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Long enjoying a fine reputation as a maker of high-quality lathes - together with a limited range of small milling machines - over many decades the Weiler Company has concentrated on a relatively limited range of conventional, smaller models. Models have included the Commodor, Condor, Ergodor , Matador, Praktikant, Praktikus, Primus, Turnomat, the 260 Series of precision plain-turning types (in toolmaker, second-operation and capstan types) and other, similar types of smaller lathe that included screwcutting models sold in various forms and specifications as the 220, 250, RDT-260 and 280. The digits included in all Weiler lathe model designations referred to the swing - i.e. double the centre height so making, for example, the LZ280 a machine with a centre height of 140 mm (5.5") Starting life in the 1930s, backgeared and screwcutting Weiler lathes had, by the late 1940s encompassed the types RDT-260 and LZT-280, followed quickly by the LD-250 and then the LZ-280 and LZ-300. By late in the following decade, the improved and larger LZ-300 had been introduced alongside the larger LZ-330 (though at the time the earlier models, including the LZ-280, were still being offered as less costly alternatives). With a centre height of 150 mm and a capacity between centres of 800 mm, the Weiler LZ-300VS was mounted on a welded-steel, monobloc cabinet stand with, at first, just a single type of drive, a pre-selector gearbox with speeds from 58 to 2400 r.p.m. intended to make the lathe more useful when pressed into action for production work. However, within a year, a second model was to be introduced, the LZ300W, this having a variable-speed drive by expanding and contracting pulleys that gave spindle speeds spanning 68 to 2400 r.p.m. Like all gearbox-equipped screwcutting Weiler lathes of this era (1950s to the mid-1960s), the box had a sliding-tumbler selector that protruded through a slot in the front face (the subsequent Matador lathe of the Mid 1960s was improved by the fitting an enclosed, sealed box with all-lever control). A smaller, less-expense lathe, the 140 mm centre height by 800 mm between centres Weiler Model LZS-280W used the same variable-speed drive system as the LZ-300 but with speeds spanning 50 to 1600 r.p.m. Earlier versions of the 280, recognisable by a doors to the right-hand left-hand sides of the central compartment, could be had as the LZG-280N and LZU-280N with 1 h.p. motors that gave speeds from 38 to 1600 r.p.m.; the LZG-280W with a 1.6 h.p. motor and speeds from 50 to 1600 r.p.m. and the LZU280, this being fitted with a 2-speed, 0.75/1/5 h.p. motor that provided a speed range from 40 to 1660 r.p.m. In nearly all other respects the mechanical specification of the LZ-280 was virtually identical to that of the larger LZ-300. A rather more old-fashioned looking incarnation of the 280 was the 140 mm centre height by 800 mm between centres Model LZG-280N. This used a cast-iron stand with drive to the headstock spindle by a conventional, less-expensive countershaft unit held within the left-hand cabinet plinth. The customer could specify either a single-speed motor, that gave 12 spindle speeds from 38 to 1600 r.p.m., or a 2-speed that provided a range spanning 38 to 3200 r.p.m. Detailed specification charts for the LZ-280 and LZ-300 can be found towards the bottom of the page..
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