Commonly known as 'bench precision' lathe after the originator of this type, Stark in the USA, the origin of the ZWM lathe was, at first, a mystery. It carries a badge at the tailstock end of the bed proclaiming "München Fabr. Nr. 12052 Zeichnung M453 004" which appears to translats as "Made in Munich, Serial Number No. 12052, drawing M453 004". On the headstock end face of the bed is what must be the first owner's name and inventory number "Siemens & Halske 203909" - this once being a very large, independent German electrical engineering company that was established in 1847 and later absorbed into the Siemens empire. On the tailstock end face of the bed is something that the writer has never seen on a lathe before - a plate stating the weight as 40kg.
Further investigation has revealed that the bed of the lathe and the headstock are from a Boley Size 2 lathe, while the motor, tailstock, carriage, and the electrical system with its associated foot pedal were manufactured by Siemens Halske and Schuckert. The machine was used in LSI Logic's Development Department for semiconductor manufacturing until 1982; it was given the number 14 by Siemens - all parts are stamped with this - and divided into assemblies 1, 2, and 3, and marked accordingly. In 1982, LSI Logic, now a world leader in semiconductor technology, moved its operations out of Germany. After their factory in Braunschweig was closed, this machine was given to a family member and forgotten in a box. About three months ago, it was given to the present owner, in a very neglected condition, as a gift and subsequently restored to working order. As a point of interest about the companies involved, after World War II, Siemens was split into various divisions by the Allies, due to the division of Germany, in order to prevent the company from becoming non-operational. The ZMW department of Siemens only existed from 1952 to 1960 but during this time, Siemens conducted experiments with the first lathes for numerical control as well as production machines for transistor manufacturing. In 1960, the first turret lathe with numerical control was presented at the Hanover Machine Tool Fair, a precursor to today's CNC machines (it's perhaps unusual that Boley failed to registered a patent for the turret design until late in this period). Although at first it was thought that this must have been a one-off machine and intended for a special purpose, another turned up on a Polish web site in 2024 - but was quickly snapped up before an investigation could be made into its origins.
With a centre height of perhaps 100 mm and taking around 400 mm between centres, the lathe is set up - with all-lever feeds to the controls - for production use. While the collet closer and the 6-station capstan unit mounted on the cross slide are conventional enough, the capstan unit on the tailstock is unusually massive - with the whole assembly having the appearance of a lathe capable of sustained, heavy-duty yet accurate work. Precision plain turning lathes like the ZWM-Boley could, generally, be arranged to perform in the three distinct roles: toolmaker, second-operation and production capstan. The toolmaker's type, intended for one-off precision jobs by a skilled turner, was equipped with a screw-feed compound slide and tailstock (and often a draw tube for holding collets) while the second-operation version (sometimes called a "finishing lathe") had slides, tailstock and collet closer driven by screws, quick-action levers- or a combination of the two. Production models were usually equipped with a bed-mounted 6-station capstan unit and had a choice of lever or screw-operated cut-off slide rests and a quick-action collet closer - the latter sometimes of the foot-operated kind. By the simple means of changing the fittings mounted on the bed, any version (or combinations of versions) could be assembled in a matter of minutes and pressed into service with a minimum loss of time..