Boxford ME10 Lathe

 

I bought my lathe in about 1978 when I was into the building of one man hover craft and it has been in almost weekly use ever since.

On 4th September 2017 I decided to install a system which converts single phase household supply to three phase to drive a three phase motor. This had been delivered to me a few days before from Power Capacitors http://www.powercaps.co.uk

This will give me a variable speed drive at full torque. The motor was up rated from .75 HP to 1 HP, a Jaguar CUB Inverter 5A and a remote Control Station with cables to connect between each unit. The installation was completed over a two day period of 4 hours in total and the old motor keep incase of any failure of the new system.  

Recently I had to change the main drive belt and decided that rather than dismantle the headstock I would use the sectional belting which used to be called "Brammer" V-belt now called Nu T-link A-section 13mm (1/2") (colour now ORANGE) - and very good it has proved to be. Link here to a supplier

Data about the Boxford ME10 is rather scarce so more for my own benefit I list it here.  Please no not rely upon the data without checking its accuracy but it should give you a good starting point.

Boxford ME10 model engineer's lathe

Specification

Centre Height

127mm
Distance between centres

710mm
Bed length

1220mm
Swing over bed

254mm
Swing over cross slide

149mm
Centre height above cross slide

25mm
Reversing Gears 32T Pressure Angle

Reversing Gears 32T

Other Gears  Various T

14 1/2O

DP 20

DP 14
Spindle nose diameter

38.1mm
Spindle nose

8 TPI Whit. form
Spindle bored to pass        

20mm
Spindle internal taper

No.3 Morse
Tailstock internal taper

No.2 Morse
Tailstock travel

54mm
Cross slide travel

150mm
Tool slide travel

66mm

When bought in about 1978 the price quoted was :-

ME10 Lathe   £625
OriginalSingle 3/4 HP motor

£35
Milling attachment

£75
Starter wall mounting

£16
3 jaw self centering chuck

£79
4 jaw independent chuck

£52
Drill chuck and no.2 MT

£11
total   £893
which in March of 2023 would be about £4550

This is a drawing which establishes from where the centre height is measure.

14 March 2022

Due to lack of maintenance on my part by not completing the oiling up of the machine as should be done suddenly whilst in BACK GEAR the lathe stopped rotating.

After a lot of thought and viewing of YouTube video, reading and re-reading the Know you lath book, I discovered that in a pulley wheel inside the headstock was a grub allen screw which was there to prevent dirt entering the spindle pulley. The  screw needs a 1/8" allen key  to remove "grub screw plug" in the "V" of one of the pulley sheaves inside the headstock, squirting oil into this lubricates the pulley when back gear is engaged. to say the least  this is a very fiddly job but as I found out essential essential for longevity of the lathe to work in Back Gear.

The picture shows the hole I made in the top of my casing as it was just too difficult to access the grub screw from the rear !!


This picture was taken with my phone camera from the rear with the Allen grub screw removed!!


This photo show the oil hole with the grub screw removed as taken though the hole I cut in the top which allowed me to see what I was doing and when to put my fingers in from the rear to recover the grub screw on the end of the allen key.


Photo take to remind me the size of the allen key !!!