IMO this was probably peak Colchester. The engineering is fantastic and the simple aesthetics are unmatched.

Great video for all us Colchester owners. I have 11 lathes but my favourite is my Triumph roundhead. Headstock is a bit noisy but i can easily get within a ten thousandth and on a good day a hundred thousandth or a micron.

@danielebaldi1815

7 ай бұрын

Il micron lo fai con una rettifica non certo con un tornio vecchio

I did my apprenticeship at a company on the south coast of Sussex, England, where we made parts for Colchester Lathes. Started there in 1976 through to '81. We made the complete saddle gearboxes, top slides, compound slides and tailstocks. When I was there we made 2 variants of saddle gearboxes, I think they were for Triumph and Master lathes. The iron castings for the gearboxes were stored outside to age or weather the castings prior to machining. They were then processed, starting with plough grinding, milling, boring and drilling etc. Shafts were either turned on single spindle Wickman lathes from bar or from bar cut into billets, faced and centred and then turned between centres on fast copy lathes. The large handwheels were turned from castings on large capstan lathes. As an apprentice, I did 6 months in every department including inspection. At the age of 19 (and still in my apprenticeship doing one day a week at technical college), I ran the gearcutting shop, which consisted of gear shapers and hobbers, gear deburring and chamfering machines, vertical and horizontal broaching machines, and an induction hardening machine where we locally hardened the gear teeth and some parts of the shafts. We had a few special purpose machines there, made by colchester for horizontally boring all the front and rear holes of the gearbox and the drive shaft and leadscrew holes. I remember the boring machine that finished all the front and rear holes on the gearboxes, these were special purpose machines which hap opposing multi tool heads. One side had 9 boring heads, the other had 7. The only issue was that the boring shafts were powered by a sort of serpentine flat plastic drive belt and the machine needed running for about an hour to warm the belt up before running a casting through. If you didn't warm them up enough, the belt would slip and all the boring heads would stall - and if you weren't quick enough all the boring tools would chip as the cutters stopped in the casting! It took 2-3 hours to put new inserts in and size all the bores out again. Needless to say we had a jig borer which was used to machine the holes oversize for sleeving with a cast iron insert which could then be bored to size again thus avoiding scrapping the casting! Strangely I am still in engineering and on the lookout for a good refurbished Colchester lathe at this time🤣🤣🤣

@Adventure_Van_Upgrades

Жыл бұрын

That's so interesting to read, thanks for sharing That must have been a right pain in the rear if the serpentine belt slipped on the multi head boring machine!

@montyzumazoom1337

Жыл бұрын

@@Adventure_Van_Upgrades Well it happened to me a few times!! It was certainly a good learning experience. Old Bob Parker on the jig bore machine was kept very busy.... He had piles of castings to go through and repair.😂

This reminds me of the Colchester Bantam I worked on in the mid 70's......nice lathe with the taper lock spindle chuck mount.

I like these old Colchesters. If the spindle bearings are good they last for ever. If you have to replace them, you just bought a new lathe. I cleaned mine like you did and painted it. The paint on the lathe has lasted well. The chip pan not so much. I didn't paint mine yellow but did paint the pan a light gray. It makes finding small parts much easier. I have my VDF wired to the original switches like you did and added a reostate to the start stop lever to let my inch the chuck at low speed then ramp up to full speed.

Try Colchester lathe spares, they've a lot of spares for the student .and very helpful 😅

@scottburgle4889

6 ай бұрын

Great company….not cheap, but cheaper than anyone in the US(who’s essentially buying it from Colchester Lathe Spares and adding 40% when they sell it to you).

Good to see your project. I was interested in how you shifted it lengthwise into the back of the van. Great what you can do with a forklift! I spent many hours shifting mine having to dismantle it. How did you get it out of the van?

@Adventure_Van_Upgrades

2 жыл бұрын

Hello workshop friend! I've spent many hours watching your restoration projects & diy lathe build really enjoy your content ! For me Loading was fairly simple as seen in the video, then to unload from the van I used a combination of lifting straps through the bed , a chain hoist & a cheap electric winch to steady the load ( I'm lucky enough to have a RSJ I beam built into the workshop at both ends) we backed up as close into the workshop as possible and then using the hoist we managed to creep it out towards the rear of the van along with the help of pry bars & timber skids if at all possible I would always recommend using some sheet steel on the floor of your vehicle to allow sliding of the machine without tearing up the flooring.

@Workshopfriend

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your explanation AVU! Very helpful to have the lifting gear especially since it seems you will bringing in more machinery. I look forward to taking a look at your other videos. Yes, I agree about the hard surface to slide on. I used old kitchen worktop. Keep up the good work. Clive.

Hi I have just been watching your Colchester lathe rebuild, how long did it take you to do it, çertainly looks good

@Adventure_Van_Upgrades

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks ! I'd say over the course of around 4 months I got through the bulk of the work , then just tweaking the final bits slowly as I grow accustomed to the machine and it's new placement in my workshop :)

@quadrapoint

2 жыл бұрын

@@Adventure_Van_Upgrades many thanks for your reply I have a colchester student mk2 square top that I have to do trouble is it's used at least twice a week so I will have to get a wriggle on

@Adventure_Van_Upgrades

2 жыл бұрын

@@quadrapoint this was all done in my spare time & evenings , so if you hit hard with in two weeks I think you could get the bulk of the work done stripping, repaint, repairs & oil change done in that time just depends how deep you need to get inside ( weather your changing bearings or not )

I know you said that you're not going to strip out unless you have to! But wouldn't it be better to completely strip out and deep clean completely whilst you've got the chance?

И так сойдет.

Great informational video but please try not to talk like a robot.

Are you going to get a GoPro instead of using your phone.

@Adventure_Van_Upgrades

2 жыл бұрын

Funnily enough I've actually just picked up a hero 10 just getting my head round using it at the moment before next video.

Sorry, mate, but holding the camera at an angle so the vlog is at an angle is a real pain in the neck! I enjoy the rest though.