Colchester student lathe

[God mode restorations]

I have a day off tomorrow so I will have a look at remove the rivets. Also going to colchester lathe spares to get a price on some parts. Will also be paying a visit to gamet bearings. I will of course let you guys no the out come.

 

[Pete.]

You can damage the plaque that way if you're not very careful. I've had stubborn ones give out when the hole is too close to the corner.

I've had a couple of stubborn ones but I never tore a corner off. The worst I got was a slight bend which was easy to straighten with no evidence.

I guess a stubborn one could be teased loose by putting a rivet setter over the head and tapping sideways in a few directions.

 

[God mode restorations]

Colchester lathes spares.
Have this complete unit. Spindle. Bearings. Gears. The complete unit is what I am enquiring about.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Colchester lathes spares.
Have this complete unit. Spindle. Bearings. Gears. The complete unit is what I am enquiring about.

At a sensible price, or is it a remortgage job?

 

[God mode restorations]

At a sensible price, or is it a remortgage job?

Not sure. Will find out tomorrow.. dread to think to be honest

 

[ronan]

There is an awful lot of people that would disagree with this. Me being one. I have the MK2 student and its a great little machine. if you want to see overpriced stuff look at MYFORD and BOXFORD in my opinion.

You can only give an opinion on machines you have used and dealt with. I served my time in two separate companies. In the first, a major investment was made on a large Colchester cnc lathe, it was needed as we were turning long shafts in stainless steel. The machine duely arrived, had all this test nonsense with it, as to run out, accuracy over different distances from the chuck and all that. Machine set up and over the next two weeks produced nothing but scrap, costing many thousands. Turns out the bed was bent and the machine had to be replaced NOT repaired.

Any of the manual colchester lathes in the same shop, had heads that sounded like Black Sabbath on full chat. The turners used to wear ear muffs while using them.

In the second company, a large marine engineers, there was only one colchester, and that was treated like a red headed stepchild, only used when the other machines were busy, none of the turners and machinists thought anything of the brand when i asked them. Most of the machines in the shop were European, German and Italian mainly and were quiet.

In the college where i went for block release, they had rows of square head colchesters, they were quiet, which was amazing, but the beds were worn out. That sticker "induction hardened bedways" is a joke, i have never seen a colchester bed without wear. The colchesters were scrapped and replaced with TOS lathes which were much better machines. I asked the head of the place was he going to buy one of the old colchesters for home (he has an amazing workshop/small factory at home) and he laughed and said he wouldn't have one in the place.

As for Myfords and Boxfords, well you won't get an argument from me, Myfords are overpriced hobbyists machines, boxfords i don't know anything about.

I think the Colchester design was sound though, as i used a Japanese clone of the squarehead and even though it was old, it was like new, tight, accurate, quiet, very little wear, it was just the building of the machines that was suspect.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Not sure. Will find out tomorrow.. dread to think to be honest

Will you be able to check those parts numbers I sent you as well?

 

[God mode restorations]

Will you be able to check those parts numbers I sent you as well?

Yes I will do that to.

 

[God mode restorations]

Hi guys.
Had a good day. Spent an hour at Colchester lathes spares. Awesome place and great help.
I brought a complete headstock with excellent internals .got the complete spindle and bearings plus gears. If the headstock fits with no problems then result. If not I still got all the bits I need.
Dieselkid. I game them the list of parts you are looking for. They are going to email me the details as they have so much stuff to look through in finding your bits. Soon as I know I will pass it to you.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

If the headstock fits with no problems then result.

Big 'fingers crossed' smiley....

 

[Hood]

Hi guys.
Had a good day. Spent an hour at Colchester lathes spares. Awesome place and great help.
I brought a complete headstock with excellent internals .got the complete spindle and bearings plus gears. If the headstock fits with no problems then result. If not I still got all the bits I need.
Dieselkid. I game them the list of parts you are looking for. They are going to email me the details as they have so much stuff to look through in finding your bits. Soon as I know I will pass it to you.

And the £? if you don't mind and if you do then just tell us anyway

 

[God mode restorations]

No it's no problem. The price was £600 for the complete headstock...

 

[Seadog]

It sounds like a bargain Spencer. Hopefully the casting won't be porous either.

 

[Hood]

No it's no problem. The price was £600 for the complete headstock...

I would say that is a decent enough price especially as a single bearing would likely be in excess of 3 times that.
Yes you could probably pick up a complete lathe for that (I sold mine for about that) but it would need to be a local one so you could make sure it was tested and how often would that come around?
So think you did the right thing

 

[dab4318]

I would say that is a decent enough price especially as a single bearing would likely be in excess of 3 times that.
Yes you could probably pick up a complete lathe for that (I sold mine for about that) but it would need to be a local one so you could make sure it was tested and how often would that come around?
So think you did the right thing

Totally agree with this statement! Spares for these things are nuts so that doesn't seem too bad at all.

Why would it not fit though?

 

[God mode restorations]

I would say that is a decent enough price especially as a single bearing would likely be in excess of 3 times that.
Yes you could probably pick up a complete lathe for that (I sold mine for about that) but it would need to be a local one so you could make sure it was tested and how often would that come around?
So think you did the right thing

I think so. Yes it's a lot of money but I get everything I need.

 

[God mode restorations]

Totally agree with this statement! Spares for these things are nuts so that doesn't seem too bad at all.

Why would it not fit though?

Yes they are crazy money. The headstock should fit fine but you just never know.

 

[Hood]

Yes they are crazy money. The headstock should fit fine but you just never know.

You may have to align it with the set over block but otherwise it should fit fine.

 

[JonE]

Had a good day. Spent an hour at Colchester lathes spares. Awesome place and great help..

That sounds like a result!

I'm following your rebuild with interest. Am in a similar boat having bought a mid 60's Harrison L13 recently. It was local to me, and only £500, but had been pulled out of a workshop as part of job lot - and was on the back of flatbed in untested condition. Fortunately I haven' found anything unfixable yet, but has certainly caused me a few headaches, and I'm sure there will be plenty more as I get further into it...

 

[God mode restorations]

I have put a nice deposit on the headstock so at least it's mine. Will pick it up next week and hopefully get sorted.