J A Radford; Improvements and Accessories For Your Lathe

[SteveIParticipant @stevei]

Hi,

I recently saw a few projects based on J A Radford's designs. They seem to be extremely well thought out, if I may be so bold perhaps a "giant" of the hobby. Whilst GHT is rightly often referenced and I have his 2 books (and a UPT under construction) I haven't seen much on the forum about J A Radford.

I'm interested for interests sake to find out who offers what of the J A Radford legacy of designs in terms of castings etc and if there are any internet resources with examples of this tooling. From the (excellent book):

1. A milling attachment for the lathe
2. An indexing attachment for the headstock
3. Ball bearing cone centres
4. Gear cutting in the lathe
5. A spherical turning tool — hemingway kits
6. A lathe slotting attachment
7. Elevating heads for the lathe
8. A quick change tool holder for the lathe and lathe tailstock
9. A Toolpost grinder
10. A tapping attachment for the lathe
11. A six position saddle stop for the lathe
12. A graduating tool for cylindrical, angular and flat surfaces – hemingway kits
13. A quick-change tool holder for the lathe
14. Stop bars and bushes for the lathe mandrels – Hemingway kits
15. An automatic facing and boring head
16. A Worm wheel hobbing attachment
17. An improved top slide – hemingway kits / GLR Kennions
18. A thread milling attachment for the lathe
19. Snippets — Relieving attachment

Are there others?

Any and all information, projects and links to J A Radford designed tooling welcome, please educate me!

Thanks,

Steve

[SteveIParticipant @stevei]

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Steve,

A laudable mission, if I may say so

Just one comment, to get the ball rolling: Your numbering presumably relates to the current edition of the book.

The Tee Publishing edition of 1998 actually has 20 Chapters: Its Chapter 19 is "Renovating a Myford Lathe" … which covers the 'wide guide' conversion that he devised to mitigate the effects of bed wear.

MichaelG.

[Niels AbildgaardParticipant @nielsabildgaard33719]

Hi Steve

The owners of relevant copyrigths can do us all a great favour.

Take all the writng,drawings and pictures from ME of J A Radford and Prof Chaddock and combine it in one book with comments from builders of the gear..

This revolutionary book will be put on top of my bedtime reading.

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

JAR Had some very interesting ideas and has perhaps been overlooked of late. Maybe this is because just about every design called for castings.

Now JAR was obviously an accomplished pattern maker and seemed to have a small jobbing foundry near by. I think this is the main reason that his designs are not replicated more widely.

Andrew,

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

It looks like all the above appeared in ME, but there are no missing significant tooling-based ones.

He also did a two part write up of a Hipp clock.

Neil

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

One of his topslides being built rather nicely at the moment over on MEM, will need to join to see the attached images.

[egaParticipant @ega]

I am glad to see that JAR is getting some attention – I have often mentoned his work on the forum.

I take Andrew Tinsley's point about the need for castings but some very useful ideas of his can be made from stock materials. There are a couple of photos of his QC tailstock tooling in my Miscellaneous album and another photo in Super 7 showing a support bush in use.

I think that lathes.co.uk suggests that the "wide guide" Myford saddle change (see Chapter 20) is attributable to an Australian engineer but JAR was, of course, a New Zealander.

The Super 7 was JAR's main machine and today some of his designs are less relevant. You have to admire the ambition and ingenuity of his elevating heads.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by ega on 08/09/2017 10:59:32:

I think that lathes.co.uk suggests that the "wide guide" Myford saddle change (see Chapter 20) is attributable to an Australian engineer but JAR was, of course, a New Zealander.

.

Forgive me, ega … I'm confused by you Chapter 20 reference

Is it Chapter 20 in the newer edition of the book ?

MichaelG.

[egaParticipant @ega]

Michael Gilligan:

It is I who should seek forgiveness!

I meant, of course, Chapter 19 Renovating a Myford Lathe in the 1998 TEE book. Thank you for spotting this.

This is the edition which erroneously showed "the author in his study" on page 183.

[SteveIParticipant @stevei]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 08/09/2017 08:50:35:

Steve,

A laudable mission, if I may say so

Just one comment, to get the ball rolling: Your numbering presumably relates to the current edition of the book.

The Tee Publishing edition of 1998 actually has 20 Chapters: Its Chapter 19 is "Renovating a Myford Lathe" … which covers the 'wide guide' conversion that he devised to mitigate the effects of bed wear.

MichaelG.

Thanks to all the comments so far.

Jason — that MEM thread you linked to was the catalyst for my post.

Michael — I did not include the myford mod as it is a lathe rebuild task and my interest lies with his designs and tooling solutions. However others may be interested. I'd like to edit the post to include Chapter 19 as the wide guide conversion and Chapter 20 as the snippets but cannot. Perhaps a moderator can assist?

The has been a recent thread about preserving LBSC designs by digitising them. My interests lie in 7.25" gauge and tooling, and I really really like these designs and can find very little online about them. Sometimes drawings for castings are not adequately dimension so I will have to take a proper look at them. Less of a problem for the pattern maker but perhaps a problem to draw it up.

I am very very keen to learn more about the relieving attachment in the snippets chapter it seems to be more flexible than the Eureka. I was thinking to make something based on 22mm shank cutters. Has anyone made one?

Are any of the originals tools whereabouts known?

Thanks,

steve

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Glad to see Radford getting some recognition at long last.

He's always walked in GHT's shadow when in fact he has far more innovative than GTH ever was.

GHT's claim to fame was bling and appealing to the mirade of OCD model engineers out there.

JAR was the thinking mans GHT.

[egaParticipant @ega]

John Stevenson:

Whilst I agree with some of what you say I think it fair to point out that GHT himself was a JAR fan and made no secret of the fact. To write him off as a purveyor of bling is, of course, amusingly provocative but clearly wrong.

For me at least, a considerable part of his appeal was his excellent way with words where I think he outshone JAR.

[SteveIParticipant @stevei]

Was the relieving attachment written up in ME?

Steve

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by ega on 08/09/2017 16:15:34:

… I think it fair to point out that GHT himself was a JAR fan and made no secret of the fact. To write him off as a purveyor of bling is, of course, amusingly provocative but clearly wrong.

.

I think the distinction is perhaps that JAR had the inspiration … but GHT explained how to make things.

… I have the greatest respect for both gentlemen.

MichaelG.

[Paul PfeifferParticipant @paulpfeiffer18714]

I know I am late with this information, but it may be important to someone. The "Eureka" is fully detailed in Ivan Law's book (workshop series #17 "gears and gear cutting&quot. And if I'm correct, the relieving cut being shown in the Radford book is the "Eureka" relieving a helical hob, following the lead on the hob by lead screw, and so completing a "professionally cut" helical hob in the ameteur workshop.

[Graham MeekParticipant @grahammeek88282]

GHT and JAR were extremely good friends. George spending many holidays in New Zealand. Maybe that is why George's son decided to live out there.

Regards

Gray,

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

The Eureka tool was reprinted in the Model Engineering 'best of' centenery series. Maybe Niel could tell us why these issues do not appear in the archive. Maybe they are too old or a special issue and owned by someone else or something.

regards Martin

[egaParticipant @ega]

Posted by Graham Meek on 04/02/2019 10:50:41:

… George spending many holidays in New Zealand. …

And, apparently, travelling there by sea on at least one occasion!

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by Martin Kyte on 04/02/2019 11:16:42:

The Eureka tool was reprinted in the Model Engineering 'best of' centenery series. Maybe Niel could tell us why these issues do not appear in the archive. Maybe they are too old or a special issue and owned by someone else or something.

regards Martin

They are available if you click on the features tab on the black toolbar at the top of the page and then go to Magazine reprints

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

So they are Nick. Well there handy. It's got Radfords auto boring and facing head too. Howevery it looks very similar to Edgar Westbury's offering. (Hemmingway kits Westbury eccentric turning tool) which can bore and auto face too.

regards Martin

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

I only bought JAR's book a few months ago and I like the content but the equipment for converting the lathe into a horizontal milling machine strikes me as a shed load of work. I can't help but think buying two fixed vertical slides and mounting them on a pair of simple block bases to the back of the bed is less hassle and arguably cheaper than going to all the trouble of getting castings patterned and made along with all the subsequent machining time they would take. I thought the chain drive to allow for height adjustment was clever.

[Alan Johnson 7Participant @alanjohnson7]

J. A. Radford.

Would anyone know where his grave is?

I am planning a a trip to New Zealand next year, and apart from visiting the museum for Richard Pearse's aviation achievements in Timaru, I would be also like to visit Mr Radford's grave. He was such a clever man.

[egaParticipant @ega]

Alan Johnson 7:

As you may know, he lived in Diamond Harbour, New Zealand and died some time after 1972. I do not know if there is in fact a grave.

I have made a number of his "Improvements and Accessories" and I agree with your judgment of him.

Good luck with your proposed pilgrimage.

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

I would suggest that a visit to Diamond Harbour itself might be more suitable, it is a very scenic spot on the Lyttleton harbour opposite Lyttleton itself. There is a scenic drive around Banks Peninsula to Akaroa (originally a French settlement) that could make a good days drive.

Hopefully by next year the border might be open!

John

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