My Watchmakers' Lathe: Early G. Boley "Bevelled-bed"
Branded
"Telco", T.C. & M. Ltd. serial number: "190" Collets
6.5mm.
After
I purchased on Ebay this Lathe, which I stripped down and cleaned, I also
brought a motor, and then turned out a motor pulley, so Lathe is working great.
 |
My Watchmakers' Lathe: Early G. Boley "Bevelled-bed"
Branded "Telco", T.C. & M. Ltd. serial number: "190" Collets 6.5mm.
|
Then
I had another bit of luck, as a box of 6.5mm Colletts come up for sale.
 |
| Box of 6.5mm Colletts |
 |
| Lathe is working great. |
Information
from Lathes.co.uk
Surprisingly
common - well, two turned up within a month of each other during 2009 and a
third in 2012 - this G.Boley watchmakers' lathe is believed to have been made
in versions to take both 6.5 and 8 mm collets. Stamped with the insignia "Patent
G.Leinen", the bed had a semi-circular base but a triangulated
"bevelled" top section, this locating the headstock, slide rest and
tailstock. Advertised alongside the contemporary and already very successful WW
(Webster Whitcombe) and "Geneva" versions by Boley, it was not a design that
caught on and would vanish from later Boley publicity material. However, it
must have caught some interest, for the lathe has also been found in
badge-engineered form with one example confirmed as the Rawco and the other as the
"Telco", the latter by Bannister Bros. of Hockley Hill in
Birmingham. At least two others are believed to have been made (or re-branded)
in Europe, but details are uncertain. It's likely that the British-made Telco
was produced during WW1 when, obviously, supplies of German-made equipment were
unavailable. The Telco was almost identical to the Boley, though with a number
of as-yet un-catalogued, minor modifications. One has been found equipped with
a beautifully made dividing head which, though not of the horological pattern,
was perhaps intended for the engraving of radial lines on the faces of
mechanical instruments. One example of the "Telco" examined was found
marked "T. C. & M. Co. Ltd" together with what may have been a
serial number: "210". The overall length including the headstock
draw-bar thumb wheel was 320 mm, the bed length 273 mm, the centre height 42 mm
(with a second bed, equipped with a gap able to take work 144 mm in diameter)
and the capacity between centres approximately 156 mm. The spindle accepted
standard G.Boley 6.5 mm collets and all threads - with the exception of those
on the various clamps (holding parts to the bed) and the tool post - were a
mixture of fine and coarse metric. Oddly, the clamp screws appear to have been
either 10 x 24 UNC or 3/16" x 24 t.p.i. Whitworth.
Like the Boley (and many other lathes of this type) the Telco had the face of its largest headstock pulley drilled with 4 rings of holes, a spring-loaded indent arm allowing the spindle to be indexed though a large number of divisions.
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