|
An early Wade 8A Toolmaker's lathe with screwcutting gearbox, power sliding and surfacing, T-slotted faceplate, collet draw-in assembly, the tumble-reverse lever facing forwards immediately below the left-hand headstock bearing - and a taper-turning unit. Notice the depth and width of the bed compared to the centre height - and the fact that, like many Precision lathes the Wade's 3-step cone pulley had its smallest diameter by the spindle nose - so allowing the front bearing to be made both significantly larger and be buttressed by a greater mass of surrounding metal. On the very early versions of the lathe the inside of the pulley held gears - exactly like those on Rivett 8-inch Precision lathes - to provide a leadscrew-reversing mechanism. Clearly visible in this picture is the extra-wide front way with its steep inside angle - probably the first time this widely-copied design was used.
|
|