Pontiggia Leopoldo was based in Varese, Italy, and manufactured precision, centre, facing, sliding-bed, "diamond-tool" and railway workshop lathes in centre heights from 250 to 1100 mm (9.8" to 43"), motor sizes on these large machines ran from 15 to 80 HP. The company also constructed lathes on the "building block" principle where almost any specification could be met for very large between-centres or facing and boring work.
Typical of their standard, off-the-shelf offerings products was the Precision Centre Lathe Type V300; this had a centre height of 30 0mm (11.8"), a swing over the carriage of 365 mm (14.4") and in the (optional) gap of 875 mm (34.4"). The drive system consisted of a 15 HP motor driving a mechanical-type speed variator in such a way that constant power was delivered to the spindle at between 23 and 1150 rpm.
A rather more specialised product was their Precision Facing Lathe Type F80, powered by a 40 HP d.c motor that gave stepless spindle speeds from 1 to 300 rpm. Two cross slides with swivelling tools slides were fitted - and were designed to be used simultaneously - while an electro-mechanical device ensured that the cutting speed remained automatically constant across work of up to 1650 mm (5 feet 6 inches) in diameter.