One of the advantages you will find in owning a Hercus lathe, is that there is an active community of owners. There is endless debate between them and the Sheraton fraternity as to whether the original or the copy is the better and more practical machine, of course.
Which is all a bit amusing, seeing that the Hercus design very much has its roots in the South Bend 9"!
Something that has been very much forgotten, is that from 1945 until about 1973-4, we had really fierce tariff protection of
all local manufacturers, and even assemblers who imported machines in component [CKD= Completely Knocked Down] form.
This is particularly relevant to this forum, as quite a few local manufacturers of garden machinery [not rotary mowers though, as we we had globally competitive makers of those] ceased production or went to importing at that time. Ride on mowers and tillers were a market segment that was especially impacted, that comes to mind.
