The Beginning and history.
A lathe has been in the back of my mind for some years and in the last year my love of vintage tools and machinery has really taken off so when I saw this 80+ year old Goodell Pratt bench lathe I had to have it. Luckily I got it for only a few bucks more than it cost new but unfortunately most of the original accessories are missing as is the original banjo and tool rest but then if it had those things it would have been 4-5X the price.
The 125 was GP's midi size lathe and was meant for hobbyist metal & woodworkers. It's not clear when GP began manufacturing lathes, sometime between the late 19th Century and 1920's and it's all but impossible to date a specific lathe.
Originally designed for a treadle base it can easily be adapted to an electric motor (as you will see). The bases are now pretty rare. I flirted with the idea of building a treadle base but eventually the lure of the electric motors laying around my shop seduced me.
It came with a crazy variety of accessories including a fret saw and tablesaw. The 125 was like the mini-Shopsmith of the early 20th Century. No namby-pamby blade brakes here, men were manlier then and didn't mind losing a finger to prove it!
More information and pics can be found here:
http://www.lathes.co.uk/goodell-pratt/index.html
A lathe has been in the back of my mind for some years and in the last year my love of vintage tools and machinery has really taken off so when I saw this 80+ year old Goodell Pratt bench lathe I had to have it. Luckily I got it for only a few bucks more than it cost new but unfortunately most of the original accessories are missing as is the original banjo and tool rest but then if it had those things it would have been 4-5X the price.
The 125 was GP's midi size lathe and was meant for hobbyist metal & woodworkers. It's not clear when GP began manufacturing lathes, sometime between the late 19th Century and 1920's and it's all but impossible to date a specific lathe.
Originally designed for a treadle base it can easily be adapted to an electric motor (as you will see). The bases are now pretty rare. I flirted with the idea of building a treadle base but eventually the lure of the electric motors laying around my shop seduced me.
It came with a crazy variety of accessories including a fret saw and tablesaw. The 125 was like the mini-Shopsmith of the early 20th Century. No namby-pamby blade brakes here, men were manlier then and didn't mind losing a finger to prove it!
More information and pics can be found here:
http://www.lathes.co.uk/goodell-pratt/index.html