# My Colchester Bantam 1600 lathe (Re-posting.)



## Nammar (Dec 17, 2011)

Hi,

I bought this Colchester Bantam 1600 lathe with the Condor metric screw cutting gearbox from a local school, when the government decided that kids no longer need to be trained in hand skills.

The lathe came with all of the standard parts that the machine was originally sold with, namely a 3 jaw chuck, a 4 jaw chuck, a face plate, a 2 point moving steady, a 3 point stationary steady, a full set of change gears, two dead centres, a live centre, a block type tool post and a Dixon quick change tool post with 5 tool holders. one tool holder being a parting tool holder.

I have cleaned the lathe and have everything stored at the moment, mainly because I don't have 3 phase 380 volt at my house, but this will be addressed in the new year. When the lathe was being cleaned I noticed that the compound slide was tight, so stripped it down and found that the slides had picked up. I will be repairing this over the Christmas holidays (I hope) and want to put the machine onto rubber mounts, as well.

From the internet, Tony Griffiths site http://www.lathes.co.uk I see that my lathe is a 1972 model. The lathe is in a very good condition for her age and I don't expect to find much wrong with it. The spindle has a D-1 backplate mounting system. It's a pitty that I did not take photos of the loose components that came with the lathe, but I'll be posting them at a later date for all to see.

Here are the pictures of the machine after the clean-u...... Enjoy, Geoffrey Owen.


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## Cheeseking (Jan 5, 2014)

Wow can't believe I just saw this.   Thats a beautiful machine Geoffrey!

Did you ever get it up and running???


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## Nammar (Jan 9, 2014)

Dear Cheeseking,

Compliments of the season to you and all at Hobby machinist. May 2014 be the best year of your life.)

Thanks for looking at my lathe and the good words of encouragement. I really need them at the moment. Unfortunately I have not had the time to play with my toys in the last few years. I've only oiled and covered my machines since the above posting. However I've cleaned and overhauled some of the loose components, such as the chucks, tool holders, steadies, gears and small lathe tools, whenever I have had a few hours to myself and have needed to de-stress. The compound slide on this lathe has picked up on the ways and still needs to be scraped to restore a smooth sliding feel. Being self employed, the pressures of work in West Africa, to the North of Namibia, have kept me away from my hobby. 

My Colchester Bantam lathe is still in an excellent condition. I do remove the covers at least every 3 months to re-oil and check that there is no rusting taking place, while in storage. For the small turning jobs I have at home, I use my SB9C. Also, until I get my 3 phase power sorted out at home, all I'll be doing is improving it's looks. It seems such a waste, but this lathe is what I've planned to use when I go on pension. There are many projects that I have lined up to do.

In the meantime I'm always on the lookout for any machines for sale and buy if the price is right. The only problem with the collecting of tools and machinery is I'm running out of space to store them.anic: I have been reading all of the posts that get made, thanks to Nelson having set up a weekly newsletter, but have not answered any, as by the time I read them, someone else has answered the question. There is a wealth of experience on this site!

Thanks for looking, Geoffrey.


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## ARM (Jan 9, 2014)

Hello  Geoffrey  Owen  Esq
Compliments  of  the season to U too
And  all the best for 2014 as well

Beautiful piece U have there - in fact, in much better condition than our Chipmaster.
These old COLCHESTER's were well made, hard working units. 
We see from Your Spindle Mounting that U have what looks like a  D1-3 CAMLOCK Mounting.
Do U have any extra Tooling  ??? 
We are looking for a 5" Backplate for ours. Can get one Imported.  However, U are closer  !!!
Have been told by Seller that most BANTAM parts are interchangeable with our  Machine.  Don't know much about that ???

Also, have U thought about a VARIABLE SPEED  DRIVE or  INVERTER for Your Machine ???
We have used these on our Belt Grinder  Motors  where U get 380 Volts IN and  220  Volts OUT  !!!
And  even  the  opposite  ???
Don't know too much technical about these things  -  but that's one way of solving Your present problem.
Have a reasonably good, fair priced Supplier in Pretoria we could recommend.  U  can discuss the merits in depth with him.  Good man !!  
Let me know if U want to talk turkey with him  !!!
All the best and 
Take Care
aRM


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