Strange Rivett lathe bed - anyone know what this was from?

[cazclocker]

I've had this Rivett watchmaker's lathe bed for several years now, and I've never been able to determine what lathe it was originally intended be for.
It's an old style with outside ways, before Rivett switched to inside ways. But it's 14" long! Otherwise, it's proportioned just like any other Rivett watchmaker's lathe bed. Too bad it's got so much rust. Might be functional, though. It's just been a doorstop since I bought it. I knew about the rust before I bought it on eBay, but I can't remember why I bought it!
You'll notice that the end with the Rivett stamp is highly polished. The eBay guy who sold it to me did that - with successive grits of polishing pads, he said - without telling me. I kind of wish he hadn't done that, but oh well.
Has anyone here ever heard of a Rivett watchmaker's lathe with a 14" barrel? I know Rivett made a lathe called the "Ideal" that took 2NS collets instead of the normal close-to-WW-sized collets, and I even saw an Ideal recently, but it had a standard 11" long bed.
Funny thing is, this lathe bed does NOT have a serial number that I can find.
Ideas welcome...

 

[brino]

This page:
http://www.lathes.co.uk/rivett-watchmakers/
does mention "Faneuil" a couple times.

The picture after the second mention does show a bed with two mounting holes, however based on estimating the diameter of the bed to the length, that bed looks like 6 diameters long and yours looks like 7 diameters long. (assuming none of the photos are stretched....)


Also, the first picture on that page shows a bed with a t-slot, like yours:

...and both the headstock and tailstock registering on the angled flats on the outside edges of the bed, again like yours.

Not like the pictures on this page:
http://www.lathes.co.uk/rivett-watchmakers/page3.html

that show the sides of the t-slot angled and the the tailstock registering on those:


also note the presence or lack of the centre holes for turning the entire lathe bed.

I'm not sure I helped, but there are some interesting differences.
....and it is always fun to browse tools over a coffee!

Brian

 

[Aaron_W]

Faneuil was just the name used before Rivett.

I wonder if this is just a matter of being a special order. It sounds like the Rivett lathes were basically handmade and hand fitted into the 1930s, with parts from one lathe often needing to be refitted before they can be used on another of the same model.
With that kind of production, a custom length does not seem unlikely.