Chester Craftsman

Hello. I'm thinking about swapping my Smart & Brown Sabel for a Chester Craftsman lathe. Has anybody got or had one of these machines and would you recommend it.

Any thoughts would be welcome.

Thanks

Phil.

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Is the S&B worn out or do you just fancy a change.?

Nick

Hi Nick. My Sabel could do with the slideways regrinding and a new crosslide leadscrew. Nice lathe and ideally I would keep it and install a new machine but not enough space.

Phil.

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Is it actually the slideways worn or just the gib strips.

Nick

Nick. The slideways are worn where the saddle moves along the bed close to the chuck area unsurprisingly.

Any Craftsman owners out there?

Phil.

I have a Chester Craftsman, bought second-hand.

Can't really say much about it except it does everything I want = small model-engineering parts, variety of parts for motorcycles. Seems rigid and accurate for my uses.

Unfortunately appears to have an unusual spindle nose thread (2 1/4" x 8tpi) which severely limits sources of back-plates. Unless someone knows differently!

Regards,

Phil

Phil. I was aware of the chuck mounting and would prefer a camlock mount but they seem to only be fitted to larger lathes. It should not be too difficult to turn up a backplate if required.

I understand the Craftsman has a locking screw to prevent the chuck coming off when reversing.

Thank you for posting your thoughts.

Phil.

I have a Warco 1327 which is very similar to the Craftsman, same spindle nose thread too. I've cut a few backplates and other stuff to fit on the spindle, no problems doing this. My machine is metric but comes with gears to cut imperial threads (easy to set up), you have to leave the clasp nuts engaged for imperial threads but this isn't a problem. I've had the machine for 15 years or so, it's been trouble free and accurate enough for my needs. Big enough to tackle larger jobs too.

Dave

Hi, (again)

I can confirm that the Craftsman has locking to prevent the chuck 'unscrewing' when running in reverse.

As to cutting my own back-plates -> I guess I am a lazy worker who prefers to buy such things if possible!

*chuckles*

Regards,

Phil.

I've come across a few owners on stargazersloungs - of all places. They seem happy and it does come with screw cutting gearbox. Not much about like that.

Some might think I'm a warco agent. Costs more but with coolant and dro I'd wonder about this one if I was going to that size. 1800rpm is high for a 5mt spindle but I'd guess it wouldn't be used at that speed too often.

**LINK**

The reason I tend to mention them is the test reports. Frankly I feel that is a good idea.

John

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Chester used to sell backplates, which is where i found the details of the thread for my Engineers ToolRoom BL12/24. The same lathe. with minor alterations is/was came to UK via three importers.

The Chester Craftsman, as far as I know, is available only in Metric form, whereas the Warco BH600 (and the long bed version BH900) were available in Imperial or Metric form. My Engineers Tool Room BL12/24 is basically Metric but fitted with dual dials. (mostly, I work in Imperial units)

Chucks are retained by two clamps, retained by M8 Allen screws) behind the chuck, so it can be run safely, in reverse. The first set of Tumbler gears were noisy, but replaced under warranty. The Faceplate fouled the Acrylic Chuck guard, but a little work on the plastic provided clearance.

The Screwcutting dial will be positioned on the Headstock or the Tailstock side of the Saddle, depending upon the Importer. I slightly modified mine, to move it from the Headstock side to the Tailstock side.

The 5MT spindle is useful since bar upto 38mm dia can be accomodated. With reducing sleeves, even a 2MT arbor can be used and then transferred to the Rotary Table for gear cutting on the Mill.

I thought that the finest feed, of 0.0047"/rev was a bit too coarse, so made a 80T gear to replace the 40T on the input to the Norton box. This meant moving the closure for the Gear Cover, (and destroying the Knob in the process), but am happy with the result.

So far, (after 13 years) as far as I am concerned, the machine does all that is required of it. I have screwcut at least three backplates to fit the Iathe. It has taken cuts of 0.100" a side without protest.

A while ago, there seemed to be a problem of belt slip, but this was actually caused by a lever in the belt tensioner under the Headstock cover slipping on the shaft. A deeper dimple in the shaft was the cure.

The worst problem was entirely due to my carelessness. (I ran the Saddle into the Headstock and damaged the shaft and pinion that meshes with the rack). Warco could supply spare parts from stock. So this seems to be a fairly regular failing on the part of users.

Another poster on this Forum kindly sent me instructions on removing the saddle.

In fact, I chose to make up my own parts for repair, without power feed, using the Cross Slide manually, and the Topslide. The biggest problem was afterwards, accessing the capscrews that clamp the Worm Housing to the Saddle. This is because the space between the saddle an the bed prevents a normal Allen key being used, and even a modified one is misaligned by ones fingers. However, the problem is not insuperable.

As part of this work, I fitted a nylon plug to a hole in the back of the Saddle, to raise the oil level and improve lubrication in the upper parts of the Saddle.

Hope that this is some help.

Howard

John. I have considered the Warco 1236, but it's just too big for the space I have available.

The Craftsman also includes a DRO fitted no coolant though. But it does have a good range of speeds and metric/imperial thread options with a Norton type gearbox, gap bed in a reasonable size machine.

Phil.

Howard. Thank you for posting your thoughts. Your modifications the feed ratios sound interesting and worthwhile.

It seems now the only place that sells this machine is Chester, and they only sell a imperial version.

My mind is more less made up and will probably order a Craftsman next week.

Phil.

Going on the weight it's a pretty hefty lathe Phil.

The bed looks much like some of the larger Chinese lathes. Could be a "smaller" version.

Personally I feel that at the smaller end the Chinese are missing out on lathes with a screw cutting gearbox.They don't even offer the type of thing Boxford do which just provides a range of pitches via knobs and full ratios need a small number of change wheels. They could even make them add ons which is what Boxford seem to do.

Suppose it's cost really and size variations doesn't make all that much difference unless extreme. Plus people like Ketan need to keep their Rollers on the road so need to sell a fair few.

John

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Look for the Grizzly 9249 manual which is in color (US spelling or course ) There have been some articles on modifications for BH600 in MEW about 10 years ago and some on Graham Howe's site (which doesn't seem to open tonight) and a few threads on here too about the BH600.

Interesting, Grizzly have the 918 which was for sale in the UK some time ago with screw cutting gearbox but now it's a 919 aka 9x19. The call it the G4000. There was also a similar lathe with a gear head but it was extremely noisy.

Modifying it before even has it Bazyle. Maybe it doesn't really need any mods other than maybe the feed rate.

John

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Went in 17 yrs ago to buy a Cub no stock, no stock of Crusader imminent and nearly bought a Craftman toget me out of the proverbial. Looked at one again in 2004.
What turned me off was the unsociable gear box selection though similar to older Harrisons which worked. Trying to get the lever in to an hole and engage was daunting. They may well have improved in this time but all Chinese gearboxes are a pain at budget end.

The other turning point was figuring there was a common metric pitch unavailable and the necessity to faff around with change wheels, gear box is limited.

Other than that good value for money but at todays pricing I would cough up the extra and go for Crusader with D style chuck fixing, you wont regret. Its only a bit longer around 400mm make room. There again if spending that sort of dosh could have the real thing s/h from Colchester or Harrison that will last and a joy to use.

I did consider the Crusader and the Warco version but they are just too big. A second hand Colchester/Harrison etc would be very nice but for say £3k would only get a machine that has probably had a hard life a would need a small fortune spending to bring it up to spec.

Phil.