Known to have been purchased in the early 1980, the lathe below carries no markings or badges but is a version of the Flexispeed/Simat and Perris as made by the Norfolk Lathe & Tool Co. (full specification details are available by following those hyperlinks). It was intended to be run from a 1425 rpm motor though a simple countershaft made from cheap, Picador-type fittings to give three useful direct speeds of 435, 940 and 1600 rpm.  With the backgear engaged, these were reduced to 130,  235 and 400 rpm. However, because the range was relatively high - to cope with mainly smaller jobs - in the two higher backgear speeds it was rather noisy. The owner reports that he liked the sturdiness and simplicity of this machine and availability of useful accessories. Its accuracy was reasonable and it would tolerate an unusually heavy cut for a machine of its size.  However, some parts of the design, such as the eccentric mount for the backgear and the thumbscrew to hold auto-traverse in place, were inelegant and clumsy to use. A more serious drawback was the lack of clasp nuts to the leadscrew, this leading to much twirling of the fingers to wind the saddle back from the tailstock end of the bed. The top slide he regarded as flimsy and the main cause of tool chatter on anything but light cuts, no matter how tightly the gib strips were set. Like the writer, he disliked the cheap plastic handwheels and, indeed, the one on the end of the leadscrew cracked, there being insufficient material in the rim to support the handle. However, proper metal replacements were not hard to turn up. Though sensible, the plastic guards for the headstock and leadscrew were particularly weak and required reinforcing with further layers of plastic..