Of the same depth of for its whole length - and without a gap - the bed appeared, at a glance, to be "English" in style with flat-top ways and a narrow vertical way at the front. However, at the rear, the way was set at 60°. Running down the centre line of the bed - and exposed to the wearing effects of swarf and dirt - the Acme-threaded leadscrew was fitted with a dog clutch at its headstock end

Found with the lathe was what appears to have been the correct maker's countershaft, this having what must be a unique feature, a set of closely-spaced indexing holes to position the belt-tensioning handle. As this allowed only fixed positions to be set, one wonders why a more conventional "over-centre" adjustable system was not used as, for example, many other small lathes including the South Bend 9-inch.