I just got an old Reed Prentice 14” heavy lathe. How do you figure out its age from the serial number ? No date tag on the machine at all.

[Darren H]

I recently purchased an old Reed Prentice Lathe.
14” Heavy it says but no date of mfg.
Can you figure out how old it is my by the serial number or any casting numbers ?

 

[marka12161]

If it's a gerar head, if it has 8 spindle speeds it's from the 30s (like mine). If it has 12, it's from the 40s or later.

 

[Darren H]

Its an 8 speed. Min speed is 18 max is 432
Says driving pulley 450 rpm.
Bedway says machine no. 13791

 

[johnoder]

Its an 8 speed. Min speed is 18 max is 432
Says driving pulley 450 rpm.
Bedway says machine no. 13791

Before 1935 - when the serial book starts their coverage of RP. First one in the book is 15100. I'd suppose this old would have the threaded spindle nose. Here they are bragging - about 1930. Added some scans from 1930

 

[Darren H]

Before 1935 - when the serial book starts their coverage of RP. First one in the book is 15100. I'd suppose this old would have the threaded spindle nose. Here they are bragging - about 1930. Added some scans from 1930

Johnoder thank you so much ! These pictures are soo cool ! 93 years old. A little piece of history I own I suppose. I would like to print these off and put them on a wall or something next to the machine.
I tried to print them off but they came out really small and when I enlarge them they are unreadable..
Can you send them full size somehow ?

 

[johnoder]

Can you send them full size somehow ?

Sure - look around on the forum and see if you can learn how to "start a conversation" with johnoder. In that post your email address and I'll send them over.

May not be worth the trouble though - do know these are just old "magazine" pages that were never intended to be high resolution - their only purpose was to SELL a product

 

[morsetaper2]

I have a S/N book from 1959 that lists a few earlier dates & s/n's:

 

[RCPDesigns]

Johnoder thank you so much ! These pictures are soo cool ! 93 years old. A little piece of history I own I suppose. I would like to print these off and put them on a wall or something next to the machine.
I tried to print them off but they came out really small and when I enlarge them they are unreadable..
Can you send them full size somehow ?

Right click over the image and select "Download Linked File". That will pull down the full resolution file. The images are 2527x3267 at 300dpi that would be around an 8"x10" image. Should look pretty good.