A machine designed during the 1930s and made until the mid 1950s, the Rollo 6.5" centre height by 30" between centres gap-bed lathe was adopted for used in R.A.S.C mobile workshops. It was notable for a number of interesting features, a compact design and a very complete specification. The all-geared headstock was driven from a motor, neatly contained within the cabinet base, with a clutch fitted as standard; on early versions a single lever on the front face of the headstock controlled the spindle speeds while later models (from an unknown date) had three. The screwcutting gearbox drove both a leadscrew (engaged for screwcutting only by a sliding gear at its headstock end) and a powershaft to drive the sliding and surfacing feeds.
While the controls mounted on the apron might have been conventional, the saddle was formed with unusually long T slots across a wide, raised flat area to the right of the cross slide to make a useful boring table. To get the cutting tool up to height the top slide was mounted on a raised boss - not the most rigid of designs - and fitted with an unusual handwheel that swept back in the form of a V - rather like an extreme version of that used on the Leicester-built ETA lathe.
If you have a Rollo 6.5" the writer would be very pleased to hear from you.