Maybe not listed o Tony's main page, but he has copies of a manual for them

And also HERE, not sure what the difference is.

Bill

Edited By peak4 on 26/02/2017 01:38:02

I remember these being advertised, early 80s. Looked very nice but was well out of my reach at that time.

Always liked the look of Holbrook lathes – so I was curious and did a Google images search for "Holbrook 10B" – but nothing at all comes up. Surprising as usually there's at least a picture or two from a machine tool dealer for just about any machine you search for. But perhaps not so unexpected if there were only 20-40 10Bs made. Did find an old Ebay auction page for one, but the pictures have long since expired.

So just to satisfy my curiosity, would anyone have a picture of a 10B they could post here, or a link to where one can be found?

Or maybe RRMBK would be kind enough to take a photo of his/her's?

Cheers, Pete

Many thanks RRMBK, will look forward to that! If you have any problems posting the pic let me know and I'll try to assist

Hi Brian, many thanks for posting those! Very interesting indeed.

I've taken the liberty of embedding one of your pics here for the casual viewer (who might not click a link):

Looks reassuringly solid, as you might expect from Holbrook. Hope it serves you well!

Cheers! Peter

Sorry for the late arrival. The 10B was designed by Dick, who was originally the chief engineer, later under Herberts ownership to become general manager, of the Holbrook subsidiary. The machine was made in India under Dick's supervision and to strict standards. Shortly before his demise I acquired the remains of Dick's bits and pieces. These seem to include some odd parts, nothing major, for the 10B, since they don't belong to any other model. If, as I suspect it does, the 10B follows normal Holbrook practice the number will be on the top far right of the bed between the saddle V and the tailstock flat.

There was an even later model, designed with Dick's guidance, when he licenced the name to a company in Peterborough. It was designated A10. I know a couple of people claim to have seen the machine, but it seems unlikely that more than a couple of prototypes were ever made. I have a brochure for this one, but that's all.

Nick

Hi Rod,

The number would normally be on the top machined surface towards the front, in a depressed area between the front V and the flat for the tailstock. I can't be sure that's where it is on the 10B since I've not seen one in the flesh, but that's where every other model has it, except the very early machines which didn't have the V, flat, V, flat bed form, even on those it is in that general area.

Yes I never got the impression Dick made a lot of money out of the project by the time he'd paid for all the travel. I suspect the parts I have were quality control samples, or prototype parts rather than intentional spares.

Nick

Hi Rod,

Good luck with the search. I'm afraid I have no idea what format the number might be in. Up until the mid sixties the number was a 4 or 5 digit number, never getting up to 11,000 as far as I'm aware. Even the earliest known machines use 4 digits, so they probably started at 1,000 sometime in the late 19th century. After that they moved to a Herbert inspired two part number, typically 4XX-XX, where I believe the first part is some form of batch number and the second part the number within the batch. What system Dick adopted is unknown to me.

Nick

Hi Nick,

Looks like it is number 35 – stamped exactly where you suggested, maybe HM is Holbrook Machine or something similar. I have attached a photo I think.

Regards,

Rod

Hi Nick,

Thanks for that – I`d had forgotten how I posted the previous picture at the end of my post, so I put it in an "Album". It should appear if you can click on the "2 photos" link under the " 4 forum posts" link under my name.

Regards, Rod

Per the OP query Holbrook lathe headstock bearings tend to run in PB bearings automatically supplied with filtered oil delivered under pressure

This assures longevity when a lot of high speed work is being done

Edited By Ady1 on 17/12/2020 08:39:16

In 1966, whilst at teacher training college ( Trent Park ) we were given the task compiling a treatise on the centre lathe. My school experience was Boxford ( good ) and DST ( c*** ) and at college a huge Laing , Kerry ( knackered) , Harrison with hydro copying and 3 new Bantams for which there was always a queue. Luckily I new of a factory in Harlow new Town that made lathes – Holdbrook – so I arranged a visit.

I was greeted with enthusiasm, given coffee, and escorted round by the “owner” and an old boy who new everything.

I was quite astounded by the whole visit, clean and tidy, not knee deep in swarf and mightily impressed.

They had a lathe set up to machine a large eccentric about 12” by 3” and 2” deep or thereabouts. Just imagine a serving dish. This could be internal or external and no computer in sight. All done with cams as I remember. They actually made lathes on their own manufactured lathes and I think also special milling machines.

Those were the days.

Pete

Alas that was my only visit and they closed some time later – I think became part of the Herbert group.