Milnes lathe.

[John Hill]

I looked at an old lathe today with a view to potentially using it in our museum workshop..

..the treadle is gone and the belt pulley has been converted for a flat belt otherwise very much as in the picture.

I gave the chuck a big heave and could feel 'some' movement in the bearing but I am not familiar with that old style of spindle which seems to have a centre (adjustable?) at the outer end.


Here is a better view of what I am talking about.  Would that take up play in the main spindle bearing?

[sshire]

John
You might contact John Alexander at the American Precision Museum.
His knowledge of old machine tools is very extensive.

http://www.americanprecision.org/about/contact-us

[John Hill]

Thanks Stan.

[Nicolas]

That is quite nice.

On the subject of old lathes, did you see the Lorch on TradeMe for sale here in Napier?

[John Hill]

I did indeed b ut Napier is quite a long drive!  If I recall correctly the Lorch went for a fair price do you think?

[ths]

I think LBSC might have had a Milnes, but he complained about the taper rolling bearing leaving track marks in his work. They changed the rollers for a great big lump of bronze, and he shut up. Hugh.

[John Hill]

I bought the Milnes lathe and took it to our aviation museum this morning where it generated considerable interest.  A few minutes and a couple of litres of diesel oil and we had all movements working most of which are surprisingly smooth.

It needs a motor and a 6" three jaw to be really useful or we might give it a cosmetic restoration.  It has no treadle and the bed gap filler is missing but is otherwise very nearly complete with only a few very minor items missing from the 1900(?) catalogue picture.  It is considerably worn and the cross slide and compound feed screw have been replaced recently, the lead screw is rather rounded and the half nut is rather slack.

It will be interesting to see what a handicap it is without the gap filler.

[AndyB]

Hi John,

I don't have experience of this particular lathe but many ideas are found on all similarly-aged lathes and I am a bugger for Drummonds. Obvously I did what you did and went to Tony Griffiths' site to look it up.

I would ask what sort of movement you found on the spindle? The threaded rings on the outside end of the headstock spindle are to take up end float. If it does not already have one, a ball bearing thrust washer would do the old girl a power of good and not be out of keeping for a machine that age.

Side play is taken up by the pinch bolts on the head bearings. I don't know if the spindle runs in the cast iron directly but I just stripped a Zyto lookalike at Forncett Steam Museum and that has thin bronze bushes split on one side. (If you are reading this Ramon, it is the one on the table next to the Sleaford engine, and has suffered from neglect in the very humid apmosphere).

Be careful when adjusting the pinch bolts that you do not crack the casting! If it looks like excessive travel, replace the bushes, but I don't think, from what you say, that this will be a problem. Make sure that you align the oil holes in the bushes (if you have them) with the oil holes in tha casting when putting it back together (forgive me if I appear to be trying to teach my grandmother how to suck eggs).

I shouldn't worry about the gap piece, particularly if you are going to be mostly using a chuck. The saddle should not run off the end (as you can see in one of Tony's photographs); it is only for very close working to a faceplate with carbon steel tools. A gap piece only supports the leading edge of the saddle, it does not add any strength to the bed as it only sits in the gap.

I hope that this helps.

Andy

[John Hill]

Hi Andy,  I have a Drummond too!  As far as I can tell 1908 flat bed.

The Milnes is out at the museum while I think about its future,  do I donate it to the museum or retain ownership,  how much time to spend on it and how much money to spend?  Museum money or mine?

The movement is not much but I can feel it but wrapping my arms around the chuck and trying to shake things.

The head stock does not have any pinch bolt and I can see there is a bush of some kind under all the crud  but I will be able to take a closer look tomorrow.  I saw the threaded collars like the ones on the Drummond but I dont understand the purpose of the bridge piece over the pinion on the end of the spindle.   I will certainly looking at the idea of a ball bearing thrust washer.

It might also be an idea to put ball bearing thrust washers on the cross slide and compound screws.  They look like they (the screws) have recently been replaced.

The real challenge will be sourcing a 6"/160mm 3 jaw chuck for it as the one that came with it has been much abused and has external jaws only.   Even a used chuck would cost as much as I paid for the lathe!

[Ian S C]

The ones that would know about the Milnes lathe would be Peter Lyne and his mates at The Tinwald museum/park, but I imagine you know more about that than I do.  Must get down to the Aviation Museum again, used to go each year with the Military Vehicles group.
Ian S C