In the time scale in which Drummond machine tools were produced, They were state of the art, Especially for home workshop folk, The heavier models built for the admiralty & war office, were extremely fine machines From that I mean the big powerful pproduction lathes, When I was a youngster, I worked one of these machines, It was driven by an overhead countershaft with a four step pulley, For scre cutting it was the "Bees Knees' " Smooth as silk, and it had a lovely independant three position feed from a feedshaft , This particular lathe had originally worked in the works of The John H Thornycrof Co manufacturers of early steam and motor lorries,
I am not so keen on another pattern of lathe they turned out which had a sort of double bed arrangement, In this pattern of lathe the tailstock rode on an upper bed, It had a large boring table , One I owned for a period of time I found out to my sorrow, On back facing, was that there was no automatic cut off before the slide reached the end of its travel , crunch went the feed bevel gears at the back of the bed, and yours truly was lucky to eascape with only a badly bruised and black finger.
Should anyone come across a Drummond M pattern of lathe, 3&1/2" centre height , These are a lovely machine greatly beloved by model makers & light engineers, A really sweet machine, Heavily constructed, But built on scientific lines, A late and lamented uncle of mine, had a nice old Drummond round bed In the early 1900/s for the amatuer these were the must have machine for at home