AA109, Craftsman 80& Dunlap Lathes

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AA109, 109, Craftsman 80 & Dunlap Lathes
- also badged as Simpson and Courlan and manufactured by the
American "Double A Company" -
Craftsman Home Page Model 80 & AA109, Dunlap & Companion Lathes
Last AA109 Model 109.21280 Early 9-inch and 12-inch Lathes
Late-model 12-inch Lathes Craftsman 6" Lathe Mk. 1 Craftsman 6" Lathe Mk. 2
Craftsman wood lathe conversion kit to metal
SEARS Model 549-2892 8-inch Lathe (Re-badged Emco Compact 8)
Sherman Clark Mfg. Co. of Jackson Michigan - Armature Lathe
Craftsman-branded Wood Lathes Courlan-branded 109
A complete set of Craftsman sales literature is available, covering all
models produced during the period 1929 to 1966
Should any reader have a particularly original AA109 or Model 80
the writer would like to feature it in the Archive
Used by the famous American mail-order company "Sears, Roebuck & Co." (and Simpson-Sears
Limited of Canada) the lathe models "Craftsman", "Companion" and "Dunlap" were also employed
to brand a very wide range of power and hand tools.
Although the company had offered a range of lathes from the late 1800s, it was in 1932 that their
most famous machine became available, a 9" swing model manufactured by the Atlas Company.
This machine, regularly updated year by year in line with changes to the Atlas range, was replaced
in 1936 by a much heavier 12" model based on the Atlas F10. It seems surprising that Atlas built a
12" model for Sears, yet restricted their own machine to a 10" swing, especially as it would be the
early 1960s before they increased the capacity of their own lathe to match. The introduction of the
large Atlas clone was followed, in 1937, by a version of the same company's 6" lathe. This latter
machine was marketed in an almost unchanged form until the late 1960s, when a redesigned Mk. 2
model was introduced and Atlas also began selling direct to the public; these machines are featured
on other pages.
It can be difficult to separate the wood-turning lathes offered by Sears, Roebuck into the products of
Atlas and the Double A Company - the latter of Lansing, Michigan and owned at one time by the
huge Brown & Sharp Corporation. However, it appears that, until the 1939 season, the metal and
some wood-turning lathes were by Atlas, with the cheaper wood lathes produced by Double A and a
number of smaller suppliers including the original Clausing company. In 1936 the first, very simple
V-bed "AA" metal-turning lathe was introduced (illustrated immediately below) using the brand
name that Sears reserved for their cheaper products: "Companion". Even the earliest models can be
clearly recognised as having features belonging to the better-known post-war AA "Model 109" and
later Craftsman "Model 80" lathes. These more highly-developed versions included proper
leadscrew clasp nuts, an epicyclic "backgear" assembly built into the headstock pulley and
graduations on the cross-feed screw; however, the headstock spindle and bearings were always of
marginal strength and durability, and remained a weak point throughout the model's life. Some AA
109s were branded as Simpson, for sale by the Canadian mail-order store of the same name; in the
1970s Sears-Roebuck bought out Simpson and renamed the company Simpson-Sears and later just
AA109, Craftsman 80& Dunlap Lathes http://www.lathes.co.uk/craftsman/page4.html
1 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
Sears - by which name the firm continues to market the Craftsman brand. Another branding
occasionally found on the 109 and Model 80 is "Courlan" - lathes with this marking having been
found in Australia and South Africa although one report has the Company based in Jersey City, USA.
Should any reader have a Courlan-branded lathe the writer would be interested to know.
Principle maker of chucks fitted to AA (and Craftsman) lathes were by Dexter (a company still in
business in 2010) and its just possible that the AA may have been marketed in Europe branded
"Dexter" - though nothing certain is known about this arrangement.
All the lathes illustrated on this page are products of the Double A Company (many people use the
shorthand "AA") a regular supplier to Sears of other equipment, whose earliest lathes appear to
have been wood-turning machines offered with a range of accessories that allowed them to
undertake light-duty metal turning. As a point of interest, the official designation was to be found on
the company's transfers badges: Double A Products Co. / Manchester, Michigan 48158 / A
division of Brown & Sharpe Mfg . Co
Numbers affixed to these cheaper Craftsman lathes included: 109.0701, 109.0702, 109.0703,
109.2046, 109.2053, 109.2062, 109.2063, 109.2064, 109.2082, 109.2127, 109.2128 with some
having an additional zero at the end.
Continued below:
Continued:
Late 1936 and the first of the V-bed AA metal-turning lathes appears as the simple, plain-turning, 6-inch by
28-inch "Companion" model (Catalog Number 99 P 2021) listed as: "metal working, model maker's lathe".
The 1/2" x 24 t.p.i headstock spindle ran in plain bronze bushes - the front was adjustable - and carried a
3-step V belt pulley. Unfortunately, in its first form, the machine was not as heavily built nor as well
specified as it might have been; the front of the headstock casting was open and the front bearing given the
minimum of support; both the headstock and tailstock were provided with a non-standard form of taper that
was close to, but did not match, the standard O Morse - a size adequate for genuine miniature lathes, but
hopeless for anything with a swing of greater than 3 inches. There were no graduations on the micrometer
feed dials and no quick-feed rack drive fitted to the carriage, instead it was hand driven along the length of
the twin V-way bed by a leadscrew and "full" nut - but at least the slide rest was a proper compound unit.
For decades, most small lathes have been arranged so that carriage and tailstock run on different ways, or
different parts of the same way, to ensure that the tailstock does not have to run over the bed worn away by
the saddle and spoil its height alignment. Unfortunately, on all 109s, in the interests of economy, the ways
2 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
were shared. Notice that the lathe has no apron on the carriage, the leadscrew nut is fastened to the
underside of the saddle front, a simple design used by many other makers, such as Portass of Sheffield.
However, despite these simple arrangements, it is as well to bear in mind that the machine sold at a very
competitive price and (devoid of almost all equipment) was listed at just $10.95 when even a decent-quality
1/4 hp motor from the Craftsman catalog was US$11.70. For the money this represented a remarkable
achievement of production economics. Throughout its production life (1936--1940) the lathe was offered
with only a very limited range of accessories: a 4-jaw chuck at $3.10, 0 Morse centres at 45c, a jack-shaft
drive pulley system for $2.45 (that gave a speed range more suitable for metal turning) and standard or
"improved" pairs of adjustable motor rails at 50c.
Continued below:
Continued:
By late 1937 the lathe had been given an enclosed front to the headstock casting that both
protected the operator's hands from the drive and provided a very much better supported
spindle - though there was no back wall to the assembly and both the left and right-hand sides
were of rather slender proportions.
For once a maker was refreshingly honest about its products limitations, stating that the lathe
was: "Well suited to the model maker or man who wants to do light metal work. Not quite
the accuracy and precision of the larger machines, but plenty close enough for most work."
To put the lather into perspective, although the price had now risen to $14.50 the nearest
competitor in the Craftsman range, the newly-introduced and very well specified 6-inch Atlas
clone, was $42.50 - a price that included a neat, built-on all-V-belt countershaft unit - but not a
motor or set of screwcutting changewheels.
In order to offer a dedicated armature-turning model, "Sherman Clark Mfg. Co. of Jackson
Michigan (USA)" offered a special version with longitudinal feed by power and hand lever
and, if your 109 is so equipped, the writer would be interested to hear from you. The 109
model survived in the catalogs until 1940 when it was replaced by a more highly developed
and useful version..
Continued below:
3 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
Above: badged as a Dunlap the new-for-
1941-season 109 with screwcutting and backgear. It
was also available (left) bereft of these fitting as
the "Standard Model" 109.2046. Because the lathe
was offered as a modular system it was possible to
buy the ordinary model and then add features as
finances allowed.
Continued:
Marketed by Sears the new-for-1941-version of the AA109 6" x 18" at first carried the
name "Dunlap", a name always used for the company's less-expensive models. By now the
lathe had begun to grow up and also been given the contemporary "streamline" treatment
Badge used on the AA
lathe distributed through
the Canadian Simpson
Company
4 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
and, for the fist time, was fitted with an apron that carried a leadscrew half-nut the operating
lever for which snapped into position through the operation of a spring-loaded ball detent.
Although this mechanism gave a positive action, there was no compensating pad on top of the
leadscrew to absorb the upward thrust. The new lathe was a model of mechanical simplicity
and economical production with the saddle, apron and the cross-feed screw end bracket cast
as one piece - as illustrated lower down the page. The lathe was initially marketed as just a
single model with a capacity between centres of 18 inches (identification numbers included
109.07801 and 109.0702 with a hand-cranked leadscrew to drive the carriage (but no
screwcutting), the 109.0703 with both screwcutting and backgear and later, advertised for
just a single selling season (from November 1945) as a short-bed version with models that
included the 109.2062 and 109.20630. However, regardless of specification, all versions
were of very similar appearance and the simple models always available with a range of
extras to turn them into more effective machines; these items included a 5 : 1 ratio epicyclic
backgear ($3.95) built into the 4-step headstock pulley and a complete screwcutting set
($9.65) consisting of changewheels, mounting bracket, inner and outer guards, a 0.5" by 16
t.p.i. Acme-form leadscrew and a proper tumble-reverse mechanism that allowed the spindle
turn freely or engage the changewheels to produce left or right-handed threads to choice. An
interesting detail concerns the beds: those with shorter ones, whether badged as Dunlap or
(later) Craftsman, had a gap between the top of the two V-ways of 2.50 inches while two
specific variants, the longer 109.0702 and 109.073 models had beds that were narrower,
with a V-to-V spacing of 2.125". Interestingly, although the "manuals" for this series
mentions the 109.07** types, they fail to give separate parts numbers for either the bed or
any of the other important items associated with it - the saddle, headstock casting and
tailstock, etc. Should you come across a dedicated "manual" for the 109.07** versions, the
writer would be very interested to hear from you. Whilst the improvements to both rigidity
and specification were welcome all versions of the new model were still of limited
usefulness for serious work as they retained the No. 0 Morse centres, had ungraduated
micrometer dials and were not supplied with a speed-reducing countershaft unit. In recent
years the inherent weakness of the headstock assembly (and flexibility of the whole machine)
has been displayed by a number of scrap machines appearing less their main spindle. These
were probably broken when the owner, an impatient beginner, "bore down" on the cross-feed
to "compensate" for a dull, off-centre tool bit. Those more experienced user would have
recognised the "wiggly" feeling as the tool got under the work - the precursor, of course, to
something snapping. However, when new, the machines remained good value with the better
specified of the two priced at $31.95 - something of a bargain when the 6" Atlas was $67.50
and the 12" Deluxe $135.
When driven directly from an electric motor 8 speeds from 580 to 2040 RPM were
available - and threads from 8 to 96 t.p.i could be cut. However, because the lathe's bottom
speed was so high, success in this department would have meant either specifying the
optional epicyclic backgear assembly, which was built into the headstock belt pulley and
reduced the bottom speed to a more useful (but still not ideal) 116 rpm, or looking through
the Sears catalog in the hope of being able to adapt one of the speed-reducing "Jack-shaft"
(countershaft) units made for the wood-lathe range. That the lathe was not offered with one
of these as even an option was a strange omission, for, in earlier years, just such a unit had
been listed as an accessory along with other metal-turning accessories.
When the Sears, Roebuck catalog reappeared after WW2, in 1948, the 6" lathe was marketed
under a new model number "99 TM 2063" and, labelled "Craftsman Model 80"; apart from a
shorter bed it looked identical to its last appearance in 1943 when it was labelled a
"Dunlap".
The 2063 version of the Model 80 lasted for just one year and in 1949 the Catalog number
5 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
became 99 AM 2127 (Model 109.21270) and the familiar three-rib headstock cover was
replaced by an "engine-turned" decorative plate with other numerous styling changes to give
it a more "up-to-date" appearance. No mechanical improvements were made to the lathe
which now had a deliberately styled "consumer look", and was offered, as before, in basic
form without motor or chuck.
The headstock spindle carried a three-step V pulley - whilst supplied with the lathe was a
four-step pulley to be used on the customer's own motor. Although fitted with a
planetary-type backgear assembly built into the face of the headstock pulley, tumble reverse
and screwcutting there was no countershaft arrangement and, if directly driven by the
recommended 1750 rpm motor, the bottom speed of 120 rpm would have made screwcutting
very difficult - though no doubt serious users might have found a slower or variable-speed
motor and fitted smaller pulleys on its shaft or built a speed-reducing countershaft to get
round the problem. Obviously aware of the limitations imposed by this arrangement, the
Company offered later versions with the option of a double-step pulley on the motor and a
proper countershaft assembly, thus doubling the number of speeds and giving, according to
the handbook, a range from 55 to 465 rpm in backgear and from 380 to 3050 in direct drive -
a very much more satisfactory arrangement. The (frankly weak and inadequate) headstock
spindle ran in bronze bearings and carried a nose thread of 0.5" x 20 t.p.i.
To the inexperienced eye this would have appeared a little lathe of attractive design but, in
reality, it was a bottom-of-the-range model and intended only for light-duty work. Although
with experience, care and the use of light cuts satisfactory work could be accomplished on
these machines, new owners, once exposed to the practicalities of using the machine, must
have been quickly irritated by a general lack of rigidity, the tiny 0-Morse taper centres, the
absence of a proper handwheel handle on the leadscrew end, the penny-pinching failure to fit
graduated dials on the feed screws and, on early or standard late versions, a bottom speed
that was far too fast.
Besides lathes, the Double A Company also manufactured many items for Sears including
bench grinders, wet grinders, sanders, bench saws and a builders' saw. Production of lathes
appears to have stopped in about 1965 and, unfortunately, parts and drawings are no longer
available.
Although the two models are very different, confusion has arisen in the past between the
"Craftsman 80" with another lathe sold be Sears, the Craftsman 6" made by the Atlas
Company; the Craftsman 80 was in quite a different league to the Atlas, costing, in the mid
1950s, as little as $48.50 in comparison to the $160 of its much better built and better
specified bother..
6 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
Listed for just the 1948 selling
season, the Double A Company's
Model 109-2063 was identical,
apart from a shorter bed and a
bolt-on bracket to carry the tailstock
end of the leadscrew, to its last
appearance in wartime 1943.
7 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
Economical casting. The
saddle on the 1941
109-series was cast
complete with an apron
and cross-feed screw end
bracket.
8 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
9 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
1949 6" x 12" Craftsman Model
80 - usually catalogued as the
109-21270
Craftsman 80 (Model 109.21270)
screwcutting changewheels and
tumble reverse mechanism.
Note how use was made of the
inner-guard cover to provide an
indent location for the tumble reverse
selector lever - a method also used on
the English Murad lathe of the 1940s.
10 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
The 3-inch centre height by 19.25" between centres Model 109.21280 was the last machine in
the AA series and listed until the late 1960s. It had a distinctly "square" appearance to the
headstock, looked rather different to the earlier variants and, because of the styling, is sometimes
confused with the later Atlas Mk. 2 6-inch (also produced in a Craftsman version).
The headstock spindle ran in plain bearing and carried a 5 : 1 ratio epicyclic slow-speed
"backgear" arrangement inside the 3-step headstock pulley that gave a total of 6 speeds; the
headstock pulley was driven directly from the motor, with no intermediate countershaft. In
comparison with earlier versions the lathe featured numerous small improvements, including a
No. 1 Morse taper tailstock and No. 2 Morse headstock spindle, and further details can be found
here. If you own a 109.21280 the writer would be interested to hear from you.
**It has long been assumed that Simpson, the Canadian department store and mail order firm was
bought out by Sears. However, Simpson were a very independent firm carried numerous AA
products including the early AA-109 lathe. Until Simpson and Sears entered into a partnership
in 1952, one might presumes that AA Engineering had an exclusive relationship with Sears in the
US, but was free to supply foreign firms where Sears had no market presence. Simpson, a
powerful firm and not a mere satellite of the great Sears, Roebuck empire, was thus able to sell
AA products through its own supply system. Emerging in good order from the depression of the
1930s - and despite materials restrictions and significant loss of employees during WW" - it
expanded during the conflict and immediately after. It swallowed Smallman and Ingram of
London Ontario and R.H. Department Store, the largest retailer in Regina Saskatchewan. It also
managed to build a new mail-order centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, and renovate many of
its outlets.
It is not known when Simpson first sold an AA Products lathe, but the rare 'Simpson Supremacy'
lathe was identical to the Dunlap 109 model introduced in 1943 and then reintroduced in
December 1945 by Sears. After WW2, Sears, sought expansion into Canada - though it could not
simply steamroller the 'Dominion' firm Simpson. Hence, in 1951, Sears initiated discussions
about an association with Simpson welcoming the capital for expansion and access to Sears'
procurement and distribution mechanism. Accordingly, in 1952, a deal was reached whereby
Sears assumed control of Simpson's mail-order business comprising 390 fixed distribution
installations. Concurrently, the two firms would jointly own and operate department stores
known as Simpson-Sears. During the 1950s and 1960s Simpson continued to run its own stores
11 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
in the five urban zones where it already had a presence (and also opened new outlets) while
outside these areas new Simpson-Sears stores began to appeared. In 1978 the great Hudson's
Bay Company acquired the Simpson chain and, in 1991, the last Simpson store became 'The
Bay'. During the course of this the Simpson-Sears stores became US-operated Sears operations
under that name.
Headstock epicyclic gear housing on the 109
Not as common on other makes as one might expect - especially
given the transformation it can make to a lathe's capabilities - the
compact epicyclic (or planetary) backgear assembly fitted to some
AA-manufactured, Craftsman-branded machines gave a range of
slow speeds that allowed screwcutting and the facing of large
diameters to be undertaken with a greater chance of success.
Consisting of three main elements, the mechanism comprised: a
gear attached to a 3-step pulley, a carrier with 3 planet pinions and
an annulus gear. The 3-step pulley, together with its attached "sun"
gear, was free to rotate on the headstock spindle. Opposite was a
large gear cut on the inside surface of a short cylinder so that its
teeth faced inwards (an annulus gear): this assembly was also free
to rotate on the spindle. The "sun" gear on the 3-step pulley
engaged simultaneously with 3 "planet" gears (called pinions
because they meshed with a larger gear) mounted on studs attached
to a carrier plate that was both keyed (permanently) to the spindle
and locked (temporarily, by a sliding block) to the annulus gear.
Because the carrier was both keyed to the shaft and locked to the
annulus gear, non of the gears could rotate and turning the pulley
caused the spindle to rotate - so giving a direct drive. For any
epicyclic gearing to work, one of the three gears sets has to be held
stationary so that one of the other gear sets can act independently as
an input and the third set independently as an output. In the case of
the 109 lathe it was the annulus gear that was prevented from
rotating (by a 2-position indented pin passing through the front face
of the headstock into its face) and the carrier assembly that had to
be released so that it could turn independently. The carrier had six
slots cut in its periphery into which a block, sliding in a slot cut in
the face of the annulus gear, could engaged and so lock them
together. The block was clamped in place by a bolt and slackening
this let the block slide out of engagement and allowed the carrier
and its planet pinions to rotate. With this new arrangement set,
turning the pulley caused the "sun" drive gear to rotate the planet
pinions, mesh with the annulus gear and so reduce the drive ratio.
When you see the mechanism in action, its function is obvious -
though tortuous to explain.
Another AA epicyclic backgear assembly, with the annulus gear
held stationary by a clamp, can be seen in pictures of the
company's last lathe, the 109.21290.
12 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
The whole of the epicyclic gear assembly. On the left the annulus gear, free to rotate on the spindle:
in the middle the carrier plate keyed to the spindle with its 3 "planet" pinions: on the right, and also
free to spin on the headstock spindle, the 3-step pulley with its attached "sun" gear.
13 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
The carrier plate with 6 slots in its periphery to accept the
sliding block that locked it to the annulus gear
14 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
The annulus gear showing the internal gear teeth and, at the top, the sliding block to lock into the carrier plate
15 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
Two-position indent pin on the face of the headstock used to lock the annulus gear
16 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
A view of the mechanism in place but without the annulus gear The MAZAK Planetary gears and their mounting plate
17 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
"Sun" gear mounted on the pulley and "Planetary" gears on the spindle
18 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
19 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
Above and below: a particularly fine and original Craftsman Model 80
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AA109 branded as a Courlan - a photographic essay featuring this lathe can be found here
E-MAIL Tony@lathes.co.uk
Home Machine Tool Archive Machine-tools for Sale & Wanted
Machine Tool Manuals Machine Tool Catalogues Belts
Books Accessories
AA109, 109, Craftsman 80 & Dunlap Lathes
- also badged as Simpson and Courlan and manufactured by the American "Double A Company" -
Craftsman Home Page Model 80 & AA109, Dunlap & Companion Lathes
Last AA109 Model 109.21280 Early 9-inch and 12-inch Lathes
Late-model 12-inch Lathes Craftsman 6" Lathe Mk. 1 Craftsman 6" Lathe Mk. 2
Craftsman wood lathe conversion kit to metal
SEARS Model 549-2892 8-inch Lathe (Re-badged Emco Compact 8)
Sherman Clark Mfg. Co. of Jackson Michigan - Armature Lathe
Craftsman-branded Wood Lathes Courlan-branded 109
A complete set of Craftsman sales literature is available, covering all
models produced during the period 1929 to 1966
Should any reader have a particularly original AA109 or Model 80
the writer would like to feature it in the Archive
29 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25
30 / 30 2014.06.29. 19:25

AA109, Craftsman 80& Dunlap Lathes

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AA109, Craftsman 80& Dunlap Lathes