Boxford aud/me10/harrison l6

Boxfords are 9 and 10 inch swing - buy the Harrison.....

Mark

(owner of a 9 and a 10 inch Boxford)

All depends on the spindle size and fitting on the L6.

Early ones had a quite small bore for a large lathe and threaded spindle. Later ones had a larger bore and Loo spindle which makes backplates, chucks etc expensive and hard to source.

What is your budget ?

Curious as to why you don't have a Colchester on your list ? Not saying they are any better or worse than your choices, but there are certainly plenty to choose from, along with with tons of spares and accessories.

Bantam or chipmaster.

Virtually the same sized lathe but the bantam has a conventional gearbox and the chipmaster has a variable speed arrangement that can be troublesome.

I sold my Boxford AUD in last 18 months to go up in size/capacity. Boxfords are great machines if you are OK with 9" or 10" swing but for their high accessory costs.

The later Boxfords with camlock chucks like the industrial series with bigger swings would be well worth considering. Some of these are going for reasonable money.

I was looking for the Bantam 2000 ( the one that had the 6 1/2" - 13" swing ) but they are rarely avalable in any sort of decent condition, so ended up with an M300.

There are far more of the earlier Bantams available of which some are in really good condition. These have a slightly smaller swings and also slightly slower speed ranges on their gearbox than the 2000. Can be sorted with 3 phase inverter setup.

I would also put the Harrison M250 on your list if you can run to them on price.

Then there are far easier to get hold of Eastern manufactured lathes where you get a lot for your money, but sounds like you are not thinking thay way.

Wish you Good luck and hopefully more satisfactory than your recent experience.

Edited By MalcB on 07/01/2017 07:20:13

Only snag with a Harrison is that the saddle hand wheel is to the lefthand side of the saddle in direct line with the hot chips coming off the work,onto your hands ,thats one reasons why Colchesters are more popular with the hand wheel to the right (though Colchesters did list left hand versions cannot recall seeing one) I have a Colchester master 2500 , with long bed ,really good machine ,with forward reverse clutch which makes screwcutting and tapping from the tailstock so easy, 19 inch swing in the gap ,1 5/8 spindle bore.It is the ideal lifelong machine,enough capacity to tackle not only model work, but also vintage restoration, and helped me earn a living ,you can operate any machine occasionally but on the Master I can work on it all week without thinking I wish I had something better. Plenty of Colchester equipment around though it is getting more expensive.when purchasing a Colchester try to hear it running some can be unduly noisy in the headstock gears. I would avoid a Chipmaster,the drive mechanism can be a problem and have always regarded it as a production lathe rather than a general purpose machine.

As JS says, look carefully at the spindle bore size. I have a Taiwanese 14"x40" lathe a bit like a Harrison M300 copy. It has D14 camlock chuck fitting and a 40mm bore and covers most if not all my needs. I rejected some of the Colchester Student/Harrison M300 lathes I looked at due to the small spindle bore size. I do mainly motorcycle work and the need to fit a fork stanchion through the bore was essential. I wanted a Colchester Triumph 2000 but do not have the space.

I came from a Harrison L5a to a Colchester Student 1800, and actually prefer the Harrison hand wheel layout.

I used to be able to get the tool close to my intended starting point in seconds on the Harrison by operating both

hand wheels simultaneously. I find that I can't do that on the Colchester and have to do them one at a time.

it feels a bit like patting your head and rubbing your tummy if I try to do both.

Maybe I've not spent enough time in front of the Student yet for it to feel natural.

Agree about the hot chips though, that was a definite design flaw.

I would not let a left handed mounted saddle handwheel be a deciding factor. If you had two similar lathes side by side both in same condition then yes go for RH mounted wheel. In practise there seems to be far more LH than RH though.

I would always go for condition and what " feels right " every time.

The LH mounted handwheel can normally be got round for swarf protection by making up or modifying an existing Swarf guard system to give you good protection from chips.

On my M300 my saddle mounted perspex over guard ( height adjustable ) now drops to around toolpost height. 3M dual lock tape along bottom edge allows me a modular system of add on pieces of 5mm plastic to hang down and give up to full protection as required. Easy to cut piece to protect hand wheel.

Ok chaps......

After seeing a colchester bantam in the flesh, my heart is kind of set on that i think.

Does the bantam 800/1600 mk1 have backgear?

thanks

james

Yes it has two speed rages by the lever on the front.

The 1600 has two extra speed ranges electrically via the two speed motor but you need either genuine 3 phase, a phase converter like a transwave or a rotary convertor and not an inverter for the 1600 model.

There are lots of fish in the ocean. When I buy a machine I don't rush and bear in mind what equipment I want with it. That last bit sets when I buy as it's possible to spend a lot and or wait a long time to get the extras that are usually needed. For me that's decent 3 and 4 jaw and a fixed steady and hopefully a face plate and a qctp.

Condition is all important for some people. Also features. I nearly bought a new style Boxford early last year. Lack of bits was putting me off so as they can be bought new I priced them. Didn't look so good but maybe ok then I noticed that models vary and this particular one needed loads of gears for screw cutting. There weren't any so that put me right off. Another couldn't be run but playing about with it I noticed that the half nuts could jump out.

If something interesting is seen, they do crop up, lathes co uk can usually tell something about them but personally on ebay or anywhere else I would prefer to go and look or get some answers to just how well the lathe turns. Even an idea of the taper over a few inches gives a clue on that aspect. If it was a gearhead I'd most definitely want to hear it running and hope to be able to turn with it as well.

John

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I have had a Harrison and love my present BoxRockFord model A imperial.

The Harrison was geardriven and it could be seen on surface.Noise was also not so nice.

My Boxford has been modified years ago as shown and later due to space problems as shown

Any A model is better than any AUD as the spindle belt disc is bigger .

The Boxford to look for is a Long bed B.

It takes some minutes to set gearwheels for a new thread and I will ,when I find a long bed B,drive the leadscrew with an electric motor like Schaublin or Hardinge for normal and transverse feed.

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 09/01/2017 18:14:52

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 09/01/2017 18:16:46

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 09/01/2017 18:20:48

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 09/01/2017 18:23:18

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 09/01/2017 18:25:22

Hi Niels. I didn't know you looked on this site. I tried to find a video of a parting off demo you did on some large diameter aluminium a few months ago, Is it still about ?

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 09/01/2017 21:07:25

Hello John

The parting of of a 125mm seawater resistant alu disc ,was done before I got my phone with videocamera but there are some photos here

**LINK**

and a more normal cutting video called Boxfordpower on Youtube

OK

so ive finally sorted out for myself a harrison L6 12"

Ive also aquired a little clarke metalworker mill/drill thing for free.This will hopefully handle all the little milling jobs on the minnie 2".I would like to divide the chuckplate/chuck in to common degree divisions 0.45.90.135.180 etc

plan to do this by holding full circular protractor in 3 jaw lining up with tool, then using said tool to score degree line on chuck back plate/chuck. ideally i would like to spindle lock everytime i do this, but i dont think this thing has a spindle lock.any heath robinson ideas on creating a spindle lock ?

Edited By james huxstep on 09/01/2017 23:26:42

This little thing

Edited By james huxstep on 09/01/2017 23:23:24