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CrewCab:

--- Quote from: Darren on November 24, 2008, 05:09:53 AM ---This is a cracking and very solid little lathe.

--- End quote ---

Darren,

I had a trawl back through a few old posts to find a little more info about your lathe ........ (just colour me "nosey  ::)  ) ............. Smart and Brown Model L ......... let's be honest here ...  I'm no expert but as far as I can see anything made by Smart and Brown is going to be top quality and that little Model "L" looks a cracking machine .......... well done for managing to find one.

Before I bought my Boxford I had a look at all sorts and one place had a Smart and Brown 1024 (I think) ........... that is a "Very, Very, Nice" piece of kit ........... it was never going to folow me home for a variety of reasons .......... size and weight being a fairly major factor, it weighs over twice as much as the Boxford and the footprint is about 45% bigger .............. and the other  deciding factor was .............. I could have bought 6 Boxfords like mine for the asking price of this 1024  :bugeye: .......... got to say though it's a seriously nice machine  ::) if you have the space and budget.


Anyway ............... back to reality ..............  my cross slide is just a nad's "wibbly - wobbly" near the centre ........  metinks I need to do a little investigation etc. and perhaps follow your lead  :bow:

Thanks for all the input Darren ........... it's very much appreciated   :thumbup:

CC

Darren:
Yes I don't think S&B ever made what is considered to be a "bad" lathe. Even the smallest they made the 2" Pultra is sought after. Very similar to the L model but half the size. Mind you, the cabinet is the same unit so it takes up the same footprint.

I was lucky when mine was delivered, we had a team of builders around at the time. It took four strong men to move my little lathe. There was no way two alone could move it. It had to be lifted off the pallet with nothing but muscle power.

The 1024 is a beauty, as far as I know they were not too common in production machine shops. More often found in research labs I believe. So most are still in excellent condition with little wear.

For such a big machine a couple of things let them down a touch. Spindle through bore and throw. A gap bed would have been nice.
But having said that, they were built for precision and were extremely well made, just look at the size of that apron & bed casting ....!!! 

I would love one....

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