Produced in Australia during the 1950s the Advance lathe was manufactured by Bert Kirby in Mount Alexander Road, Mooney Ponds,  Melbourne. After the owner's retirement in the early 1960s the rights were bought by Alfred Stewart Pty Ltd. who traded, until about 1975, from 391 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne. Despite the simple arrangements that such a transfer would seem to imply some lathes are marked "Alfred Stewart Pty. Ltd. Melbourne, Aust. Sole Agents for Advance Machine Tools Pty. Ltd." while others carry the legend: "Alfred Stewart Manufacturing Engineers Pty. Ltd Kilsyth Victoria".
Although a lathe intended for amateur use the Advance was well constructed with no evidence of penny-pinching in the making and with some parts, like the full-circle, beautifully-finished handwheels, being of exceptional quality for the class. Like the contemporary Perfecto the Advance was loosely based on the design of the pre-WW2 English Myford ML1 to ML4 where the aim was to provide a small, inexpensive lathe that could be adapted to a variety of tasks. The bed was of the cantilever box-form type, internally ribbed, flat-topped and with 60-degree V-edges. The centre height was 3.5 inches, the capacity in the gap 8.75 inches whilst the distance between centres varied between 12 and 21 inches. Backgear was fitted as standard - arranged exactly like the Myford by being clustered in pairs just inboard of the front spindle bearing with the rear pair mounted on an eccentric shaft. A useful T-slotted cross-slide was supplied as part of the standard equipment. Demonstrating close attention to detail the design of the lathe included obvious attempts to overcome the more glaring deficiencies of the original Myford: the base of the headstock was formed into a substantial bracket that allowed it to be bolted down with four studs; the apron was a heavy rectangular casting and the hand-traverse worked through reduction gearing for a slower and steadier feed;  both top and cross slides were cast with integral feed-screw support brackets that gave extra travel by allowing the slides to pass well forward over their ways; the properly engraved micrometer dials, fitted with very narrow knurled rims, could be zeroed and the tailstock - though it had a rather thin sole plate - was of decent weight and fitted with a simple but effective (and non-distorting side) clamp at the rear. However, the clamp that locked the barrel was of a type that should only have been found on the cheapest kind of wood lathe - a directing-acting screw.
Early models had split, plain headstock bearings, that at the front being 1.25-inches in diameter and 1.75-inches long. The 17/32" bore spindle was ground finished, had its 1" x 10 t.p.i. nose thread ground in and carried a No. 2 Morse taper. Later models (though from an unknown date) incorporated several improvements including a roller-bearing headstock; a No. 2 Morse taper tailstock, with a 1-inch diameter spindle (replacing the original and inadequate No. 1) and with the casting cantilevered forwards to improve the reach across the cross-slide and a cam-locking lever arrangement fitted; tumble reverse to the leadscrew drive and various kinds of countershaft drive arrangement - supplied in both guarded and unguarded form. Details of when changes were incorporated, and in what order, are unknown but if you have an Advance lathe you may be able to help research by submitting a set of detailed photographs.
Whilst the plain-bearing versions of the lathe had the headstock and bed cast as separate units the roller-bearings models had a more rigid assembly with the bed and head cast as one (just like the early Myford ML1 and ML2). Lathes with a "full-nut" leadscrew required the installation of a (neatly-engineered) dog clutch at the headstock end of the leadscrew to allow the screwcutting or feed to be disengaged; because the full-nut precluded the fitting of a quick-feed rack, the carriage on lathes so equipped had to be wound up and down the bed by a handwheel at the tailstock end of the leadscrew.
Consisted of a neatly built-on unit the drive system used a left/right threaded bar to lever the countershaft away from the headstock and tighten the final-drive belt; unfortunately, on the one version found so equipped, the tensioning/slackening device was not fitted with a quick-action toggle-action lever (as used, for example, on the Myford ML10) but had instead to be laboriously turned by hand.
If anyone has an Advance lathe, and especially any advertising or technical literature featuring the machine, the writer would be delighted to hear from you.