Prentice Bros lathe

[Rising3B]

I just picked this up yesterday with plans to use the legs on another project but after looking it over it may be to complete to scrap. I am having trouble dateing it or getting any other info. all I have come across so far are much larger machines from this maker. Has anyone heard of this brand/model. Thanks

 

[Thomas Paine]

prentice 'brothers' formed in 1881, some of the members originally from Prentice & CO AF. IN 1912, they consolidated with Reed to form Reed Prentice Co.

Your lathe looks like an early 11", and was a treadle design at one point, confirmed by the certain holes in the leg castings.

from Cope's books, it looks like pre-1894, when they changed design of the cross slide handles to wheel type.

 

[Rising3B]

Thanks Thomas, I had thought it was originally driven from overhead but the treadle makes since. I have still not been able to find a picture out on the net but will continue to look. everything seems to turn and is tight so far so I may try to clean this one up and play with it for a while to see if I can get it working. It would probably be hard to find what would be needed to take it back to tredle form.

 

[Thomas Paine]

here is a pic of one with the treadle attached.








if your lathe has a 'rise and fall' carriage, you can usually confirm the age to be pre 1900ish. this is before HSS tools, they actually used soft steel to cut steel, and needed more tool adjustment.



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one question, on your first pic, at the bottom right, there is a pulley wheel. what is that? inquiring minds.

 

[t0mpr1c3]

I have one very similar to the OP albeit currently dismantled. Fascinating to know that it would have been treadle powered originally.

 

[Larry$]

A museum piece! Yours probably never had the treadle. Can't even picture some poor apprentice pedaling away to cut metal. They could harden steel it just wasn't alloyed to be HSS so wouldn't have held up to much heat. Which was unlikely at the speeds used anyway.

 

[t0mpr1c3]

A museum piece! Yours probably never had the treadle. Can't even picture some poor apprentice pedaling away to cut metal. They could harden steel it just wasn't alloyed to be HSS so wouldn't have held up to much heat. Which was unlikely at the speeds used anyway.

It does have the holes the in legs that would have held the treadle axle. I did wonder what they were for.

Here's the name plate -- it looks like bronze.