Information on old Nuttall Herbert lathe

[rlaxton]

Thinking again, it looks like the situation with the gears is more complex. Simply reversing the gear and taking up the slack would do exactly nothing since it is just transferring power from the gear on the top left to the one on the bottom right. It does appear that the Gear on the bottom right can be removed and the spacer order reversed so it engages the outside gear. Does this sound right? Most of my experience is with full gear head lathes where metric and impreial threads are available by just flipping a few levers.

[Michael G]

A set up as you have photographed will do the job in the units native to the lead screw (assume imperial for the moment). To cut the other type of thread (assume metric), the spindle will drive the 127t gear as it is and the small gear that drives the leadscrew gearbox is taken off the shaft, the spacer put on first and the gear replaced so that it drives from the 100t gear.

Michael

[rlaxton]

A set up as you have photographed will do the job in the units native to the lead screw (assume imperial for the moment). To cut the other type of thread (assume metric), the spindle will drive the 127t gear as it is and the small gear that drives the leadscrew gearbox is taken off the shaft, the spacer put on first and the gear replaced so that it drives from the 100t gear.

Michael

That is what I thought. From reading other posts, this setup was an option on this lathe... I guess that I got lucky. Now all I need is a chuck for the tailstock (Hare & Forbes are having a sale this weekend ) and I will be right to go.

I will buy some 16mm bright steel this weekend and make some extended swaybar links for my Prado. Time for this 71 year old to start earning it's keep!