I was looking at a Smith-Drum lathe today. Very interesting beast. It's just a regular 15x30" or maybe 16"x30" lathe, solidly built old American iron, but this one has a twist I hadn't seen before. The ways themselves sit on ways, and you can crank the ways away from the headstock. Then there's a truly humongous faceplate that you can mount, sucker has to be 24", that the inside back rim of is machined as a large gear. There is a permanently mounted pinion gear on the headstock of this lathe, on the operator side, about 10 o'clock if you were staring right down the lathe axis towards the headstock. This gear directly drives the faceplate. I don't know about feeds and speeds, but it sure was a cool machine to look at. Looks really rare. I wonder if this was the same Smith that was part of Dean Smith & Grace lathes, which were supposed to be some of the best lathes this country ever made.
Grant Erwin Seattle Area