Colchester Triumph 1958 Restoration

Holt

Machinist
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Mar 16, 2016
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Before I start the history about my ongoing restoration of my lathe, a few things about myself would be appropriate, I'm born in 62, got my apprenticeship as a machinist in 79, and finished in 83, worked a couple of years with agricultural and forest machines, then 13 years at the Lego factory, making automatic machines for assembly and decoration. The last many years I have been working at a tool factory repairing molds, and the last four years, testing the new molds on our four plastic injecting molding machines.
I admit, I am a cheapskate, if I can't get it for free, I want money to take it with me, that have proven to be a bit of a challenge when dealing with this type of machines.
IN 2012 I decided I wanted my own lathe and mill for when I am retiring, and started to look for the right size equipment, and I quickly discovered that the small size lathes I was dreaming about, came with a substantial price tag, or were way too old and missing many parts.
Every day for quite a while I was looking in our version of Craigs list, an one day this ad came up, "Good and old lathe for sale, motor dismounted, otherwise in working condition $500" (well the price was in Danish Kroner but i exchanged it to USD) i went to see it, and it turned up to be a Colchester / Clausing Triumph 7 1/2 x 48 (15 x 48 in the states) a bit rusty on the bedways, but nothing a bit of TLC wouldn't cure.
I bought it on the spot, and collected it the following Saturday.

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This was the state I found it in at the tractor and machine shop that had it for sale.



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The following Saturday a friend and I got it loaded on a trailer, and got it home.

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At home we just rolled it off the trailer into the carport with a couple of hand pallet trucks.

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My friend had to leave, and I carried on bringing the lathe into my little workshop, the first obstruction, a 14 cm high edge, normally here is a ramp, but it cant take the weight of the lathe. It's the same height as a pallet, and I simply moved the pallets to the edge, liftet it on to the roller skates, and wheeled it right into the workshop.

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Well, I had to remove the doorframe before it could enter, the lathe was too wide otherwise

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The first thing I did, was cleaning the rusty bedways, no pics of that I am afraid, but they cleaned up much better and faster than expected.

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My eldest son (he was 15 at the time, and actually wanted to help without threats and promises) cleaned up the chassis, at that transformed it quite a bit.

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There was no oil visible in the sight glass, so I took the lid off the headstock, and got quite a chock.

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There was very little oil, instead it had been filled with Molycote grease by someone who apparently didn't know anything about how the whole thing is working, the grease is okay for the gears, but it will never find its way down the channels to lubricate the bushings and bearings.
I took the middle shaft of the gearbox out to gain access to the bottom, i removed all grease and oil, and found out the seals (drive shaft and tumbler shaft) was very hard, and one were cracked, and that one was under normal oil level, no wonder they couldn't keep the oil in.
I bought new seals and o-rings for the entire gearbox, but being in a metric part of the world, i had to buy metric seals, i found some that required very little altering to fit.

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When i cleaned the shaft and gears, i discovered one of the gears was loose on the shaft, the key and keyway was worn so that the gear could turn a couple of degrees, i bet that would be noisy when making interfered cuts!
It turned out to be the woodruf keyway in the shaft that was worn, I took it to work, and cleaned up the keyway, made a new key, and milled the top/side that fits the gear

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Sorry about the tool porn, the Deckel FP4 mill, the Jakobsen SJ12 grinder and the Schaublin 125C lathe just makes you drool.
 
Nice to see that it was just surface rust on the lathe ways. Congratulations on the great progress on the lathe. That looks like a great machine.
Have you found a mill?
-brino
 
Thank you very much, yes I have found a mill, I got it about a year ago, but haven't restored it yet, there will be a tread later, in the mean time, you can have this picture I borrowed from the net, mine was unfortunately without the vertical head, but I have since been able to score a very nice home made head from a very talented tool maker I know.

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Well, back to the Colchester.
I took the saddle and apron off the machine to clean it, there was a lot of dirt in the oil channels, I made new oilers for the whole lathe.

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I discovered that the halfnut for the leadscrew was broken, it was a PITA to take the leadscrew off the lathe to get access to the halfnut, but in the end I got it apart.

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IIRC I milled a 12-14 mm hole in the remaining piece of the halfnut, and turned a shaft of some tool steel, it was secured with some loctite and a M6 bolt.

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When I was putting it all together, I discovered there were no room for the halfnut with the feedshaft still attached, so that had to come off as well

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Well, there is always something isn't there angry.gif this time it was the front cover of the Norton gearbox.
Someone, probably many years ago, overtightened the bolts and cracked the area around the bottom of one of the countersunk holes.

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In this area, there isn't support all the way around the threaded hole, making it easy to crack the cover, I think it's a casting or machining error, but I think it's a bit late to complain to Colchester ;)

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I whacked the broken part off with a bolt and a hammer, leaving me with a clean 14mm hole, just the right size for M16. I threaded the hole, and made a plug from some threaded rod, drilled 10.3mm as original. i glued the plug into the hole with Loctite 549

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The hand crank on the cross slide was broken when i got the lathe. Only a piece of treated brass was left in the handle for me to drill out. Well naturally the treads was imperial, and here imperial bolts are as rare as unicorns, so i decided my first project was a new hand crank. I started with cutting 3/8" treads on the end of a 10mm Allen head bolt and 7/16" treads on a 12mm bolt (i want to upgrade the main handle as well) I got a piece of stock delivered with the lathe, it turned up to be stainless, and the right size for the handle.

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So of course the first chips was made on a part for the lathe.

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The next thing will be the tailstock handle, the one i am using now just don't look right although it works allright grin.gif

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I got one with the lathe, i don't think it's the original, but it will do the job, just need a bush, and perhaps a hand crank

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I turned a bush from some of the stainless i got with the lathe, then i turned the hole in the handle to fit the bush.

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That is a fantastic lathe,thank you for sharing from the beginning to present day.Sharing your back ground in machining the forum has gain another valuable member.Its nice to hear how a person came across their lathe,getting it home,going through it and what they discover when checking it out like the grease in the head. Your right that lathe cleaned up very nicely then you put it to use making your own handles which is something that I need to do.Thank you sir for sharing----kroll
 
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