Colchester student - weird bed wear, opinions needed.

Cleancut · Dec 30, 2018

Hi guys,

Looking at purchaseing this student ( very rare in my neck of the woods)

Unfortunately I can't check it out unless I drive 10hrs and wanted some opinions on these pics first. Seems to be some kind of odd wear close to the headstock on the back way. Initially I thought it might be the seam where the removable Gap bed comes out, but I don't think this model is a gap bed?

Anyway any options would be greatly appreciated, and if anyone has any other advice about these machines please let me know. Thanks in advance.

john.k · Dec 30, 2018

It s not a gap bed........IMHO ,that damage has been caused by lifting chains ....the cross brace just in front of the chuck is where it would balance...............Subject to an inspection.....the damage is to the tailstock ways,and wont affect operation..............However on a roundhead student,if the saddle starts to slide on the flat ways either side of the V,that is considerable wear.......the major problem then being,that the V way no longer guides saddle travel...........my opinion ..its a $500 lathe.

Cleancut · Dec 30, 2018

Thanks for the reply John. He wants 1500$ but that will.include a 10hr drive delivery, and we are in Canada so it's more like 11-1200usd.

What do you mean if the saddle slides on the flat ways either side of the V?

Maybe I can ask him if it does before I commit to the purchase.

Limy Sami · Dec 30, 2018

That lathe is little better than scrap.

Cleancut · Dec 30, 2018

Anything decent is so hard to find around here..... Or is that everywhere nowadays?

john.k · Dec 30, 2018

Can you see the shiny spot on the flat under the chuck?............however its a pretty old student,the cast knob type gear change.......I would definitely take off the top,and the feed gear top,and have a look at the gears..........the old roundheads had a very weak leadscrew setup(IMHO),and the half nut is very prone to failure...they also have a charming quirk where the whole thing jams up if you try to do LH threads.......that one will have the sliding engagement apron lever,not bad in concept,but the later model went to the "safety feed",and idiots think the early one will "safety feed" too,which it dont,it just breaks things................EDIT....it also has the long taper L type spindle,which fits well inside the chuck.......therefore ,the correct Burnerd 4 jaw chuck MUST be included,for the deal to be worth even considering..........................final point is these are not heavy duty lathes ,and dont last forever like the Yankee iron so beloved of the old timers on PM.

Cleancut · Dec 30, 2018

If all the gears are ok, would you say go for it, John? 3 jaw and 4 jaw included. I'll get more pics.

Cleancut · Dec 30, 2018

When you say Yankee iron, are you referred ng to South Bend?

number 2 · Dec 30, 2018

IMO the Indians make a better lathe then a Colchester.

john.k · Dec 30, 2018

Nope....I be thinking of Le Blond ,Hendey,Monarch,ATW,Cinci.and similar.What about your locally made Standard- Modern?...............in my own situation only..........no way would I pay $1500 for a old Student,I would by new Taiwanese.......I might add ,I was given one that a guy I once worked with had as a long term project....Roundtop Master. ,He had access to over a dozen machines in a storage ,removed the the best bits he could find,and took them home in his kitbag.Even so,some of the head gears are marginal,and the cone gear cluster in the feed has one damaged gear....What was holding him up was the cost of the Gamet bearings......anyhoo,I used ordinary stock rollers,with a bit of mod.to the head casting.

lucky7 · Dec 30, 2018

If you're up in Prince George, and you can live with a worn lathe, that price, delivered is actually pretty good. Assuming everything works. Personally, I'd save up my shekles, and get a DS&G that seem to get spit out with regularity from DND on the island.

L7

Terry Keeley · Dec 30, 2018

More info here: Colchester lathes

Are those actual cracks or a repair on the V way?

Don't think I'd touch it with a ten foot pole, keep looking, there's a lot of good Standard ModernLlathes around in decent shape.

Cleancut · Dec 30, 2018

lucky7 said:
If you're up in Prince George, and you can live with a worn lathe, that price, delivered is actually pretty good. Assuming everything works. Personally, I'd save up my shekles, and get a DS&G that seem to get spit out with regularity from DND on the island.

L7

Hey there, thanks for the suggestion. I'm acctually on the island so that works out.

Any idea how much they go for from DND? Do they have a website to see current inventory etc? Thanks.

thermite · Dec 31, 2018

number 2 said:
IMO the Indians make a better lathe then a Colchester.

Tlinkit? Inuit? Pueblo? Apache? Hindi?

How about "all of the above!"

Mechanola · Dec 31, 2018

I’d stay away from it. If you want to work with a conventional lathe, see that you find one with either a Morse taper spindle inside or a metric spindle bore. The Colchester have a proprietary spindle taper that forces you to use intermediary sleeves to take up a standard collet holder or such.

adama · Dec 31, 2018

Looks to me like something came lose and broke the rear V off and they rebuilt it with some kinda filled resin, Pretty convinced thats not wear. Thinking and looking again, you can see 2 clear cuts each end of the filler, bet you they cut that out for the swing gain!

Why im convinced thats not wear is simply because thats the tail-stock ways and can't imagine how they would be using the tail-stock damn near inside the chuck. Hence it probably does not overly matter for everyday use. hell knock that shitty filler off and you may gain a useful capacity increase and still have no negatives.

Unless you can afford to lose the money buying a 30+ year old machine tooling sight unseen and untried is gambling. pictures are but 10% of the thing.

m-lud · Dec 31, 2018

Those nicks and gouges look like they may be from rough chuck handling. Maybe coming unscrewed and dropping.

michiganbuck · Dec 31, 2018

You could ask him to cross feed strike an indicator across at 4"away from chuck and at 12" away..
Qt adama: old machine tooling sight unseen and untried is gambling. pictures are but 10% of the thing.

1500 for usable student is a fair price if it can do what you need.

Ask a lot of questions.. like have you used this lathe? / are all the gears and the spindle are good?/ can it turn a 20" part within .002 (.005)? / How long have you owned it ?/ is it missing anything like the thread dial./ * Has it been used for grinding... think about what is your low limit of what you need.

Be very sure he is not a machine flipper and never ran the machine...*I don't like the looks of that bed wash-out...

awake · Dec 31, 2018

I'm with the "pass on it" crowd. If you could examine it before committing, that would be one thing. To buy it based on pictures, when those pictures seem to reveal something very strange going on in the ways ... and not knowing the condition of the gears, bearings, etc. ... personally, I would only buy it if I considered $1500 "spare change" that I could afford to lose. (I don't, so I wouldn't.

)

m-lud · Dec 31, 2018

I looked at one of these lathes.
After doing a search I found a lot of conversation about this model having light duty gears in the head. On PM , if you search. I passed on it because what I read from the guys with the knowledge. The spindle being proprietary is also a negative.
Pop the top off the headstock for sure.
It doesn't look lightly used. Students grind gears.

Colchester student - weird bed wear, opinions needed.

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