Colchester Chipmaster what to check for

1 the lathe has been dismantled completely before, the head stock came of with ease (alen key by hand) and the bed did the same (by hand no force required).

2 the seller told me he had drained the oil in the head, as it was black and filthy (the seller had said that the oil was well looked after so this goes against the ebay add) - " It is in very good mechanical condition - headstock and gearbox oil has been kept nice and clean and all the bearings and slideways are good." - also when the head came off i noticed the oil filler was totally undone.

3 "I have been using a modern motor (which I have removed to use on a different lathe). Please assume that the motor / vairator will need refurbishing if you want to use them - but you may prefer to use a new motor instead." yet i asked him a question about the slideways being very stiff / lumpy and he then said he had never used it...

4 when the Vairator went in the van it tipped 45% and oil came poring out of it (the in side of the van has soaked up a lot of it unfortunately - this oil however was quite clean.

I still have to collect the last bits, and i do feel i over paid for it compared to others i have seen. with the info above, if i am going to service and recon it, where should i start?

And again anyone have any thoughts on my notes above?

Andrew

Andrew,

Don't run the variator without the correct amount of the correct oil in it! You can use this same oil in the headstock.

You can remove the back panel on the head and see what the state of the inside is like, might be worth using a magnet in there and seeing if you can pick anything up.

Not sure what the think about ‘lumpy’ slideways it could just all need oiling and adjusting. At the end of the day the proof is in the parts you make when the machine is all together. Only then can you start to access how worn everything is.

10 thou movement on the spindle is worrying though – if it’s the actual spindle moving and not the chuck then the bearings are most definitely toast. Or someone has attempted to disassemble and given up halfway through…

Ratus crapitus. 20-20 hindsight says that admission that he'd not used it along with dirty rather than clean oil as claimed was clear walk away then bully E-bay for a refund time. Which comes straight out of my "don't do as I do, do as I say" handbook as I've had £8,000 worth of carefully bodged and fraudulently MoT'd Bristol 603 sitting under a cover on the front drive for the last 25 years. Pretty much same how the heck do I get out of this issues as you have.

Odds are the measured shaft run out is related to the headstock being loose.

If the whole machine is filthy dirty that may be a plus point. Perhaps the variator was robbed years ago and its been stood in a corner since. Clean oil from the variator you have suggests that it came from a lathe in-use, oil having been changed in a first effort to stop the noise.

Place to start is to scrub everything really clean. On more than one occasion I've seen apparent wear on an occasionally used and somewhat neglected machine to be crud and old oil varnish build up. Hard work to shift as there seems to be no universal solvent and you don't want to go scraping with metal tools. You can't make proper judgement on the bed, called and dovetail sideways until its all back to clean metal.

Clive.

Edited By Clive Foster on 13/08/2018 16:56:06

On something as expensive as that, I would be paying cash on collection and inspecting it before taking a chance. It would then be my judgement to blame, if I got it wrong.

I would have walked or negotiated, dependent on my feelings at the time. As it is clearly not as advertised, I think I might well have thanked him for wasting my time and walked away. I hope you have actually got sufficient value in the end, but somehow I think it will cost you more money than an honest alternative. I wouldn’t be surprised if the head was not off his ‘working’ lathe.

Sorry to be gloomy, but those are my thoughts on the matter.

Edited By not done it yet on 13/08/2018 15:59:09

Um, well it's yours Andrew, so you might as well see what can be done with it. You're up for a challenge - at the beginning you said you were prepared to dump the variator and motor.

Next step is to clean it up as Clive said and do a detailed inspection. Apart from obvious damage, missing parts, and serious wear it's not easy to evaluate a lathe just by looking at a pile of bits. I'm sure if you publish photos and ask questions as you go, you'll get a better idea from the forum of how sour your lemon is, or not. Don't give up too quickly because appearances can be deceptive. There are lathes that look like wrecks that work well, and tarted up beauties that are junk. (At least you haven't been conned outright with one of those!)

Much easier to understand the lathe's shortcomings as it's put back together. You can take it step-by-step. Once the headstock is on, it's alignment and bearings can be checked using the bed as a reference. Ditto the tail-stock. Then, spinning the chuck by hand will let you confirm the gearing, lead-screw etc all turn as they should.

Others will know far better than me because I've never done it, but I'd advise taking a steady approach taking lots of notes and photographs as you go. The trick will be spotting a hopeless case before spending too much time and money on it. For example, I wouldn't buy anything until all the parts are together and you're confident it's worth fixing.

I don't know about the Chipmaster, but some lathes need careful re-alignment after they've been taken apart : reassembly may not be quite as simple as tightening a few bolts. In cases like that the forum is a gem, ask a particular question and someone will know the answer. Unfortunately I doubt anybody has the time needed to put together a lathe reassembly guide for you before you start work. If such a thing existed it would be a best-selling book!

Please keep us informed. However it turns out your experience will be valuable and interesting.

ebay is a good way to find second-hand lathes for sale, but it's risky to buy one without inspecting it first. Ideally, you want to see and hear it cutting metal, and be able to measure results. Even if you can inspect it, a beginner may not know what to look for and even experts occasionally get burnt. It's all part of life's rich tapestry...

Dave

You could send the seller a message saying you are not well pleased, stating the faults you found contrary to the listing, and ask for a part refund.

The seller may agree to this to avoid neg or neutral feed back. Worth a try

To avoid negative feed back

Mmm oil leak from the front bearing either means the bearings are so bad that they have destroyed the seal, or more likely that someone has tried to remove the spindle and stopped half way through.

Make sure the front bearing housing bolts are tight before assuming it needs new parts.

The paintwork on my machine is terrible at the chuck end due to coolant, my machine spent its entire life in the fusion prototype shop at the Atomic Energy Authority, and they loved to use aggressive coolant! Repainting is on my list of things to do.