Nice little lathe at NVCF - Unsold?

[Yorkie]

I spotted a nice little lathe at the NVCF, and given the large number of visitors I was surprised that it didn't arouse and interest considering that it was the only one there. I never saw anyone give it a second glance, and it was unsold when we left at 2.30pm. I didn't ask the price as I wasn't in the market for it, but I dare say that the stall-holder would have preferred to have sold it than cart it back home, and had someone made a sensible offer, he'd doubtless have snatched their hand off. Though in need of TLC, It didn't look abused, and the mandrel spun smoothly, with no sign of play. It came with a chuck and a motor too. (No makers' name on the lathe).

I've used my little lathe for all sorts of radio related jobs, most recently to make the valve base adaptors for my Taylor 45 valve tester to extend the range of valves that can be tested.

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks for posting this David. It's a good job I didn't attend the meeting or this lathe would be #5 in my garage; its worth £150 as is because it looks a robust bit of kit and even a lathe like this opens up a whole new turning world. An engineering lathe doesn't need lots of change wheels or power feeds to be useful because for one off jobs its not difficult to turn a couple of handles by hand in fact doing so is quite therapeutic.

John our local postmaster has a vintage engineering lathe for sale but so far I've managed to keep my head down not asking too many details about it.

Kind regards, Col.

[AlanBeckett]

It looks like one of the products of the Portass Brothers - http://www.lathes.co.uk/portass/index.html - although I wouldn't care to say which one.
It's missing the Dog Clutch for the Leadscrew and the Banjo. However, it would be prefectly usable.
Good job I wasn't there either, otherwise I might have lapsed

Alan