Most unusual - the only one so far discovered and so possibly a unique one-off - this Boley 3 Series has a combined clutch and brake mechanism built into the headstock spindle drive. The lathe has a spindle nose thread of M45 x 3 with a 46 mm-diameter plain register, a centre height of 85 mm, a bed 930 mm long - and just three speeds of, from a 1450 r.p.m. motor of 1300, 1000 and 700 r.p.m. The specification suggests a lathe built especially for production and so may have been built to a customer's specific requirement.
Having previously lived a tough life in the hands of an elderly hobby wood-turner, the slide-rest leadscrews, dials and handles had been replaced with poorly-made imperial ones with none of the original parts kept. The spindle nose had been filed down to accept a crude backplate, the bed had scars from a flap-wheel - presumably in an overenthusiastic attempt to remove rust - and one of the top slide's T-slots had been broken open. Happily, the present owner has taken on the considerable task of turning it back into the pleasant-to-use machine it once was; the feedscrews are being replaced by metric ones, new dials and handles made to match those on similar Boley lathes and replacement clutch plates and other parts made..