Drummond Round bed questions

joshvegas · 9 Apr 2022

I've been keeping an eye out for a treadle metal lathe for a while. I'm a bit taken with human powered tools, already have a small and extremely useful hand cranked drill press. So after a couple of years idly cheking gumtree and ebay once in a blue moon for something nearbye... I found one!.... in my late Grandpa's shed during a clear out after my Gran died.

I am now the proud owner of a generally functioning early drummond roundbed (also myford woodlathe on its cabinet and a kity bandsaw and lots of fun bits an pieces in general) but back to the lathe, largely rust free everythign needs a bit of a clean but it all appears to move and te first order of business is get it mounted on something and i need a drive belt.

I have got various pdfs but does anyone happen to know what belt dimensions are most suitable (length obviously varies with final height. And with regards to height, I plan on mounting it on a slay of laminated 2x4s with some sort of thin metal tray for catching the mank but i have the opportunity t mount it at any height i like so is there a 'good height' in my head the wheels for tool control are probably most comfortable at elbow height?

There may be more questions and photos as i progress along the lines of "what is this and what do i do with it?" but for now all opinions (and even some facts if appropriate are most welcome)

Sandyn · 9 Apr 2022

Lathes.co.uk might give you some answers here possibly 1" wide

joshvegas · 9 Apr 2022

I hadn't actually realised there was a business attached to Lathes.co.uk, weirdly the belt section seems to be caput. I'll send him an email.

Spent a happy couple of hours with the degreaser all the ancillaries are clean and oily ragged for storage. next stage is the big bits, I am not looking forward to lifting the bloody thing again, bearhugging it down the stairs was terrifying the size defies the weight!

dickm · 9 Apr 2022

If it's pretty much unworn, you've got a real friend there. I had a flat-bed Drummond for some years, converted from treadle power by a previous owner and it was a great machine. Still not sure why I fell for a Myford Super 7 (apart from it being cheap and in good condition!) and sold the Drummond..

Sandyn · 9 Apr 2022

joshvegas said:
weirdly the belt section seems to be caput.

I just checked, it seemed to work for me, all the way through to checkout. That was for a super-tensile, 25mm X 1m belt

joshvegas · 10 Apr 2022

You're right Sandy, I was using the 'belts' link at the bottomof the lathe history pages.

On your comment i went back and started from the home page and that worked perfectly, cheers.

dickm said:
If it's pretty much unworn, you've got a real friend there. I had a flat-bed Drummond for some years, converted from treadle power by a previous owner and it was a great machine. Still not sure why I fell for a Myford Super 7 (apart from it being cheap and in good condition!) and sold the Drummond..

I've had the main spindle out from the pulleys that was a rubber mallet job as its almost an interference fit and the bearing locations are mirror finish with do lip of anykind. Its clearly been used or atleast its been dismantled a few times as there are the odd bump and scrape and there is a bunch of what look like practice pieces. I suspect that came to a halt sometime as the banjo has been broken, I know one of my uncles welded it when they got it. The weld is not pretty its going to take a bit of work to straighten it out aswell.