Mill in need of some TLC

.

ebay sent me an eMail reminder that the Mill auction was about to end ... clicking the link tells me that it's no longer available, but offers a nice shiny Chester Century Mill as an alternative.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/281765705961

MichaelG.

.

Edit: apparently the "item like" feature keeps changing ... last look was a TOS machine.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 11/08/2015 19:29:57

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 11/08/2015 19:34:56

I suspect it's not all that uncommon for that sort of dealer to finish up with item no longer available. My latest pillar drill came like that. I asked if I could come and look - I did and they cancelled the listing and sold it to me saving us both some money. That one was buy it now too - they told me not to worry about that - it would be available when I got there.

John

-

The Pultra is up to £225 and still not hit reserve.

Main reason for posting is this

**LINK**

If that is still in good order the mind boggles. If the history is correct it might just be.

John

-

.

Now that does look nice !!

... Can't find the 'smiley' for drooling

MichaelG.

Imagine the gentle hum of the gears and an amazing finish and that just about sums these up - if it's as it should be. All from what is actually a smaller machine even if it does weigh 1.5 tonne. They did one with a gap bed too and what a gap it had. Actually I suspect that one had a bigger head stock but was still relatively short.

My fathers speciality was metal removal in the automotive field - what and how etc. These were his favourite lathes. Part of that would be down to their floor space. The other would be quality. Some automotive companies often had requests for older parts that were no longer made and this is what they used to make bits for them. When my lathe size at home increased and he had retired he said he wished I had mentioned it while he was working - he would have sorted out a good one for me. I never gained his opinion on millers. Pity really.

John

-

Might be very lucky to get that price for the CVA.

They are a very, very nice lathe but just never fetch a decent price for some unknown reason. Loads of these change hands for £900 to £1200 but they will pay 3K for a clapped out Colchester with ropey headstock ?????

I got rid of mine about year and a half ago, in very good condition but paintwork wise a bit shabby. I broke mine for parts as it was worth more for the parts..

They are a direct copy of the Monarch 10EE and I sold the steady alone on Ebay in the States for $700.

The D-3 5C dumb nose adaptors regularly fetch about $800.

Can't remember what the taper turning attachment went for but it was close to a grand.

[edit]

One here tatty and needs a coat of paint but the other one had been painted, why after only 50 hours ?

CVA sold for £545

Edited By John Stevenson on 12/08/2015 20:09:33

I took a look at these two and the repainted one at £3000 'Buy It Now' says that in the last ten years it has done only 50 hours work, and has had an easy life as a hobby lathe with a previous owner who was a doctor. But if you look closely at one of the photos of it there appears to be a couple of substantial areas on the tail stock vee way on the bed, towards the headstock end, that have been ground away with an angle grinder to possibly clear a workpiece, honestly, some people!

Edited By Lathejack on 12/08/2015 20:34:10

Edited By Lathejack on 12/08/2015 20:35:44

.

Thanks for that ... it's just cured my drooling.

MichaelG.

What did you replace it with John? In excellent condition - more or less as new it's the only lathe I know of which is as good as DSG in the same condition in terms of accuracy and finish. Colchesters are the pits in comparison. Curiously Students can be good - for a while but the bearings soon act up if they do a lot of work.

The model I am familiar with would be older than the ones in the links. It was very definitely based on a spinning lathe bed. It was fully kitted out including gears for dp, module, imperials and metric complete with screw cutting indicator with a gearbox in it. Screw cutting charts for all of them too via a gearbox. My recollection is that the head was bigger than these. As I mention the gap bed was huge. Typical of spinning lathes. I saw a CVA spinning lathe produce a commercial sized "saucepan" around 2ft dia at Bullpits by hand and was offered another blank and a go afterwards. I've always wished i had accepted the offer.

I listened to my fathers wisdom in the end when I found a suitable one. When at school he asked me what lathes they had in the metal work shop - Boxford. He said they aren't bad, pretty good for a small lathe really and based on Southbends. All I ever made on the smaller none screw cutting one at school was a few brass cannons that fired wax crayons powered by match heads. One thing he was very firm on is that Colchester forced other companies to make better lathes - his way of putting it was that they sorted them out but he also pointed out that lathes vary even the same type from the same manufacturer. I'd guess that is down to tolerance variations who ever makes them. He also once went to Myford for a demo when looking for several small lathes. His comments about that were interesting.

John

-

Well i don't suppose you can blame them for having a punt at £3k when the only competition is up at £7k

Bit naughty not mentioning the impromptu DIY bed gaps !....as always caveat emptor

And who cares that the owner was a retired doctor, i might have been slightly impressed had he been a master

toolmaker or some such, but just cos he used to wear a stethoscope doesn't mean he knew how to treat a lathe.

**LINK**

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 12/08/2015 21:55:39

The bed on the 7k one looks rough to me. Not so the 3k one but the ground out bits are odd.

Not encouraging any one to buy but ..............

It's pretty easy to check out lathes like these. Gear heads hardly make any noise at all in fact the motor will make a lot more noise under heavier loads. A hefty piece of fc ms is needed to check the rest out. The diameter needs to be as big as the chuck will take and grip firmly. The sizes look a bit small for the lathe to me on both of them but I'd hope they would take 1 1/2 or better still 2in with 4 or 5in sticking out. It's best to take a decent tool along too. Some dealers will provide a rubbish tool so that people will think that they can do better at home and not even bother to set it up. Apart from taking the skin off bright drawn if the bearings are in at least reasonable condition a cut of around 0.040" should give a decent smooth even bright finish with a moderate feed, not too fine. If a taper is measured afterwards or the tool recuts when it's wound back the bearings are loose/not too good or the bar has bent. If a heavier cut say twice this does give a decent finish the bearings are all most certainly to blame but some lathes are a lot better if the cross slide is set up with a bit of friction rather than being loose. If the bearings are in incredible condition and the lathe has warmed up very light cuts can be taken but vibrations might leave faint marks. The usual sign of slightly worn bearings at reasonable cut levels is rings appearing along the work as it's turned. Increasing the cut will usually get rid of these. It's cause by the cut just holding everything in place and minor variations in the hardness of the material.

I'm not sure what HP these lathes have but I'd guess it's up around DSG levels. They will take 0.250 cuts with a 1/64 per rev feed on bar around the 4 to 5in dia with ease even breaking up or compacting the swarf with a breaker on the tool fast enough to produce blue swarf. That's 1/2in off the diameter in mild steel. This wont do the bearings much good though. From what I have seen of tool room lathes the bearings are shot a long time before the gear heads get noisy or the bed is badly worn. Tool rooms don't ask much of lathes usually as most things made get hardened and ground. Some might have a little used machine about for if needed. When lathes will no longer do what they want they get rid of them and the dealers pay pea nuts for them.

Another factor on lathes of this sort of size and design is that after they have been running for say 20min the head stock will get fairly warm especially at the front. Most will improve when they have warmed up if they have a little or no wear.

Checking out a small lathe is a lot more difficult. The bar is bound to bend.

Chuck size - where I was trained each lathe had a wooden block with it that the chuck could be dropped on without damaging the bed. The blocks also more or less lined up the chuck and were only a few inches thick - the chucks were very heavy too so the blocks were much appreciated. No such luck in tool rooms. Maybe this and cost is why they are often fitted with chucks that look undersized to me.

My training makes me laugh some times. They even had me turning up go - no go plug gauges to insane tolerances for a lathe really and with the right lathe and a well ground tool it's very difficult to tell that they didn't come off a grinder. Trouble is no one does that in the real world any more but if used intelligently and the lathe is up to it it's possible to work to 0.0001in reliably - over short distances at least.

John

-

CVA's can come in pairs

**LINK**

John

-