Thanks Fbill, as far as I can tell, its a Wood Trucut armature lathe, picked it up at flea market awhile back.
Evidently, they where pretty common in garages back in the day. Its pretty simple, the bearing sufaces of the armature just ride in the dead centers on the end of the lathe, a belt wrapped around the armature spins it, and a carbide cuttiing tool cut a little off the communtator. The little wheel is to undercut the mica. Good Eye! The handle on the bottom moves the undercutter back and forth after you center it between the copper bars.
Ive noticed too that most shops dont undercut anymore.
On a side note, its seems the older service (from the 50s and early 60's) manuals go into more detail on how to REPAIR stuff than to just REPLACE it. Imagine that!
