We acquired the second Ward 2A from an item on ebay, the internet auction site. A friend alerted us to the sale, and we eventually got the lathe for the huge sum of £6.50. The lathe had been used in a small factory for making special high temperature stainless steel and brass tubes, and the actual usage was very low. Our biggest expense was the hire of a set of machinery skates to allow the lathe to be moved out of a small workshop over a soft tiled floor without damaging the surface.
Once out into the factory loading bay we paid a company adjacent to allow the use of their fork truck and driver to load the lathe onto the trailer, and we were able to get back to the factory fairly quickly. It took about an hour to unload manually, but we had no mishaps and stripping/checking began immediately.
A small selection of collets came with the machine, and a couple of other bits and pieces such as the bar feed slider casting which fits on the back of the head stock to support the bar feed, and allows the feed tube to be slid towards the operator allowing loading of a new piece of metal.
Shot of the BT-H two-speed motor controller and the wires from the motor, contactor and supply. The controller is an exquisite mechanism which connects a series of contacts by lifting the middle bridging set up and over to one of two sets. The Ward does not use all the available contacts so a lot of spares are present in case one set burns out. The start-stop contactor on the left has not worked for some years, but is reasonably simple in construction so a fault-finding session is in store. To give an idea of scale, the four-way tool post is just in shot top right.
The cause of all the trouble!! The vertical drive shaft from the rear turret slide power feed transmission. The shaft transmits the drive from the front apron shaft up to the turret feed mechanism, relieving the operator of the task. The lower worm shaft at the bottom of the photograph was seized solid in the housing at the top. The thrust bearing (shown elsewhere) takes the thrust from the lower worm drive onto the bronze gear shown at the right. The bearings are all plain steel-on-steel, and a lot of force was needed to separate the shaft from the housing. The round portion of the housing pivots in the gear box housing to allow the worm at the end of the shaft to be put into and out of engagement with the turret slide drive shaft.
The reassembled drive shaft with the new thrust bearing in place to the right of the left-hand crown wheel. The squared-off sections of the housing to the right are for the mechanical latching in the gear box housing.
Shot of the speed selector lever and dial, showing the two speed ranges available from the motor and gear box. The gear box is not pre-optive as are some Herbert Capstans. The gear box oil level viewer is just to the right. The gray substance is moly grease on the detent ball. The joint between the lathe bed and the head stock/gear box is just behind and below the speed selector lever.
This is the bed of the second lathe (actually the first one we purchased) showing the mounting area for the gear box / head stock. The four vertical studs are supplemented by two side bolts which hold the head against a machined face to locate it sideways. The turret tool holes are machined from the head stock to ensure accuracy.
Power feed gear box just before the rebuilt vertical shaft was put back inside. The two-speed gear set is not all visible, but the two just to the right of the lower worm gear are part of that set. The control knob is off at lower right, pulling in or out to select the power feed speed. The hole in the top right of the gear box is for the turret slide shaft and gear to operate the slide through a rack on the slide itself. The square bracket at the top is the mechanical trip for the feed when the turret reaches its maximum travel towards the chuck/collet. Just above the top gear is the spring-loaded detent which throws the gears out of mesh when the mechanical trip operates. The gears can also be disengaged by hand if necessary.
Vertical shaft fitted. The bottom pivots in the gear box housing, allowing the top worm to engage the turret slide gear shaft. The moly grease looks repulsive! The spring-loaded plunger is not fully tensioned as the retaining grub screw (out of shot) is not fully in, but the plunger head is slightly more visible in this shot.
Turret feed shaft fitted with the top worm disengaged. Lubrication is total-loss (dead-loss!) so no gaskets on anything and oil-guns for lubrication. The moly grease was a precautionary move so that there was something in the box when it was first run.
Shot of the turret slide control wheel on the shaft before the gear box was reassembled. Shows the relationship and sizes of the parts. The tensioning grub screw for the plunger mentioned above is not in its threaded hole, this can be seem about halfway down the right-hand side of the gearbox housing.
Ward 2A (No2) being reassembled outside in the sunshine! Rear view showing the drive shaft from the motor (left) and the head stock rear end (right) The clevis ended lever on the right is the brake operating lever for the head stock main shaft.
Front three-quarter view of the gear box/head stock without all the shafts and levers. Looks quite simple like this ! Double splined shaft coming out of the top is the gear box control selector shafts, the oil pump is lower right just at the edge of the shot. Turret support bar is in place on top.