When bought the Randa Type A long-bed shown above, below and on the next page, was rusty all over - although oil had helped in some places to keep areas of paintwork un-touched and original. The headstock backgears, for example, have been refinished in a shade of red that matches that when factory fresh.
When stripped to its component parts, the lathe was found to be in remarkably good mechanical condition with little wear evident on bed or slides. Even the leadscrew, its clasp nut and the cross and top screws were in remarkably good order. The main iron castings all proved to be sound - and of better quality, the owners reports, than one of his more recent Far Eastern lathes. A few simple replacements were undertaken: the slotted gib-strip adjustment screws replaced with 3/16" BSF Allen grub screws; headstock bearing drip-feed  oilers were fitted - the holes found to be already tapped out BSP -  and a clamp handle made to speed adjustment of the changewheel bracket.
Fitted with a 1/3 h.p. motor and a home-made countershaft (incorporating a cleverly-made belt-tension adjustment jockey wheel) the lathe has been put to good use and proves to have excellent torque, better even than the owner's Warco WM180 which almost stalls when trying to turn a 7-inch diameter flywheel - the Randa has no such trouble, and powers through the same job.