lathe wanted

I hope to attend Chester open event as im after a 6 inch centre height lathe. The problem is all the Colchester/Harrison stuff I chase has either "just gone mate" or it's overpriced junk. Does anyone own a Crusader or similar size Chinese model of Chester/Warco or whatever brand name who can say based on experience whether to buy Chinese or keep chasing used Colchester/ Harrison. Mostly the verbal comments have ranged from "I wouldn't buy one" to "they're a load of junk", therefore constructive comments would be welcome.

Thanks. Rick K.

Rick, I've had a Warco gh1330 for about 3 years now and apart from a couple of minor niggles, I can say nothing but

Good about the machine.

The minor issues were with the compound retaining bolts which were made from chinese cheese metal and stripped threads as soon ae s a spanner got close but were easily replaced, the other issue was the machine lamp which snapped at the bottom arm joint, from what I have seen recently at Warco, the current machines use a better design of lamp.

Their new GH1236 looks like a nicemachine.

Having looked at some of the second hand machines I would agree there is a lot of abused junk around.

I bought a crusader last year. Its done quite a lot of work, been ok.

The customer service is poor as was the lathe prep. The supplied QCTP holders went in the bin, ARC sold some excellent replacements

Go for the one with readout, its been great on mine.

Overall I would buy the same machine

In the Classified Adverts on this site there is a Chester Craftsman for sale - I emailed the chap two weeks ago and it was still available. It's got the 6" centre height and a gap bed; only downside is a difficult motor belt to move for low/high speeds but people have overcome that. The Craftsman is now discontinued and is the same as the old Warco BH600G that has a strong following.

I was interested in that lathe, or a geared head Warco, but I found a Harrison 140 at a small dealer. Ex. school so covered in crud and painted by a fifth former, but little apparent wear. Superb engineering that is a delight to play with. It's taken me two days to clean and partly dismantle, and another two days to make parts to fit a new dual voltage motor. But that's what we get into this hobby for!

Hi

I got my Lathe from Home and Workshop Machinery in Kent

Good friendly bunch, give them a ring or check out the website www.homeandworkshop.co.uk

Good Luck

Doug (Jersey)

Edited By Smudge on 27/11/2013 21:01:43

Thanks guys. Some positive comments there. I recently found some sort of forum where most of the comments were decrying Chesters abysmal after sales service and poorly manufactured machines but I've been unable to find it since. (memory's gone). The new Warco 1236 looks a likely candidate due to it's three foot centre distance, that is unless something Colchester 6" x 36" or thereabouts pops up. Obviously the more recent Chinese machines are being quality controlled to a higher standard and the tempting part is the amount of standard equipment being supplied within the VAT and delivery inclusive price. Hmmmm, Dear Santa. . . . . .

I have no knowledge of their lathes but I did buy a Warco mill/drill 30 years ago (while on honeymoon) and it has been worked hard and behaved perfectly ever since. I did go to a ME Exhibition and noticed that they had changed the small front cover which had pulley speeds on it and I mentioned that to the salesman and it arrived before I got home. Excellent machine and excellent service.

Rick,

Are you aware of this firm in East Manchester, they might have something suitable and presumably you are somewhere in the North West so might be worth a visit.

**LINK**

Gary

About Colchester lathes (modern), I was informed by the owner of the company that I bought my Taiwanese BH 1326 lathe, on his return from the factory in Taiwan, that he saw a stack of lathe beds in a yard at the rear of the factory marked Colchester England, and was told by the factory manager that they made all the lathe beds for Colchester, Colchester made there own head stocks etc., and the bed is the same as on my lathe, and the GH13** lathes, and the BH&GH 12**, with a number of bed lengths, so I'm quite happy that I have a lathe with at least a good bed, the rest seems OK also. Ian S C

That's all positive stuff. Gary, thanks for the link. I'm in Chesterfield so I'm in the centre of the country, ish. Imagine my surprise about colchester beds cast in China. Just as much shock as the Harrogate exibition several years back when Mr Myford informed me that my Chester 626 mill was a Myford VMC which hadn't been finish machined and finally assembled by the lads at Chilwell and given a slap of Myford grey and a Myford badge! Hence the price differential. I've put my email on the Warco site to be informed when the new 1236 is in. In the meantime theres no harm in having a look round. Beats the hell out of christmas shopping. Speaking of which. . . . .

I checked out GaryM's suggested site and there's an ex college DS&G for £4000. The stuff of dreams! If only I could persuade my wife.........

I'd go for the Broadbent lathe in GaryM's link, purely because you can turn small items in a large lathe but not vice-versa.

Martin.

By strange coincidence I happen to know the chap who runs that business in Hyde, Manchester.

He is a very helpful affable chap and I am going to make time to go over there sometime this week to see if it is indeed the same guy. He was out of the used machinery busimness and persuaded to go back into it about six or seven years ago. He was telling me this back then but it just didn't occur to me that he might have or it is such a big operation now.

DS&G eh! Well no point in spending the taxpayers money on any old rubbish. Wonder what they replaced it with? A virtual tour of Mars perhaps?

Cynic? Moi? never.

graham.

No such thing as a cynic. It's a word used by an idealist to describe a realist like you and me and one or two more. DS&G eh? Nice but just out of my price range unfortunately. I'm a firm believer that the right lathe will turn up. No pun intended.

No such thing as a cynic. It's a word used by an idealist to describe a realist like you and me and one or two more. DS&G eh? Nice but just out of my price range unfortunately. I'm a firm believer that the right lathe will turn up. No pun intended.

For what it's worth, I bought a Chester 12x36 Geared Head lathe about 8 years ago. Apart from a few teething problems (which were sorted very satisfactorily) I've had no problems at all.

I've subsequently fitted DRO (from M-DRO) and replaced the 1ph motor with a 3ph and Mitsubishi VFD. I'm very pleased with it; its accurate and powerful,

Gary