Have you seen this link: covmac ?

Tony (whose website it is) has a request for Covmac owners to contact him, as they are rare beasts!

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 09/09/2014 19:33:40

It does look to be a very nice machine, does your have the geared head?

Neil

Unusual as it has an American apron ….I wonder if it was built under licence?

HI chris,

Wow!!! I don;t believe it, I also have a Covmac and it sounds just like yours. Mine was built by P&C Garnett in Cleckheaton during WW2 I even started a Yahoo group called Covmac owners, and got zero replies……………Now if only I could post some pictures to the site…………………….. I can;t offer you any advice or a manual because the lathe is hidden away in the corner of my workshop which is undergoing a complete rebuild at the moment. I am in East Yorkshire, where are you?

Hi Chris, Precise weight I don't know, but when Steve cox (landylift) moved mine, I had taken off all the extraeneous weight I could. I removed the chuck, motor and its incredibly heavy mounting plate, toolpost, tailstock, and various other bits and peices, and when he came to lift it, I asked him how much his Hiab would lift, and with the lathe swinging five feet off the ground he said "about this much" Given that I think his hiab is a 2 ton, I would put The fully assembled weight at maybe 2 to 2 1/4 ton, and the stripped weight at about 1 1/2 ton, because I think the warning buzzers would have been sounding at 1 3/4 ton! It is heavy as they go, and top heavy, as all lathes are but I rolled it into the workshop on rollers about 1" diameter using a 10" screwdriver as a lever. Don't use a fork truck unless you suspend the lathe below the forks!

They are very well made, and mine was fully rebuilt in 1953 by an engineering co in Leicester, their plate is on the end of the bed. Mine is also in VGC, tbh I don't think it has seen much use since the rebuild. I got it from the workshop of Andrews Motorcycles in Scarboro about 5 years ago.. It was on ebay, and as it was only a few miles from my workshop, and he wasn't getting any bids, I called the guy and told him to ring me if he didn't get a sale. Well it supposedly sold, and two guys turned up from Leeds in an Escort van, took one look at the lathe and left! It cost me £300 for the lathe, and £175 for the move to my workshop, which was worth every penny. Steve is a good lad, and knows exactly how to do the lifting bit. Although over the years, at various places I have worked I have done my share of moving heavy machinery, one always gives a huge sigh of relief when it is in position..There certainly aren't many about, mine was made "war Finish" by garnetts who were textile machinery manufacturers. As it says on Tonys site, Covmac made all sorts of special machinery for the nut and bolt industry, and most of it is still in use in third world countries, as you will have noticed when you searched for Covmac. The lathes were available to order, and were subcontracted to others like John Stirk & Co(QV) who made planers and other large machines. It is not known whether they used Covmac castings or cast their own as Stirk did have a big foundry. I do get to London two or three times a year, last time was only a couple of months ago. Of course I would love to see some pics, and I have tried to post some, but this site must have a secret method of uploading that I haven't sussed yet, NEIL, HEEEEELLLLLP!

Phil

Driffield.

East Yorks.

Christopher, and Phil

First … what a fantastic looking lathe … the first picture on lathes.co.uk just oozes quality.

Posting pictures here should not be difficult; although it is a bit laboured, and the device operating system must be compatible [which my early iPad is not] …

On the green menu bar, at the top of this page, click Albums; then follow the instructions to create an Album and add [jpeg/jpg] images to it … mine are usually sized to a maximum with of 1000 pixels, which seems to suit the system.

To post a picture within the thread; use the black camera icon on the menu bar in the editing pane, and then select the picture from the directory of [your album] images that pops up.

I hope that's a reasonable brief description of the process [haven't really had enough coffee yet]

MichaelG.

Sorted! shrink pic will work, but with email it works automatically, with this site you would have to drag the pics onto shrinkpic to resize, then upload to your album.

Right, I'm off to work, today I will be mainly plumbing

Phil.

H*i Chris, you are very welcome to come and see it more or less anytime to suit you. Yes, it has the clutch bar, in fact it is complete with three jaw, 4 jaw, faceplate, and quite a lot of tooling, no taper turning or steadies unfortunately, and the face plate is a bad casting with lots of blowholes in it, but it has obviously been used. Nevertheless I will be keeping the speed down if I use it! I am really guessing with a bit of education on the weight, 3360lb or 1.5 ton could well be rignt, I know Steve(landylift) said afterwards that if I hadn't stripped it of all the extras he would not have been able to lift it, The motor on mine is a huge ancient single phase variable speed commutator motor (The motor is 750 rpm) it must weigh nearly 3 cwt, and the motor mounting plate is about 18" square x 1/2" plate! I took off the top slide with the tool post as well, but it is best to leave the saddle on, as you can move it towards the end of the lathe to get the balance right. I can certainly show you what the controls do, and although I cant run the Covmac, I also have a Colchester student which is running and useable.. I have no doubt that Tony's site will be right about the weight, so it is possible that the smaller 13" is under 1.5 ton, but they probably quote the weight without the motor. How are you planning on moving it?

Phil

Don't use rollers. Far easier to put angle iron down and slide along the tops. Mr Stevenson describes this in detail somewhere but there is no risk of it falling off rollers this way.

graham.