Raglan Little John lathe?

[merlinart]

Are you a member of the Swiss Railway Society, I thoroughly recommend it www.swissrailsoc.org.uk

They publish a quarterly A4 colour magazine and sell masses of DVDs of Swiss railways...I've been watching a different one every night in bed for the past month or so...sends me off to sleep nicely! The Jungfrau trip is excellent as is the Bernina, the Glacier Express, etc, you can never tire if you like trains/funiculars/cable cars/boats etc, magnificent transport museum in Luzern. Splendid country, just mighty expensive.

Arthur

[Tony Griffiths]

Hi, you've read the stuff I written about Raglan lathes: http://www.lathes.co.uk/raglan so you should have a good idea about what the machine can do and its specification. In their day they were an expensive item and, if still not too worn, made an ideal lathe for the amateur's workshop - not too large, not too small. The known weak points are covered in the text and the three models easy to recognise - most common being the Mk.2 Little John with its distinctive, flat-topped headstock cover with bevelled sides; the next version the "Five-inch" has a number of improvements and one of those is well worth seeking out.
Contrary to popular opinion, Myford did not buy them out to stop production - the lathe was in a different class to what they were making - but talking to the then Myford Works manager, Malcolm Townsend, he explained that when they went in to see if they could make a go it, it was clear that it would be an uphill struggle. However, they did persist for a while and the majority of those made under Myford's ownership can be recognised by the motor fastened to the back of the stand and driving up to a dummy shaft where it originally resided. This allowed, instead of the non-standard motor used before, to be replaced by almost anything in the way of an off-the-shelf unit. A number, Malcome recalls about twenty, were built up to the standard specification, but these nearly all had the same rather fine chemically-blacked fastenings used on the Myford. In the end, the whole venture was loss-making one and they were forced to give up.

[Lowespeed]

Whilst training at college I was assigned to use the Little John lathe in the corner by the workshop supervisor. This had the variable speed control on the top. Needing to use a four chuck instead of the three jaw in place. I turned to the supervisor and asked "How do you remove the chuck" not knowing how to lock the spindle. However as I asked I had run it up to full speed and then straight back to complete stop. The chuck unscrewed itself, bowled along the lathe bed, bounced off the tailstock, and spun off across the workshop. Much to the horror of the other students. Completely calm the supervisor said "Well that's one way!"

[Tony Griffiths]

I used to travel widely in Switzerland using the railway, SBB CFF FFS. The thing to remember is, if you're late, don't bother running for the train - they always leave on time!
My most memorable journey was a trip up to the top of the Jungfraujoch - 11,300 feet.

My elder son lives in Switzerland - he's now a Swiss citizen - and when out there we've occasionally bought an all-day-all-transport ticket and started by travelling down lake Geneva on one of the paddle boats. Then, onto various trains, buses and mountain railways. Great fun on a fine, summer's day and, if you can take out a second mortgage, worth travelling first class. I recall waiting for a train at Martigny station that, according to the station clock, appeared to be running late. As the train came into view, a member of the station staff appeared with a ladder and climbed up to adjust the clock.....

[merlinart]

Hi Tony

Thanks for all the info, very helpful indeed. I think I'll make the chap an offer for it all. His father in law bought it used back in the 1970s apparently and used it for model railway locomotives, the son in law has it now, but wants a smaller one for his house as he is now into N gauge trains etc, naturally we spoke about N gauge Swiss stuff, but he's all British! His is a trained coppersmith, but now working on food production machine maintenance and about to retire. My judgement is that it has most likely been lightly used by careful chaps...hope so!

Am I right therefore that you wrote up all the Raglan page on lathes.co.uk....you must know your onions! Are you the chap who does the magnificent clean ups of front covers in Photoshop I guess? I have just bought an Epson A2 roll fed printer, so could print some....if anyone wanted? 

I wonder how many Austin Sevens and perhaps Dixies are in Switzerland?

Arthur

[Tony Griffiths]

Hi Tony

Thanks for all the info, very helpful indeed. I think I'll make the chap an offer for it all. His father in law bought it used back in the 1970s apparently and used it for model railway locomotives, the son in law has it now, but wants a smaller one for his house as he is now into N gauge trains etc, naturally we spoke about N gauge Swiss stuff, but he's all British! His is a trained coppersmith, but now working on food production machine maintenance and about to retire. My judgement is that it has most likely been lightly used by careful chaps...hope so!

Am I right therefore that you wrote up all the Raglan page on lathes.co.uk....you must know your onions! Are you the chap who does the magnificent clean ups of front covers in Photoshop I guess? I have just bought an Epson A2 roll fed printer, so could print some....if anyone wanted? 

I wonder how many Austin Sevens and perhaps Dixies are in Switzerland?

Arthur

Yes, I'm the one.... Should anyone request an A2 print from the images posted so far, I can send you the original scan to work from. Some are very high resolution - from covers I have - or much lower, being ones downloaded from eBay or similar. There is also a miscellaneous set of cartoons and covers my backup website: http://www.lathes.uk/A7-posters/img0.jpg They run up to http://www.lathes.uk/A7-posters/img53.jpg  Just substitute a number after the letters img - and see what you get e.g. http://www.lathes.uk/A7-posters/img17.jpg for a low-resolution picture, or http://www.lathes.uk/A7-posters/img49.jpg for a higher.

[Bob Culver]

Any althe is infinitely more useful than none. The problem with lathes is they become a hobby in themselves. Far less expensive than Sevens and safer!
For the screw cutting an average amateur does, change wheels are no problem provided all there, including 127 tooth metric conversion.

[jr2766]

I owned and used one of these lathes for years and it was a really great little machine. In my view a class above a Myford.
Jim Runciman

[merlinart]

Hi Tony

I bought that lathe in the end, I got both the lathe and mill for £600, so was quite pleased, plus a massive amount of tooling/spares/parts etc. I'm pretty certain it is a Mk 2 Little John, will check again tomorrow when in the workshop. Not set it all up yet, but hope to do so next month. We reckon the spares/tooling alone is worth what I paid.

Where in the Peak District are you? I expect you know it well, but there's a superb old garage in Castleton, they were working on a Seven when I was last there.

Arthur

[Tony Griffiths]

Hi. I live in the Peak district, not too far from Castleton and the well-known garage you mention. If inexperienced with lathe work, get yourself a copy of "The Amateur's Lathe" - a bible of useful data for any lathe no matter what the size.