Abstract: A horizontal bed turret lathe including a slant carriage adapted to achieve the advantages of a slant bed configuration while avoiding the disadvantages thereof. The slant carriage is mounted on a pair of horizontal bed ways offset to the rear of the spindle axis, and includes a pair of inclined slide ways for supporting a tool slide. A turret mounted on the tool slide has a pair of toolholders arranged in stacked configuration on the turret axis. For reducing interference from non-working tools and the turret assembly itself, the turret axis is skewed with respect to the spindle axis. To compensate for the skew of the turret axis, the toolholders are frusto-conical in shape, the degree of conical taper allowing each tool to be indexed to a normal operative position. An orderly tool arrangement is achieved by mounting end working tools in the upper toolholder and turning tools in the lower toolholder, the overall configuration allowing both end working and turning tools to operate up to the face of the chuck.

Abstract: A counterbalance mechanism for a vertically movable machine tool headstock in which the net counterbalance force applied to the headstock is the same for both upward and downward movement of the headstock so that the accuracy of the spindle alignment is not disturbed by such movement. The counterbalance mechanism includes a hydraulic control system which automatically provides a greater pressure to a hydraulic counterbalance cylinder during raising movement of the headstock than during lowering movement so that difference in forces exerted by the counterbalance cylinder as a result of said pressure differential compensates for frictional resistive forces in the counterbalance mechanism and thereby enables the same net counterbalance force to be applied to the headstock.