Hi All,

After 5 years of reading I thought it was about time I shared a project with everyone.
About 4 years ago I rescued a Boxford 240 TCL from a machinery dealer, these are a slant bed lathe that were originally supplied to schools in the UK & Ireland.
School lathes have an easy life, generally getting switched on once or twice a year to impress parents on open nights.
Apparently when the lathe was brought to the machinery dealers it was in perfect condition, but it lay and rusted for a few years before I got it.
The lathe originally ran on a BBC Micro, when I bought it someone had tried to butcher the electronics probably to try to get it working.
When I bought it, I ripped the old electronics boards out only saving the spindle drive board, I stuck in modern stepper drives and used Mach 3 for control and got the lathe running.
Then the Z Axis motor died, I had just started my own business and really didn’t have the time or money to sort the lathe out properly.
Fast forward to now, I run a business specializing in R&D and Product Design, I get tired of waiting on prototype parts coming back for me to take projects forward, not the machine shop’s fault, it’s just the way things are, everyone waits their turn.

So onto the lathe, it’s a fairly well built piece of kit, quite capable of light production work and importantly has an impressive 35mm thru spindle bore.
Here is a picture as the lathe sits.
Its just a place to set c**p on!

Attachment 181323


First thing to do is to strip it down...

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Unfortunately the motor is shot. At least I'm not tore between the original and replacing with a 3 Phase AC and VFD combo.

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Here the parts of the lathe stripped down

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The lathe was bedded onto the stand with some type of mortar, anyone any idea what this would be?

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The plan is to replace steppers motors, new drivers, 3 phase motor and vfd, Mach 3 to control. Flood coolant and ATC or Tool Plate on down the line.

TBC