# Gigantic Lathe, what was it For?



## Rhyolith (26 Jan 2016)

While wondering round the Victorian re-entactment village near Ironbridge in Shropshire, I spotted what is clearly the largest Lathe I have ever seen! 


Super Massive Lathe by Rhyolith, on Flickr
I looks like a metal working machine, so my guess is its something to do with steam engine manufacture. But in reality I have no idea, does anyone know what it might have been used for? 

On a sidetone: It is rather painful to see it sitting outside rusting away


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## NazNomad (26 Jan 2016)

A roll turning lathe made by 'Buck & Sons' in Bolton, apparently.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/an ... ge-207731/


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## Rhyolith (26 Jan 2016)

What is "Roll turning" ?


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## NazNomad (26 Jan 2016)

... used to machine cylindrical and shaped rolls for rolling mills.

Which kinda does fit in with the Ironworks theme.


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## Rhyolith (26 Jan 2016)

Looked up mill rolls, got lots of cool photos of cool giant Lathes!  

What are the rolls used for in the Mills? It is not awfully clear from the pictures.


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## NazNomad (26 Jan 2016)

For squishing thick bits of red-hot metal into thinner, or shaped bits.

Like a huge mangle-for-metal. See video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xnKmt_gsLs


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## NazNomad (26 Jan 2016)

... and a pic of an in-situ roll, probably made by that lathe, working at Blists Hill

http://c7.alamy.com/comp/ACH953/rolling ... ACH953.jpg


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## NazNomad (26 Jan 2016)

... and another http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/ ... b3963e.jpg

http://www.geograph.org.uk/snippet/7487 for more info.


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## mind_the_goat (26 Jan 2016)

Did you get the measurements, just want to see if would fit in my shed


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## novocaine (26 Jan 2016)

Also used for turning screw shafts for large ships and such like. Always a shame to see machines like this sitting dieing.


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## Sheffield Tony (26 Jan 2016)

I saw this one when I visited Kelham island with my dad:







Although I was impressed, it is apparently not that big according to Dad. Mind you, the company he worked for (Newton Chambers Engineering) made massive things like the valve gear for Dinorwig, etc.


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## NazNomad (26 Jan 2016)

This lathe for turning limestone columns has the headstock & tailstock in two different buildings ... https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73 ... 6246ae.jpg

:-D I can see where a chip-extractor might have been useless there too. :-D


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## Cheshirechappie (26 Jan 2016)

As Tony suggested, lathes go a good deal bigger than that - http://www.lotsurf.com/uploads/auctions/32/1-3.jpg - for example, and that's nowhere near the biggest.

The firms of Craven Brothers in Manchester and Noble and Lund of Newcastle built some of the largest going. Most of their large products ended up in shipyards and similar heavy engineering shops - think of the old 16" naval guns on WW2 battleships, or deep mine headgear winding drums, that sort of stuff. Marine engine builders still use very big lathes for crankshaft and propeller shaft turning.

Edit to add -

I'm happy to report that Dean, Smith and Grace (builders of the Rolls Royces of lathes) and Broadbent Stanley are both still in business building big lathes. I'm pretty sure Asquith Butler are still going building large mills and borers, too. 

www.deansmithandgrace.co.uk
www.broadbentstanley.co.uk


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## Eric The Viking (26 Jan 2016)

If you're ever down our way on Doors Open Day (late summer usually), drop into the machine shop at Underfall Yard.

It's an intact Victorian shop, with much still line and belt, owned by the city council. It's purpose is for maintenance of the equipment used in the docks, including the hydraulic system that powers several bridges and lock gates.




In the background of this picture is a planer, which IIRC, has an eight foot bed and is about three or four foot wide. The faceplate on the bigger of the two lathes is about three foot. The bit in the foreground is a pillar drill, IIRC (it's not my pic and I haven't been down for a while). 

They have a decent foundry too.


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## Eric The Viking (26 Jan 2016)

Sheffield Tony":a3ulzi7j said:


> ... Although I was impressed, it is apparently not that big according to Dad. Mind you, the company he worked for (Newton Chambers Engineering) made massive things like the valve gear for Dinorwig, etc.


Having once been right up close to those valves, I assume you'd start making them by first making the lathes to make the lathes that would eventually turn the valves. The castings must have been something, too.

Kudos to your dad!


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## Bigstinka (26 Jan 2016)

That last pic with the Asquith odi pillar drill, we still use two everyday at the company I work at.


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## WoodMangler (27 Jan 2016)

The first job I had (1964-ish) was in a general-engineering factory. They had a horizontal lathe dedicated to turning the bearing-rings on tank turrets - produced the most impressive swarf...


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## novocaine (27 Jan 2016)

when the swarf is thicker than most sheet material, then you know you've got a big lathe. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4Ok0LQx0Uc


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## Sheffield Tony (27 Jan 2016)

For those interested in industrial heritage (there might be a few about !) There's a video shot at Newton Chambers Thorncliffe works here:

http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/fil ... generation

Amongst many things, they made the Churchill tanks. The odd bit of big lathe work going on. That was shot in 1953, my father would have been there as an apprentice, up until it closed in the 70's. My whole family worked there - my grandfather in the coal mine then the foundry, my dad in fabrication then the training centre - even my mother making toilet rolls for Izal (one of their brands).


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## AndyT (27 Jan 2016)

What an excellent thread! I've seen that lathe in Blists Hill, and the one in Kelham Island, and the Underfall Yard, so this is right up my street.

A few more pictures to share:

In the Underfall Yard workshops, here's that pillar drill again






and this is the planing machine, by Whitworth, yes that Whitworth. The frame is higher than the workshop doors, so according to the guides, the machine is older than the building, and independently listed as a historic structure.











A nice little lathe






and another general view.






The Trust who run it have secured funding so it should be open and more visitable in the future.

It's been discussed on here before, but fans of big lathes need this lovely photo album from Thomas Firth and Sons in the 1900s:

https://archive.org/details/thosfirthsonslim00firtrich

which includes glorious shots such as these:











Every page a gem!

And Tony, that film's a cracker too - we seem to have missed it when it could have come up before, so thanks for spotting it.


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## Rhyolith (27 Jan 2016)

Some really cool stuff here! Thank you people who posted the videos and photos! All really cool  

I would estimate the lathe in my photo is just shy of 10 meters long, but that is an estimate so don't quote me on it  I was wondering how much power would be needed to run a lathe like this? Obviously the material being turned would be very heavy, my guess is some thing like 40hp for the lathe in my photo.


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## Bedrock (28 Jan 2016)

Anyone seen or photographed what Rolls Royce aero engines use for turning these days?


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## alphatec (3 Feb 2016)

It is a big lathe but not the biggest I've seen.
Normally used in shipyard type work turning down prop shafts ect.


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## Rhyolith (3 Feb 2016)

I should have titled the thread "Who has seen the biggest Lathe?"  ..... Who has seen the biggest lathe? :twisted:


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## novocaine (4 Feb 2016)

Bedrock":339xxxo4 said:


> Anyone seen or photographed what Rolls Royce aero engines use for turning these days?



nothing special. the shaft isn't all that big even on the trent 900 the drive shaft is only circa 250mm OD and it's coupled at mod 2 and mod 3 so each part is only around 400mm long. other than the accuracy you could turn that on most myfords. lol

or do you mean the casing turning, in which case theres shots of it in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQlgK5QOu-4

vertical lathe, go figure.


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## DTR (4 Feb 2016)

novocaine":2zo8edwq said:


> Bedrock":2zo8edwq said:
> 
> 
> > Anyone seen or photographed what Rolls Royce aero engines use for turning these days?
> ...



On forums like this we often see phrases like "Who made the 'Rolls Royce' of _xxxxxx_?"  Well, the Rolls Royce of lathes might just have been made by...... Rolls Royce!

http://www.lathes.co.uk/rolls-royce/


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## novocaine (4 Feb 2016)

very interesting DTR. I love the fact that they were built due to lack of precision in the existing watchmakers lathes (something I will own one day) yet these will have been built on one of those mentioned.


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## DiscoStu (4 Feb 2016)

What about this








Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## NazNomad (4 Feb 2016)

My brain can't even comprehend the glue-up for that ... http://wwideas.com/2014/11/the-biggest-wooden-bowl/

Also, it's not technically a lathe, it's a tractor. :-D


If you get a catch with that, you'll end up somewhere near Jupiter. :-D


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## Rhyolith (4 Feb 2016)

Ok enough. This is apparently the biggest lathe in the world  
http://www.industrytap.com/worlds-large ... sale/14280

That bowl would have made a pretty cool roof for a shed


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## TFrench (4 Feb 2016)

If you're ever in Llanberis with an hour or two to kill, the slate museum is very good - lots of very large chunks of old iron in the machine shop (including a suitably large lathe) all still powered by lineshafting from the water wheel. The pattern shop for the foundry is all still there as well, on a woody note!


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## Racers (5 Feb 2016)

I saw a massive one in a steelworks in Manchester that had a chuck on either end so it could be used as tow or one big one, they used it for big diesel crankshafts .
They also had a massive press the size of a three story building.

Pete


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## timber (6 Feb 2016)

TFrench":2e7nz67i said:


> If you're ever in Llanberis with an hour or two to kill, the slate museum is very good - lots of very large chunks of old iron in the machine shop (including a suitably large lathe) all still powered by lineshafting from the water wheel. The pattern shop for the foundry is all still there as well, on a woody note!



Talking of *line shafts*. I went to work on a farm in Lincs. and in the stack yard were two large cast gear wheels that drove the line shafting for winnowing ,chalf cutting ,pumping water from the well and also grinding and rolling the oats for the sheep and meal for the pigs.

The cast wheels were driven by a horse going round and round. It was not in use in 1950 but was when my brother went to the same farm in 1944/5
The horse according to my brother used to stop going round when it thought nobody was watching. ( It had sense !!)
Timber


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## dickm (6 Feb 2016)

Oh dear, memory lane again! A previous owner of the farm where I was born (in the 1940s) was either well ahead of his time, or well behind, as our barn machinery was driven by 
a Pelton turbine using a stream from higher up the farm. Would be very fashionable now as an example of renewable energy, except that when we sold up, one of the first things
the new owner did was get electricity in and destroyed the turbine. There's progress for you!


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## timber (7 Feb 2016)

dickm":3rfbl6aq said:


> Oh dear, memory lane again! A previous owner of the farm where I was born (in the 1940s) was either well ahead of his time, or well behind, as our barn machinery was driven by
> a Pelton turbine using a stream from higher up the farm. Would be very fashionable now as an example of renewable energy, except that when we sold up, one of the first things
> the new owner did was get electricity in and destroyed the turbine. There's progress for you!


 Memories, Memories!!!! that is all I have left, unless you count all the metal and wood work tools that I have to get rid of.
Timber


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## TFrench (7 Feb 2016)

dickm":2r1vrvx5 said:


> Oh dear, memory lane again! A previous owner of the farm where I was born (in the 1940s) was either well ahead of his time, or well behind, as our barn machinery was driven by
> a Pelton turbine using a stream from higher up the farm. Would be very fashionable now as an example of renewable energy, except that when we sold up, one of the first things
> the new owner did was get electricity in and destroyed the turbine. There's progress for you!


The workshop in the slate mine is all driven by a pelton wheel, including the original gigantic wheel!


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