quitereal
Andy
I thought I saw it somewhere for the acid ones, maybe it was just used as an abrasive... Cant find it now, maybe someone else will chime in.
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New to me colchester lathe
- Thread starter quitereal
- Start date
Congrats!
With a bit of TLC it will make a nice lathe. I have a Colchester student with the standard gear box, I like it but I sure wish I had the metric gear box like your. I started to look into an electronic lead screw.
I am glad parts are starting to loosen up. try not to move to much along the rusted surfaces. I once saw a lathe at an auction and everyone looking at it were trying to turn all the handles to see if it was seized or just to turn the handles. One guy travelled the whole length of the bed and after you could see a nice long fresh score. I hate it when people just use brute force on the handles to try to unseize parts, before even cleaning the surface and soaking them with solvent.
I like your low profile skate!
Hope all goes well with the restauration.
Cheers!
With a bit of TLC it will make a nice lathe. I have a Colchester student with the standard gear box, I like it but I sure wish I had the metric gear box like your. I started to look into an electronic lead screw.
I am glad parts are starting to loosen up. try not to move to much along the rusted surfaces. I once saw a lathe at an auction and everyone looking at it were trying to turn all the handles to see if it was seized or just to turn the handles. One guy travelled the whole length of the bed and after you could see a nice long fresh score. I hate it when people just use brute force on the handles to try to unseize parts, before even cleaning the surface and soaking them with solvent.
I like your low profile skate!
Hope all goes well with the restauration.
Cheers!
quitereal
Andy
Rolled her inside today. I wondered if the L1 taper to the chuck was rusty so I popped the chuck, it wasn't at all. Did some cleaning in the area.
Then decided to clean the 3jaw. Got it loosened up, jaws out and cleaned up.
Shes nice and smooth now. Ultimately I intend to use the 4 jaw. The jaws are in better shape and I like dialing things in. Good enough for today.
Then decided to clean the 3jaw. Got it loosened up, jaws out and cleaned up.
Shes nice and smooth now. Ultimately I intend to use the 4 jaw. The jaws are in better shape and I like dialing things in. Good enough for today.
MashingMetal
Active Member
Thanks for posting your progress, I have been following along. I have been setting up mine as well, just adding a DRO. Is there any chance you machine came with the headstock taper adapter? Seems like it’s a special Colchester one and would be amazing to have the dimensions to make one. Thanks!
quitereal
Andy
Hmm there was a piece in a box with an inside morse.... I didnt realize there was a taper on the outside or know what it was for but appears to be this taper adapter! Mystery solved, thanks.
Hopefully those give ya an idea, Id imagine you check the taper specs when making.
TorontoBuilder
Ultra Member
Yep, Colchester did that. My chipmaster has a MT4.5 bore, but accepts a sleeve reducer to MT3.
quitereal
Andy
Made some progress. Pulled compound+toolpost. Pulled cross slide screw out and pounded cross slide out. Intended to remove saddle and clean its underbelly but hit a snag.
The saddle wont clear the cross slide gear, I was already flexing the leadscrew to get this far. So in order to remove the saddle you need to pull the leadscrew. One thing Id change is to not cast in the leadscrew and feedshaft support on the right.
If that were bolt on a guy could just run the apron and saddle off the end.
So I needed to decide to go as far as pulling the leadscrew? Nope, everything feels proper in the gearbox and headstock. Ill clean as best I can for now and start putting it back together.
You can see a slight ridge on the main V there. 3.7 thou by fingernail. Actually Ive come up with a new product idea - fingernail calibration blocks that simply have a .001 .002 .003 etc step on them.
Anyways i got the ways cleaned off, the way wipers were all but gone for some time
So i cadded up some new wipers and printed them in tpu
I had taken the back keeper off thinking the saddle was coming off, you can see the original hand scraping and wear in it, about 3.7 thou by fingernail
Got the top of the saddle clean
A little bit of wear on the right side there.
Heres the cross slide ready to go back on
The cross slide screw above has a little bit of rolled over wear.
Once back on the cross slide had about .045 backlash, acceptable to me.
The main leadscrew looks almost new, very few threads were cut on here i think
So I just need to wirewheel the compound and toolpost and throw that back on. Then unfreeze the tailstock and I should be able to start on electrical - my thoughts on that atm are maybe a new contactor needed - the thermal overloads will see twice the current at half the voltage...
Anyways shes coming along nicely, might be running by christmas!
The saddle wont clear the cross slide gear, I was already flexing the leadscrew to get this far. So in order to remove the saddle you need to pull the leadscrew. One thing Id change is to not cast in the leadscrew and feedshaft support on the right.
If that were bolt on a guy could just run the apron and saddle off the end.
So I needed to decide to go as far as pulling the leadscrew? Nope, everything feels proper in the gearbox and headstock. Ill clean as best I can for now and start putting it back together.
You can see a slight ridge on the main V there. 3.7 thou by fingernail. Actually Ive come up with a new product idea - fingernail calibration blocks that simply have a .001 .002 .003 etc step on them.
Anyways i got the ways cleaned off, the way wipers were all but gone for some time
So i cadded up some new wipers and printed them in tpu
I had taken the back keeper off thinking the saddle was coming off, you can see the original hand scraping and wear in it, about 3.7 thou by fingernail
Got the top of the saddle clean
A little bit of wear on the right side there.
Heres the cross slide ready to go back on
The cross slide screw above has a little bit of rolled over wear.
Once back on the cross slide had about .045 backlash, acceptable to me.
The main leadscrew looks almost new, very few threads were cut on here i think
So I just need to wirewheel the compound and toolpost and throw that back on. Then unfreeze the tailstock and I should be able to start on electrical - my thoughts on that atm are maybe a new contactor needed - the thermal overloads will see twice the current at half the voltage...
Anyways shes coming along nicely, might be running by christmas!
TorontoBuilder
Ultra Member
no pics.
quitereal
Andy
You no see pics? Anyone else? I see them... Too many in one post?
quitereal
Andy
So I guess in my case this would be a morse 6 to morse 4 adapter...
The lead screw can come out at the tailstock end, I think. Probably just a screw or two holding a block against the ways casting. So pull that, then bring the carriage off at that end. That way you don't have to undo the lead screw at the headstock which is uglier.
TorontoBuilder
Ultra Member
MashingMetal
Active Member
Awesome, thanks for the information! Looks like your Colchester is cleaning up nicely.
One guy posted on another forum the inside bore taper at 0.060 per inch aprox. which is different than any MT. Now I have my DRO set up I can double check, run an inch in with a test indicator.
One guy posted on another forum the inside bore taper at 0.060 per inch aprox. which is different than any MT. Now I have my DRO set up I can double check, run an inch in with a test indicator.
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My screw slides out the tailstock end but there isn't a detachable block, the support is part of the bed casting.
quitereal
Andy
Ya me too, it would have been way better for maintanence if it was a detachable block. It seems like they were showing off their casting chops by casting that support in.