Vann wrote:Trevanion wrote:...best guess is that it's from around the 1930s....
I'm no expert on Cooksley machines, but I agree it has a look that could be 1930s, 1940s or 1950s depending on whether Cooksley were ahead of or behind the times with their styling.
Certainly the use of the term "periods" for cycles/hertz suggests earlier to me.
Cheers, Vann.
My reasoning for it being quite an early version is that it has a brushed motor, which you don't tend to see on later machines from the usual manufacturers where induction motors are more prevalent. Melbourne Matty reckoned it was a very early version as well.
I've spend a good amount of time looking around on google images trying to find a machine with an identical motor and I can't find one, they've all got slightly smaller motors with a funny looking top to them, like this one:
Then there are a lot of variations of these machines from what I can see, there aren't many with an identical base, most have bases without the hole in the bottom like mine with "Cooksley" embossed below the table rather on the side of the column like mine, a lot of them have two mating toothed plates which interlock for the handle adjustment rather than the one one mine which is a series of slots in one plate and a key inserted into the other. My table has grooves in the back of it for what I would assume is grip, while others have smooth milled backs. There are all kinds of different handwheels too. The only thing that really seems to stay the same between all of them is the clamping handle for the timber.