Plough Book Sales

This was originally a British publication that has been recently reprinted by Lindsay Publications in the U.S.A. This is what they had to say about it: "Yeah, I know. You can't bring yourself to admit it. But it's true. The Brits have been the leaders at model building in the home machine shop, what they call "model engineering". One reason is that small, reasonable priced, yet accurate lathes appeared in England in the early 1900's. It too us a while longer to get started."

Any way, the book contains the following details. It starts off with two articles revealing the design features of small lathes being manufactured in 1924. These include the classic Drummond round bed, the Wade, those by Exe, ETA, Cheltenham, and others. You see how they were designed from the headstock to the tailstock. There are some with roller bearings in the headstock, but others used Babbitt bearings with incredible results.

You'll see details on power cross feed, how the Britannia bed could be set at an angle, and other unusual design features not often seen these days. Also see a vertical milling attachment bolted to the lathe bed.

The second half of the book covers "Work of the Bench Lathe" showing how simple lathes could be used to turn out quantities of accurate work. You'll see facing and counterboring with a rack & pinion slide rest, accurate shoulder turning, a lever operated tool slide, broaching with a rack & pinion tailstock, drilling small holes, turret attachments, grinding operations, thread cutting and milling, milling slots in bench lathe collet chuck, and more.

Fascinating reading for collectors, lathe builders, restorers, and those who enjoy the history of the lathe.

Code No. 008837