Hazdent Machine Tools - big wood lathe project!

[minilathe22]

I am taking delivery of this metal spinning lathe soon - although I am hoping to convert it to a heavy duty wood lathe. The design appears to be influenced by the Taylor spinning lathes of the 1950s. The seller also recently sold a Taylor spinning lathe, and it looks like the Taylor banjo got put on this lathe by mistake.

The lathe came from a closed down business in Birmingham, and the motor was made in Lancashire, so it sounds like they may have been based in the north of England. It is around 12.5" centre height with a 3HP 6 pole motor, so with the intermediate pulley shaft I should be able to get slow high torque I want for turning large bowls.

I am debating whether to do a full restoration and repaint, or whether to just fix any issues and clean it up a bit. The only major problem I can see so far from the photos is the tailstock is missing a few bits and the top cover has a bit of damage.

I will most likely have to make a thread adapter to use woodturning chucks/faceplates. Hopefully the toolpost diameter is a common size.

I cannot find any information online about "Hazdent Machine Tools" specifically. I wonder if anyone has heard of them, or seen a similar machine before?

 

[Adam Pinson]

Love it, even this old machine has a movable power switch, i wish my DVR-xp had one !

 

[minilathe22]

I believe the power switch is just hanging off, its probably meant to be permanently fixed!

 

[Adam Pinson]

I believe the power switch is just hanging off, its probably meant to be permanently fixed!

Oh ok, i suppose it could easily be made into a magnetic movable one though.

 

[minilathe22]

A busy day today, 8:30AM the lathe was delivered, we used an engine crane to get it out of the van and then lowered it onto the bed of the engine crane, wheeled it in and laid it down on some wood blocks.

Mostly stripped down, it has a thick layer of gunge mixed with metal cutoffs, going to take a while to clean it all off.

The motor runs which is good. Huge plain bronze bearings, they are slightly scored, I am hoping they can still be used.

To lock the headstock I used a pipe wrench, Its 3" across flats but spanners of this size seem to be £50 new!

The thread is 2" and 4.5 TPI, I will make an adapter to either M33x3.5 or 1.5" 6tpi which suits the Union Graduate parts I currently have. Or perhaps I can machine this thread onto a chuck backplate directly.

There is a morse taper 3 in the tailstock and a heavy duty live centre, The spindle is sold centre but plenty of room for a taper if I decided to try and machine one.

I need to make something to lock the tailstock thread, It looks like there is a plain bore that intersects with the main bore of the tailstock, so I think I can get a piece of plain solid steel and then machine a cutoff on it.

Anyone got a 3" spanner please let me know!

 

[Droogs]

Just need to get yourself a fancy super freezer to make some curvy ice molds and get creative

 

[clogs]

it'll prob cost u that much to get a spanner lazer cut anyway.....
I'd say £50 is well spent the second time i use it......
does the main shaft spindle feel groovey with ur finger nail....?
if so polish with som 800-100 wet and dry paper....
for oil I think I'd be using some kinda good qual mineral oil...guess it has oil drippers....?
nice peice of kit.....
I'd just clean it up a tad and get using it.....then if u want to modify anything then do a rebuild.....or...
Use some tractoryl enamel paint or similar.....just spend a little time on the prep....
glad to see ur sorted now....

 

[minilathe22]

The scoring is visible, but I can't actually feel it. The spindle is smooth to turn, but does not keep any momentum, I am wondering if its a bit tight. There are no oil drippers, I think I will get some, there is a threaded hole in the top of the bearings and a small inspection cup at the lower level. I will empty it out and replace as I do not know how old the oil is.

Once I am convinced the bearings are usable I will treat it to some tractor enamel as suggested.

The hole in the top of the tailstock is plain without a thread, I think Its meant to take a sold bar with a cutout machined in it. I will probably have to make this component.

Without the motor or tailstock its over 600kg!

 

[Droogs]

lovely bit of kit and will bring a lot of enjoyment. BTW I think the oil will be around 2mil year old, just saying

 

[TFrench]

Looking good! Like I said, it's got ring oilers - the bands on the main spindle lift oil from the well and oil the main bearing. It won't need drip oilers - it's got this far without them. The guy I picked it up from was under the impression hazdent were American.

 

[minilathe22]

I see now, it is not a total loss system like many metal lathes have, it goes round in a loop. Thanks Tom.

 

[TFrench]

Those bearings will outlast anything you can throw at it, I wouldn't do anything to them. Looks like ball bearings to the outside of the plain bearings? I think I would be inclined to give it fresh oil and reassemble, then rig up a small motor to spin the spindle for 10 minutes, check if anything gets hot. I doubt it will but you'll know where any problems are.
I'm amazed the threaded adapter came off easily - I thought that would take some serious heat to bust it loose. I wonder if there is enough meat left on the adapter to recut the threads to fit a sorby or evolution chuck - worth doing some measuring as all the hard work of cutting that great big internal thread has been done.
Lancashire crypto made motors for lots of people - I've seen a few on pollard drills as well.

 

[Jameshow]

Think it was one of those a guy was turning Saab hub caps on! Was on Drew Priichards car programme.

Cheers James

 

[KingAether]

Beautiful machine! Looking foward to seeing it up and running if you keep us updated!
No promices but i may have a 3" spanner i brought at a carboot for the novelty, its at a friends currently but ill get him to measure and get back to you

 

[minilathe22]

The threaded adapter needed only a little persuasion with a blowtorch. Locked the spindle with the pipe spanner and hit a cold chisel in one of the (very worn) gaps in the side of the adapter. There was a bit of oil inside. I think the last person to actively use it was quite careful.

The inside thread is very deep, 60mm so there isnt enough meat left over to make a new male thread on the front. However it looks like I could make it into a very chunky ISO style backplate for my 100mm versachuck - If I can find a way to accurately drill three holes through the length of it. You are right I don't want to have to make a 4.5TPI thread if I can avoid it...

As there is no taper in the spindle I am debating having the chuck more or less permanently attached, ideally with a locking screw to prevent it unwinding. I don't see any faceplates with this thread.

The lower pulley shaft is supported on SKF double row self aligning bearings, 90mm OD! Thankfully they are well greased and appear to be in good condition as I can't afford to replace them!

TFrench: On the main spindle there are two sets of thrust bearings, they look like the type that fall to bits when you remove them.

James, please let me know regarding the potential spanner!

 

[TFrench]

In that case I'd get a blank versachuck backplate and machine it to whatever the thread is on that adapter I think.

 

[minilathe22]

Not as much progress today as yesterday, but that is partly due to being sore all over from moving things around and excessive wire brushing!

The inside of the lathe is thick with black oily dust, its fluffy like the inside of a chimney. I think material from the belts over time has caused this. It burns easily, I found this out when putting some heat with a blowtorch on a stuck bolt so I want to remove it all.

I tried to remove the spindle, to access the inside better and also so that I can fit a true endless belt but the lower halves of the bearings did not want to release from the main casting, and I would have to split the oil thrower rings instead to remove it so I think now I will leave it in place and get a belt which glues together.

Mostly degreased all the parts except the lathe casting itself. Interestingly the tailstock is not self ejecting, even though the male thread moves towards the inside of the taper as its wound back. I believe I could make it self ejecting by inserting a piece of metal in there. Perhaps there used to be one. I also want to avoid grease getting on the taper.

Tailstock end thread which holds the handle has been beaten up, and my small metal lathe found an excuse to not earn its keep again as the tailstock rod is too long to mount it on there and recut the thread. I have had a go with some needle files, hopefully a new nut will be able to get over the rough bit of thread.

I briefly laid out some of the parts to get an idea of how I can use it, to see if there are any problems using it as a wood lathe. For heavy duty work you can actually bolt the banjo in two places. The centre height is a bit low, so I need taller toolrests or make an extension. Toolpost diameter is 1 1/8" which I believe means Wadkin toolrests would fit. The lathe itself I think I will raise 2" on some pieces of chipboard to make it more comfortable to use.

This test also allowed me to get an idea of the max dimensions, it looks like 25" max diameter and maybe 28" between centres, although the tailstock is so solid I am sure it would work fine overhanging a bit.

 

[TFrench]

Most economical way to sort the toolrest is to buy a chunk of 1 1/8" Round bar, thread the end to whatever sorby use for their modular range and use them. It's what I've done for my wadkin. Wadkin toolrests are hideously overpriced for what they are.

 

[Richard_C]

Since the first post I've been thinking about Hazdent and like you can't trace anything. A few "hmmm. I wonder ....."

Is it a portmanteau word, 2 meaningful halves. Dent near Sedburgh seems unlikely, Hazel Grove and Denton - both Stockport-ish. lots of machine tool industry but found nothing on local history sites. Founders name plus a bit of a place name - Harry.... but where does the Z come from - or 2 founders names?

The thinking not UK - maybe post war import un-powered with a UK motor added, lots of US and Commonwealth support for Britain as we tried to rebuild. Another Dent then? There's a suburb of Cincinnati called Dent, and one or two others in the USA. Cincinnati mostly did milling machines, so why not a smaller specialist firm down the road. No joy there though, but that's not to say it isn't. Canada - don't think so but they did develop a machine tool industry.

Then I went off looking not for machine tools but metal forming tools. Rhodes (Wakefield) might have bought them up, they were about sheet metal working in all its forms. The group still exists but nothing on their history page. Learned from it though, metal spinning is a much bigger industry than I imagined.

Will keep going on and off, but you might try an enquiry to the Metalforming Machine Makers Association - who knew they existed

https://www.mmma.org.uk/
Do please post of you find out, its 'bugging me' now.

 

[minilathe22]

The metal spinning lathe that James saw in Salvage Hunters is a Taylor lathe, very similar style but not the same one. I believe the design of this lathe was influenced by the Taylor lathe, or perhaps the other way round as there are many similarities between them. Having said that, metal spinning lathes are all pretty similar in design.

Thanks Richard for some interesting ideas, I will be sure to let you know if I find out anything else!