Jason,

Have a look at Tony Griffiths site **LINK** Then look for "Industrial IS Lathes". The "IS" part is not included in the number on the front of the machine, so you will find this one under "250IS", the 250 indicates the swing in mm, so 10 inch swing, 5 inch centre height.

This will give you the spec to think about.

Ask for more pictures if you will, but you should never buy without seeing the machine, then you can check for excessive wear, smooth working etc, but the seller says it is 3-phase and he doesn't have 3-phase at home so you won't be able to see it under power anyway, which is a turn-off.

Unless converted to single-phase is probably best run from a phase converter rather than an inverter, so that's a big expense to figure in. Its probably got a 1½ HP motor, maybe more.

Bear in mind that a top quality Model 'A' sold recently for over £1000, and an "AUD" looks set to follow that lead, and he'll probably get his £900 on auction. But sometimes it can all depend on location and transport home.

Because of the above caveats it wouldn't do for me, but you may be happy with them.

Phil

I will admit to more than a bit of bias here, as I was placed at Boxford's for a year to finish my apprenticeship at the time that this family of machines was starting production (1981 -82).

I recall being told at the time that the machine was designed by the chap responsible for the Harrison M300. I also recall that the headstock oil level was found to be low during testing of the first batch of machines – later machines had the sight glass re-positioned higher, but a sticker was attached to the first batch that read "Fill to top of sight, plus 1 pint" .

A CNC version was produced with various controls – I wired up the first one built.

Some, if not all, of the headstock gears were hardened – the same hardening plant electronics that was used to harden the beds was witchable to a small "cabin" that held the gears on a rotating spindle which passed the gear through an induction loop & then quenched it in a coolant bath.

While an ex-school machine may have not seen much use, it may well also have not seen much in the way of maintenance or sympathetic treatment. My current ex-school Super 7 has a "dropped chuck" ding in the bed, the saddle "fast side"was badly worn due to being badly adjusted and it had been grease lubricated through the oil nipples. So, if contemplating buying unseen, I would bank on a bit of time to strip, clean, lubricate & adjust.

If I were to consider looking for soemthing bigger than the Super 7, one of this family of Boxfords would be high on my list (but note the initial caveat !)

£0.02

If I was upgrading from my mini lathe and had the readies and the space, a Boxford AUD or something like that would be my choice.

Neil

The 127/100 gear is permently mounted in the gear train, so the swop from imp to metric takes me around one minute.

Mike

I have a 5" model A and i like it. the back gears are a little noisy but apart from that its great. I had a snipe at the one on fleabay but it looks like it will make good money.

Bri

The cream one, i took it to 900.

I am not sure. They probably are very similar specs.