British empire lathe

rich the mechanic · Dec 6, 2020

spencer 427 said:
Thankyou. I will sort those dimensions out tomorrow.

No worries, I only got it out of the van today and spent an hour cleaning the brass swarf and general muck off. Did manage to get it up on its legs.

God mode restorations · Dec 6, 2020

rich the mechanic said:
View attachment 262618

No worries, I only got it out of the van today and spent an hour cleaning the brass swarf and general muck off. Did manage to get it up on its legs.

Did the machine come with any of the parts. Doors ect

rich the mechanic · Dec 6, 2020

Yes front and back of the motor housing doors. The headstock, toolpost and tailstock are there, it is missing the belt adjuster handle and the lead screw gearbox top cover along with the change gears and shaft into the gearbox. The motor plate was not bolted in it was all hanging off the belt. It did also come with 3 chucks, tail chuck & center, milling table, angle plate and a load of tooling. No steady at all.

God mode restorations · Dec 6, 2020

rich the mechanic said:
Yes front and back of the motor housing doors. The headstock, toolpost and tailstock are there, it is missing the belt adjuster handle and the lead screw gearbox top cover along with the change gears and shaft into the gearbox. The motor plate was not bolted in it was all hanging off the belt. It did also come with 3 chucks, tail chuck & center, milling table, angle plate and a load of tooling. No steady at all.

Mk1 empire's come up for sale now and then. Your best bet is to try find another for spares. Steadies are almost impossible to find.

rich the mechanic · Dec 6, 2020

I’m not fussed for a stedy at the moment, there is a good chance it will be modified I went for this as it has the bed cutout

God mode restorations · Jan 11, 2023

Anyone here with a mk2 British empire lathe

Kerelise · Jan 11, 2023

Wow, have spent most of today reading all 48 pages of this thread, absolutely fascinating. Wish I lived near to Colchester - would’ve loved to nip over and just watched this progress in real life. I’ll post a picture of what I “saved” - admittedly it was a foot pump, but have to start somewhere…. Picked up a filthy single phase Brierley ZB32 - will aim to clean off the foundry dust from it (that’s where it came from), but judging by the exploded pictures, probably way beyond me to disassemble and do proper job - pity, as imagine hardened grease from the 1980’s could do with replacing. Inside the chuck it was tougher than frozen lard. Maybe some here will work through a Brierley…

Agroshield · Jan 11, 2023

Kerelise said:
Maybe some here will work through a Brierley…

Start a separate thread on it and then all the info will be in one place.

An amuse bouche for you: https://passion-usinages.forumgratuit.org/t1213-brierley-clarkson-affuteuse-de-forets

Another place where there is some knowledge of them is the Model Engineer forum.

Kerelise · Jan 13, 2023

Many thanks for the “tasters” - will consider doing a show and tell of cleaning up the ZB32 in the summer when have more space to lay out the parts. Have trawled so many places for manuals etc, and have learnt that (a) many variations of the grinder made, and hence many variations of manuals and diagrams - even the original material that cam with mine is slightly different to the machine! (b) think I’d read that a disgruntled employee at Brierley trashed their archives…. From what I understand, much care needed with alignment etc - this is what makes me nervous about creating a pile of clean parts - will buy an ancient iPad to take many pictures might be the way to go..?

Barking Mat · Jan 13, 2023

Awesome work Spencer, just been playing catch up. Seemed to have missed a lot of this.

Is it up and running now ?

Barking Mat · Jan 13, 2023

Machinery restorations said:
What lathe have you got mate

I've a Cazeneuve LO.

Question you asked in 2018, I missed, like alot of this thread.

God mode restorations · Jan 23, 2023

Barking Mat said:
Awesome work Spencer, just been playing catch up. Seemed to have missed a lot of this.

Is it up and running now ?

No. It will be for sale on here shortly for spares or repairs

Joe84 · Jul 31, 2023

Sorry to reopen an old post guys,
I'm looking a fixed steady, slotted backing plate and a 4 jaw shcroll chuck for a chipmaster

Pete. · Jul 31, 2023

Chipmaster uses a d1-3 mount which are plentiful.

Joe84 · Jul 31, 2023

Very expensive for new, pratt burnerd or Bison and hard enough to get a used 2nd hand one, I wouldn't be sure where to get a good cheap brand.

God mode restorations · Aug 18, 2023

So today. While doing the shaper restoration I thought I'd start doing a little bit more on the empire lathe. First thing is to remove the saddle as its not sitting on the ways properly due to a high spot in the centre . Thankfully I can block the apron up one end and blue up to see whats going on. Then scraping.

selectedgrub · Aug 19, 2023

Joe84 said:
Sorry to reopen an old post guys,

God made restoration ain't.

God mode restorations · Aug 19, 2023

Just a little thing I been doing every so often is this big heavy chuck key...this one been kicking about for years..it has different size ends for different size chuck sockets

God mode restorations · Aug 20, 2023

So with a few projects on the go it was time to get prepared for doing some scraping. But first I need to scrape is my camel back straight edge. This is one of clives (pressbrake) castings and is my favourite design. Lovely finish on the casting so look forward to getting this done.