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Drummond "Little Goliath"
More Little Goliath
Copies of the Maker's Literature, Screwcutting Charts, etc. are available
EARLY 3 1/2" Drummond
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Rare early "double-height bed" Model
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Rare 4" Drummond Flat Bed  Admiralty Model   M-Type Photo Essay   
Early Original 31/2"  1912 31/2" B Type  1921 M Type  1925 M  Type   
Headstock Comparison   Still in Use   Round bed Backgears   Walram

First offered during the early 1920s, and now a very rare machine, the smallest and cheapest Drummond ever produced was a plain lathe reduced to the elements of simplicity with the bed and headstock cast as one with bolt-on feet at each end. Although produced until late in the decade of its introduction, the design was decidedly old-fashioned with the aluminium 3-step "gut-drive" headstock pulley carried on a spindle that ran trapped between a conical face on the inside of the front "bearing" and a hardened centre at the back. The latter pushed against an adjustable tube, secured by a single square-headed bolt - the system being a variation on a method more commonly found on both inexpensive and better quality lathes from mid to late 1800s. The spindle nose on early models was threaded internally with a conical section against which a combined centre and drive dog was drawn. It is possible that later models used a conventional external thread and, if so, would have been much more adaptable to accept special fittings and the carrying of conventional chucks.
Like the popular and long-lived 1950s Emco Unimat, the swivelling compound slide rest made use of an inexpensive and easy-to-manufacture twin-bar construction - but on the Drummond lacked micrometer dials. Both the carriage assembly and tailstock were bolted to the flat-topped bed by two bolts, one at the front and another at the rear. A flat brass plate, with degree calibrations, was trapped between the top slide and cross slide; however, because the plate was not screwed down but just turned over along its inside edge as a means of location, as the top slide was swivelled (or the clamping bolt tightened), the plate moved and the reading changed.
The tailstock made do with just a simple (but very effective) lever-action control for the barrel with the various pivot points provided by ordinary split pins.
It is open to question if Drummond actually made the lathe themselves for the same (or very similar) machines  appeared in the 1900 to 1930s catalogues of "hardware" and tool merchants with either just a reference number or an obviously contrived name to identify it.
If you have a "Little Goliath" the writer would be interested to see pictures.

An exceptionally original Little Goliath from actor Sir Michael Gambon's collection

The compound slide used steels bars as "ways". Although made of inexpensive material the bars were a press fit in the casting, a design that called for precise machining. The toolpost, amusingly, was a replica of the type often found on very large English lathes of the period.

Close examination of the picture will show that the handwheels were retained by a simple pin pressed into a hole drilled through the junction of shaft and hub.

The 3-step "gut-drive" headstock pulley was carried on a spindle that ran trapped between a conical face on the inside of the front "bearing" and a hardened centre at the back that pushed against an adjustable tube secured by a single square-headed bolt.

The  fitting on the spindle end was a simple screw-in combined centre and drive dog - the bent drive pin being inserted into the hole and secured by a bolt.

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Drummond "Little Goliath"
Showing some of the modifications introduced during that year
Copies of the Maker's Literature, Screwcutting Charts, etc. are available
EARLY 3 1/2" Drummond
    Larger Drummonds   
Round Bed Drummond   Rare 4" Drummond Flat Bed
M Type   Early Original 31/2"    1912 31/2" B Type   
Headstock Comparison   
Admiralty Model  M-Type Photo Essay
The First Drummond Lathe