the heastock has been carved out of a piece of plate. Commercial offerings were usually cast as a matter of cost saving and simplicity of manufacture. Other components on it look fabricated from bar stock too.

Will make a nice piece all cleaned up.

Thanks for the thoughts so far, the head stock is a bronze casting, base is cast iron with plywood infill with mountings for motor so not origional and yes the mounting bracket is a lump of angle.

Thanks Paul

Unusual to see a flat belt pulley on such a small lathe, V belts first appeared around1917 but much earlier pulleys for round leather belts are often thought to be for V belts as they fit very well.

Here someone has tried a V belt upside down? so the flat side is on the pulley but not sure how well that would work if at all

A timing belt would probably work well.

The best flat-belt replacement I have found on my Drummond M-Type is running a Poly-V belt straight on the old flat belt pulleys. I run it with the V grooved side contacting the flat pulley. Works really well. Seems to grip well enough even without the V-grooves, including for taking 100 thou deep cuts in steel.