Member postings for Alan Waddington 2

The problem with many industrial drawers, Bott, Polestor etc, is they are often too deep for home workshops, usually 700 mm plus. I’ve got a couple of Secondhand Snap On roll cabs, which are expensive, but are less than 600 deep and will always be worth what i paid.

There are a few on the Cottrels auction site, currently at around £150 plus 39%. Full of tools too.

Well Gary, guess that’s good news for you if you win, as it won’t need disconnecting, and they must have the facilities to lift it straight on to transport..........if you hired a tiltbed trailer with a winch, you could gently roll it off at home with no bother. Usually less than £100 to hire.

How strange, most of the stuff at that auction is actually stock from a machinery dealer in Hyde......thought it was strange that all the machines pictured were sat on rubber pads......maybe they have gone bust? Although not the impression given by the website.

**LINK**

I doubt the pic’s have been doctored, or indeed the machine tarted up.....(judging by the condition of the other lots etc.) One other point that does come to mind is the VS3100 is quite a rare beast and there doesn’t seem to be any steadies etc included in the sale. Unless they are interchangeable with other models, you might struggle to actually find any.........

Do you have a link ? PM me if you want to keep it low key. 

Edited......Found it.....looks very clean, a couple of things that may not matter to you, but would be negatives for me.....it’s not a gap bed, and the bed is short.......neither are showstoppers, but worth bearing in mind.

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 23/11/2017 22:24:51

Yes i agree the costs can quickly escalate if you’re not in a position to move things yourself. Auction purchases can be especially tricky as they often give you a window to get in and shift whatever you have bought.

Iv’e always managed to move my own stuff, but i do have a van and a decent trailer at my disposal, along with a motley collection of jacks, slings, rollers, pallet trucks etc, and a good mate who lends a hand and happens to own a fairly hefty tractor. However you can hire the equipment required to lift and haul machinery fairly reasonably.

Can’t help with the Colchester.......however this caught my eye, no idea what it will fetch, but looks like a tidy well specced and tooled machine........**LINK** as David pointed out, just don’t forget to figure in the buyers premium and vat.

Very interesting thread this, thank you to all the contributors.......i think i will have a go at converting my dividing head at some point, as constantly twiddling it and walking back to the end of the table to take a cut when making gears is tedious and tiring to say the least.......

Iv'e had two, and sold them both due to not earning their space........a great thing to have for sure, but only if you can spare the room and the time to set them up. A lot of my tooling is now indexable, and HSS cutters up to 1/2" are cheap enough to be classed as disposable, even solid carbide ones can be picked up cheaply these days.

Sounds like you have an itch to scratch though, so my advice would be to buy it and evaluate how much use it's had in a years time. If it's not getting used sell it on. I made money on both mine when i sold them.

First one is normally pretty quick.........but the first right one usually takes a bit longer

Having now looked at your photo's i don't think the stand is in any way causing your issues........stick a sharp cutter in and have another go   I never had my TS bolted to the floor in over 10 years.

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 10/11/2017 17:23:34

The thing with smaller lightweight mills is, any deficiencies in technique, wear in the machine, loose gibs, blunt cutters etc etc tend to be massively amplified.

I had a Tom Senior for years and although they are a capable machine, it was possible to get it dancing around the floor if everything was not spot on and locked down prior to taking a decent cut.

You tend to get away with a bit of sloppy technique when the machine weighs a couple of tons.

Evaluating Re-painted machines is an art in itself, however those doing the re-painting tend to fall into three camps.......

1-The Fastidious restorer who makes a better job than the manufacturer ever did, using the correct shade of paint for that particular model.......

2- The well meaning caring owner (usually of pensionable age) who gives the machine a lick of any paint in any colour they happen to have at hand, to 'keep it looking nice'......

3- The devious and unscrupulous fast turnover brigade that slap a quick coat of shiny shite enamel on, to appeal to naive ebay buyers.

Check out the Colchester on the same site.......it's been extensively touched up in the wrong colour .....now that's just plain lazy.....either touch up in a half approximate shade, or blather the lot in an innapropriate colour, much like the Harrison

That Harrison in the link has had a good going over with the bonus brush .......more paint on the feet and the floor than the lathe.......£500 auction lathe with a £2k mark up . I much prefer to take my chances with an honest machine, covered in muck, at the right money

Forgot to mention in my post, and to echo Davids 'Holy Grail' comment. If you have the space, go for a long bed version, my Student is a short bed, and although i rarely turn any long parts, it still feels a bit 'cramped' in use.

Sadly in my case, i couldn't fit anything longer in the space available, infact iv'e got a hole drilled in the wall for the tailstock handle to go into

Buying a used lathe, is much akin to buying a used car, and about as risky. Cosmetics can be deceiving.

Small industrial sized machines like students and M300's are about the hardest to buy sucessfully, as most either get a hard life in an industrial setting with little or no maintenance and tend to be well worn out, or are from training establishments where legions of Spotty Herberts have been let loose on them with the inevitable consequences.

I wouldn't lay out any serious money without having a good look and feel close up, and especially in the case of an M300 hearing it run......iv'e come across a few Harrison M's that looked ok but sounded awful. IMHO Spindle bearing replacement on a 600 group lathe is not financially viable for a hobbyist, infact any spare parts/ bearings etc from them are diabolically expensive.

Colchester's if they have been run with flood coolant and not well maintained tend to end up with rusty apron gearboxes full of old coolant.

Unless you are very lucky, expect to find a good bit of backlash especially on the cross slide handwheel, however this can be sorted without too much expense.

I always look at the accessories when buying a lathe, things like steadies are hard to come by and expensive secondhand. The headstock MT adaptor is often missing in action from Colchesters and Harrison's and can be a pig to find secondhand for reasonable money.

At the kind of money you are talking about i would want a full complement of chucks and accessories, a quick change toolpost with holders and ideally a DRO.

My advice would be to go see a few before parting with your cash. Unfortunately going back to the car analogy, you won't truly know what you've bought until you've lived with it for a while.

I bought my Student 1800 at auction sight unseen, but it was at the right money and i knew i was unlikely to lose on it. It came out of a maintenance environment and looked dreadful, however it cleaned up ok and although is a little worn, it does everything i need ok, All chucks and accessories were present including a rear qctp which was a bonus. Sorry if all this comes across a bit negative, but you really do need to tread carefully, especially if your new to the game.

Well i got sorted with a set of inserts for a couple of quid a piece from a very helpful and knowledgable ebay seller. Anyone needing inserts i would highly reccomend the seller Dellunn on ebay.

Just need a job to try the beast out on now.......should make the chips fly for sure

Cheers mate, yes it's a Maydown face mill, but i hate to think how much the inserts will be from them.

I can guess at £100 to £120 per 10 I'm hoping to pick a set up on the cheap, as i don't even know if my mill is up to running it.

It came with a job lot of 40 int tooling, and i would like to give it a go, but at 125mm diameter i have my doubts as to it's suitability for my mill.

A long shot i realise, but i'm after some inserts for a 45 degree face mill. Iso code is SEHW1605 they measure 16mm x 5 mm and have a csk 5mm hole. Nothing turning up on ebay, plenty of 12mm ones around. I need a minimum of 7 if anyone has any they would like to sell.