I've always wanted a lathe. Been messing about wanting to get one, doing various ebay searches and occasionally bids, but never really got serious. Well, those days are over. I have a lathe.
It's a Colchester Student. It's got that curved end on the left hand side, which means it's a 'round head' model. It was made in 1962 (I'm informed by the dealer who sold it to me), and in a small amount of family coincidence, the motor inside it was more than likely made by a firm that my wife's great uncle owned.
Now the fun part is to start to use it. I've got a piece of aluminium bar that I'm just messing about with at the moment. I've bought a few lathe tools. They're the indexable kind and I've done something like some parting and a small amount of turning. Right now though the tools are set too low, but I haven't got any shim steel (ebay will correct that), so the result is that the turning isn't that great, and an attempt to face the bar left a nub.
I've also only got a 3 jaw chuck at the moment (although I do have a faceplate too), and although the three jaw is a good quality one, it's got a bit of run-out and I will need to take it off, take it to bits, clean it thoroughly and put it back together again. I could really do with a 4 jaw chuck, but these things are expensive, and they're heavy, which means that postage is chunky too via the 'bay.
Anyway, I do have a small job to do for a mate, so I will need that shim steel and then I'll have a crack at that.
It's a Colchester Student. It's got that curved end on the left hand side, which means it's a 'round head' model. It was made in 1962 (I'm informed by the dealer who sold it to me), and in a small amount of family coincidence, the motor inside it was more than likely made by a firm that my wife's great uncle owned.
Now the fun part is to start to use it. I've got a piece of aluminium bar that I'm just messing about with at the moment. I've bought a few lathe tools. They're the indexable kind and I've done something like some parting and a small amount of turning. Right now though the tools are set too low, but I haven't got any shim steel (ebay will correct that), so the result is that the turning isn't that great, and an attempt to face the bar left a nub.
I've also only got a 3 jaw chuck at the moment (although I do have a faceplate too), and although the three jaw is a good quality one, it's got a bit of run-out and I will need to take it off, take it to bits, clean it thoroughly and put it back together again. I could really do with a 4 jaw chuck, but these things are expensive, and they're heavy, which means that postage is chunky too via the 'bay.
Anyway, I do have a small job to do for a mate, so I will need that shim steel and then I'll have a crack at that.
