Very old but still in use

[Dieselman 63]

The only one I use is this late fifties Fobco Star. The rest are in bits but I have a 1955 Harrison grinder and one of the very last Mk1 Colchester Bantams, which was a 1950s design too. The grinder had about seven coats of paint on it including the original dark grey! Hopefully another member of the family will be coming soon!

 

[mcostello]

Rhoades metal shaper appx. 1908 still earns it's feed now and then.

 

[frank horton]

hardley the same but my wife say's I'm old but still usefull........hahaha...

nice workshops out there.......impressed........

 

[winchman]

Winchboy and I have a fair collection of older stuff
Our Lathe is a 1908 Drummond, recently purchased, still having a jig around trying to fit it in as its much bigger than the last one we had.

1950's Fobco but I cant find a belt guard.

Trailers a 1930 Gibson Eccles

 

[Keith 66]

Under my bench is a ROMAC air compressor, date on its tanks is 1944 & yes they are sound! The Harrison lathe is 1971 so quite new!

 

[Dieselman 63]

Under my bench is a ROMAC air compressor, date on its tanks is 1944 & yes they are sound! The Harrison lathe is 1971 so quite new!

My Bantam is 1975, but the model was first introduced in the late fifties, and even then I don’t think it was groundbreaking technology

 

[Hood]

I was given a press just like that. But as I was on a motorbike I couldn't take it away, not that I had room for it.
Under most of the machines the old bloke had were big old DC motors, at one time they got electricity from a local
power station, it was in Hampton Court, and they generated DC!


Here's my first lathe:
View attachment 154461

What make of lathe is that? It looks very similar to my first biggish lathe but I was never sure what make it was.

 

[8ob]

Two more that are still in use, a 1970`s mower grinder I adapted to sharpen chipper blades.

And the 1956 Planitor grinder which I will never part with .

 

[8ob]

Rhoades metal shaper appx. 1908 still earns it's feed now and then.

Under my bench is a ROMAC air compressor, date on its tanks is 1944 & yes they are sound! The Harrison lathe is 1971 so quite new!

Piccys?

Bob

 

[daleyd]

Do t shirts count?

 

[RonA]

The great virtue of old machinery is it was built to last. If you had to purchase the equipment when new it would probably have been prohibitively expensive. Now that so few individuals (like we happy few) need or indeed desire the equipment the price has become rasonably affordable.
I am quite happily using a Q&S power hacksaw & a Myford lathe that date I reckon from the 1970’s. The former was rescued from where I used to work as scrap for £10 & the latter from a mate for under £500.
RonA

 

[Rig Pig]

My workshop is mainly 1940 - 1960, Sphere lathe, Smart and Brown Sable lathe , Ajax Horizontal mill, Pallas vertical mill, Oxford bantam, Several Record vices, Crown Windy surface plate, Grafton piller drill. Sadly no dates on any of them that I can see.
The young whippersnapper is the Migatronics 1985!

 

[graffian]

What make of lathe is that? It looks very similar to my first biggish lathe but I was never sure what make it was.

It didn't say. A few years after I got it Gray rented a large unit and it had stuff left in it, including a LeBlonde lathe that was the spitting image of my lathe, except the leBlonde
probably threw about 5 feet! So for years I thought it was a leBlonde. Then came the internet, I asked on one of the machine forums and someone said it's a 1907 cincinatti 16x61 toolroom lathe; which made sense as the plate on the gearbox had something like "made in cincinatti ohio" on it.
I got it from a scrap yard and it went back to a scrap yard. I did wonder why the maker didn'tput their moniker on the casting.

I am just wondering if it's cincinnati or cincinatti.

 

[zx9]

Winchboy and I have a fair collection of older stuff
Our Lathe is a 1908 Drummond, recently purchased, still having a jig around trying to fit it in as its much bigger than the last one we had.
View attachment 154469
1950's Fobco but I cant find a belt guard.
View attachment 154470
Trailers a 1930 Gibson Eccles
View attachment 154471

Unless you take off the extra pulley you will not get a belt guard to fit the Fobco but if you did you would loose the low speeds you currently have, I'd keep the pulley and make a guard if you are think you need one.

 

[winchman]

Unless you take off the extra pulley you will not get a belt guard to fit the Fobco but if you did you would loose the low speeds you currently have, I'd keep the pulley and make a guard if you are think you need one.

I know I was hoping to fit a guard and just fit the extra pulley as and when required

 

[Hood]

It didn't say. A few years after I got it Gray rented a large unit and it had stuff left in it, including a LeBlonde lathe that was the spitting image of my lathe, except the leBlonde
probably threw about 5 feet! So for years I thought it was a leBlonde. Then came the internet, I asked on one of the machine forums and someone said it's a 1907 cincinatti 16x61 toolroom lathe; which made sense as the plate on the gearbox had something like "made in cincinatti ohio" on it.
I got it from a scrap yard and it went back to a scrap yard. I did wonder why the maker didn'tput their moniker on the casting.

I am just wondering if it's cincinnati or cincinatti.

I had looked at LeBlonde lathes and saw a lot of similarities, likewise the Cinci's however none really matched exactly.
Mine came from the local Travellers (that don't travel ) and it ended up being sold after many a years use by me when I got the Colchester Student.
I just wish I had some pics of it because as time passes I forget exactly how it looked and so likely will never find out what it actually was.
The threading and feed plates didn't have any makes names so that didn't help me and there were no names cast into the bed/headstock or legs

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I bought this in 1989 for £50 sight unseen, best buy I ever made.

She (the tractor), a 1948 Ferguson Te20 straight petrol, has lived outside all her life and is put to work most weeks.
The only new bits on her are tyres, exhaust, battery, points, plugs and I swapped the dynamo for a 12v alternator.
She pulls the trailer, runs the PTO saw bench, the hydraulic log splitter, a 2 furrow plough (with which I won a ploughing competition), harrows, earth scoop, drags tree butts out of the woodland, carries a link box full of logs and finally both my children learnt to drive on her (aged about 9 and 10).
I'd like to think that when I finally kick the bucket they can dig a massive hole and bury me sat on the tractor.

 

[rtbcomp]

A Grey Fergie is my earliest recollection of a motor vehicle, one used to work the field behind our house when I was a toddler. Always fancied one myself.

 

[Pond frog]

My hammer, has no markings on it but looks very much like a Samuel platt no real idea how old but from the very little research I've done could be anything from 1910 to 1940s I don't think they changed things much, however due to its lack of refinement perhaps it cama from the earlier end.

 

[gaz1]

The olderest thing I have is my 1920s milling machine however im updating it to a vertical due to it been strong and floor standing

THat was bought as what I call scrap value as it was being scraped

Myford lathe Is older than me