skotl
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- Edinburgh, UK
Bit of a review: I ordered the "Colchester Master Lathes - Early Types, a Complete Data Pack" from lathes.co.uk and it delivered what it says on the tin.
My order was confirmed same day and I got a decent-sized pack a couple of days later. Now, you need to bear in mind (as I did) that the machine I was interested in is around 80 years old so there isn't much specific information on it.
The pack jumps around a bit and it took a while to recognise which data sets / manuals referred to the unit that I have. I presume that this isn't so much of an issue if you have a 20 or 40 year old lathe...
The upside is that I now have a clear idea of maintenance points, and there are very detailed disassembly pictures. The perhaps-downside is that I'm not clear on change wheel / TPI conversion because none of it is an exact match for my lathe. But I'm happy to accept that this is on me for buying an obscure machine rather than on Tony!
All in, it cost me £47.50 including delivery. It's well-bound and mostly clear (a few pages are missing the first ~15mm of photocopying) but it's very much a house-manual, and probably wouldn't stand up to workshop usage.
For my lathe, there is no alternative but I would still say that on balance it's a worthwhile investment. As mentioned previously, Tony needs to make a living and that's partly down to collating hard-to-find material and turning it into something that you and I can consume.
All in all I'd say that for an elderly lathe, buying the manual from lathes.co.uk is a useful investment.
My order was confirmed same day and I got a decent-sized pack a couple of days later. Now, you need to bear in mind (as I did) that the machine I was interested in is around 80 years old so there isn't much specific information on it.
The pack jumps around a bit and it took a while to recognise which data sets / manuals referred to the unit that I have. I presume that this isn't so much of an issue if you have a 20 or 40 year old lathe...
The upside is that I now have a clear idea of maintenance points, and there are very detailed disassembly pictures. The perhaps-downside is that I'm not clear on change wheel / TPI conversion because none of it is an exact match for my lathe. But I'm happy to accept that this is on me for buying an obscure machine rather than on Tony!
All in, it cost me £47.50 including delivery. It's well-bound and mostly clear (a few pages are missing the first ~15mm of photocopying) but it's very much a house-manual, and probably wouldn't stand up to workshop usage.
For my lathe, there is no alternative but I would still say that on balance it's a worthwhile investment. As mentioned previously, Tony needs to make a living and that's partly down to collating hard-to-find material and turning it into something that you and I can consume.
All in all I'd say that for an elderly lathe, buying the manual from lathes.co.uk is a useful investment.