Would a Coronet Mayor lathe be worth buying?

[heimlaga]

I am not very interrested in turning but every now and then I need to turn some simple parts. My Taiwaneese disaster of a lathe keeps fighting me so I had already found an old a very beaten up and worn out small line shaft driven lathe with babbit bearings and all in true 19th century style. It is awaiting a rabuild.

Now I stumbled on a Coronet Mayor lathe for sale locally. Ready to run for the same prize as the slightly more solid line shaft driven lathe would cost to rebuild and convert to motor driven.

They both have roughly the same capacity...... should I buy the Coronet and avoid a lot of rebuild work or what do you think?
How solid is a Coronet Mayor with that curios one post bed?

 

[Wildman]

I have a coronet major with All available attachments, and love it to bits. The morticer is regularly used to make field gates. Mine is an unusual model, a one off in that it can turn 6ft between centres. It is solidly built to a standard long gone. They made many models over time and there are different spindle nose fittings, mine is 7/8 x 12 tpi but they also made the more common 3/4 x 12 tpi which is easier when it comes to finding chucks etc. However adapters are available. I see no reason to change mine which has the following attachments.
Saw bench, planer, Morticer, Grinding wheel, polishing mops, linisher, bandsaw, sanding disc, spindle molder (with a full set of cutters). Comb jointer etc etc. It is a complete workshop in one machine, great if space is a problem and time is not. Oh yes and it is a very versatile lathe, with the ability to turn the head and turn very large dia's off the front if you can slow it down enough. A motor speed controller works well for that. Tailstock is only no 1 Morse taper but chucks up to 3/4 are available very cheaply off the bay.

 

[heimlaga]

Thanks!

This one is only a basic lathe without any extra accessories.
I talked to the seller and found it will be on the small side for my needs. Though another forum member who lives nearby has showed some interrest in it.

 

[DennisCA]

I decided to buy this lathe after heimlaga tipped me.

I wasn't going to at first. I immediately rejected it on the grounds of the lack of height between the base and headstock being only 11.5cm.

One of the things I have wanted to make for a while but lacked a lathe for, are some woodgears style stools (nicest stools I've seen imo) and I want to turn the top on a lathe. But since you mentioned you can swivel the headstock and turn larger parts I decided to give it a go.

edit: This one also has the grinding wheel attachment, is it useful for sharpening turning tools?

 

[vankou]

Hi

The grinding wheel on the outboard side of the Headstock on the Major (I guess that your Major is a blue model) is very useful. The beauty of it is that you can use it on the lower lathe speeds to avoid burning your tools. One drawback of course is that the grinding wheel is turning the whole time that the lathe is running. The grinding wheel housing will only take a 7 inch grinding wheel which are not that common although I did manage to find one when I had a Major from Abtec Abrasives and so hopefully you may manage to find one nearer home.

Incidentally, a lot of people think that because the Major only has a single bed bar it is in some way an inferior machine, but this design means that once set the centres will always line up even when sat on an uneven bench. The triangular feet may be out of line but the bed bar will always stay true.

I hope this helps.

 

[DennisCA]

It's a red model actually, does that matter?

 

[vankou]

Doesn't matter at all. The colour changed to blue in 1977. If your lathe has the fixed grinding wheel on the outboard side of the headstock it will be a later model built just before they changed the colour.

 

[DennisCA]

Thanks for the info, it'll be interesting to see it in person.

 

[vankou]

Hi Dennis.

I have only just managed to see your photo of the lathe.While I,m sure the lathe itself is fine I would be inclined to remove the grinding wheel as it doesn,t have the grinding wheel housing that the later models had. if that wheel fractures you would be in serious danger. I hope that I am not teaching my Granny to suck eggs here but I thought it wise to point this out.

 

[DennisCA]

It seems as if a wooden housing could be built from plywood, perhaps. I would have to take a look when I get the lathe.

One thing I saw while reading a site about this type of lathe was that there was a metal lathe attachment. That would be quite nice for some limited metal turning I think.

 

[dickm]

I'm a great fan of the old Coronet machines - if you look back to the 1960s there was super work done on them and they were built to last.

Happy to be corrected, but I don't think there was ever a metal turning saddle for any Coronet. The Myford ML8, which was a fairly similar basic design but without the swivel head, did have one, but that was probably because Myford had the bits to hand from their metalworking lathes. Have got one for my Mystro, and it occasionally comes in handy, especially for precise turning of plastics. As a general rule, wood lathes don't have low enough speeds for anything but very small metal turning.

 

[DennisCA]

http://www.lathes.co.uk/coronet%20Major/index.html

Around the middle of the page it mentions "Swivelling compound slide rest (CM506) for metal and precision wood turning."

 

[dickm]

http://www.lathes.co.uk/coronet%20Major/index.html

Around the middle of the page it mentions "Swivelling compound slide rest (CM506) for metal and precision wood turning."

Well, well - happy to be proved wrong. But I wonder how many were actually sold? They had certainly disappeared from Coronet's list by the time they changed to blue!

 

[Wildman]

it is quite easy to add a swivel topslide from some other small machine. Whilst I have dedicated metal turning lathes I do use a topslide for thread cutting in wood. Running the grinder on the slowest speed would allow a home made housing, not difficult to make out of mild steel. A grinder housing was sold as an extra but it is the one accessory I do not have. I don't need it of course. However they do come up on ebay from time to time. As do many other parts. The manual shows tables being turned around 4ft in dia but obviously the speed has to be further reduced. I think they did a speed reducing gearbox at one time (on my to make list eventually) The following has a saw table and support, 4.5" planer with thicknesser, worth buying for the attachments. Actually it is cheap enough for the 1 hp motor and 10" sawbench. Everything will fit on yours.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252125113676? ... EBIDX%3AIT
I note yours has both the long and short tool rests but only one saddle so you could use the extra saddle as well.

 

[DennisCA]

I don't need any of those things though, I have all those tools separately and in bigger formats. And it's a bit far being located in the UK.

For metal turning and slowing it down, I wonder if this is a good use here for a variable frequency drive, the small ones can be had cheap.

 

[dickm]

I think they did a speed reducing gearbox at one time (on my to make list eventually) .

Hope you make a better job than the originals - they were reputed to be one of Coronet's less good items and were incredibly noisy. But that's just what I've read or heard from others; no personal experience.

 

[heimlaga]

I picked up the lathe for Dennis today.

It seems like a very good little lathe though I think it would benefit from a slower running motor than the oringional one.

 

[DennisCA]

I got the lathe home last night and I am cleaning and reassembling it, I found a marking on the central beam that says it was made in 1972. The motor definitely seems to be an original, 1-phase Gryphon motor. I still find it a bit strange they went with such a fast motor.

 

[DennisCA]

Now that I have the lathe in hand and can look at it better it has lead to further questions.

A motor speed controller works well for that. Tailstock is only no 1 Morse taper but chucks up to 3/4 are available very cheaply off the bay.

I am curious what would I use a chuck on the tailstock for with this lathe? I know on metal lathes it's handy for drilling but they seem to be able to smoothly move forward via built in mechanism, this lathe doesn't seem to have anything like that, I can only see that you push the tailstock in position and lock it down, doesn't seem to be much else it can do.

I suppose a chuck for the headstock could be useful for clamping smaller things though.

 

[joethedrummer]

Try turning the handwheel on the tailstock, if it is not locked or siezed , it should move in and out, dead handy for drilling holes to a set depth and when using a toothed forstener bit.
Loads of members have given me good advice on the use of my Coronet, and mine goes back to the 60s.