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cleaning up my Clausing-Colchester 12" (colt) U.S. version

Paul F.

Aluminum
Joined
Jun 26, 2020
Location
Amherst, MA
this is my first lathe (at 60 yrs old) and i've not been posting here for too long. i'm starting this thread focusing on the cleanup of a Clausing-Colchester 12" actually a 13" x 40" made in Colchester, Essex in 1982. i've only seen a couple here on the PM forum, so i'm hoping to add any information i can to the mix.

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it came with a 5C collet closer,(no collets) 6" 3 jaw chuck with a couple sets of soft jaws, tailstock turret attachment, coolant tank and pump, open side tool holder, 2 D1-3 face plates, and they also threw in a Bridgeport swivel vise and Yuasa 10" rotary table with 6 indexing plates.

so here is the progress so far,

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i've pulled the tailstock, feed screws, and carriage for cleanup, looks like i need one of the trust bearings for the main lead screw.

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there are two of these and the other one is like new.
 
i found a litte wear on the carriage ways

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and this was interesting...

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one side of this oil galley on the apron was open to the trough, but the other side was mostly blocked!

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underside of the saddle shows that oil was getting through, but not as much.

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so i'm planning to grind out that blockage, unless someone knows why i should not?

that's as far as i got today, i'll post more as i make progress.
 
back at it today, went fishing in the gearbox sump with a magnet and found these. (not the bolt)

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what looks like a scraper blade and a stray piece of casting.

then cleaned out the shiny sludge in the bottom 1/4" sump.

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i thought i might find a tooth missing, or part of a tooth, but everything was in tact.

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i ran a swab into the holes above the mains and came out with more shiny sludge, so that will need more attention.
 
If your saddle gets stick slip you may want to take it off and try to 1/2 moon the saddle ways as the reason machines get scratching or scores is there is no place for the oil to adhere to the saddle ways Low scraped or 1/2 moon flaking does that. Also on many machines the bottom saddle way gets high in the middle. If you have a tenths indicator you could indicate a flat surface on top of the saddle and move the saddle back and forth say 1/2" and see if it's rocking like a rocking chair. I hope you understand I am trying to help other readers who will read this info in the future. Not trying to criticize your work. I like the wipers, were the 3 D printed? If I was closer I would gladly come over and help. I wonder if anyone near you knows how to scrape?
 
If your saddle gets stick slip you may want to take it off and try to 1/2 moon the saddle ways as the reason machines get scratching or scores is there is no place for the oil to adhere to the saddle ways Low scraped or 1/2 moon flaking does that. Also on many machines the bottom saddle way gets high in the middle. If you have a tenths indicator you could indicate a flat surface on top of the saddle and move the saddle back and forth say 1/2" and see if it's rocking like a rocking chair. I hope you understand I am trying to help other readers who will read this info in the future. Not trying to criticize your work. I like the wipers, were the 3 D printed? If I was closer I would gladly come over and help. I wonder if anyone near you knows how to scrape?

There may be other reasons for the saddle rocking "like a rocking chair". One needs to eliminate ALL the other possible causes, first.

The OP's lathe seems in decent condition. That particular model usually is. The spindle bearings need be inspected and eventually replaced. Inspecting them is pretty straight forward. Replacing is difficult without the proper tooling. On inspection they may look very scored - that DOES NOT mean they reached their end of life.
 
thank you Richard, i will check out those links and see what i can learn about this. i appreciate your taking time to post those for me.
 
@ OP

Paul : the best course of action is to clean the machine reasonably well and inspect what you can see. Learn how to adjust the gibs on the carriage - needs to be done well and the gibs in good order. Check the rack and pinion for wear - the pinions are soft and often worn badly. Parts were plenty available some years ago when we last bought. 2016, I think. Check the cross-slide screw for wear and learn to adjust it. In general play with and learn how to adjust everything . Getting everything just so might be a bit irritating but once dome you have a good machine there and it'll serve you well for many years. I suppose the US version is also a Camlock one and then you should remove the screws and extract carefully the spring and the eccentrics and check carefully for wear. If need be get new ones. Once you finished cleaning and inspecting the obvious and you became familiar with adjusting it simply use it for a while and see how it works. If it works good enough LEAVE IT ALONE. DO NOT "SCRAPE" ANYTHING as that has the POTENTIAL to cause far more problems than it solves. It solves NONE as I have never seen slip stick problems on these machines. The carriage is too light for that. My advice is not to "refurbish" or touch wood "rebuild" the machine. It usually doesn't end well. Machines have long lives if left in peace.
 
Paul, good advice has been offered and I think you should take it to heart. Taking some time to get used to what you have will be more useful than you might think. More than one person has put more effort into "fixing" or trying to fix something rather than get the joy out of using it. And in that effort has given up and never used it for what it was purchased for in the first place.

After all did you buy it to use or to restore?

Take Orbitals advice until you learn more about the problems and by then you will also be more knowledgeable about what level of repair you need and I know there are people who will help you along.

Charles
 
This lathe has the same carriage assembly as my 1963 Chipmaster (except left-handed). I don't think those galleries, one of which you say is partially blocked, are for oiling the ways. The galleries are for the apron gears and bearings. The way oil comes in through ball oilers on the saddle wings.

I would not touch the spindle bearings if they seem OK. Are they Gamet tapered roller bearings like the older Colchesters have? If so, they likely would cost more to replace than the lathe is worth. On the other hand, if they might be contaminated, get them cleaned up, but very carefully.
 
I would not touch the spindle bearings if they seem OK. Are they Gamet tapered roller bearings like the older Colchesters have? If so, they likely would cost more to replace than the lathe is worth. On the other hand, if they might be contaminated, get them cleaned up, but very carefully.

I haven't bought in a couple of years but they were around $500 for the set - not that bad compared with others. I always found them clean, i.e. not contaminated but with a fair amount of dings and scratches on the races which often are irrelevant. They get hammered by all the rubbish coming from gears. Being tapered roller they can take punishment. Things get dicier when the cages get worn. In the past, you could buy each component of the bearings separately. Paul might want to enquire directly at Group 600. Through a "dealer", everything doubles.
 
wow! thanks for all the suggestions and advice i really appreciate it. so far i've removed about 10 lbs of caked on crud and chips from the machine and am just cleaning it up for use. there is one cork gasket on the outer spindle bearing that leaks, so that end cover will be coming off for a good cleaning and re-gasketing. then i need to pull everything out of the apron, attach that case to an angle plate for milling the ridge partially blocking oil to the apron. the rack is visually ok and main lead screw likewise ok except for those end thrust bearings needing attention. the lead screw on my cross feed shows .060 backlash. a new acme threaded rod was ordered in to replace it, and i either need to make a new cross slide nut or purchase one. just out of curiosity i ordered in two steel acme nuts to ponder over but that would be steel on steel, so idk.
a couple of the change gears were damaged from what i surmise was a crash but new steel gears were ordered in from the UK. likewise a new face plate showing the lever positions for threading came in from the UK. the original paint on that plate had been dissolved off, i assume by coolant.
so, quite a bit to go yet but with your help i'm sure it will get done. Richard, thanks for your contact info, i will likely take you up on that.
 
Paul, when you call or email I will give you the names of the 2 bearing companies I get mine from. One sells to the public at wholesale prices. I still think you need to consider scraping low spots in the soft saddle ways. As Ballen did and he discovered how easier it moved then before he did it. There are 3 students who live near Boston; One an assistant professor at MIT, one is a Maintenance Engineer at Harvard and another is the Maintenance Foreman at a MFG. company They all took a class I had near MIT. I am sure all would be happy to help.
Pic's. L to R. A class I taught at Germany's major Machine Rebuilder, Corey, Leland Cory and forgot his name at the MIT scraping class
 

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Make sure the wipers touch well in front first. And order or make crossslide screw and nut. Also like Orbital told you check on the rack and the pinion. Rack is in general fine and you can turn around but pinions are very bad material and become very worn.
 
I bought what appear to be the same 3D-printed wipers for my Chipmaster. They do not fit the ways very well. I am going to roll my own with some felt, rubber, and brass shim.
 








 
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