Now part of the Swedish Modig Machine Tool AB group (established in 1995/6 with the joining of the Modig, Jungner and Demanders companies) Modig were founded in 1948 in the town of Virserum. Over the years they have built a wide range of both traditional and CNC machine tools and are now well known in the area of HSM (high-speed machining). Their products have included lathes, milling machines, drills, radial-arm drills and milling-machine accessories - and they became especially well known in export markets for their precision geared-head "mill-drills" of a type rather similar to (but substantially heavier then) those made by their better-known home-country competitors, Arboga.
Mounted on a full-length, fabricated-steel stand with an integral chip tray the 7.5" centre height and 30 or 40 inches (190 mm x 750 mm or 1000 mm) between centres Modig 190HFA was of a capacity to compete in the Colchester Triumph class. The bed, to Brinell hardness 220-230, could be had with or without a (rather shallow) 10-inch swing gap in which a piece of metal 8" thick (200 mm) could be accommodated on the faceplate. Although the front and back walls of the bed were braced by diagonal webs surprisingly only four of these were provided and they lay, consequently, at a shallow and less-than-effective angle.
Spindle speeds of the all-geared assembly were altered by two concentrically-mounted levers in the middle of the headstock's front face; internally, the hardened and shaved gears were lubricated by a splash from an oil bath, this also serving to lubricate the Timken taper-roller bearings of the headstock spindle. Unfortunately, for a 7-inch lathe, the headstock specification was decidedly lacking when compared with those offered by the competition: the spindle nose was the effective and popular American Long-nose taper nose but, at an L0 size (the smallest available), it was two steps down from that on a Colchester Triumph and the bore, at 15/8", some 40% narrower. Even the 1400 rpm 3-hp motor was on the light side compared with the 5 hp fitted as standard to a Triumph although the speeds of 34, 57, 94, 140, 245, 410, 679 and 1000 r.p.m. were useful enough, especially the optional higher-speed range that started at 40 rpm and finished at 1400 r.p.m.
If the headstock was under-specified, the apron went some way towards redressing the balance; a separate power shaft was provided to activate the power sliding and surfacing feeds - the selection and engagement of which was by independent, flick-up-and-down levers working through overload-protection clutches - an expensive arrangement usually found only on better class American and English lathes. A lever, pivoting from the apron's right-hand face, operated a control rod that started, stopped and reversed the headstock spindle.
Because the lathe bed ways ran a little past the front and back faces of the headstock, the plain-top saddle was able to straddle it and so allow the cross slide to be centrally positioned (and perfectly supported by the long and symmetrical wings) - yet able to run right up to the spindle end. The compound slide rest (unfortunately with a short cross-slide) was fitted with balanced handwheels, each with a rotating plastic sleeve on the finger grip and with the micrometer dials available with metric or inch graduations.
A proper screwcutting and feeds gearbox was fitted as standard (at least on export models) that was able to generate 33 inch pitches (from 3 to 44 t.p.i.) and 44 metric (from 0.25 to 10.5 mm pitch). The 32 rates of sliding feed along the bed varied from 0.008 to 0.13 inches per revolution of the spindle (0.25 to 10.5 mm). With a separate powershaft for the feeds the 4 t.p.i. and 1.125-inch diameter leadscrew was used only for screwcutting and could be disengaged when not in use.
There had been some effort on the part of the designer to create a sweep-back beneath the front of the 1.75-inch diameter tailstock barrel to allow the top slide working room when close to it; however, the barrel travel of six inches was rather short for the size and work capacity of the lathe.
The 190HP weighed 1940 lbs and 2030 lbs (880 kg and 920 kg) in short and long-bed forms respectively and was 33.5-inches (860 mm) wide and 73 or 83-inches (1850 mm and 2100 mm) long..