Clausing/Colchester 11" (Colchester Bantam 2000)

[samthedog]

The clean up process is long. I have used window washing fluid and WD40 mostly as it does not discolour the paint of the machine.

In the clean up, make sure you clean under the saddle, the leadscrews and bronze nuts, drain and replace all oil, and upgrade to new way wipers. Anywhere 2 surfaces slide, get in there and clean it up properly with window washing fluid, then oil it up. You will be surprised how much smoother everything will function.

Also, make sure to grease any areas that require it. You may need to disassemble before doing this as grease can harden over time and this decreases the lubrication properties significantly.

There are a number of posts if you do a search on how to check headstock alignment and wear on the ways. The good news is that your lathe has hardened ways so providing the previous owner did the minimum cleaning and oiling, I would expect the accuracy to be OK. I have a 48 year old Chipmaster that was used quite a bit but is still within .01 mm or better as it was regularly oiled. A visual inspection of the ways near the chuck should give you an indication of the wear.

Paul.

 

[Cheeseking]

Fog.
Couple more suggestions.
As far as raising the machine 8" boy that seems like a lot. I suppose its personal preference and how tall you are. Im 5-11" and with just std leveling mounts it puts the carriage hand-wheel crank at perfect level. To me that means handle at BDC/6 oclock and my arm down with only slight bend in elbow.
The PO of mine was 6-6" and in fact he used i beams just like you are contemplating.
Heres the feet I used.


As far as greasing anything - oh my just don't.
Once you do the heavy lifting cleaning up all the gunk and mis guided grease application, all you need is oil and oil and more (way) oil and rags. Mobil Vactra is a cheap, effective and available product. Wipe down and re oil after every use. Your post inspired me to remove the end cover and do some routine wiping and oiling.
It might not look like it but believe it or not I actually USE my machine quite a bit but am very thorough cleaning it afterwards.



Also if you need wipers for the v-ways I can possibly help. See earlier posts in this thread.

Lighting suggestions?
Well I can't speak for others but to me the older I get there can never be enough! How high is your ceiling where you will work?? I mounted a 4' florescent fixture directly above that goes on with the shop lights + a machine mounted incandescent task light. Still find myself with a sm flashlight peeking down bores!

 

[brightonmike]

Just received and installed my way wipers from cheeseking. They look and work great. Would recommend to anyone needing to replace yours. Thanks CK!

 

[horace]

hello everybody,sorry for being away so long. I've been very busy in refurbishing home for my son's wedding occasion . Now the wedding is over it was last Sunday. Now I'm free again,I'm happy to say that very lately I purchased a Colchester Bantam 2000 mk 2. This week I started inspecting it and found out that an inverter cannot be fitted to the motor because it is a 415V. 2 speed.So now I'm looking for suggestions.I wish to keep it as close to original as possible as possible.One suggestion is to fit a s. ph 3 hp. slow speed motor, I don't like it, because I'll be loosing half the speeds and may be the turning strength be weakened. If I go s.ph I prefer a 2 speed motor, or else a 3 ph high speed 3 hp motor with an inverter.Any suggestions or any help would be highly appreciated

 

[samthedog]

As far as greasing anything - oh my just don't.
Once you do the heavy lifting cleaning up all the gunk and mis guided grease application, all you need is oil and oil and more (way) oil and rags. Mobil Vactra is a cheap, effective and available product.

Some things may need greasing depending on the age of the lathe. For example, the motor spindle, matrix clutch and oil barrier in the headstock. You shouldn't use grease anywhere else - although I do on the change gears on my chipmaster. Since they are protected in the end cover and never see swarf, I use a Molygrease as it sticks like poop to a blanket and I know it won't run off.

Paul.

 

[Cheeseking]

Horace, I would try to stay as close to original as possible. 2 Hp is plenty of power on this machine. I found a great replacement motor from Automation Direct for about $200
and swapped mine out earlier this year.
2hp 240v 3P TEFC. 1750 rpm. Cast iron frame. 145T frame size.
Couple mods I needed to do were flip the shaft and conduit box orientation and trim the fan cover back a little. Ymmv depending on the vagaries of the sheet metal work and electrical layout on your specific machine. Looking back, if I would have known I needed to dis-assemble the new motor to make it work, I could have just opened the old motor and replaced the armature bearings as those were causing the noise prompting motor change in the first place! Oh well.

 

[Clem]

hello everybody,sorry for being away so long. I've been very busy in refurbishing home for my son's wedding occasion . Now the wedding is over it was last Sunday. Now I'm free again,I'm happy to say that very lately I purchased a Colchester Bantam 2000 mk 2. This week I started inspecting it and found out that an inverter cannot be fitted to the motor because it is a 415V. 2 speed.So now I'm looking for suggestions.I wish to keep it as close to original as possible as possible.One suggestion is to fit a s. ph 3 hp. slow speed motor, I don't like it, because I'll be loosing half the speeds and may be the turning strength be weakened. If I go s.ph I prefer a 2 speed motor, or else a 3 ph high speed 3 hp motor with an inverter.Any suggestions or any help would be highly appreciated

Hello. I've also just bought a Bantam 2000 Mk2., which has a 3kW two speed 415V three phase motor. I though I might swap in a new, dual voltage, lower power motor but, after a bit of reading on the internet and a lot of talking to people, I decided to try just hooking it up to a 2.2kW (I think) VFB inverter. I wired it up to the low-speed windings on the motor and it seems to work a treat. At the moment, my max. speed is 990rpm. I tried hooking the inverter up to the high speed windings (let's call them terminals 4, 5 and 6), leaving terminals 1, 2 and 3 unconnected and, although it did run up to full speed, it was low on torque. However, when I turned the frequency down on the inverter, it had more torque although, obviously, at lower speed. My next thing is to try hooking the inverter up to terminals 4, 5 and 6 and connecting terminals 1, 2 and 3 together, to see if that works any better for the high speed. I'm going to stay on the low speed windings for now, as I rarely need to go above 990rpm. Obviously, I won't be getting the full 3kW of power but I doubt I'll notice that. I'm running the inverter off a 240V, single phase supply through a 13A plug with no problems so far. If necessary, I will swap in a proper dual voltage motor at a later date. There's quite a bit of stuff about this on the internet and, if you're in the UK, I can let you know who I bought the inverters off as he's a very helpful man: with his advice, I have managed to wire the original apron control lever and also the emergency footbrake into the inverter and they work a treat. I have also managed to wire my coolant pump into another inverter, again with his advice. Please get in touch if you want any more information: I've got a few crude wiring sketches that I did to get it all wired in, and some pictures. Enjoy.

I have a question of my own about changing feed rates on this machine but I think I'd better post it somewhere else in this forum (I've never used a forum for anything before, so am a bit new to it all).

 

[Clem]

View attachment Screw Cutting Gearbox Woes.pdf
Hello All,

I hope somebody can help me with my question on a lovely lathe I've just got.

I've just acquired a Colchester Mk. 2 Bantam 2000 and have got it up and running and have even taken a quick facing test cut with it and it all seems OK.

However, I am having some difficulty with trying to change the feed rate. It seems that, whatever combination of the screw cutting gearbox levers I engage, the speed of the feed shaft doesn't change and nor does that of the leadscrew (I've tried to explain this clearer in the attached). Both shafts turn and transmit power OK and the levers feel like they're engaging properly (I get that having-to-wiggle-the-spindle-to-fully-engage-the-levers feeling when I'm engaging them) so I don't think anything's broken. I feel like I'm missing some crucial step but don't know what. Can anybody offer any advice, please?

Thanks and have a nice Christmas all,

Clem.

 

[Cheeseking]

Clem. Could a key be sheared and power is being transmitted only via friction? Theres a 1/8" dia shear pin on the headstock gear that drives the input to the feed gearbox. Maybe check that pin.

 

[Cheeseking]

I almost finished installing latest upgrade on my bantam today. Santa brought me a DroPro magnetic scale DRO couple weeks ago.
Had to mount the cross slide axis scale unconventionally so as to maintain access to the gib adj screws and compound lock bolts.