Exuptoy
Member
- Messages
- 2,877
- Location
- Maesteg, South Wales
..and asked me recently to give him a hand to assemble it. He was trying to use bright metric bolts and this thing was seriously old and deserved to be put back to original.
I thnk he paid something like £150 for it and the only thing missing was the crossslide screw and clutch engagement shaft.
Firstly I run a tap through all the threaded holes to make sure we would have no issues there. The rest was just a case of taking our time and beign methodical. It also surprised me that it wasn't maga heavy and manageable between two of us, even if my dad had put the chip tray on backwards to start with
I found some details on the bed which confirmed it was a Colchester but the serial number drew no further details, although on the Lathes.co.uk website I found that the serial number sort of made it a 1920's Bantam and I did manage to find a few drawings of the assembly in its complete form.
I found the drawing of the unit here showing the forward/reverse clutch system. You can clearly see the clutch assemblies and twisted reversing belt drives in the drawing.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/bantam/page2.html
Incidentally we only need the one clutch to operate when screw cutting as the motor was converted to a reversing single phase unit way back when.
My dad sorted a lead screw for the cross slide and all that remeins to make for it now is the handle shaft assembly to engage or disengage the clutch. For now it is permanently engaged.
If anyone has any details of pics of a similar unit or even spare parts I would be glad to hear from them.
For now though it is working and my dad is enjoying learning about using a lathe even if it is a bit basic.
I thnk he paid something like £150 for it and the only thing missing was the crossslide screw and clutch engagement shaft.
Firstly I run a tap through all the threaded holes to make sure we would have no issues there. The rest was just a case of taking our time and beign methodical. It also surprised me that it wasn't maga heavy and manageable between two of us, even if my dad had put the chip tray on backwards to start with
I found some details on the bed which confirmed it was a Colchester but the serial number drew no further details, although on the Lathes.co.uk website I found that the serial number sort of made it a 1920's Bantam and I did manage to find a few drawings of the assembly in its complete form.
I found the drawing of the unit here showing the forward/reverse clutch system. You can clearly see the clutch assemblies and twisted reversing belt drives in the drawing.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/bantam/page2.html
Incidentally we only need the one clutch to operate when screw cutting as the motor was converted to a reversing single phase unit way back when.
My dad sorted a lead screw for the cross slide and all that remeins to make for it now is the handle shaft assembly to engage or disengage the clutch. For now it is permanently engaged.
If anyone has any details of pics of a similar unit or even spare parts I would be glad to hear from them.
For now though it is working and my dad is enjoying learning about using a lathe even if it is a bit basic.