# Your council please



## allthunbs (Jun 22, 2008)

It would be nice to identify this lathe and if there are parts for it i.e. drive centres, etc. My neighbour picked it up at a garage sale. 

It's about 40" long. The rails are steel but all of the castings are cast brass. All mating surfaces are machined and the accuracy is surprisingly good. There is no binding on the pillow blocks. The drive centre appears to be 1/2". It looks like it will take a 10" diameter workpiece. It also looks like I could add a chuck on the outboard end and turn larger pieces off the end. Where does the motor mount? There are a variety of bolts/set screws around and I really don't know what they'd be for. Take a look at the pair of lets and you'll see a hex head bolt in the brass. It doesn't hold the legs to the rails, that's achieved from above. 

Any suggestions of possibilities/options/manuals???

Thanks for the help.


----------



## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Except for the castings it looks homemade. Live centers, steb centers, cone centers, drill chucks, etc. are all Morse taper that I have seen. (Have a look at Lee Valley's catalog.) That appears to just couple to the shaft. Same at the other end unless the shaft is threaded at the drive end. The motor would have to mount more or less horizontal at the back and to take advantage of the speed changes it would need to adjust left to right and also back and forth to tighten the drive belt. Using this could be a challenge.


----------



## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Brand name, looks like it's made by Night Mare Inc. in the 1920's or so..

note the sq.head bolts,and the hvy. hex head bolts.
the shaft boss blocks ,look to be a add on items with Allen hex head bolts holding to the main part of the lathe.....

===



allthunbs said:


> It would be nice to identify this lathe and if there are parts for it i.e. drive centres, etc. My neighbour picked it up at a garage sale.
> 
> It's about 40" long. The rails are steel but all of the castings are cast brass. All mating surfaces are machined and the accuracy is surprisingly good. There is no binding on the pillow blocks. The drive centre appears to be 1/2". It looks like it will take a 10" diameter workpiece. It also looks like I could add a chuck on the outboard end and turn larger pieces off the end. Where does the motor mount? There are a variety of bolts/set screws around and I really don't know what they'd be for. Take a look at the pair of lets and you'll see a hex head bolt in the brass. It doesn't hold the legs to the rails, that's achieved from above.
> 
> ...


----------



## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

hahaha

Night Mare Inc.

Don't see many of their tools around these days.......LOL


----------



## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

Ron I have a lot of reservations with that machine. First how are you going to mount a chuck on the outboard side with no threads on the shaft at least that I can see from the pictures? At minimum you need at least a 3/4" X 16 tpi threaded end. Even if you could that shaft is hanging out there to much to put anything of any size on it especially with I think a minimum speed of 850 rpm. IMHO I wouldn't put a unbalanced bowl blank on that outboard side for sure. That lathe looks like the one my grandfather used to make table legs, stair ballisters, and just doing spindle work. It was not made to make bowls or hollow forms. I can't tell for sure but if it is like it there is no morse taper for any type of accessories. For spindle work I think it would be fine but anything other than that I am not sure.


----------



## allthunbs (Jun 22, 2008)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> Except for the castings it looks homemade. Live centers, steb centers, cone centers, drill chucks, etc. are all Morse taper that I have seen. (Have a look at Lee Valley's catalog.) That appears to just couple to the shaft. Same at the other end unless the shaft is threaded at the drive end. The motor would have to mount more or less horizontal at the back and to take advantage of the speed changes it would need to adjust left to right and also back and forth to tighten the drive belt. Using this could be a challenge.


Hi Charles:

Yup, that pretty much sums it up. Homemade and potentially dangerous. I've never seen such a small tool rest on a lathe. Thanks for the details on the head stock. I'll go back and see if I have threaded or Morse taper. The tail stock is just a live centre. 

This is my first lathe. I didn't spec one out for the shop because I didn't want to take the time for turning, concentrating instead on the router. Given that this was a gift, I couldn't really turn it down. At least now I have a lathe for that rare occasion. Now for chisels and all the bells and whistles.

My wife had a horse that cost $750. The saddle was $1500, the bridle another $200 and so the list goes on. It's not the object, it's the accessories.

Thanks Charles.

Ron


----------



## allthunbs (Jun 22, 2008)

Hi Bernie:

Thanks for the reply.



BernieW said:


> Ron I have a lot of reservations with that machine.


Oh boy, me too!



BernieW said:


> First how are you going to mount a chuck on the outboard side with no threads on the shaft at least that I can see from the pictures? At minimum you need at least a 3/4" X 16 tpi threaded end. Even if you could that shaft is hanging out there to much to put anything of any size on it especially with I think a minimum speed of 850 rpm. IMHO I wouldn't put a unbalanced bowl blank on that outboard side for sure.


There are no threads and that shaft sticks out a mile and you're absolutely right, if I get something heavy swinging on that end, it'll chase me right across the shop and out onto the street. I better make sure I use a short power cord ;-)



BernieW said:


> That lathe looks like the one my grandfather used to make table legs, stair ballisters, and just doing spindle work. It was not made to make bowls or hollow forms.


I fully expect that you're right. But, I was hoping that someone might identify the make and model. The castings are rough but the machining is too well done to be totally home built with crude tools. If I had the machines to build this thing, I wouldn't need it.



BernieW said:


> I can't tell for sure but if it is like it there is no morse taper for any type of accessories. For spindle work I think it would be fine but anything other than that I am not sure.


Yup, this concurs with the observations that Charles made. Thank you both for your candour. I'll put it in a shadow box and mount it somewhere as a display piece. Now, all I have to do is find a piece of wall somewhere ;-)

Thanks again guys.

Ron


----------



## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

Your welcome Ron. Sometimes on these forums I hesitate to make a post about this lathe or that lathe because I have seen to many that take it to heart that we are trashing there machines they just bought. On the other hand I would rather be candid about it and tell it like it is. I have seen to many accidents over the years of people using machines either beyond it capabilities or worse for something it is not intended for. It would probably work pretty good for spindles, pens, small lidded boxes, small bowls, but not for anything of any size for sure.

Have a great weekend Ron.


----------



## BigJimAK (Mar 13, 2009)

And here I thought it was a "Stubbs Creation"! <g>


----------



## allthunbs (Jun 22, 2008)

Thanks Bernie;

Candour is always appreciated, especially on this forum. There's just too much knowledge here to be "defensive." Besides, if one person criticizes a tool and another supports it, one must learn more. If two criticize it and none support it, you know you have a problem.


----------



## allthunbs (Jun 22, 2008)

Hi Jim:

And here I thought Stubb's stuff was pretty good. I'm still dreaming of trying his dovetail jig maker ;-)

Ron


----------

