One of the smaller manufacturers - details of whom are sketchy - Rothley appear to have made a limited range of machines including this useful and still encountered little 6.5" stroke slotter. However, marketed by Thos. W.Ward of Sheffield and with the name "Rothley" used in parenthesis, the machine may have been a re-badged import, possibly from Eastern Europe and brought in during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Several versions have been found including ones with strokes of 8 and 10 inches as well as ones where the head could be tilted over 30° or so in each direction from upright.
On the model illustrated below, the ram stroke was a maximum of 6.5" (165 mm) with the head carried in a vertical slideway that allowed it to be adjusted, by a screwed rod, though some 8 inches of travel - the maximum clearance under the ram being 12.5 inches (317 mm). The number of strokes per minute could be set between 29 and 125, with the drive coming from a 1.5 h.p. 400/440 Volt 3-phase motor flange mounted at the top rear of the column with drive down to a 9-speed, oil-bath lubricated gearbox by V-belts (an oil level glass fitted to the face of the box). Speeds were changed by the juxtaposition of two quadrant levers, on the lower right-hand face of the column.
Arranged with a compound table, both longitudinal and traverse travels were identical at 12.5" (318 mm). Zeroing micrometer dials were fitted, the feed screws covered against the ingress of swarf and dirt and felt wipers fitted. For the traverse feed only a power drive was fitted, with rates variable from 0.0012 to 0.015" per ram stroke; a dial control on the right-hand face of the main column changed the feed rate with engagement by a push-button control, positioned to the right of the traverse-feed handwheel. Built onto the table as a permanent fixture was a 15" (381 mm) rotary table able to take - allowing for the 14.5-inch (368 mm) throat - work up to 28" (711 mm) in diameter.
Standing around 78" (2000 mm) tall, with a width of 38" (965 mm) and depth of 60" (1524 mm) the Rothley weighted approximately 1932 lbs (876 kg).