is there any way of checking for wear in the spindle gears witout powering a student up ? as i hav seen a reasonable one but the bloke has no three phase to test it looks good tho (from Photos) he reckons its a ex college machine if so should not be too much wear hopefully

It looks like you will have to check the wear on everything else , such as cross slide nut and anything you can get a feel of , and the completeness of the outfit , knock it on the grounds that it is untried , and take a chance . Don't bother if it has not got a four jaw , that is the one which will sort problems for you , or a faceplate or a fixed steady .

got the student really good machine got all the bits but i cant get the steady to fit i havent tried very hard tho 4 jaw looks like ist never been used although it has a bit of surface rust on it and a taper turning attachment but i might take that off as i cant see me ever using it:)

Good to hear it - enjoy .

6" 'Little Green Engine' here you come.

yep now we are a bit more set for the d&ny by the way are you going to the model engineer exibition at ally pally at the weekend