Thread: Antique Jewellers lathe

Woodlee: Re the collets threads: They can be a bit of a nightmare of confusion. I have listed the official thread for a B6 collet like yours is 5mm by 36f with 55 Deg geometry.

Best to use the real thread rather than make your own standard of regular M5. This means when you get more collets and spindle trinkets they will all just fit without having to even change drawbars.

Just for some intersting reading: This week I have been neck deep in watchmaking collets and threads. I had some very small pins to turn in my lathe, smallest being 1.2mm dia from stainless steel. How to hold them when my regular 5C collets only go down to 2mm? However I do have a good collection of the B8 collets. So I made an adaptor plug like a fake 8mm spindle complete with key and all for my 25mm 5C collet, bought a length of seamless cold drawn tube for a drawbar. I screwcut the thread INSIDE the drawbar for the standard B8 thread which is...get this: 6.82 dia by 0.625 pitch, 55 Deg geometry. Thats what it says in the book, thats what was confirmed on an optical projector if no-one believes me. Lucky my lathe cuts that pitch...
It all worked beautifully. I now have an 8mm watchmakers lathe in the form of a Feeler toolroom lathe... Photos in my Museum>The collection>Engineering.

I have a PDF copy from Schaublin of collets, thread and spindle dimensions if you need it Woodlee.

Cheers
Chris

Hi Chris ,
I'm not sure ill be able to get any collets for this machine , all the stuff I've seen available is for the 8mm machines only .
Peter gave me a few links to Ebay sellers ,but I have not tried asking as yet .

I assume you mean the thread pitch you mentioned (36f )for the 6mm lathe is 5mm x 36tpi .I dont have any specialist thread measuring devices apart from a Moore and Wright thread gauge so hence the .7 pitch assumption.
I haven't had a chance to get into setting this little gem up as yet , another much larger project with 4 wheels has jumped the line ,and I have to get it finished first.

I would like and appreciate a copy of the pdf . It will help me out immensely , I'm sure my Myford will cut this pitch thread straight off the gearbox , if not I have a full set of change gears which I can use to get the correct pitch .

Kev.

Hi Woodlee,

Send me an email through my website and I will reply with the PDF.

It will be most important to get the pitch of the thread exactly right. If it is out bu a little bit the drawbar will go on by maybe one or two turns and then jam up. It needs to be a nice turning fit ALL the way.

I can only presume the 36f means 36 TPI. If you have any mates with an optical projector they will be able to give you an exact measurement off a collet.

Don't give me that crap about not finding collets for it...!! It will be hard in the NT but if you ever come to Sydney or Melb for a bit - go and visit sales, antique shops, tool sales and of course machinery dealers and they will turn up eventually.

Chris ,
E-mail sent.

Thanks
Kev.

Originally Posted by lightwood

Kev,
the big brass disk on my larger Lorch lathe is also an indexing wheel. They are used for gear cutting etc.
Like you Kev, I have no idea about the Japanese lathe above. It looks like a great little lathe. I did a look around the www and it looks like it has change gears for screw cutting, that is nice!
The punch set is a probably a staking set, like a set of press tools to push wheels onto shafts, bushes into clock plates, and any other press type operation on a watch or clock movement.
I sold my largish collection of watch & clock tools about a year ago, but I kept the lathes.
Antique clock and watch tools

Regards,
Peter

Peter, you have solved a query for me with your Antique Clock and Watch Tools. I have had a clamp for 50 years and wondered what it was or used for.
It is a Stubbs hand clamp!

Thank you for that!

Colin.

Originally Posted by Chris Vesper

Hi Woodlee,

Send me an email through my website and I will reply with the PDF.

It will be most important to get the pitch of the thread exactly right. If it is out bu a little bit the drawbar will go on by maybe one or two turns and then jam up. It needs to be a nice turning fit ALL the way.

I can only presume the 36f means 36 TPI. If you have any mates with an optical projector they will be able to give you an exact measurement off a collet.

Don't give me that crap about not finding collets for it...!! It will be hard in the NT but if you ever come to Sydney or Melb for a bit - go and visit sales, antique shops, tool sales and of course machinery dealers and they will turn up eventually.

Chris,
Don't you have an Australian made watchmakers lathe and staking set in your collection of machines??
You must let me know where the stash of 6mm lathe collets are
I've had about 7 or 8 lots of watchmakers stuff go through my hands, and see the tools for sale (second hand) in the trade, at watch/clock materials suppliers...but I've only ever seen a few 6mm lathes for sale in 30 years, and collets separate from them...I think never. I must take a walk through every junk shop in and around Melbourne more than anyone I know....and never seen any there either...Perhaps I've been looking in all the wrong places

Regards,
Peter

Originally Posted by chippy 71

Peter, you have solved a query for me with your Antique Clock and Watch Tools. I have had a clamp for 50 years and wondered what it was or used for.
It is a Stubbs hand clamp!

Thank you for that!

Colin.

Good news Colin!
Regards,
Peter

I spoke to my watchmaker friend about the collets for the lathes.He says Smith and Smith of Sydney are the guys who will likely have what you want.They have a website as well.

Also he has got collets for 8mm lathe ( only) at Sherline.

Hope it helps

Grahame