First offered during the mid-1960s - and of then newly-introduced "angular" style - the TOS S-32 was advertised as a toolroom-class lathe. As a rule of thumb, a lathe is generally considered to be a true toolroom type when the width of its substantially-constructed bed is twice the centre height; using those parameters, with a bed width of 250 mm, the 152 mm centre height TOS S-32 just failed to make the grade. In mitigation, the bed was of a considerable depth with closely-spaced diagonal ribs and the option (later standard) of hardened ways. Two between-centres capacities were offered, 750 and 1000 mm, each able to accept jobs weighing up to 150 kg.
With a bore of 36 mm, the spindle ran in plain bearing, these being described, rather confusingly as "bearing metal lined bronze bushes. Might this have been a white metal deposit as used in automobile crankshaft bearings. Thrust was taken by adjustable, high-precision ball races and automatic pumped lubrication supplied, the flow able to be checked by sight glasses on the front of the headstock.
Power came from a 3 kW motor running at 2800 r.p.m. that, in combination of headstock gearing, gave three ranges of spindle speeds, each with 18 changes of rate: 20 to 1000 r.p.m.; 32 to 1600 r.p.m. and 64 to 3200 r.p.m. The result was a total of 54 speeds that spanned an enormous range - more than enough for a turner to select exactly the correct one for the job in hand.
36 longitudinal rates of carriage feed were provided - these spanning 0.03 to 3.52 mm/min - and 36 in cross feed at 0.01 to 1.22 mm/min. 'Rapids', desirable on very long bed machines, was not available nor necessary on so compact a lathe.
Screwcutting was arranged to provide 36 metric pitches from 0.375 to 14 mm, 36 inch pitches from 0.75 to 88 t.p.i., 36 module from 0.375 to 44 and 36 Diametral from 0.75 to 88 t.p.i.
The S-32 weighed approximately 1180 kg, had an overall length of 2000 mm, a depth from front to back of 900 mm and stood 1325 mm high.
The full specification - and details of the various options - can be found below.