Thread: Wohlhaupter- Not a UPA

I was having a look through some stuff I've buried on an external hard drive in hope of locating some images of a Rivett 608, a lathe of pure delight that GreqQ has actually seen.

I could not find it but found this instead, Smaller and maybe rarer than the 608.

Wohlhaupter make amongst other things, superb and very expensive boring and facing heads. This is not one of them.This was something more! The following text describes the UK4 head which was offered for sale on Ebay four years ago.


Well now here’s something you don’t see every day. This UK4 Wohlhaupter head is a metal working marvel in its own right. This is not the standard boring and facing head you are used to seeing from Wohlhaupter. In fact, I couldn’t figure out what it did, so I contacted the folks at Wohlhaupter and they were very kind to provide some information on this special tool.

Apparently the UK4 heads were produced in very limited quantity, maybe 100 or so in all, between the years 1948 and 1968. The designation “UK” stands for “Universal Copy turning”. They work something like a pantograph in that they were designed to create a profile by copying a master profile. The complexity of the UK4 is clear from the details shown in the photos. It has a vertical slide, a horizontal slide, and another angular setting adjustable through 90 degrees. It comes with what appears to be a complete kit of accessories, all in near –new condition except for on small piece that has a few specks of rust. The UK4 head itself is in excellent condition, the only observable flaw being an inventory number lightly engraved in one spot.

Now here’s the problem. To quote the Wohlhaupter folks, “The complexity of this tool combined with the skills required to operate this tool are almost non existent in today’s metalworking world . . . We no longer make spare parts for it and have no capability to repair it. In fact we don’t even have an operation manual for it anymore.
The tool never really took off well enough to make it economically profitable for us to continue production. Like many of the tools we have invented over the years this tool was an advanced idea that never turned into a market that found a large enough audience for us to justify high production.”

So, in effect, if you buy this UK4 head, you are buying a beautifully-made mechanical puzzle that appears to be capable of amazing things if you can figure it out. However you must understand that you will have to do this on your own, as the folks at Wohlhaupter are no longer in a position to help you. The employees who made these heads retired many years ago and there is no residual information available from Wohlhaupter. In any case, if you buy this UK4 head, you will most likely be the only guy on your block to have one.