They made a few thousand of those, they still have a following over here and even rough non running examples will sell for £50 to £100.
I remember once seeing a photo inside Robert Falcon Scott hut or maybe it was Ernest Shackleton, of a Drummond lathe being used powered by a foot treadle.
The 28" has an interesting history. It was bought by the US Navy and sent to the Philippines, but wasn't put under power before the Japanese invaded. They never got it running, and after the war it was put on a cargo ship that returned to the US, going straight into the Reserve Fleet without ever being unloaded. Around 1970, it was scrapped by Zidell in Portland, OR and they sold it to the machine shop in Salem where I worked a few years later. The gap was put in an out a few times while I worked there, and the present owners hardly ever used the machine. I'm pretty sure nothing has been lost off this machine. It didn't get much use as it is has slow spindle speeds, unlike the 20", which topped out a 500 RPM.
Nice lathe but I wouldnt want one.
)Well come on over to the PNW you can do my Rivett.
This thing sat in the back of the old shop untouched for years. When the state finally moved locations one of the guys grabbed it so it didn't just get tossed in the recycling
Thanks dutchgray. Some time ago I looked up the age of it on some website using the serial no. of mine, will have to read it again. I remember it was older than I had guessed it would be. This one was in Scotland and various people have said lots of them were in schools, but unfortunately not in the schools I went to.
The school I went to had long got rid of theirs, they did have a couple of the typical 12" Chinese bench top lathes, students were not allowed to use them, this was 1997 to 2002.Thanks dutchgray. Some time ago I looked up the age of it on some website using the serial no. of mine, will have to read it again. I remember it was older than I had guessed it would be. This one was in Scotland and various people have said lots of them were in schools, but unfortunately not in the schools I went to.
Pretty sure I watched a youtube video of this one being "Saved".
Your Mulliner Enlund sure bears strong resemblance to the Hendey lathes of the day. Both being from the New England states may explain the similarities or possibly even Hendey licensing agreements. If not for the tub approach for tying the bearing towers as opposed to the Hendey tie bar method it would be easy to mistake one for the other. Cool lathe and set up you have. Ed.
Your statement about them being in “their forever home” got me thinking about my tools and machines. Although my machines aren’t as old as yours they have a past life with someone else and those previous users had them many years.I moved shop about a year and a half ago to our new house; while my new shop building was going up, I rescued a 1940 Lipe-Rollway 14" Carbo-Lathe that was ready to go to the scrapyard to supplement my 1918 Mulliner Enlund 14" engine lathe. After a year of sitting, I restored the Carbo- Lathe and started setting it up. Here are the girls in their forever home.
In a couple weeks, I'll be adding a 1916 Porter-Cable 9" Rapid Production lathe to the team for turning armatures.
-James Huston
The Carbo-Lathe was developed around 1932 by Porter-Cable to use early carbide tooling. It's essentially a larger, faster version of their 1914 Rapid Production lathe. Porter-Cable sold the design off to Lipe-Rollway in 1937; I suspect this lathe was involved in war work at first.
Thank you, I have a respectable amount of tool karma at this point- the newest machine in the toolroom is a 1967 Rockwell milling machine. The oldest is my Costillo horizontal milling machine, built around 1895 or so!
Well spotted! The Mulliner Enlund makes use of several Wendell Norton patents, especially the QCGB and threading dial. Norton worked for Hendey for many years. I can only assume there was a licensing agreement. I would put this lathe neck and neck with a Hendey of similar size in terms of quality.
I know exactly what you mean. I was a power tool repairman for over twenty-three years before focusing on restoration work on older machines and tools. I have an all-vintage shop, and many of my machines were used for the war effort ( I have reason to believe that the Mulliner do so in both world wars ). Some have names or even social security numbers engraved on them. Some have Navy anchors or DOD numbers. If only they could talk!
