



Hi Chris,
No worries. I'm happy to see the thread is still alive.
I'm posting some pics of my DL1. It's a barn find, oily rag condition, however, the general condition doesn't look bad at all. The ways are a bit rusty, but it can be cleaned without any greater effort (I've already tried it). There was a mulfunction on a cog wheel in the apron which supplies torque for the power feed. I've already made a new one (I think the original bronze wasn't too strong for the wheel, hence the grinded cogs, so I used alluminium-bronze alloy instead, which is really tough; it should be good now).
My plan is to do a complete overhaul of the lathe, painting (returning it back to the original grey colour), change all bearings and mainly scrape the ways (I need to measure it properly first though).
I think every DL1 really deserves some serious TLC as it's a really beautiful, well made and very precise lathe. I really love the machine.
Apart from this DL1, I have also a DL3 which is a big brother of our DL1. It's a very nice machine too. Heavy and firm, pleasure to work on.
I definitely do not want to claim that I know a complete history of Karger company (which I really don't), but my knowledge tells me that Karger was nationalized after the II. WW, since it fell into the Russian ocupation zone and was turned into a WMW company – an Eastern Germany company. As far as I know, Karger didn't exist after the WW II anymore.
I really think that your Karger DL1 is a pre-war machine. Do you have any production plate on your lathe telling the year of production?
My DL3 is in fact a Karger DL3, but it was made after the war, in 1953 (it has the plate), but it's already full WMW product. It looks exactly the same as a pre war Karger DL3 though. They had just changed the badges, and that was it. Otherwise any respective part of the lathe is completely interchangable with the real Karger DL3's parts. It even carries a similar name: WMW DL3.
I can offer a Karger's production catalogue in PDF format, if you were interested. It's a catalogue from right before the war. I'd be very interested in DL1 user's manual. My catalogue describes DL1 generally (dimensions etc), but it's not a manual (no maintanance instruction etc).
I'm up for setting a Karger club up! Count me in!
Andy.