email: tony@lathes.co.uk
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U.N.D. Lathe - University of Notre Dame


Around 3.5-inch centre height, and 20 inches between centres, the U.N.D. was a precision bench lathe* distinguished from others of the same genre by a dividing attachment, complete with an indexing plate, built into the front face of its plain-bearing headstock. Only three surviving examples of the U.N.D. are known; one is fitted with a slide rest of the correct type from a late-model Cataract precision bench lathe while another has an example as fitted to the rather less expensive Goodell-Pratt. The latter machine, by the appearance of its many home-made accessories, had enjoyed a hard and productive life.
Unusually for a lathe of the late 19th and early 20th century, the 3-step flat-belt headstock pulley was overhung and, as the headstock spindle with a gear on its end fnished well inside it may originally have housed an epicyclic-type speed reduction unit. Another seldom-found fitting is a built-in headstock-mounted dividing attachment, the cover over the centre part of the spindle presumably guarding a worm wheel.
Unfortunately, with an absence of sales literature, it is impossible to tell anything of the maker's background - although it is confirmed that one of the three survivors came from a long-time employee the University Of Notre Dame and the lathe is likely to be one of a small batch assembled by students as part of a project. The university was (and still is) well known for its interest in things mechanical and in 1939 research into metallurgy and allied sciences was supported by the establishment of a fellowship in by the gift of $15,000 from Mr. J. J, O'Brien, owner of the nearby South Bend Lathe Works.
If you have a UND lathe the writer would be interested to hear from you.
*Including: Levin, Bottum, American Watch Tool Company, Bausch & Lomb, B.C.Ames, Cataract, Crystal Lakes, Derbyshire, Elgin, Hardinge, Hjorth, W.H.Nichols, Potter, Pratt & Whitney, Remington, Rivett, Sloan & Chace, U.N.D., Van Norman, Wade, Waltham Machine Works, and (though now very rare) , Frederick Pearce, Ballou & Whitcombe, Sawyer Watch Tool Co., Engineering Appliances, Fenn-Sadler, and the "Cosa Corporation of New York".

Fitted with a modern "A" section V-pull, this U.N.D.
is fitted with a compound slide rest from a late-model Cataract lathe




A U.N.D. with its original 3-step headstock pulley and headstock-mounted indexing and dividing attachment
The slide rest is from a Goodell Pratt lathe

The over-hung 3-step headstock pulley may originally, judging by the gear on the end of the spindle, have contained an epicyclic reduction gear

Goodell-Pratt compound slide rest

No mistaking the manufacturer's name - the letters U.N.D. were cast into the front face of the bed.


email: tony@lathes.co.uk
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U.N.D. Lathe