Jul 13, 2011 Here is a Hercus 260 lathe I recently purchased from a school. It has a tapered roller bearing headstock with 1 1/16' spindle bore, 3/4hp motor. I plan to fi. Mar 26, 2010 Scanned Lathe Manual for Hercus (SB clone) This might already be going around but just in case here is the complete 'Textbook of Turning' for the Hercus lathe which from the educational perspective is equivalent to a SB. Hercus Lathes email: Hercus Lathes - Australia Hercus was a family-owned southern Australian machine-tool maker with works in Anderson Street, Southwark. Besides drills, hacksaws,, tool & cutter and semi-universal grinding machines - and at least two models of (with a vertical attachment) - they manufactured, from the late 1920s onwards, a range of lathes aimed at the amateur, semi-professional market and education markets. Whilst their initial effort was a simple (followed, in the late 1930s by a clone of the English ) their best known and most successful lathe was a copy of the late 1930s American 9-inch South Bend ' lathe. Atlas Metal Lathe ManualThe Hercus was then gradually modified and improved with production lasting until 2001 when the final model, the 260 Series, with a 10' swing and able to pass 26 mm (1') through the spindle bore, came off the production line. The later models, although somewhat disguised with 'angular' styling, still had tailstocks and top slides with a charmingly original South Bend appearance. However, one significant difference, incorporated from the 1960s onwards, was to the screwcutting arrangements - changes that necessitated the use of new threading charts. Another alteration, to improve the machine's appeal to training and educational buyers, was to enclose the neatly built-on 16-speed countershaft unit, and the changewheels, to modern health-and-nanny standards. It is interesting to note that the firm's founder, Mr. Hercus, wrote to the British press in 1954 (but without revealing who he was) and outlined Customs' requirements for immigrants who took their own model-engineering machine tools with them to Australia. Hercus 260 Metal Lathe ManualHe also pointed out that, whilst it took sixteen weeks' work in England to buy a Model C South Bend, in Australia an 'equally good' copy could be bought with just ten weeks' wages. Fred Hercus was actively involved in model engineering and a member of the South Australian Society of Model and Experimental Engineers. He lived in the Adelaide foothills (his private 5' track is still visible from the New Norton Summit Road) and in the early years of the 21st century one of his 5' gauge locomotives (made by him personally) was still running regularly on Society open days. He also constructed, initially for his own use, a one-off horizontal milling machine that used components from his lathe in the spindle-drive arrangements. Metal Lathe For SaleSuccessfully completed, the machine was to reach small-scale production, Although most Hercus models followed the traditional 3-model South Bend line-up of a (with power cross feed and screwcutting gearbox), Model B (with changewheels and power cross feed) and Model C with changewheels and hand cross feed, a Model D was also produced. According to a long-serving ex-employee this was constructed at the behest of the Australian educational establishment and had twin leadscrews and a power-feed apron with a positive instead of cone clutch - the arrangement causing several difficult-to-solve problems. If you have a model D Hercus the would be very interested in making contact. During the 1960s Hercus supplied South Bend in the USA with a large batch of Model A lathes; fitted with Camlock spindles they were painted cream - and so are easily recognised should you come across one. Continued below: Early 9-inch Hercus Model A with screwcutting gearbox and power cross feed but bereft of any belt guarding. The operator is John Leask who worked at Hercus for almost fifty years. Early Hercus 9-inch Lathes: Virtually indistinguishable from the original American South Bend lathes, the first Hercus 9-inch copies were made in the same A, B and C models with, respectively, a gearbox and power feed, changewheels and power cross feed and changewheels with a hand-operated cross feed. However, as production settled down, both smaller and more significant changes began to creep in. By the early 1960s the option was being offered of a roller-bearing equipped headstock--a conversion that left little surrounding metal, but not to any apparent disadvantage in performance, whilst at the same time the fitting as standard of an 8-speed V-belt drive (in place of a flat-belt system), instead of making it optional as in the USA, was an obvious step to modernise the lathe and widen its appeal. The compound slide micrometer dials were increased in diameter from the inadequately-sized originals and, at some point in the 1950s, safety considerations caused the company to offer the option of comprehensive guarding of the motor-to-countershaft and countershaft-to-headstock belt runs - again, a specification long-available on the South Bend but only encouraged by the American company (in their advertising literature) for educational and instructional use. Hercus offered two types of countershaft: a 'vertical' version, the Type H, and a 'horizontal' model, the Type P. Both H and P used an A-section 35' belt to drive the headstock pulley but the belt from motor to countershaft belt on the former was an A-section 42' and on the latter an A-section 31'.
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