We used to make things in this country #304 Wm.M lathe
This older lathe was for sale at a local swapmeet a few weeks ago. The seller was convinced the maker was WM. M with plants in Preston and Galt (now combined into the city of Cambridge, Ontario) as is cast into the headstock. Searching a bit online I can find the Preston Woodworking company, and a Preston Machinery ad- selling an 18" lathe by Stevens, JJ Stevens was another maker of machine tools based in Galt, in business from about 1910 till at least the end of WW2. Info from Vintagemachinery.org. I can find nothing on an company named WM.M. or alternately, WM.M. Preston.
4 comments:
The Preston Woodworking Machinery Company of Preston, Ontario also made and/or sold metal lathes. Two models I know of are the Mod. 36 and No. 186 Preston Manual Training Speed Lathe. The lathe you show looks like a South Bend 9 clone although somewhat less refined. May have been made somewhere else for Preston. All the Preston lathes I have seen have had the name attached to the bed and not the headstock which I find odd unless a clone. I have a SB 9 circa 1944.
Cheers!
Coincidently I also have a 1944 SB 9 and feel it's much heavier construction, this seems more towards Atlas quality- or less. The fact that the name is cast into the headstock in a basic lettering font and doesn't really fit in the space provided might tell the tale, it would be nice to compare to the Preston lathes- not much online about them.
Seems to be some info on Practical Machinist but I can't open their site anymore for some reason. That's most likely the best source for info. Where did the No. 304 come from? Didn't happen to see a maker on the elec motor by chance?
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-and-history/preston-machinery-company-lathe-info-202633/
Quite the coincident on your South Bend and mine. This one is stamped W.E.F. which I understand to mean Western Escort Fleet which makes some sense as it was purchased from the Navy in San Diego after serving on a submarine. It they could only talk!
Mine is #158844, just a plain workshop lathe that does all I need. Did you see this? https://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/2013/05/you-have-no-room-for-machine-tools-you.html
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