British restoration project
British restoration project
(OP)
As we seem to be posting restoration projects lately, here's one of mine which I'm having an on-off relationship with:
An old Holbrook toolroom lathe from the 1940s, it weighs in at 2¼ tonnes for a 13" x 30" machine which is unheard of today for a manual lathe. A little worn in places but I have quite a few spares from a donor machine. Some of the pics are from when it first moved into its new home - it's now off the rollers and running from a 15kW variable speed drive which someone sold on ebay as a 'power supply' for little more than the postage.




I don't spend as much time on it as I would like, but so far I've enjoyed having it.
An old Holbrook toolroom lathe from the 1940s, it weighs in at 2¼ tonnes for a 13" x 30" machine which is unheard of today for a manual lathe. A little worn in places but I have quite a few spares from a donor machine. Some of the pics are from when it first moved into its new home - it's now off the rollers and running from a 15kW variable speed drive which someone sold on ebay as a 'power supply' for little more than the postage.




I don't spend as much time on it as I would like, but so far I've enjoyed having it.





RE: British restoration project
Cheers
Greg Locock
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RE: British restoration project
Great piece of machinery. You will enjoy many years to "consummate" that relationship you say you have with it.
Given its age I'm surprise to see what good condition it's in. It must have had a few lovers before you!
Those diagrams are the essence of completeness and clarity, too.
STF
RE: British restoration project
My Daddy used to pay me a dollar to dig out all the metal shavings and clean his lathe about once a month. That was a mess of a job, I tell you.
Please remember: we're not all guys!
RE: British restoration project
Yes, it's a lovely machine to work on with a lot of features which must have cost a fortune to provide. I'd had it a few months before I found some of them. It makes the Harrisons and Colchesters seem agricultural. I nearly ended up with a CVA but the Holbrook was a third of the price and could take bigger work. If the opportunity arose I would love to have one of the Holbrook Model H machines from the late 1960s which are rare and expensive, and still very sought-after today.
Sparweb,
I think it has had a few owners in its seventy-odd years, some more careful than others. The saddle was full of rusty sludge from old coolant and swarf, and the little reciprocating pump which feeds the oil galleries in the head was knackered so the gears must have run nearly dry, but they're very hard and massively oversized so they seem to have survived reasonably well. The rack for the saddle handwheel pinion is worn and a replacement is going to be costly, but I have a complete spare saddle / cross-slide / topslide assembly, a leadscrew, and most of the gearing from the head. I've got the whole manual and although only a dozen pages it is full of practical information.
SLTA,
I'm happy to employ a swarf remover / lathe cleaner - $10 a time??
My dad had a lathe when I was a kid too. He was far more skilled than I am or ever will be, but he taught me the basics well and I can aspire to reach his standards. I wish he was here to show me, and I think he would have loved this old machine.
RE: British restoration project
That machine looks like a dream come true. Just from the massiveness to the precision that's apparent from the pics.
It seems to be in the same league as Monarch, CVS and DS&G.
Congrats!
But I don't envy your potential troubles, should you need to relocate
RE: British restoration project
The only thing I hung on to was the 'Machinery's Handbook, 14th Edition' (copyright 1953) that had come with the lathe. I actually used it until I broke down some years later and picked-up a copy of the 25th edition (copyright 1996).
John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
RE: British restoration project
Benta, the photo below shows the unusually wide bed for a machine of this capacity: inner ways for headstock, tailstock and fixed steady are about 9", outer ways for saddle are about 14".
RE: British restoration project
John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
RE: British restoration project
Yes, it's another name I've heard but have never seen. North American lathes are quite rare over here, other than the little South Bends perhaps, in contrast with milling machines where K&T, Cincinatti and Bridgeport are all commonplace.
For anyone interested in historical machine tools this is a great reference site: http://www.lathes.co.uk/page21.html . Both Atlas and Clausing are listed. The Clausing machines look very modern in style considering they were being built in the 1950s - quite square and boxy as most lathes are today.
RE: British restoration project
The Atlas was a lightweight, hobbyist machine, it's market is served today by the cheap chinese lathes.
Benta.
RE: British restoration project
That lathe did an enormous amount of very heavy labour in my dad's service. And you had to learn a few tricks to do anything precise with a worn machine...it taught me a lot of important lessons.
When he was about 93, he waited until my stepmother had left on an outing before disassembling, rigging and moving the machine's pieces out of the basement into the garage. He was an incredible backwoods millwright.
Enjoy your restoration job- you have very solid bones to work with there by the look of it!
RE: British restoration project
My guess would be around 2 metric tons, but it could be heavier.
Benta.
RE: British restoration project
RE: British restoration project
Well, it matters to the floor you place it on
RE: British restoration project
About 2¼ tonnes, good guess.
RE: British restoration project
RE: British restoration project
A comparable machine to this Holbrook would be a Hendey or a Monarch.
I'm still drooling over this one, although I wouldn't have room for it myself.
Only downside to this kind of lathe is, that the spindle speed is probably limited.
Love it, I hope you get it completely up to scratch, ScottyUK.
Benta.
RE: British restoration project
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)
RE: British restoration project
B.E.
You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.