Your oldest piece of machinery

[DennisCA]

Yeah it's great now, took 16 months of work to get it like that though, and I still need to rescrape the gibs on the X-axis, there's too much resistance in that direction, bearing surfaces are worn down.

 

[julianf]

1943:
View attachment 104254

They weren't so big on dust extraction back in the day, that's a certainty!

 

[heimlaga]

My oldest machine is my 24 circular rip saw which was manufactured in 1885. It is almost ready to run but not in use yet. I am little by little making room for it in the workshop at the moment.

Other elderly machines are:
E.V.Beronius band saw. probably from the 1910-s
Jonsered FM-C spindle moulder. Awaiting rebuild. 1938
Stenberg KEV600 combination machine 1957
Solberga lathe. Probably 1950-ies
Naula mortiser. Late 1940-ies
Unidentified bench grinder. Probably 1910-s or 20-ies. Not in use
Unidentified wood framed spindle moulder now converted to router table. Probably 1920-ies
Valmet drill press. Early 1950-ies.
SCM l'Invincibile T160 spindle moulder. Approximately 1968
Unidentified metal shaper. Probably Jochnick&Norrman before world war two. Awaiting rebuild.
All-Elektro Bench grinder. Unknown age but hardly newer than the 1950-ies
Alimak waterstone grinder. Supposedly 1960-ies
Gisebo logging trailer. Probably 1960-ies
Massey-Ferguson 165 tractor. 1971.
Plus some elderly tractor equipment of unknown age.

 

[Droogs]

God, just the name E V Beronius makes you want to buy their stuff

Naula mortiser on the other hand just sounds painful

 

[Cabinetman]

This is my mortiser, difficult to age but I suspect around late 1800s and early 1900s, has been converted with an electric motor at some point as it would originally have been arm power! Still in fairly regular use, very little wear on the slides and easily accounted for, 3 phase and takes up to a 1 inch chisel. Ian

 

[philip sewell]

This is my pride and joy. It’s a CVA tool room lathe built in 1953. I’ve read that you could buy a small house for the amount these lathes sold for from new (which is probably why they went bust!). It’s all cast iron of course. I restored it a couple of years ago and I’ve fitted a VFD so I’ve got variable speed. The DRO was a recent add on. It’s probably worthless but I love working on it. In its 70 years I wonder about all the engineers who have used it and probably aren’t here anymore.

Nearly all my machines are old lumps of cast iron. I bought a new Startrite bandsaw and a multico or startrite (I forget) spindle moulder when I started on my own but I soon swapped them for older much heavier machines.

 

[Fergie 307]

Not really a machine, but very old.
There was a thread on people's oldest tools but can't seem to find it.
Anyway thought the various tool junkies might find this interesting. It's a bow mill cutter. Very much a one trick pony for cutting the ends on bows for pocket watches etc. The reamers are sized to match each size of end, and are used to accurately ream out the holes in the sides of the pendant. Probably mid 19th century ot thereabouts. Needs some tlc, but very unusual to find one so complete.
The brass tube contains a spring which holds the end of the bow against the cutting head, turning the handle then drives the cutter to machine the end.