Antique Tractors Forum

Plushy

Hi to everyone ,
Recently a Local Valve manufacturer , John Valves ,closed down after many many years of operation in my home town of Ballarat . My Grandmothers Uncle was one of the Founders of the business , Mr M.B.John .
All the machinery and equipment was recently Auctioned off and i decided to purchase on of the Old Lathes that was there when my relative was working there .

It Is a Ward 3DS Capstan Lathe , It weighs in at about 2.5 Ton . I am going to start the restoration with a full clean and Flush of all the lathes parts .

Here`s the Photos of it after i put it in its new home .

It also came with these Chucks and some tooling .

So far i have spent two days cleaning the catch pan out and have filled two 9 litre buckets with brass swarf and chips .

The Lathe was built some time in the 1940`s i think and had only stopped working when they shut the factory down ..

cheers Plushy

bobfather99 · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:18 pm Post subject:

Sad to say the good precision machine work is going away, taking along with it common sense and workmanship.

Keep us all posted on the progress, its a nice machine...
_________________
..a high-maintenance woman don't want a maintenance man...

DCW · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:15 am Post subject:

This is a different sort of restoration.Very interesting.

All the best with it and keep us updated with pictures.

CRM · Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 1:02 am Post subject:

Great to see some one restoring another piece of history. 2 Thumbs Up

_________________
Don't get to busy making a living to make a life.

Plushy · Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 11:59 am Post subject:

Well i have progressed a bit so far the first job was to remove all the brass swarf and chips in and around all the workings then a bit of paint stripping and glass bead blasting and i had clean surfaces so i started pulling off small parts and fittings and cleaned and painted them .
heres the progress shots :
BEFORE

AFTER

the paint and the diesel in a can

Power feed stop supports and selector handle

Splash/coolant pan cleaned and painted

Once i get the rest of the manuals i have ordered i will pull off the turret /capstan assembly and the cross slide and clean and paint them as well as the lathe bed .

cheers Plushy

DCW · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 2:26 am Post subject:

This is a very interesting restoration,your doing a good job on it.Once the lathe is finished,what are you going to do with it then?

DCW · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 2:27 am Post subject:

Plushy,how old is this lathe? What's the year of it?

Plushy · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:35 am Post subject:

DCW ,
the Lathe will be used for making one off parts for my truck restorations and for a few smaller projects i have in mind . I believe the lathe was made sometime in the 1940`s as it doesnt have the later modifations/switchgear that appeared in the early 50`s .
Once i get more of the manuals i should be able to narrow the year down a bit more .

cheers Plushy

matchbox · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:38 am Post subject:

That is a real working piece of history and you should get many more years of use from it. A true representation of "they don't make 'em like they used to." Nice job on the resto.
Peter
_________________
Rusted and relegated...rescued and rejuvinated.
www.GSG-SEA.com

romerod · Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 11:45 pm Post subject: Ward Lathes

Hi,

Really intreting thread, resto is pretty uniqe. Nice work Plushy would love to see the totally finished item. I know the company John Valve, what a total shame it didn't make it, really sad for Victoria Sad

.

I have just purchased a Ward 2A that was destined to be scrapped Sad

and have just started to clean it up. Can anybody give me any pointers about how to lift one of these machines using normal garage worskhop tools? It doesnt seem to have lifting points and then the guys loaded it on my trailer the used a pretty big fork lift!!

Also my turrent has stopped indexing, does anyone know how to fix that? From what I have been tol this machine is at leat twice as old as me, any pointers is much appreciated!
Thanks
_________________
Engineers make things happen

gene327 · Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 4:29 pm Post subject: Restoring Old Machine Tools

The idea of restoring two historic old lathes is wornderful Very Happy

Machines like this should never be scrapped when someone can use them. I do hope there is someone who can show you some of the skills needed to use them up to their potential. Have fun and good luck in the endevor. Laughing

_________________
I own a 1948 ford 8n tractor and Love old tractors and also love to do recrational gold panning.

romerod · Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 12:06 pm Post subject:

Hi All,

I contacted Bamford and Co in the UK about a parts list for my Ward 2A and they were most helpful. They told me that my machine was manufactured in 1948 November and then sent to AMTA (Australiam Machine Tools Association) Melbourne in 1949. It had been ordered by Warren and Brown in Melbourne. Its nearly twice my age! They sent me parts drawing of the bit I requested and said that they will quote for parts when I get back to them with what I need.

They can tell the age of any Ward from the series of letters (usually "WTC 123") as they have all of the original records from H. W. Ward. I was blown away by their customer service as I figured when I first contacted them they would not even bother replying. So if you have an old WARD lathe and want to find out a bit more about it contact Bamford.

Thanks
_________________
Engineers make things happen

kiwi071 · Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 8:21 am Post subject:

Plushy that is a really good job your doing and romerod good on you both
for restoring those lathes,they are built to last and will probably be working
in another 60 years Very Happy

_________________
kiwicolin

Plushy · Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 7:27 am Post subject: Re: Ward Lathes

romerod · Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 10:14 am Post subject:

Hi Plushy,

I got my turret to index again, the lever that pulls the turret locking finger back had gotten stuck, it turns out that the lever on the capstan rest that withdraws this finger to allow the turret to be rotated manually has stripped out it's thread. Pull it all apart and its working now apart from the manual index Mad

.

Just got it into my workshop now and have just started the clean up. The oil looks awful I don't think it have ever been changed and the oil pump has never been off so it's probably clogged too. Any idea what sort of oil to use in these things? Anyway I will have my three pahse power next week so I can fire it up in my workshop. I have had it running at the place where it was stored before and it all seems to run OK.

Like you I ended up using a trolley jack an dI borrowed some machine skates from a local enigneering firm, mananged to move it howoever like you said they are vey heavy and you wouldn't want it to go over.

Have posted some pictures of photbucket, let me know what you think.

Plushy do you have more pictures of your resto so far?

Cheers!
_________________
Engineers make things happen