Thread: Has anyone heard of Telford Smith Lathes or seen this lathe?

Have you contacted these folks?

http://www.telfordsmith.com.au/

Looks like you won a prize, anyway.

Joe

If you have a look on their site here, it says they manufactured lathes for the goverment in 1942

Righto. In those days, everybody was making stuff for the gummints. In USA, Rockola (jukeboxes) was making rifles.

With so many changes in TS ownership and locations, archive material/manuals most likely gone forever. Same with lots of other mfrs. Sad to say.

Joe

Whatthehell. Contact 'em anyway. Might get lucky.

Joe

Have sent an email to them for now but will follow up if no response - you never know they may have a 'veterans club' with someone still alive in it that remembers.
Bill

"If you have a look on their site here, it says they manufactured lathes for the goverment in 1942"

Well contacted them (Telford Smith Engineering) and they have no records of any lathes they made OR have anyone that remembers anything about them. So, back to asking around and googling etc.

Billy Bignutz

The plot thickens - while on the Australian War memorial site looking for a chance picture of a WWII lathe similar to mine I actually located a few pictures of the same type of lathe. One picture is captioned "HANSA BAY AREA, NEW GUINEA. 1944-07-10. A MEMBER OF 5TH DIVISION SALVAGE GROUP WORKING ON HEADSTOCKS, TAILSTOCKS AND SADDLES OF ABANDONED JAPANESE LATHE EQUIPMENT. EACH LATHE IS CURRENTLY VALUED AT 750 POUNDS" which certainly implies that these lathes were recoverable and possibly returned to Australia for sale or use.

Therefore the lathe appears to be a recovered Japanese lathe possibly from New Guinea. The Telford Smith chuck which gave me the first lead must have been added later. Now a new set of questions arise - is it an original Japanese design, is it a copy and of what etc etc.

Billy,

I can confirm that abandoned Jap machinery did come into Aust., after WWII.

Only a few months back I was talking to an elderly uncle about my late father's (Aust., made) lathe which I restored and the lathe which he himself owns and he proceeded to tell me that it was abandoned by the Japs in PNG, apparently, where possible, any small or detachable machinery parts, etc., were thrown away into the jungles in an effort to render abandoned equipment useless to the Allied forces so these lathes randomly came without change gears, chucks, etc.,. Anyways, there were companies who handled the sale of the equipment and I'm pretty sure there is a small brass plate on the lathe with the name of the Sydney company my uncle purchased it from. However, there doesn't appear to be any indication of the original manufacturer.....if, as we believe, it was a "munitions lathe", chances are as military equipment, they were unbranded.

While it is similar to yours, I can't say, based on memory, that it is the same BUT, I will hopefully be seeing my uncle before the end of January when we head up the coast to our place again (once the bloody tourists have eased off) and I will take some pics of his lathe so we can compare.

Cheers.........

HiString

My sincere thanks - this is the best lead yet. I look forward to seeing the pictures after your trip. My lathe has spots where a brass plate and other function plates may have been but alas they have gone long ago. Near the tailstock I cleaned up the lathe bed and found a Japanese character and the number 234 but according to my Japanese trained daughter this appears to be just the serial number as the character is the Kanji for 'old'.

Have a great Christmas

Bill

Bill,

Not so much a lead, rather, just confirmation of the lathe's origins.

I think that to find out more detailed info, it would be necessary to have someone in Japan able to check through archival material from WWII, etc., or find a vintage machinery enthusiast over there.............either option is probably a big ask.

Will be in touch....................and a Merry Xmas to you too.

Chris

Hello HiString

Just wondering if you have made the trip yet to your uncles and whether you may have some pics of his lathe for comparison?. Mine is running well and have done a bit of work on it - some morse tapers, threads etc.

Cheers

Billy

Billy,

Haven't been away from the nest yet but hope to be doing a couple of trips over the next few weeks. Once we get up to our place, taking some pics won't be a problem as the lathe is only a five minute walk away.

Stay tuned....................

Bill,

I have taken a couple of pics of "the" lathe but ever since reinstalling Win XP a few weeks ago, I can neither see or post pics. I've experienced this once before but the "fixes" don't seem to be working this time, so until I can sort the problem out we'll be flying blind.

One thing I spotted, is that there is a name cast into the front of the lathe bed, in behind the leadscrew, it reads "TSUDA" and I don't think my uncle even remembered that it was there.

Chris

Bill,

I have managed to "see" the original pic you posted and can now say that it is a different lathe.

There may have been other companies selling off ex-military equipment after the war but this lathe was sold by D.H.Berghouse in Ultimo, Sydney.........I'll try and attach a pic here.

Cheers,

Chris