Ehrlich Oscar Germany
Oscar Ehrlich Lathes - Germany.
Oscar Ehrlich was a well known and long-established lathe manufacture with premises at Chemnitz in Germany. Of utterly conventional design for the time, the lathes shown below were built during the 1920s and 1930s and made in two centre heights of 130 and 155 mm - and with 6 between-centres' capacities of: 500, 750, 1000, 1250, 1500 and 2000 mm. Available with or without a feed shaft to provide power sliding and surfacing speeds independent of the leadscrew, the lathe could also be fitted to either plain cast-iron legs or a more substantial plinth with storage for a large set of screwcutting changewheels. Being designed in the early years of the 20th century, the lathes were also offered on treadle stands for locations where there was no electricity supply or convenient stationary engine to drive them.
Ehrlich lathes were often badged as though made by Berlin-based Schuchardt & Schütte, one of the largest German-based tool and machinery dealers of the time, and a company who would have had sufficient buying power to dictate terms to manufacturers. It's also certain that Ehrlich also built lathes for distribution in Great Britain as the IXL.
During the 1930s Ehrlich became "Union-Werk" (still based at Mittweida, near Chemnitz)- under which brand the company prospered further with the name used in post-war years by the communist East German Government to market a wide range of machine tools (see picture at the bottom of the page)
If any reader can provide further details of Ehrlich-branded machine tools of any kind the writer would be interested to hear from them.
Ehrlich with power sliding and surfacing from a separate powershaft. This lathe is almost identical to an examined IXL, with the same power feed-shaft, an identical pattern of controls with interlock to prevent engaging lead-screw and feed-shaft simultaneously - and same overall appearance. However, the IXL was fitted with traverse T-slots in the front saddle wings with another parallel to the ways in each of the short wings to the rear.
The ordinary Ehrlich lathe but mounted on the maker's cast-iron plinth with changewheel storage.
Distributor's nameplate
Neatly-arranged treadle drive with over-hung flywheel-cum-pulley
Basic backgeared and screwcutting Ehrlich lathe on the basic legs and without power cross feed
A larger and rather more robust Ehrlich (circa 1928) with screwcutting gearbox and a separate power-shaft to drive the sliding and surfacing feeds
The same 1928 Ehrlich but with a geared headstock and spindle clutch.
At least two designs of apron were used on contemporary models - compare this arrangement to that used on the model at the top of the page
A complex diving attachment to link headstock rotation to carriage advance
Another unusually complete and useful Ehrlich accessory - an auxiliary carriage arranged to carry an elevating boring table with a compound screw feed.
A rather complex factory conversion of treadle to power drive with the motor pulley - probably bound in leather or a composite leather and fabric disc - pressing directly against the rim of a flat pulley. In this example the drive then passed by flat belt to a large-diameter pulley at the tailstock end of the bed and hence by the central drive shaft to the flywheel. This and similar efforts to engineer a compact drive system was tried by various manufactures between 1900 and 1920.
A rather complex arrangement with the motor driving directly onto the rim of a flat pulley by the application of a friction wheel. This effort and similar efforts to engineer a compact drive system was tried by various manufactures between 1900 and 1920.
source; http://lathes.co.uk/