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Seneca Falls "Star" Lathes - Page 2
- also branded "Handy" and "Crown" -

Seneca Falls Home Page

Page 3 - Very Early Seneca Falls Lathes   Seneca Falls "Handy" Lathe

Seneca Falls Restored Lathe   Additional Seneca Falls photographs here

Handbooks and Sales Catalogs are available for
some Seneca Falls Models




A very late-model with the headstock guard covers removed showing the very long countershaft bearings, large-diameter (hence "deep-ratio") backgear assembly, draw-in collet fitting and micrometer bed stop.

Changewheel guard and storage on the 10" to 14" lathes without a screwcutting gearbox.

Standard Accessories supplied with every lathe.

Simple, single-wall apron with gears running on studs supported at one side only.

The countershaft drive unit ran on Hyatt roller bearings. A belt changer was fitted to the three-step cone drive, operated by either hand or foot controls.

Automatic knock-of to the carriage drive. This most useful of accessories worked in both directions.




Cutting a bevel gear held in a collet on the end of the Universal Head's spindle.

If Seneca Falls were content to produce lathes of rather ordinary design (albeit well-made and carefully detailed) then the company's wonderful Universal Milling and Gear-Cutting Attachment, made in three sizes, went some way towards enhancing their reputation, for this was a most unusual, versatile and adaptable accessory, suitable for a wide range of work. The patented unit was in two parts: the powered "Cutter Block" and column-like "Universal Head". The "Cutter Block" was mounted on the lathe saddle and could therefore be fed (within the limits of the sliding power shaft) in either direction, longitudinally or cross ways, by hand or automatically using the lathe power feeds. The cutter arbor, which could be rotated in either direction, was powered through bevel gears and a sliding, universally-jointed shaft  from a collar clamped round the headstock spindle. The arbor socketed into a Morse taper hole, was supported at its outer end by an overarm and provided with a draw bar. The swivelling-base "Universal Head" (when used in conjunction with the Cutter Block) was clamped to the bedways and carried, on a swivelling spigot, either a machine vice or dividing head. It could also be mounted on the cross slide, in place of the top slide, and used as an ordinary milling attachment; with suitable cutters held in the headstock spindle, the ends of shafts could be machined and surface milling and keyway cutting undertaken.
The spindle carried the same nose thread as the lathe it was supplied to fit, so that collets and chucks, etc., could be transferred from one to the other.

In this illustration the powered "Cutter Block" and the "Universal Head" are being used together to slot or spline a shaft. The Universal Head (H) is fastened to the lathe bed whilst the Cutter Block (CB) is mounted on the lathe cross slide and driven from the headstock spindle at (H).
A steady bar (B) is fastened between the Universal Head and a bed-mounted block (D) and its slotted extension arm (E).
The bar carries a sliding clamp (C) and an adjustable centre (G). The shaft to be machined (A) is held between the centre at (G) and a lathe-like dog at (F) and indexed round by the Dividing Head (P).

The Universal Head being used as a stand-alone milling slide.

The Milling Attachment, driven from the headstock through a universal joint, is generating the large gear held on the Vertical Slide and Dividing Attachment.




Seneca Falls also manufactured a range of simple wood-turning lathes sometimes marketing them under the "Crown" label and often applying the description "Speed Lathe" to them--although the latter term should really be reserved for a simple headstock assembly and hand rest used for polishing or very simple turning.
Shown, left, is a 10-inch wood-turning lathe fitted with a substantially constructed built-on countershaft assembly with screw-feed adjustment of the belt tension and a variable-speed DC motor. An unusual departure from standard practice on this model, and reminiscent of a high-quality precision bench lathe, was the use of a "reversed" headstock cone pulley with its largest diameter against the left-hand spindle bearing.

Listed in the early catalogs as a "speed lathe" this 10-inch machine has the traditional Seneca-Falls style outside "overhung" flywheel assembly and twin pedal drive.

10-inch wood-turning lathe in standard form   

Numbers of Seneca falls lathes were imported into the UK during the 1920s and 1930s. Sold by large distributors, they were often advertised with invented names to disguise their origin. The example illustrated is a one-family-from-new machine from circa 1921. A restored lathe here










Seneca Falls Home Page   Additional Seneca Falls photographs here

Page 3 - Very Early Seneca Falls Lathes   Seneca Falls "Handy" Lathe

Seneca Falls Restored Lathe

Handbooks and Sales Catalogs are available for some Seneca Falls Models

Seneca Falls "Star" Lathes
- also branded "Handy" and "Crown" -


E-MAIL   Tony@lathes.co.uk
Home   Machine Tool Archive   Machine-tools for Sale & Wanted
Machine Tool Manuals   Machine Tool Catalogues   Belts   
Books   Accessories