Lathe Identity

Kevin,

Most likely the lathe was once owned by Hilger & Watts, a scientific instrument making company, and they would have put a label on it when they got the lathe new. This type of instrument lathe would typically be used in the fitting shop. Hilger & Watts at it's peak in the late 1960's had factories in London, (mainly Camberwell, Camden Town, Highbury and Debden in Essex). In the Highbury fitting shop they had 3 Smart & Brown instrument lathes. However, there would have been quite a lot of this type of lathe in the company, and I can never remember them scrapping machines. When the crunch came after they were taken over by Rank Precision Industries most /all of the London factories in 1973'ish were relocated to a smaller factory in Margate, and I suppose a lot of the older machines were sold off so most likely that's how your machine made it to the open market. So it has a bit of history to it and maybe if you can get a better look at the label it may even say which factory it was!

Happy bidding

Mike

Regards Kevin

It's very similar to the plain instrument makers lathes made by Lorch from around the 50s/60s (see e.g.

It would certainly have had a set of collets and drawbar which don't seem to be shown in any of the photos. If there isn't a set with it then you might want to factor the cost of such a set in when considering your bid.

Alan

Interesting

Russell