Thread: Wadkin RS lathes, an out of the box question.

Hi again Camo.

Can I ask where your BZL 59555 fits in the picture?

Cheers, Vann.

Hi Cam,
I'm beginning to despair of you!
What are you thinking?
The Arn gods dropped a bounty in your lap and you want to reject them. Only bad things come of defying the Gods my heretic friend! DAMHIK.

Put both of them end to end, put a vfd on the right hand one so that you can run it in reverse and use one of the attachments that both Nova and Vicmarc make so that you can run conventional chucks in reverse. You have 2 lathes or one really long bed.
No more heresy from you please, the fallout may impact those around you and I'm sure that for the sake of avoiding us becoming collateral damage you will suffer this burden!

Seriously, you have a dilemma that not too many have faced, an overabundance of Wadkins.
Maybe what you have to do is get rid of both and hunt for a RU gap bed instead, they have the longer sliding bed but a smaller footprint when closed up. Is that good advice or not? Only a true friend would tell you the truth, don't listen to this other lot!

I'm sure that you won't take me seriously about that so I guess I'll just have to advise you to take the bigger lathe and turn the end into a temporary base for another machine that you can move out of the way when you need that extra length. Maybe a bench grinder or a bench top drill press. Multi-use of space is one of the keys to those blighted by lack of space which all of us afflicted with the old arn disease seem to have.

Have fun,
Alli

16568-A.jpg

See Cam, they even made a mini RU (well all things are relative) just for you. That would solve your problem and allow 2 other poor sufferers to get a dose of Wadkinitis.

Have fun,
Alli

Originally Posted by Allison74

...they even made a mini RU just for you. That would solve your problem and allow 2 other poor sufferers to get a dose of Wadkinitis.

Have fun,
Alli

Three other sufferers Alli - Camo has (or had) a BZL lathe as well .

Cheers, Vann.

Originally Posted by Vann

Three other sufferers Alli - Camo has (or had) a BZL lathe as well .

Cheers, Vann.

I dont one want to spoil your day Vann but Cam has 2 BZLs.

H.

Originally Posted by clear out

I dont want to spoil your day Vann but Cam has 2 BZLs.

That's made my day. It's always good to know someone's got it worse than me (with only two Wadkins I'm just an amateur).

Cheers, Vann.

Maybe it takes that many Wadkins to balance out ONE Stenner.

I have 3 Wadkins, over 3 tonnes of green arn to balance one Pickles

Have fun,
Alli

As we are in "mine is bigger than yours" mode. Here is a lathe sold at auction a couple years ago for $8700:

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb...er-no.-18-.jpg

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/attachments/f19/42792d1326816437-1919-oliver-lathe-oliver-long-lathe.jpg

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-m...machinery.html

Oh boy!!! You forget to check on a thread, and look what happens, and to think I call you all friends...lol.

It's true though, I do have a sickness.

Vann, I do still have the BZL, as you may remember it has the cross slide, so that's pretty special. Could I argue that technically that is a Wadkin Bursgreen, so it doesn't count. The BZL will be going to my in-laws place (we have a few nieces and nephews that are getting to the age that they have an interest in woodworking, so this will make a nice addition to the family workshop), plus it means I get to still visit it. As for the second BZL that Henry so nicely mentioned (might I add that Henry recommended that I should take the BZL), well that has already made it's way up to central NSW, to my brothers place, but unfortunately it has no tail stock, so will need to try and track down a replacement in the future hopefully.

Alli,

Good to hear from you again, love the RU you showed. Hows the Pickles going, the Stenner does have a friend (spindle moulder), but yes they are fairly out numbered at the moment, lots of Wadkins now.

Paul,

I did hear about that Oliver lathe, quite an impressive machine. I wonder if it had more than one on off switch.


Cheers,

Camo

P.S. Thanks guys, I needed a laugh. Today I went, oh some people have responded to my thread I forgot about....oh there has actually been a few responses....WAIT A MINUTE!!!

I did hear about that Oliver lathe, quite an impressive machine. I wonder if it had more than one on off switch.

Probably not. In the good old days if an operator got wound up in a lathe, the company sent the body home to the widow with $50 and they hired a new operator.

Camoz

did you end up moving the second rs on? Have you got the one you chose all set up? Because of photo bucket I can’t see your photos.

Cheers stew

Originally Posted by bunya pine

...Because of photo bucket I can’t see your photos...

Here's post No.1 all over again - with photos.

Originally Posted by camoz

Hi all,

This post is going to show my ignorance to most things related to woodturning, so I apologise in advanced. I would say that compared to most here, I have only really put my small toe in the water (given some non-professional tutoring, and played around turning a few things, and practicing techniques).

I have an opportunity that has several potential paths, one option is a bit "out of the box", and this is the one I probably need the advice on, as this opportunity probably wont come up again (so I can't wait until I know more about turning). More on this in a minute, but first here is a bit of the background story to explain where I am, at the moment.

Thanks to some forum members, and my location, I was able to get involved with purchasing 5 Wadkin RS lathes. There was a 10", three 8", and one 6". Initially we had 5 buyers and 5 lathes, so it was looking like an easy decision, but unfortunately one member had to drop out (due mostly I think to transport costs, and it was very understandable, and certainly no hard feelings from this end). This left a spare lathe, he did offer to organise another buyer to take his place, but I decided as I couldn't decide between the 6 and the 8, I would take both and decide later.

Here is an image of what an Wadkin RS lathe is (for those who have not heard of them):

RS1.jpg

and some specifications of both:

RS 6" - GAP BED - 4 speeds, 1.1 kW (1.5 HP) (3 phase). Capacity: Admits work up up to 305 mm (12") dia x 1065 mm (42") long; will swing 620 mm (24.5") dia x 305 mm (12") wide in the gap. Floor Space 7' x 2'3" (2135mm x 685mm). Weight 625kg

RS 8" - GAP BED LATHE - 4 speeds, 1.1 kW (1.5 HP). Admits work up to 405 mm (16") dia x 1675 mm (66") long. Will swing 710 mm (28") dia by 305 mm (12") in the gap. Floor Space 9' x 2'3" (2745mm x 685mm). Weight 675kg

Now the obvious answer to this dilemma is make a decision 6" or 8", and like I am sure is the same for many others, that decision is fairly easy as I just can't justify the extra 2' length of the 8".

Here is my "out of the box" idea though. The only difference between the 6" and the 8" on the Wadkin RS (as far as I know, and I will obviously confirm this before attempting), is the cast leg is shorter on the 8" and the bed attaches to the head casting lower down. This effectively means that with some work, I could potentially make a short bed 8" and a long bed 6", then simply swap the tail stock and banjo's from one lathe to the other.

Here is probably my impossible question to answer, will I really need the extra diameter? It's an impossible question to answer, as I have no idea where I might go with turning, so how can I expect anyone else to know. So I guess my question should really be, what turning have you done, that would not fit into the capacity of the 6" lathe including the gap and the potential for outside turning using this tripod setup (which I also have with the lathe)??

RS2.jpg

Obviously taking into account the fact that I have decided I can't fit the longer length of the 8" (so I am talking projects that didn't exceed between centres of 1065mm). I guess the other things to consider would be:

* Speed (this is 240,600,1250,2800), but I will probably add a VFD so will then have an infinite range up to about 3350 (this was the speeds in countries with 60Hz, so everything should be designed to handle at least this speed)

* No reverse - Obviously I could do reverse with the VFD, but faceplates are threaded on, so unless their is a way to lock them in place, they could come loose (or is this just me showing my ignorance, perhaps there is a way to prevent this).

There are perhaps other restrictions that I am not aware of, due to my ignorance, but I guess to be clear, I am not asking should I buy a Wadkin RS (that decision has been made), but should I consider the option of trying to convert the 6" into a short 8" RS?

As always, thanks in advanced for any advice on this matter. It's a problem, but a problem I am happy to have (I have been looking for an RS for a long time, they do come up occasionally, but usually they far exceed my budget).

Cheers,

Camo

The only other illustration I can find in this thread is a photo of an RU in Allison's post, but I can't tell if it shows - let me know if it doesn't and I'll repost that too.

Cheers, Vann.

Cam, I am putting my RS8 together and before bolting on the bed decided to see what the max capacity one could get be using the lowest original bolt hole on the pedistal for the top one on the bed.
You would have to redrill the dowel holes and bottom bolt holes to complete the set up.
Looks like about 12 1/2” over the bed, 16 1/2” gap, 10 1/2” over tool rest.
Rear leg would be approx 4 1/4” shorter.
The new rear leg would be the easy part of this change.
The packer for the tailstock would be a major job.
The tool rest stems would have to be made higher or a new banjo cast.
This hunk of steel scrap in the yard might do for the tailstock packer.

Another issue to solve to get this going in any size is the lack of inboard faceplates.
I have a dozen or more from the ex Ultimo Pattern shop lathe and they may just bore out to retap to suit the Wadkin.

I might have to borrow a few from yourself if that’s ok.
H.
,