Why not to buy this lathe?

[Jimsiss]

I’ve got a Colchester Chipmaster tool room lathe running on a single to 3 phase inverter. It’s a great machine but got quite a bit of wear in the cross slide (easy to compensate for when you are used to it). It’s an imperial lathe with gearbox and change wheels to change between metric and imperial threads. Very fine auto feedrates though as toolroom lathes are designed for very tight tolerance work with fine surface finishes.

Working with imperial hand wheels is easy enough once you’ve converted a few times. I often work into the microns on my machine, helps that I work in CNC and have to convert on the fly sometimes .

Large spindle bore is helpful, making things with larger materials is far easier if you can just slide a bar up the spindle bore instead of cutting a piece off to stick in the Chuck. I strongly suggest indexable carbide insert tooling. CCMT, CNMG and VNMG are pretty common useful inserts. Then threading tools that take ER16 inserts should be good for most threading jobs, just change the insert to the specific pitch and you’ll get an accurate thread form.

If you get a quick change tool post be aware that most of the parting blade holders aren’t designed for use with carbide insert parting blades so just buy a holder for a normal quick change tool holder.

 

[Johnbaz]

A 38mm bore is brilliant!

You'll be screw threading barrels and making new pistons in a heartbeat!!

We had some nice hobby sized lathes at my old works! (The pic below is quite a small one!)..


I traded a Record DML 24 for this Granville Senior on another forum, The lathe that I have set up is a worn out old Faircut Senior, A flat belt machine made by Henderson's of Sheffield, The Henderson's that makes Hendo's Relish for those that are familiar with it!

Never did get around to setting it up but there's no slack whatsoever in the ways unlike the old Fairct, That one chatters more than my granny ever did!!


I also bought a nicely tight Myford 7 from a member on the old Airgun forum, I didn't get around to setting that one up either (Can't get in the garage to do so!!), I ought to clear the garage one day!


This is the one that needs overhauling!


It seems I always end up with collections of stuff as I have several more but at least they're smaller ones!!


John..

 

[Gummage]

I have an Axminster bv20m, it has a great spindle bore of 20mm, and is actually,once set up, a nice enough lathe, sold a boxford bvm, an picking up a myford ml10 this evening.
I also have an Emco unimat that I have fettled back to as good as new functionally, new spindle bearings and chuck etc.

 

[Jesterdog]

A 38mm bore is brilliant!

You'll be screw threading barrels and making new pistons in a heartbeat!!

We had some nice hobby sized lathes at my old works! (The pic below is quite a small one!)..
View attachment 1009407

I traded a Record DML 24 for this Granville Senior on another forum, The lathe that I have set up is a worn out old Faircut Senior, A flat belt machine made by Henderson's of Sheffield, The Henderson's that makes Hendo's Relish for those that are familiar with it!

Never did get around to setting it up but there's no slack whatsoever in the ways unlike the old Fairct, That one chatters more than my granny ever did!!
View attachment 1009414

I also bought a nicely tight Myford 7 from a member on the old Airgun forum, I didn't get around to setting that one up either (Can't get in the garage to do so!!), I ought to clear the garage one day!
View attachment 1009417

This is the one that needs overhauling!
View attachment 1009418

It seems I always end up with collections of stuff as I have several more but at least they're smaller ones!!


John..

Used Forgemaster rolls in Port Talbot Rollshop

 

[gorgon]

Lads and ladies

I'm seriously considering selling my Steyr and buying a lathe.

I am very much a buy one cry once person. Nothing more I hate than buying something and regretting it every time I use it. Its also expensive as it buying twice.

Having said that I have no intention of making fine Swiss watches. Or machining lorry parys. Just the little bits and pieces we tend to use on airguns. I also feel that thread cutting is pretty much obligatory.

I appreciate that a big lump of cast, will always beat something small for accuracy and speed. But move house a lot and no dont want much over 100kg really. (I used to buy and sell 'old iron woodworking machines so know it can be done fine, but not what I want for now).

I am a complete newbie.

Looking through old threads I found a similar recommend to this-

AMABL210E VARIABLE SPEED LATHE - 38mm SPINDLE BORE & <strong>(ELS)</strong> ELECTRONIC CHANGE GEAR SYSTEM

www.amadeal.co.uk

It would leave me with maybe £5-600 for initial tooling bits.

All input gratefully received.

M.

Hi Matt,
Don't own a lathe yet but spent way too much time researching the options.

I came up with the same lathe as you in the end. Amadeal and Warco are two distributors with a very good reputation so they would certainly be my port of call. I particularly like that Amadeal give you a tolerance report measured from the individual machine they're supplying to you.

The only other option I was considering is a Sherline lathe. It's a very different beast and much smaller than the Amadeal. If it is large enough for your needs it's extremely accurate out of the box but you need to consider the size limitations and the requirement to take smaller cuts.

 

[Matt@Nearfield]

Hi Matt,
Don't own a lathe yet but spent way too much time researching the options.

I came up with the same lathe as you in the end. Amadeal and Warco are two distributors with a very good reputation so they would certainly be my port of call. I particularly like that Amadeal give you a tolerance report measured from the individual machine they're supplying to you.

The only other option I was considering is a Sherline lathe. It's a very different beast and much smaller than the Amadeal. If it is large enough for your needs it's extremely accurate out of the box but you need to consider the size limitations and the requirement to take smaller cuts.

Thanks pal. I'll certainly look at the Sherline as well.

 

[ColinD]

Yhat doesn't bother me. VFDs are cheap. So long as you can rewire the motor from start to delta.. or whichever way round it is

Star/Delta

 

[Matt@Nearfield]

Star/Delta

Yes. Damn dyslexic keyboard

 

[Anchutz]

Lads and ladies

I'm seriously considering selling my Steyr and buying a lathe.

I am very much a buy one cry once person. Nothing more I hate than buying something and regretting it every time I use it. Its also expensive as it buying twice.

Having said that I have no intention of making fine Swiss watches. Or machining lorry parys. Just the little bits and pieces we tend to use on airguns. I also feel that thread cutting is pretty much obligatory.

I appreciate that a big lump of cast, will always beat something small for accuracy and speed. But move house a lot and no dont want much over 100kg really. (I used to buy and sell 'old iron woodworking machines so know it can be done fine, but not what I want for now).

I am a complete newbie.

Looking through old threads I found a similar recommend to this-

AMABL210E VARIABLE SPEED LATHE - 38mm SPINDLE BORE & <strong>(ELS)</strong> ELECTRONIC CHANGE GEAR SYSTEM

www.amadeal.co.uk

It would leave me with maybe £5-600 for initial tooling bits.

All input gratefully received.

M.

Amadeal are a fantastic company to deal with, they are always on hand to help with queries. Parts stock is second to none and generally dispatched same day.
I've had the 7x14 Amadeal lathe for over 10 years so speaking from experience.

 

[Matt@Nearfield]

Amadeal are a fantastic company to deal with, they are always on hand to help with queries. Parts stock is second to none and generally dispatched same day.
I've had the 7x14 Amadeal lathe for over 10 years so speaking from experience.

Thanks buddy. Great to know.

 

[Modski66]

I bought an unbranded Chinese model from the 'bay a few years ago, I didn't want a project refurbishing an old model, so bought new.

First thing I discovered was that the tailstock was too high, so spent ages filing and polishing the underside to get it co-axial with the chuck. Next problem was pushing it too hard when parting-off and shredded some teeth off the drive belt.
Unfortunately, the replacement I bought online was metric, but the one on the machine was an obscure imperial size, not available in the UK. My solution was to replace the pullies with metric ones, which involved boring them out to suit the motor and chuck shafts – on a lathe with a very dodgy drive belt!

The electronic speed controller has good days and bad days, so that will probably be the next thing to go.

Having ended up with a ‘project’ lathe, I would definitely not buy an unbranded one again without UK support of any kind, and would probably go for a used quality British or European made unit instead.

 

[ColinD]

I have a Warco Supermini lathe and it does everything I need, also have one of their small mills and same there.
My skills with both don't warrant anything bigger imho

 

[Johnbaz]

I bought a Unimat Metal line a few years ago, It's a tiny thing and kind of modular, It converts to other machines, The chap I bought it from started to build a lathe from it but got fed up and took it to pieces, It must be catching as I couldn't be bothered to complete a working machine either!!




I also bought more micro lathes too!!


And a Wade table top machine..


John..

 

[KWK1]

I bought a Unimat Metal line a few years ago, It's a tiny thing and kind of modular, It converts to other machines, The chap I bought it from started to build a lathe from it but got fed up and took it to pieces, It must be catching as I couldn't be bothered to complete a working machine either!!
View attachment 1010510
View attachment 1010511
View attachment 1010512

I also bought more micro lathes too!!
View attachment 1010515

And a Wade table top machine..
View attachment 1010516

John..

The Wade 8a is an incredible machine

 

[Johnbaz]

The Wade 8a is an incredible machine
View attachment 1010691

That's a beauty!!

Unfortunately my No1 Wade is the kind that you bought from the inside back page of the Sunday Mirror for £3/19/6d and not the fine machine you show!!


John..

 

[Mr Fettler]

Thanks pal. I'll certainly look at the Sherline as well.

Not sure if your driving these days mate, but Warco is only about 45 minutes from you and they have all their machines to view in their showroom. Nothing like seeing one in the flesh. Warco seems the one people buy the most. After sales are fantastic. Not saying to buy one even though I have a WM180 which in 14 years I'm on my second motor - 3rd circuit board, and now need to strip and adjust the head bearings. Wish I'd bought bigger many times but we've made a lot of swarf over the years.
Just thinking of putting my Colchester Bantum long bed up for sale as I've been offered a Student.