My shop

[Mr Ron]

I picked up this lathe about 30 years ago. It came off a WWII Liberty ship. It came with 3-jaw and 4-jaw chucks and much tooling. I paid $500 for it. It's 11" swing x 42" between centers. This is the lathe that I broke the tailstock clamp on. It has been fixed with a home made clamp, better than the original.

[Russ Hanscom]

Good lathes; I had a Sheldon 13" for many years. Same quick change arrangement. I think mine dated from the early 50's.

[dly31]

I have a 10" Timken bearing version which I believe was a US Army lathe. Mine also has the single tumbler gearbox.

[Mr Ron]

I have a 10" Timken bearing version which I believe was a US Army lathe. Mine also has the single tumbler gearbox.

Mine has the babbit bearings, but still runs true. I don't think a lathe that came out of a Liberty ship saw a whole lot of use. The 4-jaw independent and the faceplate look like they were never used. I was able to trace it's ancestory back through U.S. Navy records by it's serial number. Everything available was included with the lathe; chucks, centers, taper attachment, transposing gears, follow and steady rests. Many Armstrong tool holders and a grease gun were included. The only thing that I didn't have was the 5C attachment, but I was able to adapt one from another lathe. I made a drawbar to close collets, made from a piece of steel pipe, timken bearing and an old handwheel; works great.

[steamin10]

That looks like an upgraded version of the 11" I used for about ten years. It has the same gawky chuck position, single gear change, but mine was without cabinet and overhead driven. It dated to 1914 IIRC. It was an iron head without bronze or babbit. I had to make a shim to take the for-aft slop out of the spindle, the only real problem with the old boat anchor.

[bedwards]

I have the 11" version dating from 1943. It has a navy insignia stamped on the end of the bed. It came with 2 chucks and taper attachment but I am missing most of the parts for the Mastermill attachment. I guess I need to try to sell the parts I have as they seem to be hard to find and I doubt ever using it instead of a regular mill.




be

[Mr Ron]

I have the 11" version dating from 1943. It has a navy insignia stamped on the end of the bed. It came with 2 chucks and taper attachment but I am missing most of the parts for the Mastermill attachment. I guess I need to try to sell the parts I have as they seem to be hard to find and I doubt ever using it instead of a regular mill.




be

Mine, I think is a little earlier. It has threaded oil cups. The serial number is: ESWQ11240; bed length is 44"