About to buy a Clausing Colchester 1336 Engine Lathe (Master Mark I)

bradpj53

bradpj53

H-M Supporter - Silver Member
H-M Supporter - Silver Member
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Oct 26, 2022
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This is my first post; I am an experienced woodworker but machine tool newbie wading into the waters. I have always been an Old Iron fan, but everything I seemed to find in my part of the NE USA was heavily used and overpriced; I expected to go the PM route. However I have located a 1960's (?) Clausing Colchester 13X36 that has been extensively over hauled by the seller. I hope to pick it up next weekend. The machine number on the bed is 3/34544; I can't locate a date for that from the online resources I've found but plan to call Clausing for more info. I will be posting many questions on this as time goes on; it is 3PH run by a VFD that the seller is keeping so I'll want to sort that out. Looking forward to other owners of these machines for advice and suggestions. Glad to be a part of this forum. Thanks!

Brad
 
I'm trying to sort out my transport options; I've seen weight numbers variously listed from 1200 to 2000; I'm thinking 1400-1600 and too heavy for my half ton bed. Any hard figue=res out there?

Brad
 
Welcome Brad.
Colchester lathes are made in England. They are very good machines.
Clausing is the US distributor.
I have a Clausing Colchester 15x50, made in the mid 70’s. I love it!
I think you found a nice machine.

Grab all the tooling you can!! The face plate on the floor and hopefully a four jaw too. The tooling can easily cost more than the lathe.
Keep us up to date on the purchase and the move. Lots of pics please :)
 
First, welcome to the forum. The lathe looks like to be in great condition. I found this online


> According to http://www.lathes.co.uk they weigh 840-890 kg depending on
> the length of the bed. That's 1850-1960 lbs, so your guess was pretty good.
:
 
There are a couple of publications on owwm.com. A parts manual is listed under Clausing and a manual is listed under Colchester. Machine weighs 1550 lbs give or take. The lathe is driven by a two speed motor to get 16 speeds. Since there is no back gear, the two speed motor becomes important to getting the rpm range you want, absent the vfd. A vfd does not like two speed motors if they are of the Dahlander type rather than having two separate windings. That doesn't mean you can't run with a vfd but you can't switch between motor speeds while the vfd is powered up. You might want to talk to Mark or others about how to best deal with that. A downside of that configuration without a vfd is that there are few speeds above 750 - three I believe, so a vfd is a huge improvement if you sort out the wiring to isolate the vfd from the drum switch that drops out the poles on the motor. Motor is 8 pole and four pole. If Dahlander, four of the eight drop out in high and I would expect that to be the case. ask the seller about all of this and verify he is still running the original motor. If he swapped it out, see what is used now to get the 40-1800 rpm range.

Dave
 
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I have the same lathe, run from a rotary phase converter - An excellent machine.
Very powerful, and it's done everything I've asked - They do have a tendency to leak, though :~)
 
bradpj53 said:
This is from the listing.

View attachment 425762
Click to expand...

That is a nice looking specimen Brad. I too just acquired a Colchester I'm picking up tomorrow and sweating having to move it with two strangers versus having my brother along as I normally would.

You dont mention what voltage the motor is, but most variable speed conversions out there are 240v 3 phase. I highly recommend the TECO-Westinghouse L510-203-H1-U if your motor is a 3 phase 240v motor, and your input voltage is 240v single phase. Lots of resources out there to help support you should you need help on the L510, versus the chinese VFDs, which so very often dont work as designed
 
Beckerkumm said:
There are a couple of publications on owwm.com. A parts manual is listed under Clausing and a manual is listed under Colchester. Machine weighs 1550 lbs give or take. The lathe is driven by a two speed motor to get 16 speeds. Since there is no back gear, the two speed motor becomes important to getting the rpm range you want, absent the vfd. A vfd does not like two speed motors if they are of the Dahlander type rather than having two separate windings. That doesn't mean you can't run with a vfd but you can't switch between motor speeds while the vfd is powered up. You might want to talk to Mark or others about how to best deal with that. A downside of that configuration without a vfd is that there are few speeds above 750 - three I believe, so a vfd is a huge improvement if you sort out the wiring to isolate the vfd from the drum switch that drops out the poles on the motor. Motor is 8 pole and four pole. If Dahlander, four of the eight drop out in high and I would expect that to be the case. ask the seller about all of this and verify he is still running the original motor. If he swapped it out, see what is used now to get the 40-1800 rpm range.

Dave
Click to expand...

IF it were mine and had the original motor I'd replace it with a new inverter rated motor and unleash a bit more speed potential, I'm sure that the 1336 can safely be driven at 2000-2200 rpm given the headstock design and bearings. I also recommend redesigning the entire electrical cabinet at the same time so all the controls are brand new. Then Brad would have years of worry free machining.
 
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