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Denford Synchro
July 2019
Description
I was scanning through the
advertisement of a well-known dealer
when I came across a Denford 280 lathe,
photo 1. For those not familiar with
the make (and I admit I wasn’t at the
time) there is an excellent description
and company history in http://www.lathes.
co.uk. Basically, Horace Denford started
making Boxford lathes after the war,
aiming at the school and training market,
and then, in the early 1950s, sold out to
the Harrison group. Having done this,
he then started making similar Denford
lathes of 4½” and 5” centre height, using
the ‘Viceroy’ brand name, also aimed at
the school and training market. There
seemed to be sufficient demand for both
companies to prosper, although one can
imagine that Harrisons were not amused!
The ultimate development, in the late
1970s, for Denford in conventional centre
lathes, before turning to CNC machines
which they still make, was the Viceroy
280 Synchro, so called because the swing
was 280 mm, 11” approximately. This had
speed control by variable pullies, just like
Raglan, using a lever on the headstock,
(some had a more complex system using
an electric motor to operate the variable
speed pullies) and came with all its
original standard equipment, 5” Burnerd
3 jaw chuck, 6” Burnerd 4 jaw chuck, 8”
faceplate, catch plate, travelling steady
and fixed steady, photo 2. I knew from
previous experience with the Raglan, that
a lot of time and money can be spent
tracking down and buying these items,
especially the steadies. It had been fitted
with a non-standard tee slotted cross
slide, which was a plus point for me, as I
do like to be able to bolt work onto the
cross slide for boring operations. The
original cross slide was also included.
It was a metric machine, but with dual
imperial/metric dials, and a gearbox
capable of 72 metric pitches. covering all
standard metric pitches from 0.20 to 7.
and a lot of others, plus feeds of 0.03mm
to 2.14mm per rev. It was a 3-phase
machine, and at the time was fitted withan elderly Jaguar Cub inverter, without
any form of speed control, to enable use
on a 240-volt single phase supply, which
is all I have, Photo 3.
It is quite a substantial machine,
weighing 330kg (720lbs), 11” swing over
the bed, and 24” between centres. The
tailstock barrel is bored for 3MT tooling,
the headstock spindle will pass just over
1” (1 1/16” to be exact) and has a 4M T
internal taper with a camlock D1-3 nose.
The 3-phase motor is rated at 1.2kw and
has proved more than adequate. The bed
has 2 vees and 2 flats and is straight with
no gap.Condition as Bought
This machine seemed to fi t the bill for me,
so, having asked a lot of questions, and
got satisfactory answers, I made an off er,
to include VAT and delivery, which rather
to my surprise, was accepted. Several days
later, a large van pulled up outside my
house, and disgorged a pallet carrying a
very well wrapped lathe and cabinet stand
(For stability, the lathe had been taken off
the stand). The kind delivery driver wheeled
it down the drive to the garage at the rear
of the house and parked it near the door.
It was destined to stay there for about a
week, until the Raglan had been sold and
removed from the garage. This period was
spent unwrapping, and cleaning down with
degreaser, it wasn’t bad really, I just wanted
to get it as clean as possible, and cleaning
the usual indescribable sludge out of the
suds tank. I also created a frame on casters
to carry the cabinet stand, something I
do for all my machines. This means that
the lathe stands about 5” higher than
normal, but I am tall, and dislike stooping
over a machine. The paint was reasonable,
although not pristine, but the only thing I
repainted was the sheet metal splashback,
which was worn down to bare metal. The
lathe is an odd pale blue, so I took a smallHorace Denford started
making Boxford lathes
aft er the war, aiming at
the school and training
market...
2
3
The original Jacobs Cub inverter. I tidied up that wiring as one of the fi rst jobs!
Accessories with the lathe as bought.