Just three of what must have been a greater range of products have been identified as coming from the Target Manufacturing Company of Wollaston, near Wellingborough: a lathe-mounted milling attachment, a "Dial-indicator jig for the grinding of lathe tools" (the latter shown lower down the page) and a clever modification of a capstan lathe roller box.
Manufactured during the late 1940s and 1950s, and intended for use on lathes from 2 to 5-inch centre height, the milling attachment was of ingenious design and considerable versatility - the makers claiming that it could be employed for such diverse activities as straight milling, gear cutting, slotting, fluting, plain surfacing, rack generation, keyways, sawing, squaring the ends of shafts, surface grinding and sharpening small reamers. 11.5-inches long and weighing 8.25 lbs, the unit consisted of a C-shaped casting placed between a lathe headstock and tailstock with its open face downwards. Two parallel holes were bored through each end of the casting: two of these, set in line with the lathe's spindle axis, were used to mount the unit with the other pair alongside and parallel, carrying the 0.5-inch diameter cutter arbor. Supplied with each unit was a cored brass bush that the owner was required to machine out to be a close sliding fit over the tailstock barrel; once machined, the bush was split so that a pinch bolt, passing through the (similarly split) casting, could be used to clamp the assembly in place. At the headstock end a drive shaft (held in a 3-jaw chuck), rotated in a bronze bush and carried a spur gear that engaged with a second gear on the end of the cutter arbor - a guard being provided to protect the operator's fingers. At its tailstock end the arbor was supported against a hardened centre on the end of a shaft sliding in a split hole - so allowing the thrust to be adjusted and the shaft then locked in place. As normally arranged the gears gave a 7 : 10 ratio speed reduction but, as they could be swapped over, it was also possible to use them to give an increase in speed when small-diameter or thin cutters were employed.
Work was clamped to the T-slotted cross slide (a fitting common on most small lathes of English manufacture) and the cutting depth adjusted by slackening the tailstock-end clamping bolt and swinging the unit around its mounting axis. As one axis was offset against the other, the effect was to raise or lower the cutter, the maximum movement above and below centre height being 1.75" in each direction.
To give a precise setting of cutting depth, and also to help support the unit and improve rigidity, a pinch-bolt secured bar was provided through which passed a threaded rod that reached down to bear on the bed. If the lathe was small, or the bed insufficiently wide for the rod to reach it, the makers suggested that an extension plate could be bolted on - as shown below..
If any reader has others products by "Target", or any advertising literature from the Company, the writer would be interested to hear from you..