Shepard & Co
Shepard & Co later Shepard Lathe Co.
Shepard & Co Founded by H.L. Shepard in 1875.
Makers of foot lathes and light machine tools.
Changed to Shepard lathe Co in 1898 by his son who took over the business at that time.
Treadle Metal Lathe
Thought you all might like to see a cute little treadle lathe that I picked up. It was made by H.L. Shepard & Co of Cincinnati, OH. They began business in about 1875 and later changed their name to the Shepard Tool Company.
This little lady has a replacement wheel on the tailstock but otherwise is complete and in good condition. (No change gears) You can even make out some of the pin striping.
The casting under the bed that has the company name on it adds a lot to the way she looks.
This little Shepard lathe was acquired around 1950 and converted from a foot lathe (with pedals) to an 'engine lathe' meaning that an electric motor was installed to power it. As you might surmise from the rest of the website, it was undersized for the demands made up on. It is a 'change gear' lathe likely of about a 1900 vintage. The spindle is threaded 12 TPI and of a quite small diameter. The tapers in the headstock and tail stock are not standard Morse tapers, so anything mounted has to be custom turned. The Tapers are actually a little larger than a #1 Morse Taper. I suspect they are a Jarno taper.
The lathe included is a common accessory a 4 inch scroll plate chuck which is operated by rotating the collar with the holes in it with a pin spanner wrench shown in the photos. A steady rest was included and is shown. Other fasteners are all square and 2 S-wrenches seemed to be part of the lathe as well for turned the square screws.
The lathe does not have a feed rod or a power cross feed. Regular cutting as well as threading is done with the half nuts on the threading screw. The photos on the right are of a smaller incomplete Shepard. Note that it has only two belt positions, and no provision for reversing the drive. A reverse tumbler is present on our Shepard.
Source this lathe van Natta.
