Of an unusual but ingenious design, this version of the early Excel miniature jig borer is extremely rare, the only other example found by the writer being with other interesting machine tools in the tumble-down remains of a "Little Mester's" knife-making workshop just off West Street in Sheffield, England during the early 1970s.
In most other respects, like the standard model, this version used an entirely different top section to the main column - the head mounted on a massive rotating boss able to be swivelled though 90° each side of vertical. The ordinary V-belt drive system, with a motor at the back and an intermediate pulley was retained - but, due to the tilting arrangement, it was not possible to incorporate the cable-and-wire suspended counterbalance weight within the column.
On the example shown below - found in a drab, Army olive green with identification numbers stencilled in - the manufacturer seems to have made a mistake. The Excel name cast into the face of the column has been half ground away and covered with filler. However, as the head half-covers the name, a lazy workman destroyed only the lower section, leaving the upper half intact. To restore the machine's original appearance, the present owner has painted the letters in..