Colchester Bantam MK1

[deema]

I’ve just pushed the button to buy one of these lathes on an impulse knowing nothing about them. I’m collecting it next week!! I’d appreciate some advise! I was actually looking for a really nice Smart & Brown 1024 VSL.

Firstly, are they any good? Have I bought something that might stand a chance of being a nice hobby lathe?
Do they have any faults or things I should check before parting with my money?
It comes allegedly with 3 & 4 jaw chucks, coolant system and a load of tooling. No steadies unfortunately.

The lathe is just for me to play with, learn how to turn. No specific projects as of yet! Never personally owned a metal work lathe before!

 

[KT -andy]

Bantam will be a excellent little lathe to learn on .
I would think it will be a long time before your better than the lathe . Unless your wanting to do bigger stuff than the lathe can handle .
Good luck ,

 

[deema]

Thanks KT, very reassuring.
Just found the manual and down loaded it. Not sure which version I’ve bought! I’m hoping it has the longer bed and the single speed motor so I can easily fit a VFD to extend it. Hadn’t realised it didn’t have a gear cutting box and needed change wheels. Not sure if it’s coming with any!! A quick look on eBay suggests parts are fairly easy to get hold of.

 

[Trevanion]

The world turns on Colchester lathes

They're a very good machine so long as they haven't had too much wear and tear. I think a majority of them were in schools, colleges and the like so to find one that wasn't abused by a bunch of inexperienced clowns doing daft stuff can be hard. It's an amazing thing to have though, it's really nice to be able to repair most things with one. Definitely a good step-up from a Myford.

The nice thing about the Colchesters is that they're such a common machine that spares are very abundant and inexpensive, just finding information about my CVA lathe is an absolute chore, plus any parts are serious money if you can actually find any!.

Physics Anonymous has a pretty good series on a Bantam rebuild, although they do have the occasional stupid idea. It may give you some things to look out for when you go to look at it though.
[youtube]GTEUXiDoCLc[/youtube]

 

[deema]

Thanks for the uTube link. Very interesting to see one pulled apart I watched the whole series with a smile times as you say at what they did occasionally.

 

[Keith 66]

Good lathes, A lot came out of education, this means some will have been well maintained & little used which are the ones to buy. Some will have been ill maintained & hammered by yoofs who think its funny to run the saddle under power feed straight into the chuck (I kid you not!) A check would be check for slop on the cross slide, push & pull the toolpost in & out, some play is adjustable a lot is bad. Check the bed for wear, is it badly scored? Does the cross slide have great lumps knocked out ot where its hit the chuck! Wind the saddle all the way to the left & right, is it tighter at the right hand end & sloppier close to the chuck? Ask how they would lift it. If they propose to lift it from a bar poked in the spindle just walk away. First class way to bugger bearings & spindle.
Put a bar in the 3 jaw & tighten it gently, turn the chuck by hand, if the bar wobbles the chuck is probably knackered.
As for spares Colchester are part of the 600 group & spares are NOT cheap, in fact they are eye wateringly expensive, i enquired about new spindle bearings for a Bantam 2000 ten years ago & the two Gamet precision bearings needed were well over £800 once the vat went on. Most secondhand spares will be as worn out as anything else.
How much tooling does it have? Secondhand tooling is expensive. Good luck.

 

[deema]

Thanks Keith,
Got there today, to see the chap lifting it into a pallet just as you described.....bar through the headstock. Coupled with this, the tooling it was supposed to come with had disappeared. We agreed a full refund was appropriate. Most frustrated, I thought I’d nailed a nice large. Anyway.....the search goes no.....again.

I have to say I like the look of the Bantam, and having read up it will accommodate anything I believe I’m likely to do.

 

[Keith 66]

Sounds like you had a lucky escape! There is a hole for an eyebolt through the centre of the bed in front of the chuck, thats where you are supposed to lift it from. I once had a bantam 2000 that had been lifted with bar in the chuck, It was never the same again. Sold it to a dealer & lost a bit on it. A month later it was on his website described as perfect condition POA, I pity the bloke who ended up with it.

 

[deema]

Thanks Keith,
I’d downloaded a copy of the manual and found it a bit vague on exactly where the lifting point is. I’d thought it was the Web in front of the Chuck from the description. An eyebolt hole makes a lot of sense.

 

[Keith 66]

A good sling around the web between the ways is as good as the eyebolt, you can balance it by moving the saddle & or tailstock backwards or forwards, good idea to lock the tailstock in position in case it slides off onto the concrete when you lift it.

 

[Davenport]

A great lathe... i dread to think how much swarf has come off the 1 at my folks...