# My new Gregco Lathe - Australian Made 1940s



## paul_cpu (Nov 19, 2020)

I have the Chinese Mini, then I got the little Sherline, this weekend that just passed I brought home a new friend.

It is a "New Gregco" I believe is around late 1940's.  It is Australian made.  It was reasonable condition just dirty.  I have not fully disassembled it but I have taken apart the slides and cleaned them, cleaned the bed, the gears, the spare gears, the pulleys and the chuck.  I also have a 4 jaw chuck aswell.

It is a great little lathe and 70 years old then the Chinese Mini but it's much nicer to work with.

Info:  http://www.lathes.co.uk/brackenbury&austin/

It was pretty dirty











But it came up nice after a few hours cleaning


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## markba633csi (Nov 19, 2020)

Nice piece of history!  In good shape too
-Mark


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## Nogoingback (Nov 19, 2020)

Nice looking machine.  What kinds of projects do you have planned for it?


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## paul_cpu (Nov 20, 2020)

Well I made these pullys for my friend dad, I have to make a pin for his BBQ wheel.  Stuff I think up


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## jpackard56 (Nov 23, 2020)

Remember the rabbit hole ! 
Me thinks you are well into it !
Congratulations ! 
If you are like me each of these you have at the different sizes will have interesting uses and each will be better at certain processes than one of the others, and that is how the herd grows !


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## paul_cpu (Nov 23, 2020)

Pretty much that's it, for really small items I find the sherline the goto machine.  As the Chinese can do metric threads thats good for that.  For steel and larger jobs the New Gregco is perfect.  It feels really nice to use which means it's in pretty good nick as there is no movement I can see.  I will still pull it "more" apart once the initial fun has worn off and give it a really good going over.

It has reduction gears that allow the chuck to turn incredibly slow bu a took is broken off so I will have to get a gear made for that.

Next machine is the mill.


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## sycle1 (Nov 23, 2020)

Looks like a solid old girl, congrats!


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## paul_cpu (Dec 25, 2020)

I have now stripped and cleaned the Lathe and moved it into my shed.  I swapped the change gears to as "slow" as they will go but it still moves to fast for clean cuts so I have ordered a few slow rotation DC motors ( with steel gearbox ) and made a shim for the gear.  This is drive the auto feed really slow.  I'll take some photos next time I am out there.


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## bollie7 (Dec 25, 2020)

Are you sure this machine is supposed to have power feed? No separate feed shaft so it would rely on the leadscrew. I genuinely don't know myself, but that thought came about when you said you couldn't get the feed rate slow enough.
Peter


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## Downunder Bob (Dec 25, 2020)

paul_cpu said:


> I have the Chinese Mini, then I got the little Sherline, this weekend that just passed I brought home a new friend.
> 
> It is a "New Gregco" I believe is around late 1940's.  It is Australian made.  It was reasonable condition just dirty.  I have not fully disassembled it but I have taken apart the slides and cleaned them, cleaned the bed, the gears, the spare gears, the pulleys and the chuck.  I also have a 4 jaw chuck aswell.
> 
> ...



Looks well made and quite substantial as well.


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## paul_cpu (Dec 25, 2020)

bollie7 said:


> Are you sure this machine is supposed to have power feed? No separate feed shaft so it would rely on the leadscrew. I genuinely don't know myself, but that thought came about when you said you couldn't get the feed rate slow enough.
> Peter


Your right I I mean the lead screw turns to fast.


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## Aaron_W (Dec 25, 2020)

What a neat little lathe, and an interesting design based around a single central foot rather than a foot at each end. It is nice to see vintage lathes that we rarely see in the US.

As far as the lead screw / power feed I don't think it is unusual for a small lathe to use a single screw as both the lead screw and to drive the power feed. The change gears should control the speed of the power feed.


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## Jim F (Dec 25, 2020)

Aaron_W said:


> What a neat little lathe, and an interesting design based around a single central foot rather than a foot at each end. It is nice to see vintage lathes that we rarely see in the US.
> 
> As far as the lead screw / power feed I don't think it is unusual for a small lathe to use a single screw as both the lead screw and to drive the power feed. The change gears should control the speed of the power feed.


Yep, that is how my SB9C is.
Looks like an Atlas type, except the base.


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## Billstard (Aug 10, 2021)

I've got one of these myself. No. 531. Unfortunately it was not in good nick. I've been slowly trying to resurrect it. I'm missing a few components that I will need to have made. If you ever have the back gear assembly out of yours, a few detailed photos of the shaft & eccentric bushes would be a godsend for me. It's hard for me to have those bits made when I don't know what they are
Your photos & video have already been very helpful. Nice old machines.

Cheers
Billy


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## Malonc (Sep 10, 2022)

paul_cpu said:


> View attachment 348549
> 
> 
> I have now stripped and cleaned the Lathe and moved it into my shed.  I swapped the change gears to as "slow" as they will go but it still moves to fast for clean cuts so I have ordered a few slow rotation DC motors ( with steel gearbox ) and made a shim for the gear.  This is drive the auto feed really slow.  I'll take some photos next time I am out there.


Hi Paul, like you I have a New Gregco except I'm where you were a couple of years ago with a 70 year old machine with 70 years of accumulated dirt and grime. As to you feed issue, I have attached a photo of the gear train showing my setup which gives reasonably slow feed, hope it helps.


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## JKuch (Oct 5, 2022)

I just picked up a new Greco myself! 

Mine seems very similar to the first one. I was wondering if you could take a photo of the tag that sits on top of the gearbox cover? Mine is missing (even though I have many gears) 

Thanks


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## Malonc (Oct 6, 2022)

JKuch said:


> I just picked up a new Greco myself!
> 
> Mine seems very similar to the first one. I was wondering if you could take a photo of the tag that sits on top of the gearbox cover? Mine is missing (even though I have many gears)
> 
> Thanks


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## JKuch (Oct 28, 2022)

Thanks mate, I appreciate it! I'm enjoying the challenge of relearning new skills with this one. Turns out there is a fair bit of restoration that might need to happen to mine!


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