The Classic Machinery Network

Does anybody know what make this is?

Lathes are not my strong point but I will suggest the name Colchester???

A dangerous one at a guess!! Unguarded pulleys and gears would not be allowed to be used like that in a commercial business in this country, Mr HSE would do his nut if he saw that one.
There is; or should I say was such a wide variety of machinery manufacturers at one time its hard to say for sure and this kind of kit was well built too indeed we are still using a Webster & Bennett vertical borer at my work that was built in 1942

Jeremy

Site Admin wrote:Does anybody know what make this is?

I've no idea - probably not Colchester! It looks to be in good condition.

This site has loads of models and pictures, you could do a little detective work. though it might take a while.

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

Julian.

Well, that bears an amazing similarity to a lathe my father had, which was eventhually identified as a Swedish "Rosenfors". The identification was done largely thru the translation of a screwcutting chart on the left hand leg, ( under the headstock ), which is in... Swedish (!). It was dated to around 1860. I personally find it hard to believe that the type of bed ways - the "V" type, would have been around then, but.....

I have some pictures of mine, if you would like me to upload them for comparison.

ATB

Sim

Hi Sim,
welcome to CMN! Yes, please, upload the pictures.
Thanks a lot!

Piccies of my Fathers "Rosenfors" attached.

I would guess that this is a bit bigger than the one above - centre height is about 165mm, and its roughly 1m between centres. I would also guess that such proportions would make this a "long bed" version.

As mentioned above, Tony Griffith's excellent site has a mountain of information within it, and even a section on unknown lathes. He also has two sections on Rosenfors lathes, which include the reference "Rosenfors - Aktiebolaget Rosenfors Bruk of Malilla, Sweden" - this may help you a little since you are in closer proximity that we are !!

If you look at http://www.lathes.co.uk/unknown51/ and http://www.lathes.co.uk/unknown46/ you will see lathes that are very similar to yours...

I would be very interested to know if you find anything from the info above - it may help us both find out what we have!

ATB

Sim

Sorry but no one of this is near the one that I have.

My have a feed rod and other bearing holder.
I've looked in all of Tonys pages. But can't fin anyone like mine.

(Clarre owns the lathe in the first post)

Wow,haha,my boss aquired an ancient lathe exactly like that one about 7yrs ago,ours had the coolant/swarf tray between the legs just below the bed,I had a go at turning the odd item on it,one dangerous machine ,remember having to oil the spindle bearings manually,great to see the pics of one,looks almost new compared the one we had