Clausing/Colchester 11" (Colchester Bantam 2000)

Gregor,

0.001" per foot is pretty good. If it is good enough for the parts that you want to make with it, I wouldn't fiddle with it any more...

I did fiddle with it some more and got it down under .0001 over 11" so I'm more than satisfied as this is the limit of my ability to measure with the micrometers I have. Took a while but I'm very happy to have it so dialed in right now. I just finished a steering stem and it was nice to be able to hit the numbers exactly wherever I needed.

As for the manual: I ended up buying a printed one (which is nothing more than a copy machine copy of an original... or another copy - it's bad) off of ebay. I'd love to have a nice PDF copy as I keep all my manuals on my iPad as it's easier to keep clean than a paper manual. Sadly, our machines predate computers so unless someone types in a copy or remakes one using OCR and nice scans of the images it's unlikely to find anything other than the copy of a copy of a copy...

Gregor
 
Did you get the compound slide with it? Hope so or that would be a real shame.
Look forward to some photos after you get it cleaned up a bit.
 
Did you get the compound slide with it? Hope so or that would be a real shame.
Look forward to some photos after you get it cleaned up a bit.
Yes got compound missing original Dickson toolpost but got holders albeit useless. few nuts and bolts missing along with all the back plates for three chucks, got catch plate and faceplate. It`s been sat in a garage for 10 years as a very poor bench he had originally started to strip it down got bored and left it till he passed late part of last year. but unfortunately the son thought scrap would be better than nothing so back plates gone. not too much of a worry though, originals would have been nice. I will post as things progress should I start a new thread or would it be ok to continue this one?
 
Gregor, I know what you mean we all strife for perfection or as close as we can get
 
Clausing USA has operating and parts manuals available in .pdf format. They were very prompt in sending me a copy
Ken
 
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Hi Guys
Sorry to jump in here, just bought one these beauties in a sorry state. Being delivered tomorrow, Don`t suppose anyone has a manual in PDF they would be willing to mail me or post a link to. attached a picture of it in its present location, as you can see it needs a lot of attention.
cheers
Sorry just found the manual in the downloads section cheers
View attachment 122410
I've got one I can send you, if you let me know your e-mail address. Failing that, if you ring Colchester (01924 415000, I think; it's on their website) and ask for the parts department, they should e-mail you one. They e-mailed me one and it didn't cost anything. They were very helpful. It will help if you give them the serial number of your lathe, which is on the tailstock end of one of the slideways. You can also get some spares off them. Mill Hill Supplies in Harlow, Essex, have some bits for these lathes, as I think they originally made some of the parts, and he's a helpful man.
 
I've got one I can send you, if you let me know your e-mail address. Failing that, if you ring Colchester (01924 415000, I think; it's on their website) and ask for the parts department, they should e-mail you one. They e-mailed me one and it didn't cost anything. They were very helpful. It will help if you give them the serial number of your lathe, which is on the tailstock end of one of the slideways. You can also get some spares off them. Mill Hill Supplies in Harlow, Essex, have some bits for these lathes, as I think they originally made some of the parts, and he's a helpful man.
Cheers for the offer Clem
I spoke to Karen at Colchester, she was more than happy to email a manual.
excellent info
cheers
 
Clem, dogbed...or anyone else looking for a factory steady rest for the 11" colchester.
I just noticed a sorry beat up 11x33 popped up on ebay that has a steady rest and a collet closer with it. Pretty sure its a dealer maybe they would sell you just the steady?
 
Hello,
Just a curious question about the Colchester 11" lathe.
I have the chance to buy a used Colchester 11" for a fee of 200.00 and the machine is surface rust all over it and something is locked up on it. dirty is a good word for it but the wave is in exc. shape. Would this machine be worth the price to fix up? I really like all of the post on this machine so far.
Thanks and just wondering.
 
Well, they are great little machines and $200 is practically free but if it needs parts they are very very expensive and honestly depending on which ones it needs could be nla and you would need to find used. That could take forever to never; again, depending in what exactly it needs. "Surface rust" can be fixed with elbow grease. What exactly is locked up?
Got any photos?
 
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