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Half-way between a heavier "WW" style of watchmaker's and a "precision bench" of the type first produced by "Stark" type, the Rudolf Kadner lathe was manufactured in Glashütte, in Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge, Saxony. The town, located in the far east of Germany, is famous as the birthplace of the German watchmaking industry.
The maker described his Company as "Feinmaschinenbau" - or fine mechanical engineering - an apt description of his lathe, few of which are reported to have been made and now seldom found.
Of conventional layout with its spindle held in what must have been conical bronze bearings and driven by a 3-step pulley taking a round leather rope, the lathe had a centre height of 80 mm and took around 300 mm between centres. Spindle collets were retained by a draw tube, there appearing to be no means of attaching a lever-action closer.
Typical of its type with a flat top and bevelled edges to align the headstock, carriage and tailstock, the bed was of the cantilever type cast with a large foot at the headstock end. The usual, very long-travel top slide was fitted, with the ways and feed-screw left exposed; however, the cross slide was fully protected and driven by a screw that passed though a short, bolt-on extension sleeve with a flattened top - this allowing the slide a little more outwards travel. One odd feature was the use of what might be called "unbalanced" handles on the compound slide rest feed screws (normal handles have a ball at one end to balance the finger grip at the other, hence the term for them is "balanced"). Obviously, for the weight of the handle to move the slide on its own the gib strips would need to be very loose but even so, the handles as fitted resemble the old-fashioned crank type that denied the operator the chance to use thumb and finger pressure together. For a watchmaker's lathe the countershaft was also unusual: drive came from the motor via a flat-belt to a fast-and-loose pulley complete with a belt-striker mechanism engaged by pulling a chain against spring loading - the assembly almost certainly being provided, when new, with foot-pedal operation as often seen on small precision lathes used for production work..
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