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Lathe - broken gear tooth
bodger - 5/12/12 at 04:08 PM

I've got the chance of a Colchester Bantam lathe for £500. It's an ex school one so hasn't seen a lot of use. Only trouble is it's got a tooth out of one of the gears at the back of the headstock, though it does seem to mesh ok. I think it's used to drive the longitudinal feed screw. How easy/costly would it be to get a new gear or should I walk away?

renetom - 5/12/12 at 04:53 PM

Hi
Seems a lot of money for a broken lathe
I would shop around
Eg:

colchester lathe

Good luck
René

Talon Motorsport - 5/12/12 at 04:59 PM

I did the same thing I brought a Colchester student with broken screw drive it was missing 3 teeth for £275. Weld the hole up and file the tooth back in with needle files.

bodger - 5/12/12 at 05:26 PM

Thanks, I've been watching ebay for a year or so now & decent lathes around my area don't come up very often & the ones that do seem to go for silly money compared to what some people on here have paid. At least in the south, they . That ones in Chester which is a fair old distance = money to get it to me here down souf. This one's local & costing nothing for the transport. Apart from the gear it's not in too bad a condition. I might try the machine tools guy in Burgess Hill on Friday & see what he thinks. I suppose if I'm honest, I've always fancied one but apart from a few bushes I can't think how much use it'll get so I'm wavering a bit. Though people do say that when you've got one you find lots of little jobs you can do.

trikerneil - 5/12/12 at 05:36 PM

I had this problem years ago.
Drill holes and insert steel pins where the tooth was. Fill the rest of the gap with braze and file back to a tooth shape.

HTH

Neil

chris-g - 5/12/12 at 05:37 PM

Keep an eye out or post a wanted ad on http://www.homeworkshop.org.uk its free.

HowardB - 5/12/12 at 05:59 PM

once you own a lathe, the only thing that you ever really wish is that you'd bought a bigger one!!

vanepico - 5/12/12 at 06:12 PM

I bet it's because they've used the feed screw and let it hit the chuck or something, sounds like something a student might do accidently. I was always worried about doing that on the college machines.

Dualist - 5/12/12 at 06:38 PM

See if you can get the serial number off it (end of the bed) and phone Colchester for a list of prices for gears on that shaft. They aren't as expensive as you may think

bodger - 5/12/12 at 07:26 PM

quote:
Originally posted by vanepico
I bet it's because they've used the feed screw and let it hit the chuck or something, sounds like something a student might do accidently. I was always worried about doing that on the college machines.


There's a chunk missing out of the side of the 4 jaw so I think that's exactly what happened.

liam.mccaffrey - 5/12/12 at 07:49 PM

2nd hand bantam parts are readily available. If not, if its a standard DP gear with a 14 or 20 deg pressure angle it will probably be available off the shelf from HPC Gears there is also Tony Griffiths at http://lathes.co.uk/, he stocks some stuff. Plus there are a load of parts clearing places that carry this stuff.

When I repaired/rebuilt/remanufactured the gearbox on my pre ww2 lathe this guy linky cut me some special gears for not very much at all.
I think I had the blanks machined and i sent them to him. Even if you had to have the part remade I wouldn't expect it to cost more than about £30-£40.

I can help if needed, I've done exactly as you have. Feel free to U2U

[Edited on 5/12/12 by liam.mccaffrey]

Confused but excited. - 5/12/12 at 08:05 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Dualist
See if you can get the serial number off it (end of the bed) and phone Colchester for a list of prices for gears on that shaft. They aren't as expensive as you may think


Ya think?
I got offered a Colchester Student for £100, some years ago because the tailstock was missing. Though I had struck gold until they quoted me £675 for the bare machined casting, no sleeve etc.

bodger - 5/12/12 at 09:13 PM

quote:
Originally posted by liam.mccaffrey
2nd hand bantam parts are readily available. If not, if its a standard DP gear with a 14 or 20 deg pressure angle it will probably be available off the shelf from HPC Gears there is also Tony Griffiths at http://lathes.co.uk/, he stocks some stuff. Plus there are a load of parts clearing places that carry this stuff.

When I repaired/rebuilt/remanufactured the gearbox on my pre ww2 lathe this guy linky cut me some special gears for not very much at all.
I think I had the blanks machined and i sent them to him. Even if you had to have the part remade I wouldn't expect it to cost more than about £30-£40.

I can help if needed, I've done exactly as you have. Feel free to U2U

[Edited on 5/12/12 by liam.mccaffrey]


Thanks for the offer. I think I'm going to take a punt on the lathe so I might be in touch.

alfiebeard - 5/12/12 at 10:18 PM

I have a Colchester Bantam and its a brilliant little Lathe, as others have said the only thing you will want when you own a Lathe is a bigger one, the Bantam will swing a 10" disc but every time I need to skim a disc it turns out to be an 11" one.

Alfie