email: tony@lathes.co.uk
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Carteron Lathe - France


Unknown outside its native shores, the Carteron lathe carried a badge proclaiming:
Ateliers de Mécanique
De Précision D'Annecy (Haute Savoie)
M.CARTERON Fils Ainé
Type C
...this translating as:
The Precision Mechanical Workshops of  D'Annecy in the Haute Savoie Region
M.Carteron & his elder son
Type C
Although very rare, with barely a mention to be found anywhere, as the label carries the identification "Type C", it must be obvious that other models by Carteron were also manufactured and, indeed, a Type D is known, this being in the form of a precision bench lathe with its bed having a V-shaped front and flat rear way and fitted with changewheel-driven power feed to the top slide (though on the single example known the universally-joined carden shaft is missing). Will a Type A ever be discovered, or other models? Should any reader be able to provide pictures or other information, the writer would be pleased to hear from you.
Backgeared, with power sliding and surfacing feeds, the Type C had a centre height of around 5 inches (125 mm) and a between-centres' capacity of 30 inches (760 mm), The lathe was of unusual design (though the poor quality pictures make interpretation difficult t) with the bed ways formed by a narrow upper surface that cleared the undersides of saddle with its sides formed as V-ways. The running surfaces were formed by two flat sections below the upper - though at a glance it might appears that it was a two-level type this was not the case.
Running down the centre line of the bed, the leadscrew had its clasp nuts positioned directly beneath the toolpost, thus ensuring the shortest possible path between the cutting tool and the point at which the power was applied to pull the carriage along. Drive to the leadscrew was by what  appears to have been an 8-speed feed gearbox operated by a plunger selector and occupying the place where, normally, a tumble-reverse mechanism would have been fitted. In addition to the leadscrew a power shaft was fitted, driven by a train of gears mounted on a swing bracket that could be lifted to engage with a stud gear protruding from the outer face of the 8-speed gearbox. Both power sliding and surfacing feeds were provided, the change from one to another appearing to be by the simple means of a sliding gear fitted to a shaft the outer end of which protruded through the face of the apron as a button. Another oddity was the arrangement of a hand-feed to the carriage where, in place of a conventional rack fitted to the bed and a pinion turned by a handle on the apron, a full-circle handwheel was fitted on the lower face of the headstock, this presumably driving through bevel gears to pick up the changewheel drive and turn the leadscrew - other lathes with a similar arrangement included the ingenious George Adams Round Bed, the American Artisan and the English Cuthbert/Warner/Reffells

Type C backgeared lathe with a power-driven carriage by Marius Carteron


Type D precision bench lathe by Marius Carteron


email: tony@lathes.co.uk
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Carteron Lathe - France