Colchester student lathe wanted
 

i would like to get a colchester student lathe with a gap bed so if you know of any reasonable ones that are not too expensive could you let me know via pm

Thanks Tom

Today's Old Glory
 

There's an old round-top gap-bed Student for sale in Old Glory that arrived today.

Seller's on 02920 513993

Regards

Alan

PS its nothing to do with me!

one on www.lathes.co.uk at the moment single phase £675.

There are Students on eBay virtually every day . Be careful , many of them will be real dogs .

any tips on what to look for would be good or what to look out for i thought an induction hardened bed would be good and i need a gap bed and i know they can be a little noisy from the head anything in my price range aint gonna be perfect by any means anyway

hi check the tapered seating on the spindle which the chucks locate on,if damaged or worn the chucks will not run true,tailstocks can be very worn on the bottom sliding face if they have been used too much for drilling,put centres in the headstock and tailstock and bring the tailstock up to see if the tapers align,if the tailstock is worn the tail stock centre will be lower and nearly impossible to correct and will produce crap work. Dont forget most round heads are around fifty years old.

still looking anyone

The Master is also worth considering , Although only 1/2" bigger in centre height , it has a heavier spindle assembly and a larger diameter through the spindle . Beware of ones which do not have a gap bed , and so called Dominion models , which do not have metric threads in the gearbox . Try in all speeds . The chances are any old lathe will have been worked to death on one job in one speed . Old Colchesters can be VERY noisey in this case . Go for one with plenty of accessories , such as cheucks , faceplates , steadies and the like . So many of us on here have old Colchesters that you will get plenty of advice .

i have been looking at the master as well i really like them as i have used them a lot when i was in toolmaking they are the standard toolroom lathe trouble is space i belive they are a bit bigger than the student and whatever it is it has to have a gap bed

There is little in it for size , but you can check it out on the Lathes for Sale website , in the archive section .

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