Boxford Lathe Serial Numbers
HERMES Occasion CNC Lathe X 125 mm Z 235 mm 4000 r / min VDI turret 8 positions Lathes - CNC DAEWOO Puma 240L CNC Lathe with Fanuc Series i Control. Above: the earliest known publicity photograph of a Boxford, this 1948 Model C had 3-step flat belt drive to the headstock, no headstock or countershaft belt-run.
Boxford Lathes email: Boxford Lathes Belt-drive 4.5' and 5' Models Thinking of buying a Boxford or new to the make? Scrolling down and reading this page will pay dividends Do you have an unusual Boxford of non-standard specification? If so, would be pleased to hear from you A complete data pack, Manual, Parts List & full Catalogue Set for all Boxford lathes. We also manufacture and many other spares.. Well made, strongly built and capable of sustained hard work the original belt-drive Boxford lathe has long been a favourite with not only amateur and professional engineers but also schools and colleges where many thousand were installed during the 1950s and 1960s. The lathe had its origins in the Denford Small Tools Company (D.S.T.), founded in Brighouse by Horace Denford in the years before World War Two. Original products included a range of precision tools and inspection equipment - and, no doubt, sub-contract work for the many local general-engineering and machine-tool companies who once inhabited the area.
It is believed that Denford moved at least part of their operation to a former spinning factory, Box Tree Mills, in Wheatley, Halifax during the closing years of WW2 (1939-45). The previous occupants had been a ship's telephone equipment manufacturer, Arthur Graham Ltd., who used the building between 1942 and 1944 after being bombed out of their Woolwich (London) premises. Having set up in Wheatley, a new company was formed, 'Denford Machine Tools' and, in 1946, production began of various including the well-known 'comparator' (together with its different holding stands) parallels, straight edges, sine centres, sine tables and, most important of all, two small bench lathes. All items were branded ' Box-Ford ', including the lathes, one of which was a (intended to compete in the same section of the market as the Schaublin ), and the other, of a similar size but almost completely different construction, a miniature capstan. With supplies of such machines yet to be available again from the German factories of, and, and with in Switzerland no doubt running flat-out to meet outstanding orders, the lathes were priced at an astonishingly high £175 (when a backgeared and screwcutting ML7 was around £60 and a 5-inch Raglan £144). Nevertheless, demand in the UK was such that the factory hinted at a production run of over 400 units.
Even today, in confirmation of these numbers, a small but regular supply of these well-made little machines turns up on the second-hand market. As a point of interest, these were not the only Boxford precision lathes for another type, a considerably, was built in small numbers from 1958 until the early 1960s. Other machine tools made included a useful little (copied from a ), a tool and cutter grinder (also sold under the Union and Harrison names) and a variable-speed. Continued below: The first Boxford Model A: flat-belt drive, screwcutting gearbox, power cross feed and quick-release countershaft as made from April 1948 to January 1951 Continued: Following the two early precision lathes, the company's next model, introduced in 1948 and again branded a ' Box-Ford ', was an improved copy of the Pre-WW2 American South Bend ' model, a type that dated back to the last months of 1933 and the Company's.
The earliest known publicity material concerning the new 9-inch model is a typed sheet found pinned to a pair of 1947 catalogues for the small precision lathes (it's reproduced at the bottom of the page). Details included are scant, just the main dimenions and specification and no hint of a Model Type. To date, the earliest catalogue found is a well-produced folder with a cream-coloured cover in card holding twelve sheets (secured with split pins) showing all three models, A, B and C, together with a range of accessories. By the 1970s Boxford had started to introduce a number of training-type CNC lathes and milling machines, a successful path that they follow to this day. In addition, a replacement for the original belt-driven 4.5-inch was announced, a produced in various versions for both training and industrial use.
Denford was not to clone the South Bend, the simplicity and ruggedness of the design also appealing to including Hercus, Sheraton and Purcell in Australia (the Purcell was also introduced in 1948); Blomqvist and Storebro in Sweden; Sanches Blanes and Joinville in Brazil; Boffelli & Finazzi in Argentina, Smart and Brown and Ace in England, Stirebro in Sweden, 'Select' in Taiwan, NSTG in the USA and Moody in Canada. However, apart from Hercus, none of them enjoyed as great a success as Boxford and the new lathe was, in its various forms, to be the foundation of the Company's success. Denford sold out the Box-Ford part of his enterprise to T.S.
Harrison & Sons Ltd. And transferred his other operations, still under the D.S.T. Banner, to the Brighouse site they occupy today. Although Harrison owned Boxford, only export versions of the lathe ever carried a badge - oddly, even into the 1960s and the Mk. 2 models when fresher, more modern labels had been introduced, the Boxford name on these machines was still styled in the original 'block-lettered' Box-Ford style.
Harrison eventually sold the Boxford concern, the last machine made under their ownership being Serial 284500 in early 1971. Shortly after the change of site, Mr. Denford made moves to compete more strongly in the education and training market and introduced his ' lathe, a machine very similar in general layout to the Boxford but of stouter build, with a heavy-duty, near-indestructible No. 3 Morse taper tailstock and mounted on a safe, completely-enclosed under-drive stand. This lathe would, in the years to come, provide stiff competition for Boxford. The Company also widened their range of products to include wood lathes, tool-sharpening equipment, floor-standing double-ended grinders and polishers and a number of re-branded machines including pillar and bench drills, a drill-sharpening machine, a shaper (actually made by Realm Engineering of Croydon, Surrey and also sold as the ) and a milling made.
In 1962 Gerald Denford, the son of Horace, took over from his father and developed the move to. Install Dbp Gimp Windows Xp.
Page Title email: Boxford Gap-bed Lathe A detailed Manual & Parts List for all Boxford lathes. We also manufacture and many other spares An example built by the parent Company Denford Small Tools (D.S.T.) and discovered in South Africa during 2013, this most unusual Boxford had an entirely different bed to the normal models - longer and fitted with a detachable gap. Using otherwise standard parts - headstock, carriage assembly, screwcutting gearbox and tailstock, it was a relatively early Model A from around 1950 and preceded the equivalent South Bend 9-inch version by 10 years, that model being introduced circa 1960 (the Boxford being based, of course, on the original South Bend '). Possibly an experimental machine taken to South Africa by an ex-employee, it was bought by its present owner from a gentleman who had discovered it amongst a warehouse full of tools sold to him by a person moving back to England. Power Plant Performance By Gill Pdf Merge here.
However, it is also likely - bearing in mind that it has a Denford inspection stamp in the bed - to have been one of a batch built to an importers or Government agency specification; however, it's almost certain that it's origins will remain a mystery forever. Should any reader have further information, or example of the same lathe, would be interested to hear from you. Boxford Model A gap-bed lathe circa 1950 South Bend 9-inch gap-bed circa 1960 Gap-bed Model A Boxford during restoration Bed with gap piece out Gap piece removed Serial number and Denford inspection stamp Gap piece bolted in place Complete on its maker's stand and as discovered email Boxford Gap-bed Lathe A detailed Manual & Parts List for all Boxford lathes. We also manufacture and many other spares.