Covema lathe, an interesting lathe with elevating headstock

Spud · Mar 1, 2021

Was at an auction in England about 1 or 2 years ago. Pretty neat looking machine.

Can't recall anything about it other than the brand is Covema and the Model is A32

dalmatiangirl61 · Mar 1, 2021

I saw one of those 10ish or so years ago in a scrapyard in Texas, looked like it had sat unused in an abandoned warehouse for a decade or so prior. It had been bolted to pad and grouted in place, looked like demolition team had ripped it out with a grapple, machine was beat to hell and still had 12" of cement attached to base. Only reason I remember it is because of the unique head arrangement, and I saved an unusual collet chuck off of it, had it listed on fleabay with lathe mfr name for more than a few years, no one wanted it so it finally got pitched.

Milland · Mar 1, 2021

Going by the cross slide design, it was a "proper" attempt at designing an industrial multi-function machine, one that could be operated as a lathe or horizontal mill.

With the headstock way as short as it is, I suspect it had some stiffness issues there, unless they had a very robust clamping method. But still might have some value where space was at a premium.

Spud · Mar 1, 2021

Video of what I believe is an A31, a smaller version of same lathe. Skip to 2:00 minutes in. Notice at 3:15 the chuck's center section slides, like the workholding of a rose engine.

Milland · Mar 1, 2021

That adjustable outrigger support would be for a horizontal arbor, allowing either conventional arbor/cutter use, or line boring.

TBH, pretty sweet setup for what it is. Someone could use it, hope it didn't go into the pot...

ClappedOutBport · Dec 4, 2021

Having used a lathe as an HBM, that would do a much better job. But it looks like a shitty lathe. Forget turning anything between centers...

Basically a large diameter lathe and a HBM. Still, I could see a lot of use for it. I'd rather have a horz/vert mill for the space though.

Peter from Holland · Dec 4, 2021

I did have one once Sold it to a friend mine It had the vertical head for it as well
IfI was short of space this would have been a well made universal machine
Peter

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Covema lathe, an interesting lathe with elevating headstock

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