wadkin RU lathe

[bodrighywood]

i believe Steve Jones just has an RS lathe not an RU.

i remembered about some pictures i had from the internet on some of the specs and it gives the weight of the 12", 15" and 18" models but i don't understand what CWTS are.

CWT means hundred weight. and is just under 51 kilos. It is 112 lbs old money.

Pete

[seventhdevil]

i believe Steve Jones just has an RS lathe not an RU.

i remembered about some pictures i had from the internet on some of the specs and it gives the weight of the 12", 15" and 18" models but i don't understand what CWTS are.

CWT means hundred weight. and is just under 51 kilos. It is 112 lbs old money.

Pete

great, just looked that up.

20 cwt in one ton according to wikipedia.

means that the 15" model is 1 1/2 tons in weight.

which model do you have Stocksy27???

[stocksy27]

its the 15” model so yes about 1.5t the info i found was 6160lb about 2.8 ton either way its a beast, just modeling a spindle adaptor in cad, will 3d print it check all good then get it machined to take my chucks, also wondering any one ever got a revolving faceplate to go on the tail stock?

[seventhdevil]

never heard of a faceplate going on a tailstock before.

should it not be mounted on the other side of the headstock for outboard turning?

[Bill21]

never heard of a faceplate going on a tailstock before.

should it not be mounted on the other side of the headstock for outboard turning?

How would you use a revolving faceplate on the headstock?

[bodrighywood]

The headstock on the wadkin is like the one on the graduate and jubilee with an outside option for turning larger pieces. The one next door can take an 8' diameter disc with a free standing rest. Usually done using a faceplate. Never seen a chuck being used on the outside.

Pete

[BrianH]

Hundredweights....... 2 old bags of spuds or cement. You have to be old enough to deserve a jab to remember such things

[bodrighywood]

Hundredweights....... 2 old bags of spuds or cement. You have to be old enough to deserve a jab to remember such things

Yep. Having mine on Tuesday LOL

Pete

[stocksy27]

never heard of a faceplate going on a tailstock before.

should it not be mounted on the other side of the headstock for outboard turning?

its for mounting some collums on the lathe with have faceplate on headstock but would prefer some better mounting to tailstock rather than just a live center as they will be 300mm x 3000mm solid elm

[seventhdevil]

that thought did occur to me.

other than the heaviest duty live center you can find for the columns i can't think of another way.

they were built to take suckers like that so it should not be a problem weight wise.

[Bill21]

I think Axminster used to make a faceplate to fit one of their revolving centres. What size is the MT in the Wadkin Tailstock though? I’ve got the OneWay live centre and it’s very good. It’s also got a threaded nose so you could fit a faceplate to that. The thread is I think 3/4” UNC. They are available in 1, 2 and 3 MT. I got mine from the Toolpost so don’t know where you’d get one now though.

[Roger Groom]

Short for hundredweights. Or 112 pounds, or 8 stone etc etc. Dont you just love the old terms!!!!!!

[BrianH]

A salutary tale

In my 40's I dreamed of making big projects on a huge lathe
In my 50's I achieved my dream but slowly came to the realisation that hefting the weight of the logs surrounding those big projects wasn't  quite the fun I had envisaged.
In my 60's I began to notice that the big lathe's tailstock was putting on weight and had to stay in situ, even when it was in the way of me hollowing the, now reduced in size, projects.
Now. in my 70's, I make smaller, hopefully more elegant, pieces and dream of having a 'Normal' sized lathe.
Brian

[Bill21]

I downsized lathe wise some years ago as I didn’t have the space for a large lathe any longer. A couple of times though I found the bed on my new machine wasn't quite long enough so I’ve now bought a short extension for it. I think I’ve hit the sweet spot.

[stocksy27]

well I've still not got it wired up yet, but do have a 7.5kw inverter to go with it now purely for safety reason, the original electronics are too old to add any sort of safety switches to, so will keep all the original in place and mount the VFD out of sight but does mean I can add e stops both ends and a e stop pull wire the entire length of the bed, will still use gearbox for speed selection, currently still using the union jubilee and the cl4 for now as I can't seem to sell either, also had a Wadkin RS8 arrive as I won the bid but forgot I was bidding on it so this will be a restoration project