Wocester Lathe Co

I'm curious about a couple details on your lathe having at one time owned a huge, ancient Whitcomb-Blaisdell machine bearing a brass dealer name plate of Campbell Machinery. Mine was iirc gearheaded and had the most unusual mushroom-like dial as part of the quick change gearbox assembly. Ended up trading it and an equally old B&S auto screw machine for a '77 Chevy Malibu which made me a hero to my family. If you have the serial number I may be able to come up with approx. year of mfg since I have an old serial # book handy. Health & Peace, Lance

On 17 Nov 2004 00:03:46 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@aol.commotion (Uncle Lucky) wrote: i am not sure where to even look for a serial number on this lathe there is only one brass tag/nameplate on it and all that listed was gear combonations to use for various screw TPI i have the lathe only about 60% striped of the old paint i have a few pics taken by the previous owner though if i could have a decent idea on where to find the serial number i will look for it

Try the ways at the tailstock end. Health & Peace, Lance

That is the best place to look. Also sometimes under the spindle on the headstock.

Jim

well the only number i found on the lathe was by the headstock on the bed and it said lathe no. U89 knowing they only made about 50 lathes a month and if each month was represented by a difrent letter in the alphabet id say made sometime in

1919 asuming they opened for bussiness in 1918

Vlad1852 snipped-for-privacy@nada.com

I don't think you will find an "owner's manual." Back then, advertising copy is about the extent of company literature. Around 1920 there were many changes made in engine lathes, because of the introduction of individual electric motors for each machine, and because of quick-change gearing. Oscar Perrigo's "Lathe Design," available from Lindsay Publications, has a few comments about some of the features of Blaisdell lathes.

Witcomb-Blaisdell was a 1905 merger of what was left of two very old firms. Witcomb goes back to the 1840s--copy presses were one of their early products, and Blaisdell was a firm started by Parritt Blaisdell in 1865. He had previously worked for Wood, Light & Co. He died in 1874, the firm being carried on by others, including Charles Hildreth.

It's probably more to your advantage, if you're just starting out, to use something like "How to Run a Lathe," from Southbend. And learn your lathe by running it. Frank Morrison

i actually do have that book how to run a lathe i was curious about 2 things one was the year made as i am having a hard time finding 3 new gears for the power feed...wich just have to be 23 teeth gears rather rare i have discovered...

and just some general specs for the machine like bearing adjustments and other things i can not find enough info on

these are all the pics of the lathe i have if it helps any

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Hmm ... it looks a bit newer than we've been thinking. In particular:

1) It looks like a data plate for a quick-change gearbox on the gear cover. 2) The box with the sliding control looks like something to select through a certain range of gears. 3) It appears to have been built with both an electric motor, and some degree of protective covers. 4) It also appears to have a clutch for power longitudinal feed (controlled by the star hand knob and perhaps switched on by the fat plate on a rod above it, or perhaps even selectable to be power cross-feed as well.

My guess, is that the sliding control will allow you to select a certain number of threading feeds with detents along the way. (Perhaps five or six), and you have to change the gears under the cover to select groupings of thread pitches. That gear cover looks rather custom fitted to a specific gear train, not the more overall envelope shape which allows one to build lots of threading gear selections on the end.

I'll be interested to hear how close my guesses are.

Enjoy, DoN.

well my best guess was the 1950's for date of origin but the most recent documantation the worcester historical musem had in reference to the company was 1925

1 the plate tells you wich gear to use to set the speed of the power feed in corolation to pic 2 with the 3 gear selection for further changes 2 3 gears best guess on ratios from right to left is 2:1 1:1 1:2

3i think the belt cover was add later based on the the fact it is sheetmetal when everything else on the lathe is cast

1. if it has any kind of clutch i would be surprised as the gear box is half disasambled now as new bushings are being made by the local college for me the star nob on the sadle i am not sure on right above it is a small round nob i can pull out that i can pin to have it do front to back travle i think thats longitiude of course if i only move it half way i can have it fo both movements at once probably not recomended

4 gears under the gear cover are set and unchangable however i need 3 of them made as the previous owner either crashed the saddle into the headstock and snapped the teeth off or he had it stuck between forward and reverse rotations and snaped the teeth that way the 5th gear in their i can change from a box of gears i have all numbered to corospond with the plate on the cover

it is an 8 speed lathe with the lowest gear probably around 40 rpms and the top gear i couldn't guess closet lever on top selects between hi and lo the back lever selects 4 other gear ratios

a few things i have found on the lathe sence i have been stripping obviously covered over years ago with way too much paint 2 holes on the saddle one by the star knob and another above it both feeding into copper tubes i only can assume it was a way of getting lubrication to the gears inside

2 holes in the middle of the bed in the saddle i need to remove it so i can get a better look at it i know they are threaded but not what they are for

id just really like to know what year this is made and if anyone knows where i could locate 3 23 tooth gears i do have basic sizes on them

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There may be something in the information which is lost, as I would guess 1940s or so based on the appearance.

Are those what is selected by the sliding control on the front of what looks like a gearbox based on it being between the headstock threading gears and the leadscrew.

That may be -- but why would it be so fitted when a more open design could allow more flexible gear choices -- including possibly ones for transposing inch to metric threading?

That star knob should be the clutch. You tighten it to get the amount of feed you want. It only offers a clutch effect when using the power feeds, not the half-nuts for thread cutting (where any slippage would spoil the job).

Cross-feed. The feed along the bed is "longitudinal".

BTW -- I would not store the 3-jaw chuck and the face plate on the bed the way they are in the photos. And I *especially* would not try moving the lathe with them stored there.

Probably not a problem, and useful if you want to turn a conical point on a workpiece (and are willing to accept whatever angle that gives.) On mine (Clausing 12x24"), there is no clutch, just a lever which slides in a slot like this:

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where the up direction gives cross-feed, and the down direction gives longitudinal feed, while the middle gives no motion, and it must be in that position for the half-nuts lever to close for threading.

Are all the teeth stripped off, or just a few? It is possible to build up missing teeth with brazing compound, and then to machine (or even file, with great care) new teeth. Also -- if several adjacent teeth are missing, it is possible to cut a slot below that and braze in new metal which then gets turned to the right height and into which new teeth are cut.

That low end is nice for coarse threading. It requires less of you in terms of reaction time.

Yes.

At a guess, if they are on the side, it may be for a follower rest. Some afix to the side. (Usually the side towards the headstock.

You need more information than just "23 tooth". You need the diametrical pitch (most easily determined with a gauge -- otherwise a lot of counting and calculating is needed), and the PA (Pressure Angle

-- usually 14-1/2 degrees or 20 degrees, IIRC) before you can make or buy a gear to fit. Aside from that, the hole in the hub is important, and whatever form of keying in the hub as well.

If you have access to a milling machine, and an index head, it is possible to get (or make) gear tooth profile cutters (even possible to do it with a fly cutter, if you can't buy one).

For 23 teeth, with a B&S index/dividing head, or any other with a 40:1 gear ratio between the hand crank and the spindle, you need for each next tooth a full turn plus 17 holes on a 23-hole circle. (At least it isn't one of those numbers which can't be made except via differential geared index heads.)

Good Luck, DoN.

yes

cause the belt feed cover is just to keep you from getting hurt should the belt snap..the gear cover is cast the really odd shaped peice

these pics were taken by the previous owner and that was all the stuff he was selling with the lathe as one peice...they are stored on a wodden bench between the legs underneath

no but a good majority of them i was advised by a few people just to get new ones as any kind of brazing or even welding and re cutting would not offer a long term solution

1st gear 23 teeth 5/8 bore 3/4 face 1 15/16 od(at the outside of teeth) 1 5/8 id (valley of teeth)

2nd gear 23 teeth

5/8 bore 3/4 face 1 3/4 od 1 7/16 id

3rd gear 32 teeth

7/8 bore 3/4 face 5/16 shoulder 2 3/8 od 2 1/8 id all 14 1/2 degree pitch i have searched everywhere and have been unable to locate any gears matching those dimensions and there are no keyways needed for them

i wish only have access to another lathe i might see if the college wants to make new gears for me as well as my new bushings

I assume these are the gears for your tumbler.

To figure Diametric pitch for a gear, you take the (tooth count + 2)/OD in inches

Either you tooth count or measurements are off. Because your pitches figure all over the place, from 12.9 to 14.3.

Paul K. Dickman

i can remeasure them but me and 2 other people counted the number of teeth on those gears probably 20 times cause i couldn't belive it was an odd number of teeth on the 2 gears