Quote Originally Posted by Peter Laidlericon View Post
That's a lovely old lathe that you've got HHunter. What make and year is it? Clearly not a Korean or Chinese import!

Thread 11, photo 2nd from last, bottom row. Those 'ears' on the upper and lower handguard. As apprentices, we had to repair/replace those and wood pin using that hot animal glue. It's probably been banned now under some obscure EU legislation...., anyway. Nobody ever knew exactly why we had to patch repair these things as by the early 60's the No1 rifle was already well obsolete and except for the odd ones used as EY's and assault course DP's plus those still with the public school Cadets, you'd never see one. The irony of it was that even if you did, the EMER instruction was to remove the broken one AND the good one and make good. And if you did one, then you'd do all four for good measure!.
No nobody really understood all the torture.
The lathe is an earlier restoration project I took on last winter. It's a 1922 South Bend Model 25Y. It has a 9" swing and uses changes gears rather than a quick change gearbox to adjust feed rates and for thread cutting. It has minimal wear and works like a charm.
Hand guard ears - it's easy to see how these little fingers could get damaged or snapped right off. When stocking up this rifle I made sure that the front ears weren't touching the rear sight mount and the ends of the front ears did not touch the rear ears. It was also tricky to get clearance for the rear guard clips to clear the stock. BTW - animal glue is still used these days, especially in instrument construction and restoration.