The Alpha and Beta were both designed for bench mounting, but with the Beta benefiting from the effect of being bolted to a heavy, very rigid, distortion-resistant "three-foot" cast-iron tray.

This early example of the Murad Antarctica lathe has six spindle speeds from 39 to 870 rpm. This was later increased to 12 by usual expedient of using a double-size pulley on the motor shaft together with matching larger pulleys on the countershaft; each model had its own speed range, arranged (on later models) as follows: 39 to 1300 rpm for the Alpha, 39 to 2000 rpm for the Beta and a very useful 39 to 2520 rpm for the Gamma.

The double-wall apron and generously-long saddle were both heavily constructed (and increased in size on later models); all shafts in the apron were supported in double bearings and the hand-feed action driven through triple reduction gears running in an oil bath. The top and cross slide feed screws were of Acme form and carried spring-loaded zeroing micrometer dials.