Big boys toys.

[Retired]

Hi,

Lathe ownership is increasing on the forum so I thought the following link might be interesting; please scroll down to the pictures.

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/guides/Wil...d_and_Sons

For a home workshop my now sold Colchester Triumph lathe could be considered quite large but compared to the lathes in the pictures on the website it would be considered a toy.

The last big lathes I saw was at "The Plant" in Doncaster. This in the early sixties was the place where the likes of Mallard was serviced and overhauled. A group of us 14 year olds used to climb over the wall at The plant and wander around on a Saturday; we've been on the footplate of Mallard whilst engineers were working on the boiler unaware of our presence. The machine shop contained some impressive machinery and I vividly remember the big centre lathes with a pair of loco driving wheels and axle set up for turning;

Even at this age I found it sad that loco's were being scrapped and there were stacks of loco nameplates sitting on the ground outside.

We still have some of the best engineers in the world but what a pity heavy engineering is in decline.

Kind regards, Col.

[Bushbaby]

I agree its a crying shame that we used to make lots of things and now we don't.

These are a wee bit bigger than my Myford or Unimat lathes!!

Regards

Rob

[Yorkie]

Interesting site Colin. I noticed a pic half way down the page which had the title 'light engineering shop' featuring scores of quite large lathes, but I guess that 'light engineering' is a relative term and compared to some of he heavy stuff at Doxfords it was 'light'!

None of the men were wearing eye protection or ear defenders and I dare say the noise was horrendous. One chap was cutting a huge con-rod with a profile cutter which look like it would drop on the floor when the cut was complete. Different attitude to health and safety back then, namely: 'this is dangerous work, watch out for yourself or you could have a serious accident which would be your own fault'. No wonder heavy industry had such an appalling accident record.

Some years ago I toured a factory in Brittany that made gas boilers. The copper heat exchangers were immersed in a vat of molten solder, then came out on a conveyor across a gangway where employees had to walk and had to bend down to get beneath the hot heat exchangers swinging above them. I asked the manager if they had factory inspectors, and he said 'of course'. I said 'what would he say if someone walked into one of these heat exchangers and was seriously burned?' he replied 'The inspector would say that would be a very stupid thing for someone to do'.

How sad that a firm such as William Doxford and others survived the 1930s depression, was working flat out in WW2 and into the 1950s, when Sunderland was still the largest shipbuilding area in the world, then it all fizzled out as the Koreans et al stole the march. Could say the same about Woolworths I guess - how come they were asleep at the wheel and went bust, when outfits such as Poundland, The Range, Poundstretcher, Wilko et al are all doing well in a recession?

[Retired]

Hi,

I hoped you would miss this thread Rob as I didn't want to encourage you into squeezing one of these lathes into your workshop.

The only safety kit I wore on a regular basis during my days in the pit were safety helmet; safety boots and leather gloves. It's strange David that during this time I only ever saw one accident. This was during a holiday when the engineers were mechanizing the Caphouse Colliery (Mining museum). We were loading the cage with a giant roll of conveyor belting to go under ground when a labourer got his foot under the roll. Sympathy? not likely because he was called all kinds of fool for slowing the job down as he was carted off to the ambulance room. Eye protection was used for welding and oxy/acetylene cutting but I don't recall ever wearing ear protection.

I used oxy/acetylene cutting gear a lot and it was common to cut heavy section steel plate or RSJ's being very much aware of the laws of gravity; the main problem was to keep feet well out of the way because a bootful of molten metal makes a mess of socks and is a lesson very quickly learned.

The UK motorcycling industry was one of the first in decline David for the very reason you mention; being asleep at the wheel. How many directors arriving at the Triumph or BSA factories in their big cars actually threw a leg over one of their bikes? We were still kicking British bikes off and sticking arms out when Honda arrived on the scene with electric starting and flashing indicators. I assembled some of the first Honda CB72's to come into the country and what a revelation they were; unit construction with a horizontally split crankcase/gearbox; split the crankcase and lift the top half clear to reveal the gears and crank assembly; these bikes didn't wet themselves either by leaving oil beneath them when parked. I took the motorcycle mags of the day and there was much discussion regarding the way our own bike manufacturers had let the industry slide to such a low level. The mighty Vincent's and Brough Superiors were brilliant bikes and still are but unfortunately the style never changed until the foreign competition arrived. I'll always remember looking at the Honda in-line six at the Manchester motorcycle show all those years ago.

We have the skills in the UK to beat anything produced in the world so why aren't we using these skills? At one point during my time at Brook Motors consultants were on site looking at our manufacturing techniques and they were to introduce better work flow patterns through assembly lines; the MD remarked in a meeting why the heck are we paying these people when we can make a mess of it ourselves a lot cheaper? By this time Brooks had been taken over a number of times and I used to arrive at work on a Monday morning wondering what the company would be called this week.

I'm happy to include a few pictures of my own big boys toys; the Colchester Triumph engineering lathe was a beauty with all power feed and excellent screw cutting gearbox it was also fitted with a matrix clutch which I liked a lot; at over a ton it was a big lathe for a home workshop.

The Dominion wood-turning lathe was also a beauty; this had flat belt drive with four speeds but I only ever kept it on one speed; it was fitted with a heavy compound slide so could also be pressed into service for a bit of metal turning where accuracy wasn't too important. Outboard it was fitted with a 16” faceplate resembling a flywheel from a car as it was so heavy; I fitted a brake to the rear of the faceplate which worked very well and another modification was to add a long lever to the front of the headstock on a knuckle joint; this lever was used to lift the heavy drive motor thereby allowing the motor to continue running in effect it was rather like a primitive clutch and it allowed soft start. This Dominion weighed in at three quarters of a ton and outboard it could esily turn over six feet diameter although I never tried this. Being short of space the Dominion became buried in junk making using it even more of an hassle.

Both these lathes were 3 phase 415V and they were both big and heavy; I think the Dominion was over 8 feet long and it was the size of the lathes and them being three phase that eventually decided me to part with them. I was running them through a Transwave 7.5HP converter and I never liked the converter; it did the job but it was how it did the job I disliked; starting power was poor so starting these heavy lathes was a pain and slow; this is why I fitted the motor lifter to the Dominion so that I didn't have to keep starting and stopping the motor. Had I known then that within a short period of time I would install transformer 3 phase costing under £120 I possibly would not have parted with them and used them a lot more. Both lathes were a joy to own but the converter let them down. I still own my delightful Record DML24” wood-turning lathe and also two extremely rare Myford MF36” metal lathes; the Myford's are in bits awaiting total rebuilds but the beds have been re-ground and painted.

Kind regards, Col.

               

[singlepentode69]

I remember watching a film in school about how they re cut the wheels on trains such a nice bit if kit.
Robin