Portass "Baby Zyto" Lathe

grabcad

I recently received a small modeller's lathe as a gift from a friend. It turned out to be a potentially rare Portass 2 1/8in lathe built in the 1920s, and its main casting reveals itself to be anything but uniform when you look closely - that is, except for the bearing surfaces, which are remarkably consistent. Everywhere else, straight lines are few and far between. I managed to get a good model of it done, although I'm not sure if I did complete justice to it or not; one thing that sticks out is how odd the loft is on this particular lathe. Still, it's pretty close to what I was going for in my modelling efforts. The image you see here shows the lathe after a good cleaning and preparation, and I'm hoping to get the rest of it modelled and added over the next few weeks. I'd love to hear if anyone else out there has seen or owns one of these Portass 2 1/8in lathes built back in the 1920s.