ronan
Member
- Messages
- 11,399
Colchester lathes were never built with 50+ years service in mind and the company no longer produces any lathes in the UK.
I was reading a turners post on another forum about how, in his old job, a brand new colchester would not see out 5 years before needing expensive work, they would sell them off and get new machines in. This was in a busy factory, so the machines were worked hard. But its an indication of how soft the machines are.
A machine i have a huge amount of time for is the Czech Tos. I have used tos lathes that were over 50 years old and as good as new, tight, quiet and accurate. Built like a tank though.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/tos-book-page-1/