Best old Lathes

[MusicMan]

The purpose of a 127 tooth gear is that it is the smallest number of teeth that will provide a 1:25.4 ratio in order to convert from inch to mm either way (depending on whether it is a driving or driven gear). I can't comment on your machine without knowing much more about it.

Bugbear, you are right about the quality of the Boley machines. I have a small vice too, by far the best I have used. The smaller and higher precision lathe still has only 5 microns runout on the main spindle after about 80 years use! It is true that most machines of the era were more solidly built, Rhyolith, but there are many excellent design features of the Boley which were not emulated in other machines of the time (until Smart and Brown copied one ... ).

Keith

 

[Rhyolith]

Rhyolith, but there are many excellent design features of the Boley which were not emulated in other machines of the time (until Smart and Brown copied one ... ).

I think I have decided to go for something cheap (under £500) and learn more about using metal working lathes first hand before considering something expensive with all the bells and whistles. I defiantly want thread cutting facility and top notch build quality, but i doubt I will benefit from more specific design features until I learn more from experience. I plane to get a separate woodworking lathe later for wooden handle production (so focus on metal lathes for this thread).

I am seriously considering an Myford ML4, so any additional comments on that would be handy. Also any affordable lathes that excel at thread cutting; which I will likely use for breast drill side handles and the like.

Thanks everyone, all info has been useful

 

[katellwood]

The purpose of a 127 tooth gear is that it is the smallest number of teeth that will provide a 1:25.4 ratio in order to convert from inch to mm either way (depending on whether it is a driving or driven gear).

Keith

I get away with a 63 tooth gear for inch to mm conversion not exact but works

 

[woodfarmer]

The purpose of a 127 tooth gear is that it is the smallest number of teeth that will provide a 1:25.4 ratio in order to convert from inch to mm either way (depending on whether it is a driving or driven gear).

Keith

I get away with a 63 tooth gear for inch to mm conversion not exact but works

I can't change the driving gear as it is on the spindle and intimately linked to the reversing mechanism ( for LH threads or reverse feeds) It has 42 teeth as does the gearwheel on the leadscrew which I could change if I made one for it.
An 87 tooth gear here could give me 3.50045 or therabouts mm pitch thread. ( would like to make things to fit wood lathe spindle 33 x 3.5mm.

neither a 63 or 127 tooth wheel helps.

 

[MusicMan]

What is the pitch of your leadscrew? And how many gears can you put between the two 42 tooth gears? Lathes differ in this.

 

[woodfarmer]

What is the pitch of your leadscrew? And how many gears can you put between the two 42 tooth gears? Lathes differ in this.

Pitch of leadscrew is 1/4 inch. I can put one gear between the two although with some jiggery pokery might be possible to use two gears on the same centre and then drive the leadscrew gear slightly offset.

Photo incl before I restored it.

 

[MusicMan]

Thanks. Your picture shows three gears between the two 42 toothers, i.e. you have two ratio pairs. This is quite normal, sometimes there are even three pairs. It isn't jiggery-pokery, it's the usual design. The other question is, what gears do you have besides the 42ers?

 

[woodfarmer]

Thanks. Your picture shows three gears between the two 42 toothers, i.e. you have two ratio pairs. This is quite normal, sometimes there are even three pairs. It isn't jiggery-pokery, it's the usual design. The other question is, what gears do you have besides the 42ers?

After the spindle 42 tooth gear is a set that can be rocked to provide RH or LH threads. Then a big idler gear on a movable mount to allow different size gears. I forget how many teeth this has, It drives the end of the leadscrew which has a 42 tooth gearwheel. If I were to make an 87 tooth wheel for the leadscrew I could very nearly cut (I think) a 3.5mm Thread.

Pitches all in TPI and selectable from the gearbox levers.

 

[Jik]

Great to hear about your lathe ! I have just obtatined an LZ4P Boley..
I am yet to work out how to use the change gears!

How do you get the motor to reverse if you are screwcutting, do you fit a reversing switch, or run it in reverse each time and index the carriage to the same position?
Thanks

Actually I have two old ones, both prewar Boley (German) one of which is screw cutting. Though I am still collecting change gears! However the stiffness and precision are terrific.

I suspect their merit comes from the maker, not the period.

Boley! :shock:

BugBear (with a lovely little Boley bench vice)

 

[MusicMan]

Great to hear about your lathe ! I have just obtatined an LZ4P Boley..
I am yet to work out how to use the change gears!

How do you get the motor to reverse if you are screwcutting, do you fit a reversing switch, or run it in reverse each time and index the carriage to the same position?
Thanks

Sorry for the delay in replying and thanks to Tom French for pointing me at it! I've been rather busy and with my wife ill (not Covid though).

The LZ4P is a Boley and Leinen number, not a Boley. They are two different firms, in the same city (Essingen) and B&L split off from B. You will find this interesting: http://www.lathes.co.uk/leinen/

It is a very good lathe and indeed will do screw cutting. With a lathe with chucks screwed on, as I suspect this has, you never ever run the motor in reverse or the chuck will unscrew and do you and the machine a lot of damage. There is a reversing gear (tumble reverse) controlled by a knob on the front - the lathes.co.uk entry has a picture of it. This changes the direction of rotation of the leadscew relative to the motor. It allows you to do a carriage traverse for bar turning in either direction, or to cut right or left hand threads. Actually, your lathe might have separate screws for thread cutting and for carriage feed (which is good). If it is like the pictures on lathes.co.uk it looks as if the upper one engages (indexes) on the lead screw and the lower one on the carriage drive for turning rods.

In this style of lathe you do not run it in reverse at the end of a screw cut. You stop the traverse at the end of the cut (normally just past the end of the work), disengage the index lever, pull the tool back with the cross slide, wind the carriage manually back to the start, then advance the cross slide to cut a little deeper and re-engage the index. Sounds elaborate but it's the way I was trained and you pick it up quickly. You may have a single index position or several, in which case they will be numbered. These are for doing multi start threads and you must use the same number each time.

In principle you could engage the reverse to wind the carriage back, but this would be much slower than doing it manually. And on a lathe that has seen much use, there would probably be some backlash at the lead screw so the tool would not actually run in quite the same track and would chew up your thread, so you still have to withdraw the tool (or use a flip holder).

I'm not au fait with the details of Boley Leinen lathes but can probably advise you further if you ask specific questions. But only if you post copies quality pictures for us all to admire!

Keith