Lathe Manuals Wanted Zyto 12" + Warwick 18"

I was briefly the owner of a Zyto - had a 3.5" centre height IIRC - and spent some while attempting to track down a manual for it. The conclusion I reached was that they never wrote one - if you were daft enough to buy one of their lathes they assumed that you knew what to do with it. There was a threading chart with mine that I took a picture of - if you want a PDF, email me offline.

ME ran a number of articles way back on ways to improve the Zyto - one of these was to make the saddle rack-and-pinion traverse work the right way round; in standard form, you had to crank the handle counterclockwise to take the saddle away from the headstock - most disconcerting when you first try the lathe & leads to some nasty graunching sounds as the tool takes lumps off the chuck and vice-versa. Other articles were about cleaning up the rather nasty level of finish on these lathes - made the modern Chinese stuff look pretty good! The headstock pulley on ine was so out of balance that the lathe would happily walk itself plus its cabinet across the floor at high revs. Who ever said that you'd be better off with old English iron than new import?? The initials POS spring to mind as a description, although I'm sure after a good re-working it would be a useful machine - it just seemed rather easier at the time to start with a better basic machine.

I got rid of my copies of the articles when I got rid of the lathe so can't help you on chapter & verse I'm afraid.

Regards, Tony

Thanks Tony.

I'll be taking your advice and keeping the Warwick. I didn't really want the Zyto but it was just easier to take both off the vendor, the various gears were mixed all in one box. I'll clean it up and get it onto Ebay or into Loot I'm happy if I cover my costs.

Thanks Alan