My Adept lathe was bought in 1936, or possibly 1937, at Tyzack's in Old Street, London, where I lived at the time. I am one of the older guys, nearly 86 (in 2006), but in '37 1 was an optimistic youngster inspired by L.B.S.C., the long-time contributor to Model Engineer Magazine, who made so many difficult engineering concepts and processes look easy.
The simple Adept, with only a single tool rest and selling at 12/6d (12 shillings and sixpence), didn't seem to be a prospect for model engineering, but the "Super" with a compound slide rest, at £1 (almost double), looked much more promising. So, one Saturday morning, probably at Easter (with my slim apprentice pay packet in hand - I was a boy capstan lathe operator at J.A.Preswich, Tottenharn, makers of the J.A,P. motor cycle and stationary engines - I took the tram to Old Street to buy my first lathe. I also wanted a rack of 6 "Lark" turning tools, but Tyzack's were out of stock of these; however, the chap behind the counter got on the phone to Ross and Alexander at Bishopsgate (who vended the RandA lathe) and found that they had some. The two firms must have shared common ownership because I was able to pay for both the lathe and tools at Tyzack's and take the short walk to Bishopsgate to collect the tools and then get my tram back to Waithainstow.
The little Adept needed to be powered. Electric motors were much too expensive for me, but I had a stroke of luck. My elder brother worked with a chap who was deaf and dumb. An intelligent and practical man he had worked on the problem of being woken up in the morning when he could not hear an alarm clock. Lights didn't seem to work, so he'd rigged his alarm clock to switch on a motor - which then dragged the blanket off his bed! Unfortunately he'd bought a cheap 1/4 h.p. 1400 r.p.m. unit without self-start and it refused to work as requested. I relieved him of it at low cost. The lack of a starter didn't bother me, I just pulled the belt round, switched on the current - and away we went. With a pram-axle countershaft fitted with a large-diameter pulley (from a treadle sewing machine) running in two old ball races, I was in business.
A good little machine, the Adept was very handy, but naturally with limitations. The tailstock consisted of only a length of rod turned at 60-degrees at one end, a cast hand wheel, and provision for locking. The compound slide rest worked well, with plenty of travel on the top slide, but to turn anywhere near parallel needed very careful setting. I soon purchased the 3-jaw dog chuck which, despite it's simplicity, I found satisfactory and considerably expanded the range of work that was possible.
Possibly the worst thing about the machine was not being able to drill from the tailstock. Even so, I was still able to accomplish quite a lot: for example, I made a small crankshaft from a 3 in. length of 1/4" x 31/4" rectangular steel, drilling centres at each end for shaft and crankpin, hack-sawing the surplus away and turning between centres. Our quality inspector at J.A.Preswich declared it a good effort - but I never made the rest of the engine. To return to the tailstock problem: there were available at that time a number of small hand-driven bench drilling machines. I had bought a small 1/4-inch capacity one, but carelessly over strained it and broke the column from the base. I re-invested in the larger 3/8" model, but kept the bits of the original (as you do).
Here was a lathe needing a tailstock chuck, and here was a 1/4" drill chuck with a long spindle! I managed to find a long bush that fitted both tailstock and spindle and, with the addition of a lever feed assembly made from steel strip, I had my facility for drilling and tapping.
Looking at all the equipment (and junk) that I have now, I wonder at how much I accomplished with so few resources and such little skill. How did I sharpen tools and drills? I had a hand grinder, but I still don't see how I used it with only one hand free. The equivalent amount that I spent might, today, not quite run to even the cheapest Chinese lathe, but it would certainly buy a 5 speed D.I.Y. drill and a 6" grinder plus other tools.
Sadly the Adept got little use. Within a couple of years World War Two had started and lack of materials, and especially lack of spare time, severely curtailed my hobby activity. What became of the Adept? I don't know. It was still around when I acquired my Portass 'C' in the early 1950s, but after that I lost track of it.
Not much new information here about the Adept, I'm afraid, but I have enjoyed re-visiting my youth.