Boxford model a lathe manual

Pin us on Pinterest. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our use of cookies. Find out more. Forum sponsored by:. Model engineering club news Model Engineers' Workshop. News from advertisers in Our Magazines and Website. I assume its a one-piece shaft- How can i release it and will it only come out one way? I can't remember any problems or gotchas but it is quarter of a century since I did mine.

Check the manual for the way to set the preload on reassembly. Magazine Locator. View All Topics. Community Sites. Model Flying Model Boats. Model Engineering Get Woodworking. Bulleid Sheffield visit.

If this clutch is allowed to slip by regularly running the carriage up against a bed stop for example the mating surfaces of the cone will eventually become polished and, no matter how tightly the knob is screwed in, will slip badly. The solution is to strip the clutch and roughen all the friction surfaces - the spilt cones and their seating - with fine emery cloth; once done this will allow the drive to deep cuts with only the lightest of pressure on the control wheel.

On late machines, for both safety and ease of use, the clutch wheel was prevented from rotating by the use of needle-roller thrust bearings fitted to both front and back of the engagement shaft with a peg added to its end that located into a hole in the cover plate. These late-model aprons can be instantly recognised by their black plastic clutch-control wheel, the earlier type being in cast-iron.

Unfortunately, the clasp nuts, though of a straightforward design, do tend to fill up with swarf and dirt and so, to protect the leadscrew, it's worth removing the apron from time to time and cleaning them out carefully. In the case of the Model C, where the clasp nuts are in constant use taking the place of the power-feed mechanism it may be necessary to pick embedded material from the thread roots with a sharp-pointed tool.

An adjustable friction device - a spring, ball bearing and socket-headed Allen screw - located underneath the apron towards its tailstock end helped to hold the clasp nuts in both their open and closed positions.. Although the barrel clamp was a proper compression affair the operating lever was too short and, consequently, it can be difficult to get enough force to lock things down solidly.

Accessories Virtually every accessory is interchangeable across the model range and, in addition, many of those made for the 9-inch South Bend, and Smart and Brown Sabel and other clones also fit. Even the fixed steady from the later 5" lathe is useable on the smaller machine and visa-versa if you are prepared to give up a little of its maximum capacity. Sadly, Boxford accessories do tend to be far less common than those for Myford lathes and hence are more digfficult and expensive to find on the second-hand market.

Amongst the hardest items to find are the standard and compound milling slides ; the former used a very robust main column that fitted into the hole in the cross slide normally occupied by the top slide and was supplied with a T-slotted table and a vice, both able to be used independently on the cross slide.

Boxford also produced a beautiful dividing unit based on the same fitting - but this was always an astronomic price - and very few can have been sold. The compound milling slide is, likewise, very hard to find and, being so versatile, greatly sought after.

One very unusual accessory - so far only one example has come to light - was a headstock spindle dividing attachment. Probably made as a one-off to satisfy an order from the Post Office Research Station at Dollis Hill in London, the assembly consisted a block, fastened to a machined surface on the face of the headstock, that contained an indexing plunger - this engaging in a ring of holes drilled into a large disc mounted on the end of the headstock spindle. Parts Interchangeability There is a high degree of parts interchange-ability between the various models - and also between South Bend 9-inch lathes and Boxford; three popular improvements to the latter are: fitting a screwcutting gearbox, a power cross feed apron and a T-slotted cross slide.

For the gearbox and power-feed conversion you will need, as a minimum, not only the major parts but also the correct changewheels 20t, 45t, 50t and an 80 idler with a boss the slotted leadscrew and the correct "Y-shaped" changewheel bracket. The bracket used on the B and C is, incidentally, slightly different, and if fitted will tend to foul the gearbox. On early lathes it will be necessary to drill an extra hole through the bed at the headstock end to take the third gearbox mounting screw.

The South Bend has a rack-and-pinion carriage drive of a coarser pitch than the Boxford and it may be necessary on some machines to make an adjustment to the height of the leadscrew by inserting shims between hanger brackets and bed. The leadscrew will also need to be swapped over, or the existing one modified to fit the gearbox, and a slot milled along its length to drive the apron worm wheel. When everything is in place check by hand and with the changewheel bracket removed that the assembly rotates easily.

If it doesn't, slacken the screws holding both the gearbox and the leadscrew hanger bracket and re-tighten them a little at a time, rotating the leadscrew while you do so, in order to locate the fault.

Unfortunately, there is a caveat to all this for, while the gearbox is a problem-free fit - and nobody has yet found any difficulty with the apron and cross-slide arrangements - if the parts come from a South Bend there may be a problem. Experienced South Bend mechanics report that the company did not hold the tolerances of saddles fitted to the C to the same tightness as those intended for an A.

The result is that the gear on the cross-feed screw may not mesh properly with its apron-mounted drive, being either too slack or too tight. Interestingly, the writer knows of one Boxford that was successfully fitted with the single-tumbler screwcutting gearbox and gear drive from a South Bend "Heavy 10": the box bolted straight onto the Boxford bed with the only change necessary being to the tumble-reverse gears that needed changing to match that on the end of the spindle.

The T-slotted cross slide is a direct replacement for the standard unit and makes the lathe significantly more versatile - being able to accommodate a rear toolpost and various non-Boxford milling slides.

The T-slotted slides are relatively expensive items but excellent new UK-made units are now available from us-- email for details. It is worth noting that, when supplied by the works with a taper-turning attachment, lathes were fitted with a different design of cross-feed nut held on with two screws instead of the usual boss - these too, along with standard nuts, feed screws and micrometer dials, can all be supplied.

Parts and Accessories Availability lathes. These parts also fit South Bend and many other South Bend "clones". The design of the T-slotted cross slide has recently been revised to improve its versatility and now features a slot across the front - as well as three to the rear - and fully machined sides.

These modifications allow the unit to be adapted as a small boring table - and provide flat vertical locations against which jobs can be registered. The later type of "inset" rotational scale for the top slide is also included, so the unit can be used in place of the normal slide for ordinary turning operations. If your cabinet stand has broken or non-operating handles and locks replacements Part Nos.

Weights vary with bed length and specification but the approximate maximum figures likely to be encountered as longer-bed examples are: Model A kg lbs Model B kg lbs Model C kg lbs Model AUD kg lbs Model Mk. With the two screws securing the tailstock-end leadscrew hanger bearing removed, the entire carriage can be slid off the bed; the changewheel banjo can be slipped off after pulling the leadscrew or gearbox input gear off its shaft don't loose the key ; the headstock is secured by two bolts, the front one of which poses the greater challenge and requires a very short, open-ended spanner and some knuckle-scraping work to undo.

If the lathe has a gearbox, leave it in place - and try not to remove a lathe from an under-drive stand; a compound was used to stop coolant getting into the wrong places and effectively sticks the lathe down; once broken the hardened sealer has to be chipped off, the faces carefully cleaned and the joint remade.

Notes on Lathes Fitted with 3-phase Motors If your Boxford has a 3-phase motor the best conversion is to run it from a variable-speed inverter; these are wired direct to the motor and replace the lathe's conventional electrical controls.

If a conversion to 1-phase electrics is desired, while the rear-drive machines have a reasonable amount of space behind the lathe to fit a replacement motor although capacitor boxes may have to be relocated the under-drive lathes are a little tight on room and, although the conversion is perfectly straightforward, there are one or two simple points worth bearing in mind: the original motor, if 3-phase, will almost certainly be 0.

Replacing it with a modern 0. The experience of many owners suggests that a minimum of 1 h. In the latter case, problems may be encountered getting it into the limited space available, especially if a modern type with a large plastic box shielding the capacitor and terminals.

First, install the motor as far back on its mounting platform as possible you may need to drill new holes in the plate having first checked that there is still enough room for the belt-tensioning rod to function properly. Second, to enable the motor to clear the floor, lift its mounting platform as high as possible on the over-centre adjuster and use a shorter T-link belt for the drive - it might even be necessary to adjust the length of the tensioning rod to accomplish this.

Another trick is to remove the plastic box from the motor and remount the capacitor remotely, preferably in a place where replacement is easy when it fails as it will. Do not forget to engineer a suitably safe cover for the terminals and clip any new wires securely to the stand.

As a last resort, because the base of the motor compartment is open, the stand can be mounted on raiser blocks at each corner and the motor allowed to hang down into the space created. If the original 3-phase wiring and switches are intact leave them all in place and wire the replacement motor to a new switch with fresh cabling - this makes a future conversion back to 3-phase an easy matter, and might even enhance the value of the lathe.

Alternatively, and especially if the lathe has coolant and low-volt lighting fitted, consider running it from a 1-phase to 3-phase phase variable-speed " Inverter "; although a little more expensive than a motor change, once you have one of these units it can be used to power other 3-phase machines, all of which are more readily available, and invariably cheaper, than their single-phase equivalents.

As the inverter provides a variable-speed output it will, if coupled to more than one motor - the suds pump for example - vary the speed of both. In practice many people who have combined several motors running from one unit report that it causes no problems.

With prices now very affordable, the advantages of inverters are becoming more widely appreciated - and a small lathe fitted with one is certainly a much easier, more versatile and safer tool to use. The writer's experience is that inverters by Mitsubishi and Jaguar are the most reliable.

If you have the slightest doubt about wiring in a new motor or switch - or otherwise modifying the electrics on your lathe - pay a suitably qualified electrician to do the job for you. It will be money well spent. Tony Griffiths.. The lathes all had 3-step, flat-belt final drive and the compound slide rest was fitted with small diameter micrometer dials--exactly like those on the South Bend 9-inch from which the lathe was copied The countershaft was an integral unit of unusual and ingenious design where the pulley system and motor were both mounted on a platform that could be slide forwards and backwards on two bars fastened to the back of the headstock-end bed foot - the movement being activated by a quick-action thread controlled by a handle that fitted onto the hexagon end of a shaft that protruded through the bed foot at the headstock-end of the lathe..

Note the caveat about obtaining raw materials and the wording, designed to appeal to the critical export market. The country, exhausted from fighting and winning WW2, found itself short of almost every commodity and in urgent need of funds - the cry was: "Export or die".

To date, the earliest known catalogue found was a well-produced folder with a cream card cover holding twelve sheets secured with split pins showing the full range of models, A, B and C, together with a range of accessories.

Other Cataogue covers here Boxford Lathes Belt-drive 4. Well made, strongly built and capable of sustained hard work, the original belt-drive Boxford lathe has long been a favourite with not only amateur and professional engineers, but also schools and colleges where many thousand were installed during the s and s. Continued below:. The first Boxford Model A: flat-belt drive, screwcutting gearbox, power cross feed and quick-release countershaft as made from April to January Continued: Following the two early precision lathes, the company's next model, introduced in and again branded a " Box-Ford ", was an improved copy of the Pre-WW2 American South Bend " 9-inch Workshop " model, a type that dated back to the last months of and the Company's Model 5.

Horace Denford Continued: 4. First version of the Underdrive lathe - in this case a Mk. While rear-drive lathes had 6, 8 or 16 spindle speeds all the under-drive machines, with the exception of the variable-speed VSL, were limited to With some variations, because of special orders or educational and training use, the usual range on the back-drive type was 30 to rpm whilst the Mk. However, on the latter machines at extra cost the factory could provide a more powerful motor and a "high-speed" pulley set that increased the maximum to just over r.

Some confusion surrounds exactly when the final version of the Underdrive, the Mk. The official release date was May , but machines have been found that pre-date this, for example: AUD III with a bed casting dated and with year also correctly corresponding to the Serial Number list. These lathes were distinguished by a more modern-looking stand complete with a neat splash-back, standard-fit low-voltage halogen light unit and a rather elegant grey and brown finish.

However, the designation Mk. Email tony lathes. Our number is Click here for instructions on how to make an international call.

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