smith barker and willson lathe

[Feelthebeat]

SB&W Lathe

I think I see that you have got a straight cut gear running against the worm. Mine is angled to suit the worm. Maybe yours was replaced. Being cast iron the original may have had a breakage. Not hard to make on a milling machine. I get the impression a number of these lathes arrived at one time in Melbourne. When I was looking around for a lathe I thought it looked like it was made by some experienced practical minded types. As the company was started roughly twenty years before it was made it improved over time. But then in 1920 they adopted the Norton quick change gearbox and geared head. Changed the name to just Willson. The belt drive didn't just go away as a guy showed me his Taiwanese lathe made in 80's has a vee belt drive and back gears. Your work on the lathe looks good. Maybe good enough to be a museum piece as it is antique. As there seems to be only three of this model world wide I'd say it's pretty rare. I'm guessing they had a better chance of surviving in Australia than England. I've read about American machinery being scrapped to help the war effort so I imagine it was the same in Briton. Hungry for iron to build ships and bombs etc.

 

[macsonboy]

g'day FTB, I was going back through some of your pics and was wondering if you have a pic of the gears on the end at the headstock end,,i think you may call them reverse tumbler gears.. mine are there but the teeth make a hell of a racket ..just like to check that they are correct before attempting to make new ones..

 

[Feelthebeat]

I will get some pics for you when I get the camera working . I made the tumbler gears myself. Try to make them accurate to avoid them making noise.

 

[macsonboy]

thanks mate look forward to that

 

[Feelthebeat]

I made the tumbler gears only as the gear on the main spindle was okay to keep using.

 

[macsonboy]

hi FTB i don;t know how you done such a good job. the gears you have made are the same ones that i must pluck up the courage to make. thanks for the pics,, do you put a few drops of oil on them when in use?? almost forgot ,, did you use cast iron for the gears or steel ?

 

[Feelthebeat]

I made them out of steel. It was early 1990 that I made them .The old ones were really thin. I put a good squirt of oil on everything that needs it. If you do make the gears yourself you may have to experiment with the gear tooth profile and number of teeth if you do not have that specific information. At that small diameter the tooth profile is a little more rounder than ones with about 60 teeth or more. They have greater spacing too. I'm pretty sure I ground a tool to cut them. It would still be on the shelf I'm sure. The carbide tool I made to mill the cross slide is still there too. I bought one of those Taiwanese small universal dividing heads back then to index the gear. Also used it for the change gears. You could find useful information online I'm sure about the gear tooth profile and DP. Maybe even buy the cutter online. Some people use grinding paste to help match a gear set. Takes a bit of cleaning after woods.

 

[Peter S]

For you SBW guys - here is another Smith, Barker & Willson lathe. This one was advertised recently here in NZ. Only one fairly poor photo.

 

[Peter S]

Smith, Barker & Willson fans, here is another which is for sale here in NZ.

 

[Peter S]

I have another couple of SBW lathe photos.

This one at Pearns Steam World, Tasmania:



I'm not sure where this photo came from, but that looks like a UK number plate on the trailer:



A few photos to go with the lathe in post #48:

 

[Feelthebeat]

I have another couple of SBW lathe photos.

This one at Pearns Steam World, Tasmania:

View attachment 383228

I'm not sure where this photo came from, but that looks like a UK number plate on the trailer:

View attachment 383229

A few photos to go with the lathe in post #48:

View attachment 383230 View attachment 383232 View attachment 383231

 

[Feelthebeat]

This photo has the latest improvements of this model being I assume from 1920 or before, being the cross feed lever at front (the Pearns model has cross feed lever at the back) and four flat belt pulley. Same as my model.