The Wade Lathe – unwanted / advice

[Taf_PembsParticipant @taf_pembs]

My neighbour has a Wade Lathe that he no longer wants.

There are some accessories, chuck jaws and some tooling.

The lathe has some damage to the tail stock quill clamp, cracked so no longer works but may be able to be brazed / repaired?

Here are a few pics

 

 

 

 

I said I would try to get an idea of what it’s worth – if anything –  or if anyone would be interested in collecting it?

I’ve seen the write up on Lathes.co.uk but I’ve only got the pics above to go on so I’ll try and get a better look and more pics to see what model it is.

 

Cheers All!

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

There have been 2 or 3 of this not very common lathe on ebay in the last year, one relatively recently. No idea what they went for. Location is significant if you expect it to be picked up.

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

The last two Wade lathes that sold on ebay UK were without motor or accessories but appear undamaged. They went for £42.25 and £55.
The inclusion of a chuck with your neighbours lathe is a bonus but over all I would not expect ti to fetch more than £50.
The mains lead is in very poor condition and must be replaced before the motor is powered. If you don’t replace it at least cut it off flush with the junction box to pervent temption.

Robert.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

As Toby says in the description on Lathes.co.uk:-

“In reality a triumph of hope over practicality.”

In this day and age a pure curiosity. Not rigid enough to do anything beyond the lightest of turning and not terribly accurate either. Lacking feed dials it will be monumentally frustrating to use. Realistically an import mini lathe makes much more sense.

I’ve played with one briefly in the 1970’s. Not a pleasant experience. The owner used it mostly for spinning stuff to be de-rusted, polished or having gouges cleaned up as part of his hobby of Veteran motorcycle restoration. Even adding a topside as shown at the bottom of the Lathes.co.uk article won’t be of great help. (I’ve got a baby slide that would probably do in the “might be handy” box that I shall never use if anyone wants it.)

Looks as if it’s been run direct from the motor without a countershaft so the spindle will have been driven way too fast. So if it’s seen any use beyond the occasional the bearings and shaft are most likely trashed. I’d guess design top speed would have been in the region of 500 to 600 rpm. So direct drive to the middle step on the pulley will be 3 times too great.

Clive

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

I wouldn’t buy a lathe with a broken tailstock!  Not unless I happened to have a spare in my junk-box, or had the wherewithal to mend it cheap.   Mending that kind of break is possible, but has a high-risk of failure.

Buying second-hand, always check condition – very little else matters!   Forget brand reputations, and ruthlessly crush any personal tendency to rose-tint the enduring powers of classic machine tools.    Ask, ‘how much time and money will it take to get this back into working order, and am I prepared to pay that’?   Walk away from scrap.

Not clear if this particular Wade is the Plain or Screw-cutting version.  No mention of change gears suggests it’s the cheaper Plain version.

The above suggests this machine is only worth scrap value, but value is always difficult to predict and might be higher than expected.  Could be a few folk desperately compete for it as a source of spares so they can restore their old-bangers!

Dave

 

 

 

[SillyOldDuffer]

On SillyOldDuffer Said:

I wouldn’t buy a lathe with a broken tailstock!  Not unless I happened to have a spare in my junk-box, or had the wherewithal to mend it cheap.   Mending that kind of break is possible, but has a high-risk of failure.

Buying second-hand, always check condition – very little else matters!   Forget brand reputations, and ruthlessly crush any personal tendency to rose-tint the enduring powers of classic machine tools.    Ask, ‘how much time and money will it take to get this back into working order, and am I prepared to pay that’?   Walk away from scrap.

Not clear if this particular Wade is the Plain or Screw-cutting version.  No mention of change gears suggests it’s the cheaper Plain version.

The above suggests this machine is only worth scrap value, but value is always difficult to predict and might be higher than expected.  Could be a few folk desperately compete for it as a source of spares so they can restore their old-bangers!

Dave

——————————

Well, my first lathe was a Wade and I bought it with the whole tailstock missing!

It cost me £3-10-0 in about 1955 and I carried it home on the bus. I powered it with my mums treadle sewing machine stand and whilst I never made anything useful I did learn a lot.

The Wade lathe is a bit cruder than it looks, all the castings and working surfaces are aluminium apart from the mandrel bearings and the cross slide working surfaces (ali on ali) are softer than steel swarf and chips, not good scenario.

I ‘loaned’ the lathe to a next door neighbor but he moved house whilst I was away and I never saw it again, by that time I was into cars and had a Unimat SL

Ian P

 

 

 

[Taf_PembsParticipant @taf_pembs]

Thanks all, appreciate the feedback!

You are all confirming what I thought when I got the pics etc which is that it is only really fit for the lathe retirement home in the sky.

I will let him know..

Thanks again,

Taf

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