"Mark Rand" wrote in message
news
Probably for the Commonwealth as a whole rather than just the UK and
Canada.

I think so, but very little of any real worth came from anywhere else but
England or Canada as far as the Commonwealth was concerned, and it was
mostly machinery & tools from England cars & automotive equipment from
Canada as a rule.

Does that mean that you have Beaver VBRP mills floating around? They seem
to
be a bit more solid than Bridgeports.

Possibly, but I've not seen one personally.

Bridgeports were a rare enough sight down here as it was, as just about
anything imported was hideously expensive even if it did come from a
Commonwealth country. It was far cheaper to make stuff here that was a
licenced (or not) copy, such as the Hercus lathe which was a direct copy of
the Southbend and was made here up until the mid '80's I think, and other
stuff like locally made copies of old milling machines.

I had a locally made copy of a Cincinnati Number 2 universal mill that to
the best of my knowledge was made in Australia either just before or during
WWII, and the only difference seemed to be that the word "Cincinnati" wasn't
cast into the side of the overarm support.

Asian machine tools (Korean initially, and later Chinese) started flooding
the market here in the mid '80's, and these days have it all to themselves
to the point where it's virtually impossible to buy anything else.

--
Regards,
Noddy.