Watchmaking Lathe Restoration - 8mm USA 'WW' style Elson Watchmakers Lathe

Teardown, cleaning, lubricating and reassembly of a vintage 'WW-style' 8mm watchmakers lathe.
In this video I restore my first watchmaking lathe, an American-style Elson model #305. I found very little information about the Elson brand…so if you have any resources about the company I’d love to know more! According to Lathes.co.uk, the Elson brand might have been manufactured in Johnstown, Pennsylvania - which is a relatively close 250 miles from where I live! The lathe feels solidly built, and seems to be a one-for-one copy of a Boley / Leinen WW (Webster Whitcombe) style lathe.
The lathe bed, head stock, tail stock and motor are all similarly finished and branded, and I assume originally came as a set, which is desirable from an alignment standpoint.
I have several videos coming out in this Watchmaking lathe series, and I’ll update my watchmakers lathe playlist as the shows are released: • Watchmaking Lathes
If you have questions or additional information about this lathe, I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.
00:00 Watchmakers lathe overview
00:39 Cleaning the bed
01:25 Disassembling & cleaning the tail stock
01:53 Rust removal using Evaporust in an ultrasonic cleaner
02:44 Cleaning more lathe parts
03:03 Polishing brass
03:40 Rust-proofing the parts with oil
04:10 Reconstructing the lathe
04:52 Paste wax on the bare steel sliding surfaces
05:26 Assembling the tail stock
05:41 Installing the tool rest
05:58 Assembling the head stock
08:43 Installing & testing the head stock
09:19 Installing the motor
10:07 Final testing & adjustment
#watchrepair #watchmaking #watchwithmike