Wadkin RU

[Richard Findley]

Thank you Christoph, very interesting, I have never seen such a thing before!

http://www.fixatorenbau.de/2-engl-fixatoren.html

Sounds like they need fitting before the machine arrives though. My RS just sits on 5" thick plywood pads which seems to work well. The good thing about these machines is that they are heavy enough not to wonder too far on their own :lol:

Cheers

Richard

 

[Richard Findley]

B, if you decided to set up this website just let me know and I will send you details of my RS. There is some on my website here

http://www.turnersworkshop.co.uk/wadkin

Keep us informed

Richard

 

[Islander]

Greetings from the colonies, all. Burnsylad and Cbromber, I'd be happy to be in touch more directly somehow since I don't often visit forums. I stumbled across this thread while looking for others with a Wadkin RU in their shops. I've had an RU-15 for a few years. It's been sitting idle while I complete a new workshop building but I'll soon be putting it into service and exploring its capabilities. The new building has a reinforced 12" thick concrete slab. I've assumed that it would be sufficient to epoxy some stout mounting bolts in place to secure the machine, but am open to opinions on that. And being a rather tall person I wouldn't mind raising the lathe to a more comfortable working height. It's been very interesting to read about how others have gone about this.

The lathe came out of the old pattern shops at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada where, I believe, it was used to turn patterns for various airfoils when the NRC was in its heyday in the late '50s and '60s. It came with a trove of tooling including a detachable outboard indexing plate, faceplates ranging from 36" on down, a massive 4-foot extension for the cross-slide and the original documentation and engineering drawings.

Cheers,
Greg.

 

[boysie39]

Welcome Greg , that sounds like a massive piece of machinery you have . As you can see there are quite a few members on here with a Wadkin lathe of some series or other .Hope you are up and running soon enjoy your time on here .

 

[burnsyslad]

Hello folks,

sorry this has taken so long but I have been off sick for a good while. Now back and have made some progress with the RU so I thought I would send you some pics to update you.

1. Motor and speed control. I took the old motor off and set it on the shelf, I replaced it with a new 3 HP motor and hooked this up to a nice shiny new Hitachi speed control/inverter supplied by Tesla Newton in the UK (thanks to them for putting up with my really stupid questions). In my haste to get things going I temporarily slung the speed control up on a wooden board suspended from the ceiling ...honest I will make something a little more substantial if I can stop myself from using the lathe for turning all day. Pics are below.

2. I wanted to be able to use a chuck on the thing and funnily enough none of the standard chuck fittings seemed to be made in a 2" x 4.5 tpi thread ....I cant understand why. So a local engineering firm volunteered for the pain and we now have a Wadkin RU with a Oneway stronghold chuck .... big thanks to Graham at Penshaw Engineering.


I am available to set up the Wadkin owners site, I have some server space we can use though I still think its going to be a pretty small club.

I think I may try some pens next, provided the lathe is big enough that is.


Best

B

 

[Dr_Aldory]

Hello burnsyslad! I hope you are still on this forum, and have been enjoying your lathe..
I too have just bought a Wadkin RU, and was hoping to gain from your experiences so far and see if you did manage to find manuals spare parts insights etc..if so, I'd really appreciate some help!
Thanks

 

[burnsyslad]

Hello,

yes still here. In terms of spares and documentation I think you are probably pretty much on your own, if you have any questions I can try to help. I also have a contact who used to work on one of these in a pattern making shop and he has provided quite a few pointers.
I have added a hollowing jig recently, see attached.
Lets have some pictures then!!!

 

[Dr_Aldory]

Ha Ha! It arrives Tuesday, lets hope for some dry weather, pictures will have to wait till then...as will I!

I also have to wait to see what bore/thread size etc its been fitted out with, by all accounts Wadkin used to make it to whatever specification was asked for rather than a standard so I can't start the hunt till next week for a rear faceplate and chuck and I don't even know if the tailstock will come with any centers...

 

[burnsyslad]

Hi,
yep as far as I know the final specifications varied depending on what the customer wanted. I have even seen one that was missing the freestanding rear pedestal and had a significantly shorter bed.
If you pm me on the site I will get back to you next week.

 

[Dr_Aldory]

Thanks! You'll have explain the pm system to me, I'm new on here and can't see any links...?

 

[Dr_Aldory]

Hello again..
Lathe arrived today, it's lower slung than I thought it would be isn't it? But an impressive machine nonetheless...
Ok question one..I can't seem to dislodge this center from the headstock, is it just jammed and needs more time & WD40 or am I pullling on the wrong part? Did your adaptor (for the chuck) go straight onto the thread all the depth of the center?
And it's not come with the faceplates, did you get yours made custom or do you use your adaptor to fit generic ones? Thanks!

 

[burnsyslad]

Hi,

the drive centre on mine was stuck in, I soaked it with plus gas and then applied a little heat and that seemed to help with working it free.
My spindle adaptor screws onto the spindle nose and then steps down to 1 1/2" x 8, I bought a Oneway Stronghold with the appropriate insert to fit. As far as I can tell it is running true, though it took a little bit of work to get the adaptor onto the spindle nose as I had to tidy the threads up a bit.
The lathe came with a faceplate and up to now I have not needed a second one, though I am looking at making some Cole Jaws for the chuck.
I sent you a PM with my contact details in it.

B

Any more pictures??

 

[Dr_Aldory]

Thanks! I did get your details thank you, I posted my question here because I couldn't attach the photo to the PM and I also thought maybe someone besides you and Christoph had some advice to give me...
Not too many pics yet, while the haulier was unloading I couldn't really be zipping around with my mobile like an excited teenager (I mean, you gotta pretend to have SOME dignity, right?) and then the problem of getting into my workshop without bashing the walls became the overriding concern; we just about managed it dangling from my forklift, and I mean JUST -we measured 5cm of clearance!- after which we were too exhausted with relief to take any photos.
I'm itching to start using it, but like you I intend to fit it with an electronic speed controller to save messing around with levers and pulleys and it can only turn between centres at the moment anyway, so I'll be posting some pics when it's all been cleaned up & polished ready to work if people are still interested!

 

[burnsyslad]

Hi,

rushing around like an excited teenager...now that sounds familiar.
It looks like you wont be winding the bed out very far then!
I still use the gears a lot when turning as they alter the torque you get significantly, I can recommend John over at Newton Tesla for help with the variable speed, he was really good and patient with an electronic idiot like me. The motor was just a one from ebay but it does the job and has so far proved reliable enough.
I had one horror story from someone who used to operate one of these, apparently he had something very large (3 feet by 15 feet) on it and was in a rush so wanting to check progress he powered off and tried slowing it down with his hand....he recommends avoiding that as an approach.
Oh and if you want to sell that traversing carriage ....

B

 

[Dr_Aldory]

Selling bits?!! Not a chance!

I've already got a DirectDrive converter for when I used to run my Wadkin PK off my house 240v supply, I intend to use that, it may seem strange to run a 3phase motor via an inverter from 240v single phase in a workshop with 3phase already wired (whew! Try saying that quickly!) but it was a really great unit, infinite speed control plus reverse function and overload cutoff & DC braking and I don't really turn much anyway, I'm more of a carver/joiner to be honest so it will be getting an easy life in its old age now..I just couldn't resist it!
My main goals now are faceplate/chuck/extra toolrests, in that order, while I do a repaint & polishing of the whole thing..oh, and I realized from your comment the pic is misleading, the workshop extends another 20 meters beyond the end of the tailstock, what you see that looks like an end-wall is actually just a railway sleeper I use to cushion the steel forklift tangs while lifting some of my cast iron machinery around, so there's plenty of space to extend the bed! ;-)

 

[Dr_Aldory]

The limited clearance was on either side of the lathe trying to get it through the door, as I couldn't twirl it round (to go in small-end first) so it had to go full length across the doorway...swinging...bumpy forklift...one inch either side of two tons of metal...sweaty palms...

 

[burnsyslad]

Well I had to try for the traversing carriage!! :lol:

As for the "I don't really turn much anyway" that's a classic, I only went out for something a bit bigger than my coronet major and came back with the RU ..... funnily enough I have been told I am not allowed to go back to the place I bought it without a responsible adult.

When mine arrived it had to be lifted in over the hedge and through the workshop roof, I could hardly bear to look.

 

[Dr_Aldory]

Any ideas how it's meant to be fixed?