Lang Lathes Johnstone Scotland

[pressbrake1]

my favourite lathes were made by john Lang and sons , Scotland.
Had to take belt cover off my one so I took a picture. Some people think of old lathes as slow puny things with flat belts.
My 1930’s lang needs modern carbide tooling, anything else expires quickly!
I wonder If anyone else on here is in the lang club? Ive been looking for a A4 for years to no avail

 

[Spark plug]

Is that 8 wedge belts? What size motor is on to facilitate that, 20KW+?

 

[pressbrake1]

I believe its 35hp
Even a small lathe will mess you up and my dsg’s could be dangerous but the lang is the first machine ive been decidedly nervous of!

 

[Spark plug]

Care defiantly required, but I bet I can get rid of some metal sharpish

 

[mtt.tr]

my favourite lathes were made by john Lang and sons , Scotland.
Had to take belt cover off my one so I took a picture. Some people think of old lathes as slow puny things with flat belts.
My 1930’s lang needs modern carbide tooling, anything else expires quickly!
I wonder If anyone else on here is in the lang club? Ive been looking for a A4 for years to no avail
View attachment 199725

That reminds me of the 1930s metal clad thicknesser i used to use during my apprenticeship same amount of belts. Was a utter beast 24" wide bed.

Try finding a new one that well built

 

[Spark plug]

Would an A4 be bigger or smaller than yours?

 

[pressbrake1]

Very similar, though mine is a short bed of about 6’ centres
Some A4 were 20” centre height , but I haven’t seen one in the flesh for nearly thirty years

 

[Wallace]

A machine you can truly zonk the tool in and rasher it off in spades with!

 

[pressbrake1]

Heres a early A4

 

[pressbrake1]

You can hear the quality, elderly, under load but still smooth

 

[mtt.tr]

You can hear the quality, elderly, under load but still smooth

Ah man thats sexy smooth

And look how well maintained the bed is.

Shame about the paint best scrap it

 

[Spark plug]

I’ve seen that video before, didn’t realise it was a Lang, excellent machine can hardly tell it’s working. Shame he didn’t show more of the setup in the video.

I you wanted to go to the shop tomorrow for a big heavy lathe are there any real options? Or would you be limited to dubious quality Chinese offerings?

 

[pressbrake1]

Stanko are good
Polish poreba were very good but ive heard the Chinese have got hold of the name
TOS are light duty
Bulgarian zmm are ok

 

[Dieselman 63]

We had a single headed shaper at work that could traverse on ways like a lathe. There were two cubes set up for it to work on so you could leave a job setup in place and work on the other. I think it weighed 6-8t and I believe it came from a naval dockyard for scraping ship plates. Imagine the one in the illustration but stretched lengthways.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Stanko are good
Polish poreba were very good but ive heard the Chinese have got hold of the name
TOS are light duty
Bulgarian zmm are ok

Funny you mention Poreba, we have a Poremba at work too, war confiscation machine. I’ve always wondered if the two companies were related. It would be a fantastic thing if only someone had thought to take the pedestal legs for it. The carriage handwheel sits about 30cm from the floor, not ideal by any means.The tailstock is almost as big as my Bantam

 

[Hood]

Stanko are good
Polish poreba were very good but ive heard the Chinese have got hold of the name
TOS are light duty
Bulgarian zmm are ok

Here is the manual version of mine doing a small thread, the Poles made some decent machines .

 

[northwest]

My late uncle was a turner at Head Wrightson's (plenty on here will know what I am talking about) and he ran a big Lang, he referred to the others as the "little machines". Anything with less than a ten foot bed was a "Little Un" as far as he was concerned. Worked to incredible tolerances, all by hand and eye. As we often lament on this forum, skills we are not teaching anymore. Bit like Fizzy's Audi Diagnostics thread. All the gear, no idea.

 

[Hood]

Seems they still make my lathe although just in the bigger models but they are now called Toolmex. My Churchill is a TUR-50 which will turn 520mm over the bed but the two they now make are 630mm and 710mm over the bed. Basic machines look the same and bed width is the same as mine at 432mm.

https://www.toolmex.com/Machines/TUR630A

 

[Mattuk]

Here is the manual version of mine doing a small thread, the Poles made some decent machines .

That does not look too big, until you see the bloke standing next to it

 

[Mattuk]

Specifications:

TUR 630 A TUR 710 A
Swing Over Bed 25" 28"
Swing Over Cross Slide 14.6" 17.3"
Control N/A N/A
Distance Between Centers 40"-157" 40"-157"
Main Drive Motor, Continuous/40% Duty 20 HP 20 HP
Standard Spindle Bore 4.1" 5.5"
Optional Spindle Bores N/A N/A
Spindle Speeds, Standard Bore 18-1800 RPM 18-1800 RPM
Max Load Capacity 3,300 lbs 3,300 lbs
Z-Axis Rapid Traverse Rate N/A N/A
Tailstock Quill Diameter MT 5 MT 5
Bed Width with TRI-V ways 17" 17"
Machine Weight, 118" bc 9,900 lbs 9,900 lbs



Load Capacity !!!!!
That could turn most small workshop lathes