New to me - Colchester Triumph

[Lewis_RX8]

Well just won my bid on eBay and very happy with my purchase, Seller states 1964 Colchester triumph 30" between centres with a 15" swing and 2" hollow centre

21" faceplate , then 14" and 8" along with the travelling steady ,12" 4 jaw and 10" 3 jaw fitted to machine and some drive dogs along with carbide insert tooling centres and chucks.

Also comes fitted with a rapid screwcutting box which I thought it meant it cut the threads physically faster

Only ever worked on my small new mini lathe at home and a brand new Colchester student for apprenticeship training so will be interesting learning about this.

Now just waiting on getting it home and building a three-phase power supply for it, thanks to @fizzy for helping me figure out how it can be palletized

happy with my purchase think it was a good deal and look forward to making some chips on it

 

[minimutly]

Looks a good deal. Drain and replace the gearbox oils!

 

[Richiew]

Gap bed missing.
There's been a few for sale like that recently. Where do they all go?

 

[roofman]

Good buy and good price for whats with it...that 2" bore is nice too

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Gap bed missing.
There's been a few for sale like that recently. Where do they all go?

Yup , weird. Not too worried about it 99% of work will be with the 3 jaw or 4 jaw so overhang is not too big a deal however will keep a lookout if any come up from this black hole they all went into

Looks a good deal. Drain and replace the gearbox oils!

Will be having a good look over and get all the maintenance done while I sort out the power

 

[fizzy]

I was lucky mine came with the gap - but not much tooling.
Yours is really well equipped. As I mentioned the parts alone are worth more than you paid for it.
Jealous of that high speed threading unit!
My lathe is also 1964 but has the newer style apron.
One thing to check for.
My lathe has very little wear but for some very strange reason the tailstock was 12 thou too low. No sign of wear so perhaps the tailstock had been swapped out at some stage?
Anyway if yours is low let me know and I can tell you how to shim it.
Several Roundhead Triumph owners on here now.
Minimutly
Myself
You of course
And someone with an L2 spindle version which is pretty rare.

 

[Lewis_RX8]

One thing to check for.
My lathe has very little wear but for some very strange reason the tailstock was 12 thou too low. No sign of wear so perhaps the tailstock had been swapped out at some stage?

I'll check for this , what did you measure against as a datum to check it ? ,

Jealous of that high speed threading unit!

Must have been a factory optional extra ?

Had a read over the lathes.co.uk page bit will give it a further look once I have it in person and see what's what

 

[Screwdriver]

I'll check for this , what did you measure against as a datum to check it ? ,

Must have been a factory optional extra ?

Had a read over the lathes.co.uk page bit will give it a further look once I have it in person and see what's what

Optional extra. Worth more than you paid for the whole thing.

Same can be said for a lot of "essential" tooling extras but those threading units are worth their weight in gold. You know all that stuff about odd thread pitches and keeping the half nut engaged, reverse drive etc.? Well, forgetaboutit. Once you learn how to drive that thing, threading will be childs play.

 

[Milkybars]

ainjest threading ...nice

 

[fizzy]

I'll check for this , what did you measure against as a datum to check it ? ,

Must have been a factory optional extra ?

Had a read over the lathes.co.uk page bit will give it a further look once I have it in person and see what's what

Put a sharp dead centre in the tailstock and grip something sharp and pointy in the 3 jaw chuck.
They should line up. Use a mobile phone camera to take a close up piccy and you will soon see.
I used my APE Microball - a vernier height gauge. I stuck a pin on it with a strong magnet - then measured the height difference. No need to go that far unless it is out though.
12 thou was quite a lot - spot on now.

 

[fizzy]

Optional extra. Worth more than you paid for the whole thing.

Same can be said for a lot of "essential" tooling extras but those threading units are worth their weight in gold. You know all that stuff about odd thread pitches and keeping the half nut engaged, reverse drive etc.? Well, forgetaboutit. Once you learn how to drive that thing, threading will be childs play.

Shh I was going to tell him it's crap

 

[Agroshield]

Looks like a Trav-a-dial as well (the righthand thumbnail in the eBay shot).

What is the red 3-phase outlet on the base for?

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Optional extra. Worth more than you paid for the whole thing.

Same can be said for a lot of "essential" tooling extras but those threading units are worth their weight in gold. You know all that stuff about odd thread pitches and keeping the half nut engaged, reverse drive etc.? Well, forgetaboutit. Once you learn how to drive that thing, threading will be childs play.

Ah I see thanks for the info on it didn't realize it was that dear or made that big a difference. Look forward to getting a use of it a bit step forward from my old mini lathe changing about poxy plastic gears to get a thread

Definitely agree on the tooling that's why I was so eager with this sale is all the extras that to buy individually would get hard to find and expensive quite quickly.

I assume it is this part here

Looks like a Trav-a-dial as well (the righthand thumbnail in the eBay shot).

What is the red 3-phase outlet on the base for?

Yes that's a trav dial there was in a separate pic of eBay listing but didn't post here and it is in mm

I assume that is for measuring depth of cut precisely?

And I assumed that was for the motor

 

[Fastdruid]

Now just waiting on getting it home and building a three-phase power supply for it,

Just stick a VFD on it.

 

[RichardM]

Nice buy

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Just stick a VFD on it

That's the plan at the moment seems cheapest and easiest way to get it sorted so should be fine

 

[Agroshield]

And I assumed that was for the motor

If it is a socket (i.e. female), its design intent is as an outlet. The thing that goes into it will be male, with projecting pins.

Some people use it wrongly as an inlet, but it is somewhat dangerous as the lead that goes into it would need a plug at both ends.

If its function is the main power inlet of the machine, the correct item is an appliance inlet (e.g. https://www.legrand.com/ecatalogue/057588-appliance-inlet-p17-ip44-380-415.html).

Could you post a close up of the dials - the cross-slide one looks quite bulky which might mean you have dual dials.

 

[Lewis_RX8]

If it is a socket (i.e. female), its design intent is as an outlet. The thing that goes into it will be male, with projecting pins.

Some people use it wrongly as an inlet, but it is somewhat dangerous as the lead that goes into it would need a plug at both ends.

If its function is the main power inlet of the machine, the correct item is an appliance inlet (e.g. https://www.legrand.com/ecatalogue/057588-appliance-inlet-p17-ip44-380-415.html).

Could you post a close up of the dials - the cross-slide one looks quite bulky which might mean you have dual dials.

Ah I see yes will have a look at that inlet and see what I need it it's that applicance inlet.

I thought that too looks like it could be one row of metric and one row of imperial which looking at lathes.co.uk was a extra that they did make on the lathes so that would be handy if it was.

Will get some better photos once the machine has landed in my workshop

 

[Munkul]

Nice buy indeed
A decent looking selection of modern tooling, too!

I have a soft spot for those older style apron feed levers. I like the way they slide from slot to slot to switch between surfacing and facing, for some reason I think it's a nice idea, nicer than the later aprons (even if the later design was better)

Regarding the gap, if you can get right up to the chuck jaws with the toolpost without overhanging the saddle then happy days. I also bought a lathe with a "gap" missing, on mine you couldn't get near so the previous owner had just ran the saddle off the bed all the time, with resulting wear to everything
You will not be able to make another gap fit properly without a bed regrind. It's an unfortunately cold and hard fact.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

I was lucky mine came with the gap - but not much tooling.
Yours is really well equipped. As I mentioned the parts alone are worth more than you paid for it.
Jealous of that high speed threading unit!
My lathe is also 1964 but has the newer style apron.
One thing to check for.
My lathe has very little wear but for some very strange reason the tailstock was 12 thou too low. No sign of wear so perhaps the tailstock had been swapped out at some stage?
Anyway if yours is low let me know and I can tell you how to shim it.
Several Roundhead Triumph owners on here now.
Minimutly
Myself
You of course
And someone with an L2 spindle version which is pretty rare.

L2 one is me. It's bloody massive!