The right lathe

[dickie65]

I sold my Myford and got a Harrison M300 for its scrap value.
I got lucky as the Myford bought for £250 then sold for £600 and the M300 cost £1000
The difference in power and accuracy is amazing.
Its a 600 KG toolmakers lathe so a lot heavier than my AustinSeven.
I have added a DRO system too it which makes measurement much easier.
A very nice lightly used 240 volt version Ideal for doing ring gears on flywheels as well as lightening flywheels I have a set of digital calipers that can span the flywheel too.

[Robert Foreman]

Ideally for lubricating the bedways you should be using slideway oil.

[Tony Griffiths]

I think Tony is referring to my Sheldon which I recovered from a skip and which has been used to repair all manner of Seven bits and is nearly as old as our Sevens 

Sheldon made some excellent lathes and numbers of them were brought over in WW2 https://www.lathes.co.uk/sheldon. Dave's model is a "High Countershaft" type that went out of production in 1941. South Bend 9-inch lathes (4.5-inch centre height) and "Heavy Ten" models were also imported from the USA at the time.
The South Bend 9-inch has an interesting history dating back to 1932 - and production running into the 1980s in the Boxford version. It was widely copied in many countries and, if you can find, in decent condition, a Model A with a screwcutting gearbox and power cross-feed, you won't be disappointed. https://www.lathes.co.uk/southbend9-inch/
The Heavy Ten is even better, though it does take up more room. https://www.lathes.co.uk/southbend/page4.html
I once found an unused 1942 Heavy Ten. It had been dropped off at a machine shop in Manchester together with three larger South Bend lathes. Upon protesting that he had not ordered a Heavy Ten, the lorry driver said to the new owner, "It's on the list, and I'm leaving it," and off he drove. The 'reluctant ' owner took it home and parked it at the back of his small garage—where I found it in 1995, complete with a thick layer of dust, two chucks, faceplate, catchplate, taper turning, collets, tools and various ministry tags and paperwork.
Knowing a very experienced and successful local vintage car restorer who wanted such a lathe for his home workshop, I phoned him and said I had what he wanted, a new 1942 lathe. He shot round and I pulled the cover off. "But, that's not new. Wait. Oh my goodness. It is! I'll take it." Of course, I should have kept it....

[jansens]

I have an Emco Emcomat 7 with the longer bed. It's a nice, small machine. I did have to modify a set of Chinese mini-lathe gears to make a gear cutting set for it. I am set up to cut imperial threads. Setting up for cutting threads is always fiddly but it works fine. I have successfully made parts for my Riley on it. But it's really a modelling type lathe. It was my next small step up from a Chinese mini-lathe. The swing is only 3.5" from memory and it doesn't have a cut out in the bed. It's too small for me machine the big end of a Velocette LE con rod which isn't huge for example. Often consider getting a bigger, more useful machine then I remember what a pain it is to find and move and install them!

Simon

[Ian Williams]

I moved up from a Myford ML7 to a Boxford Industrial 10, both great lathes but I have found the Boxford is a much more capable machine when it comes to machining all but the smallest Austin parts. I also upgraded my Mill from a Dore Westbury to a geared head modern Asian built Hafco branded machine. ( I would like something better but it was free when a local college needed their workshops cleared! ) The Dore Westbury was quite versatile but not that rigid so somewhat limiting in term's of size of cut, although I have skimmed cylinder heads, blocks opened out combustion chambers to take big valves and numerous other jobs on it. I guess both my old machines were really designed for building model engineering projects not machining car parts. I guess the point is, if space and funds are limited you can do a lot on equipment like this provided you have patience, they do take a lot of care and setting up to have accuracy though.

[Tony Griffiths]

The Dore Westbury miller. You are spot on, Ian, a very versatile machine that is, because of its multi-axis design, only able to take small cuts. For the home workshop this should not be a problem and I can recommend one. The machine was offered as a kit for home assembly and yet I still receive requests for the build instructions and blueprints - so there must be unfinished ones out there. Over the years I had a number of them through my hands. Some were of very high quality indeed, some just "so so". It was offered in three versions: the original, what is know as the improved Mk.1 and an even better Mk.2 Here are all the details: https://www.lathes.co.uk/dore-westbury/index.html