Waltham Watch Tool Company WW style lathe

Aaron_W

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I picked up this 50mm WW style watchmakers lathe last month. I've been casually looking for a lathe like this as I would like to eventually do some watch and clock work (I love gears and gizmos).
The seller said he bought it at an estate sale, but has since decided he just doesn't have the time to take up a new hobby so it was time to find it a new home. The price was nice, also came with a neat watchmakers desk filled with tools and was only 10 minutes away so I was happy to welcome it into my shop.

Talking with the seller it had belonged to a retired local jewelry and watch repair shop owner. It has obviously sat for sometime so it needs a good cleaning and a little repair, but overall is in pretty good shape.

As it was when I picked it up.

Lathe and bench.jpg


It was made by the Waltham Watch Tool Company of Springfield Massachusetts and is a 50mm WW style lathe.

Lathe 3.jpg

I was having trouble finding info on the Waltham Watch Tool Co, as apparently Massachusetts was a hot bed of watchmakers lathes in the late 19th and early 20th century being the home of the American Watch Tool Company, Webster Whitcomb (the WW that this style of lathe is named for) Derbyshire, Waltham Machine Works and many others. Other than a reference at Lathes UK that the Waltham Machine Works is not related to the Waltham Watch Tool Company I was coming up empty on the maker of this lathe.
Vintage Machinery came to the rescue, there is a small entry for the Waltham Watch Tool Company, established in 1883 as a reorganization of the Hopkins Watch Tool Company of Waltham, MA Company by Calen Van Norman and his sons. It goes on to say that the company moved to Springfield, MA in 1890 and would become the Van Norman Machine Tool Company in 1912 or 1914. With that information I'm guessing this little lathe was made between 1890 and 1914. It looks pretty good for being more than 100 years old.

Lathe 1.jpg
 
It came with a bunch of tools, some of which I'm not even sure what they are.

Drawer full of gravers

Drawer 1 gravers.jpg

A variety of collets (I believe 8mm WW style, they will fit my Sherline WW collet chuck) as well as a center, and a variety of polishing and grinding wheels. The red box contains a "polishing tool with protected agate jaws" for polishing something (yes my learning curve is steep here).

Drawer 2 collets and misc.jpg

A bunch of misc parts and tools

Drawer 3 misc parts mostly.jpg

Small tools, I believe the large black wrench is for opening the back of a watch.

Drawer 4 tools.jpg

More tools
Drawer 5 tools.jpg

Bergeon screwdriver set, a B&S micrometer and a couple of something tools

Drawer 6 screw drivers micrometer misc tools.jpg

I think the little pins in the blocks are tiny reamers, assuming the plates are size gauges of some sort, an awl and more mystery tools
Drawer 7 Reamers misc tools.jpg

Bunch of files and other stuff

Drawer 8 files misc tools.jpg

This desk has a lot of drawers, to be continued. :)
 
Junk drawer? Wooden sticks, some cord, a broken hammer, small scale, bottles of watch oil, and...?

Guessing the large metal rod may be for measuring holes, maybe for watch crystals? Maybe just something heavy in case there are strange noises in the shop late at night. ;)

Drawer 9 misc.jpg

Wrench and clamp
Drawer 10 wrench clamp.jpg

Two books, Modern Methods of Horology and Know the Escapement, both with publication dates during WW2 (I'll be needing these), the silver thing is a little bellows, guessing for cleaning small parts. Drawer 11 books misc.jpg

Another misc drawer, bunch of nuts and bolts, mallet. some spare handles, and I'm guessing maybe a hand crank for the lathe (I haven't tried to fit it to check yet).

Drawer 12 mallets misc tools.jpg

An empty drill case (black cylinder) bench anvils? (silver discs) and what looks like part of an old lamp.

Drawer 13 bench anvils misc.jpg

Another mallet, small saw, some strainers and a wood wedge

Drawer 14 mallet saw strainers.jpg

Last one, an extra tool rest for the lathe (it is different being a little lather with a rounded edge vs the sharp edge of the rest currently on the lathe). Another polishing tool and something with a cord, maybe for magnetizing / demagnetizing things?
Drawer 15 extra tool rest polishing tool electric thing.jpg
 
Finally some work

The foot pedal speed control has ancient wiring. Very dry and cracked with wire showing through in many places.

FP1 old wires.jpg

FP2 backside of foot pedal.jpg

I discovered that there is very little information of repairing these foot pedals online, and what little I did find was often very wrong. I found several comments that these were just disposable and not meant to be repairable which pre-1950 I just thought was highly unlikely. I also found some comments that you have to drill out the rivets. Turns out it is just a tight press fit, a couple of minutes with two screw drivers and I had it apart. The rivets simply hold the internals to the back plate.

Open, amazing how much crud can get inside after decades of use.

FP3 old wires connected.jpg

Bought 20 feet of 16ga lamp cord only to figure out it wont fit through the metal grommet. Back to the store for some 18ga, I'm sure I'll find a use for the 16 ga eventually.
FP2 new lamp cord.jpg

Blew all the crud out with the air compressor, and wiped everything else down with a damp cloth. Used a little simple green on the really bad spots.
Unusual wiring to me (thanks to those of you who responded to my question the other night, love this place :beer: ), I folded the wire in half at the 8ft mark, which will leave me 8 feet for the foot pedal and 12 feet to reach an outlet. Cut one half of the lamp cord, leaving the other intact as it was on the original.

FP4 new wires everything cleaned up.jpg

All done, good for another 50 years. Fired up the motor and it runs quietly in forward and reverse. Now on to making some new belts for the lathe. That is all for today.

FP5 foot pedal done.jpg
 
Last edited:
I think the tapered steel rod is for measuring ring sizes. Mike

I am fixated on watch repair, but that would totally make sense for the jeweler side of things.
 
Junk drawer? Wooden sticks,
I think the wooden sticks will be pegwood— soft willow or pith wood for sharpening into points and cleaning the insides of pivot holes. What a superb acquisition, years of fun to come with that!

-frank
 
I'm surprised not to see stones to sharpen the gravers and no magnifying stuff. Nice haul, Aaron!

:you suck:
 
I think the wooden sticks will be pegwood— soft willow or pith wood for sharpening into points and cleaning the insides of pivot holes. What a superb acquisition, years of fun to come with that!

-frank

Yeah, when I found out this had originally been used by an actual watch repair guy not just a hobbyist, that there would be all kinds of things I'll eventually really appreciate. Even some of the tags and envelopes from old and probably long defunct watch part suppliers are pretty neat.

I'm surprised not to see stones to sharpen the gravers and no magnifying stuff. Nice haul, Aaron!

:you suck:

Possible that there was but they got separated at the estate sale as often happens. When I went to look at this I thought lathe and desk, yeah that is a good price. When I started going through the drawers, I was just ok, lets get this loaded up. :) Looking at WW collets on ebay I think I got most of my money covered just in the collet set.
 
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