Introduction

This Blog is designed to show my progress in repairing a Raglan LittleJohn lathe. I have wanted a lathe for some time, as I occasionally need to make up spacers and other simple items for my hobby, tinkering with motorbikes. However, the relative infrequent requirement to do this kind of work, coupled with the percieved expense of a small Myford lathe on Ebay put me off, and I joked with myself (such a comedian) that I would get one when retired.

However, a particular project involving machining down crank wheel to make a Yamaha crankshaft fit a Suzuki engine made me think again. I was quoted £500 by SEP, which, although reasonable for the work, was outside my budget for this project. I have comissioned SEP before and will no doubt use them again, but other options were needed.

So the prospect of buying a cheap leathe that may need some repair work was considered. A quick investigation of Tony's excellent www.lathes.co.uk revealed the Raglan LittleJohn was one of the few small lathes with over 5" above the bed - most small Myfords or Denford Viceory have around 3.5".
After waiting, a Raglan came up on Ebay in Essex - I won the auction for £117 in late April 2006. This was LittleJohn number 1. It had numerous parts missing, an ebay picture is shown above and it will be described in more detail , when I get some pictures.

I joined the Raglan Group at www.YahooGroups.com mailing list, and after patiently waiting, a message was posted in late May 2006 about another Mk1 LittleJohn that had some damage to the changewheels, and was only £125 in but in Manchester! However, I was busy away in the US with work, so couldnt go and collect. About a month passed, I had time to go and have a look, so I bought it in late June 2006. This became LittleJohn number 2. It has damage to a few more parts like the backgearing, and will be described in more detail.

So the purpose of these pages is to show the progress in repairing. I don't want/have time/patience/money to restore these lathes, I only need them as a tool, so sorry to the purists out there, that's just the way it goes. I will probably sell the unused raglan and other parts on Ebay for spares later, so hope to recover some of my costs.