Re: Which Lathe (groan)
- From: Austin Shackles <austinDITCHTHISFORBETTERRESULTS@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 20:52:06 +0100
On or around Mon, 14 May 2007 09:23:03 -0400, clutch@xxxxxxxxx enlightened
us thusly:
Austin Shackles <austinDITCHTHISFORBETTERRESULTS@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
it depends how much you can fettle. There were a few issues with my
Student, but most of them I've worked around, and some of the others I can
fettle without spending silly money.
Are you speaking of a Colechester Student? I've seen them for sale in the
US. Are there specific issues to look out for?
depends on model. The old lathes, with round head castings, have a few
built-in issues, but they're capable of solution. An example: the nut
under the cross-slide is a single bronze (or similar material) item. If the
thread is worn, you get backlash in the cross-slide feed. On the Mk2
(square-head) ones, this nut is in 2 halves, with a small wedge between them
to allow them to be moved apart, taking up the wear.
It would be possible, and when I get hold of a spare nut one day I'll try
this, to convert the Mk1 nut to this type of adjustment, making it
adjustable in the same way.
there are other things, like you tend to find (as on mine) that the spindle
brake is missing or non-functional. However, that's not an essential part.
The gearbox on the older roundhead machines is noisy. However, that has
more to do with the type of gears, they were noisy when new.
Mine had a nasty-sounding knock in it when I got it, but this turned out to
be the main belt pulley was loose on it's shaft. Tightening it solved it,
and it's recurred once and been tightened again.
Ideally, you want to see the machine running, before buying it, and make
sure that all the gears work, including the feed, screwcutting and so on
gears. My student has a metric-and-imperial screwcutting gearbox and power
feed via a shaft (not via the leadscrew) and power crossfeed.
you don't get that lot on new machines under about 10 grand, bearing in mind
that it'll swing about 13" over the bed and 24" between centres, and for big
things it's got a gap bed.
One other point, compared to modern machines, they tend to be slow. mine
does 1200 rpm flat out, which is quite a bit lower than modern machines that
size can do. Not a big issue; but modern tools will stand working
harder/faster and you don't have that option if you don't have the speed in
the machine.
--
Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.net my opinions are just that
Travel The Galaxy! Meet Fascinating Life Forms...
------------------------------------------------\
>> http://www.schlockmercenary.com/ << \ ...and Kill them.
a webcartoon by Howard Tayler; I like it, maybe you will too!
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