This may be of interest to you before you decide to buy, also you could probably find them even cheaper if really looked around.
Introduced in the late 1930s (and not for the 1948 Golden Jubilee of the Harrison company as widely supposed) the Harrison "Union" Jubilee wood-turning lathe had a 5-inch centre height and was available in versions offering 30", 42" and later 54" between centres. For a short time during the mid 1950s the lathe could also be had in a heavy-duty version with the centre height increased to 6 inches, the spindle bored through 0.5 inches and running in Timken taper-roller bearings. Selling for £27 : 10s : 0d in 1939 (with an extra foot of bed costing £1 extra) it was designed to comply with factory regulations for guarded drives and was described in the pre-WW2 brochure as being intended for technical school use. Indeed, the lathe proved enormously popular not only with professional wood-turners, but also with educational and training establishments from its introduction until 1965 - by which time the superior "Graduate" lathe had been on sale for 6 years. During its last two years of production the Jubilee was listed at £96 : 0s ; 0d, with the Graduate only some £16 more expensive - at such a small difference one wonders how long the old Jubilee stock took to clear. A 27-year production run must have seen many thousands of Jubilees sold and today examples are widely available at bargain prices.
Of heavy construction, the lathe used cast-iron bed rails tenoned and dowelled into the face of a headstock plinth constructed from very heavy-gauge, welded steel plate. The 3/8" bore, No. 1 Morse taper headstock spindle carried a 1" x 10 t.p.i thread on both ends and ran in simple ball races. The bearings were lubricated by screw-down caps which, if turned once each day, required filling weekly. It was powered through its 4 speeds of 425, 790, 1330 and 2250 rpm by either a 0.5 hp or 0.75 hp Crompton-Parkinson motor mounted on a vertically-adjustable plate within the cabinet leg - where the moving parts were (almost) safely hidden from the curious fingers of schoolboys and apprentices. Later machines are sometimes found with a sheet-metal cover over the protruding motor to complete seal the aperture, the thinking being that if students could get their fingers in, they would. The lathe was always supplied complete with motor and switchgear, the latter comprising just a simple overload, no-volt safety starter. The considerable weight of the (original) cast-iron framed motor and its mounting plate, together with the lack of any mechanism to lift them, meant that spindle speed changes were both slow and difficult; however, some machines have been found fitted with a very effective foot-operated ratchet arrangement that lifted and held the motor in an up position to allow the belt to be moved from pulley to pulley. Today, as an alternative, a small hydraulic jack under the centre of the mounting plate, would seem to be a good idea. On the first lathes the headstock cover was retained by two screws whilst later models were given a more convenient hinged cover - which wood-work teachers then had to find a means of bolting closed. Other pointers to very early examples include the lack of a large flange around the base of the main plinth, an almost vertical face to the front of the tailstock, a cast handle to lock and unlock the T-rest, a motor-support plate with curved sides and (it is believed) the bowl-turning assembly in cast-iron.
A bowl-turning unit of vast capacity (able to accommodate a block of wood 5 inches thick and up to 18-inches in diameter on the aluminium faceplate) could be fitted to the outer face of the headstock column - indeed, most examples appear to have been sold with this accessory already mounted. A version with a rack-feed carriage and compound slide rest was also offered, designed to allow the machining of, in the maker's description, "non-ferrous metals" - in other words, light-duty metal turning.
Fitted with a (too small) No. 1 Morse taper, some tailstock barrels have been found left solid - though most were bored right through and could be adapted as a handy guide for long-hole boring. Occasionally a tailstock is discovered with the very rare (and useful) lever-operated mechanism fitted. Oddly, the tailstock handwheel, though of a large diameter, was often left smooth on the rim and, to compound the felony, chrome plated as well--thus ensuring that the operator had the smallest possible chance of getting a grip on it. The Jubilee remains a highly-effective wood-turning lathe and, because there is little to go wrong (and even one which has been abused is easily repaired), it remains a very popular second-hand buy. It can be quickly broken down into its component parts - headstock, bed and tailstock-end leg - and, with a reasonable weight of 480 lbs (218 kg), can even be moved to a new home in the back of a Brussels-approved, European standard-issue hatchback.
The Jubilee has also been discovered with a large, vertically disposed badge reading "SAGAR", though what the marketing arrangement were for this brand is unknown..
John. B
