Raglan Engineering - St Anns


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Talking about St. Anns to GJK and others last night reminded me that earlier yesterday I had been in the loft at home and stumbled across this advert on the back of one of my stash of old Model Engineers, (twice monthly magazine and still going) this one dating from 1953. The company started out on Raglan Street St. Anns and later by way of expansion moved to Raleigh Street. These lathes are still quite highly regarded. Being a bit into model engineering myself I shall be looking for one of these soon as they do come up for sale from time to time. The company was eventually bought by Myfords and subsequently finished. I belive the Little John name was used, not only because of the obvious Nottingham connection but also because Little John Street was the next street further down Peas Hill Road to Raglan Street. I would welcome any more info.

A little more on the company here: http://www.lathes.co.uk/raglan/

Here is a scan of the advert.

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They had a variable speed, controlled by moving the lever on top, rather than by changing gears.

An engineer friend of mine acquired one, and whilst showing me round it, took it up to its maximum speed of around 2000rpm. Unfortunately, as he started to decrease the speed , the rather substantial chuck unscrewed itself from the lathe,and dropped on the floor, still rotating at full speed. It just missed his foot and shot off up his building at about 50mph, changing direction each time it hit something.

They were quite popular as a training lathe in schools and colleges. My school (Rushcliffe) had one, along with a Harrison and two smaller Raglans.

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My Gran used to live on Raglan Street, and my Dad's half Brother had his motor cycle repair business towards the top of Raglan Street on the right going up the hill.

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I remember the Raglan Eng lathe. It was either the metalwork shop at Norton St lads club or the Nutthall Rd anex of Berridge Rd that I used one.

I have a Myford that is still quite accurate for a 50+ year old machine. If anyone is interested - a mate has got a Colchester Student for sale.

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I remember the Raglan Eng lathe. It was either the metalwork shop at Norton St lads club or the Nutthall Rd anex of Berridge Rd that I used one.

I have a Myford that is still quite accurate for a 50+ year old machine. If anyone is interested - a mate has got a Colchester Student for sale.

I use a Myford ML7 and find it accurate enough for most jobs. What model Colchester Student and how much?

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I use an ML7 and there is no problems with it. The can be a bit 'flexible' if doing some serious turning jobs though. I also have a 5" Atlas (American) which is a very strong lathe. I just don't like it.

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  • 1 year later...

I have a Radford-style dividing head that came with my Myford Super 7 - I also have a Geo Thomas style dividing head so I don't want both. Make me an offer for the Radford. Bad news: it's in Devon!

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We had Raglan and Myford lathes in the metalworking shop at school. As an apprentice we started on Colchester Student lathes and as we grew more competent progressed to Dean Smith and Grace lathes, the lathe equivalent of Rolls Royce cars.

If I ever set up a home workshop I would have a Colchester Student lathe, a Bridgeport Turret Mill plus a dividing head, a Jones and Shipman surface grinder and attachments and a Parkanson metal saw. The only concession to modernity would be digital readouts on the lathe and mill.

With this gear there would not be much that I could not make, and yes I know there are cheap hobbyist cnc machines available and freeware cad/cam but I would like to use the skills I learned nearly fifty years ago.

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We had Colchester lathes at Peoples college but after I finshed there and set out on my career I ended up using Widddowson (made in Nottingham) with a 4ft bed and driven through line shafting,bit of a monster but managed to turn out some decent stuff ( I think there is one in the Industrial museum at Wollaton

Rog

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  • 2 years later...

Well eventually I got one and quite cheaply. It does need work, mainly one of the expanding pulleys for the stepless speeds is seized on its shaft. It will get new belts at the same time as that is put right. This one was new in 1952 and was actually made on Raglan Street rather than the later ones made on Raleigh Street.

 

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I have since I got it found out from the previous owner where it came from. It was originally supplied new in 1952 to Herrburger-Brooks, Long Eaton. For those who don't know, they make (or made) piano actions and keyboards. So me, a piano tuner and restorer has ended up with a lathe that started out life in the machine shop at a piano factory!

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nice machine when they are sorted, ,when Myfords took them over the company was bought by Cecil Moores son and daughter who ran it alongside Myfords till they closed it down ,Cecil Moore was the owner of Myfords and a real talented engineer he built cyclemotor engines including a twin cylinder two stroke ,several steam railway and traction engines too, I have just finished a P4 95. that I bought last year ,that had spent 25 years in bits in the Myford factory, a local Nottingham car that was supplied to Myfords by Zipsers of Radcliffe Road

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Looks a good proposition.

I do like tools like this and enjoy messing with them.

 

I recently got a Murad Bormilathe............an interesting thing.

http://www.lathes.co.uk/murad/page3.html

 

I think my old ML7 is going on Ebay soon.

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Some ML7's sell for good money. Super 7's sell for stupid money! Far more than they are worth IMHO.

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just out of interest does any one know how to repack a leadscrew ball nut on a bridgeport ?

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On 12/27/2015 at 12:34 AM, LongJohn said:

I have a Radford-style dividing head that came with my Myford Super 7 - I also have a Geo Thomas style dividing head so I don't want both. Make me an offer for the Radford. Bad news: it's in Devon!

 

Drat          if it wern't so far away......tut

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Ive got an Elliot one if you want one its a big big to use on a myford though

 

bit big

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I recall that an uncle of mine was a boss of some sort at Raglan engineering back in the '50's.  I remember him saying that they started exporting lathes to the USA and had to change the name from Little John because the Americans used that word for the loo and they couldn't associate it with a lathe. 

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  • 1 month later...

I managed to get the leadscrew ball nut back together on my Bridgeport,easy when you know how but a bit daunting when you don,t the secret is pack the nut with the balls into their threads with grease and make a mandrel to  fit inside and over the leadscrew end and thread it on ,simples as the meercat says.

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