# Thoughts On Buying 13x36 Clausing-colchester



## Investigator

Found a 13x36 Clausing Colchester lathe locally.  Asking price is  $1300.
From the ad:
Clausing Colchester 13x36 Gearhead engine lathe
It has a 6" 3 jaw chuck, Collet Closer, Square indexable Toolpost and 6" Faceplate.
Live center and Drill Chuck 
L-0 Spindle Nose, #3 morse taper in the tailstock, and 1.53" thru the spindle.
3 hp single phase motor with reversing switch. Just plug it into a 220v dryer outlet.

Hardened ways look good, and only about .003" backlash in the cross slide leadscrew. 
Made in England.

The one issue it has is the power feed will advance to a point, then will need to be advanced
by hand a short distance until it catches and resumes power feed.

Come by and see it run, and I can load on a utility trailer. 

Seller said it has a taper attachment, drill chuck, centers, and some cutting bits.  He said the original 3phase motor has been replaced with a single phase 220, I believe 3 horse motor.

I'm wondering if this is a deal, or dud.  What should I look and ask for? What should I be careful of?


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## Holescreek

I'd be first in line to check it out.


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## Chipper5783

I'd be over there in a heart beat.  You'll probably need to do some work on the apron (sounds like a gear has a tooth missing).  That is a pretty common lathe, you should not have trouble getting support for the repair (though if it is a gear, you'll need to make it, buy one etc).


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## Bob Korves

Those are very nice lathes, and it appears to be well tooled.  Probably a gear missing a tooth or two.  That can be repaired, or a replacement found.  Look it over carefully for other issues.  Now that is a gunsmith's lathe!  The price is excellent, judging without seeing it...


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## David VanNorman

Get over there now . The price is great if it anything like advertised it is great.


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## Investigator

Thats the photo from the ad.  is the hand wheel on the apron on the wrong side?  Seems different photos on the web show it on various sides.


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## jpfabricator

Go and look! with the hardend ways I would say its a good deal.


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## Investigator

what about getting a larger 3 jaw and 4 jaw chuck?  How hard is it going t be to find parts?


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## Investigator

and what about a splash shield on the back?  What else is or may be missing?


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## mce5802

Nice looking lathe. Parts should be available on eBay or maybe from atlas-Clausing? But it looks pretty complete other than possibly a threading dial or maybe I just can't see it? And there should be handles on the compound knob too I think. You can make em, if you get it


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## Brain Coral

" Thats the photo from the ad. is the hand wheel on the apron on the wrong side? Seems different photos on the web show it on various sides. "

No, the hand wheel is always on the left with a straight bed lathe, and always on the right with a gap bed lathe. Yours appears to have no gap in the bed. It looks like the oil sight glass is missing from the head stock.... or it's been painted black for some reason...

The lathe appears to have been poorly spray bombed, without any concern for the tags or handles.... that raises a bit of a red flag for me, although the lathe might be just fine. Take the cover off of the head stock and inspect every single gear and every single tooth by moving the spindle by hand and shifting the levers on top to see that all is well. In addition, take the quick change gear box cover off and do the same. If the owner is hesitant to allow this, I would walk away. There's big money in replacing gears on these lathes.

Brian


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## mksj

Same as Brian has outlined, I would be very cautions on this one for the red flags mentioned. The broken gears would be an instant show stopper, I would review this thread: http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/clausing-colchester-13x36-engine-lathe-parts-needed.38792/


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## Investigator

mksj said:


> The broken gears would be an instant show stopper, I would review this thread: http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/clausing-colchester-13x36-engine-lathe-parts-needed.38792/



You mean the broken feed gear as listed in the ad would be a show stopper?  Or any broken gears in the head?


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## Investigator

**UPDATE** I went and looked at the machine

First, take what I am about to say with some 'grains of salt' if you will, I am a newbie and really don't know alot about lathes.
That being said, overall I thought the machine itself was 'in good shape'.  The apron controls and slides moved with a heavy silky feel.  I could see just a little bit of backlash in the cross slide.  The ways from what I could tell by looking looked good, by that I mean I didn't see any gouges and no obvious worn spots.  The flat on the top of the "V" ways seemed to be the same width the length of the bed.  Machine ran smooth as far as I could tell.

Now for what I thought were problems;
The original 2 speed 3 phase motor has been replaced with a single speed 1 phase motor.  So, the lathe no longer has the full range of speeds, which ones are missing I'm not sure.  There is no steady rest, no follow rest, only a 3-jaw chuck and a back plate which appears to be turned down to 8" and cut to mount a new plain chuck on.  As the ad said the feed stops and has to be restarted by turning the hand wheel. Obviously a tooth or 2 are missing on the gear in the apron.  That feed issue is not a big deal by itself, but it leads to what I think is some history of the lathe.

The chip pan has damage, in fact it had been torn apart and repaired on the front left corner.  I also found in the top drawer a broken hand wheel, which the owner told me was the original wheel for the apron, a new(er) hand wheel had been put on in its place.  The broken wheel had the outer rim broken and missing between 2 of the 3 'spokes'.  Also, the bottom of the top drawer was bent up and in.  Taking all this into account, I believe that at some time it's past the machine toppled over or was dropped while moving which did the damage to the chip pan, broke the hand wheel and the teeth on the apron gear and bent the drawer all at the same time.

I don't think the current owner did it, but I think it happened.  So, it makes me worried about what other cracks and damage there may be.

I really really want a heavy good old iron lathe.  I'm not sure if I want this one though.  Thoughts?


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## talvare

Be patient and keep looking. You may have to travel some distance and pay a little to transport a machine but it will still be much better than buying a "pig in a poke". It took me almost two years to find a lathe I was satisfied with and it was over 500 miles away, but although not cheap, it has been one of the best purchases I've made.
Just my two cents.

Ted


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## wa5cab

I'm inclined to agree with Ted.  If you already have doubts, skip it.


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## Silverbullet

ID HAVE BOUGHT IT IF IT WERE NEAR ME ,THEY DONT COME UP AROUND HEAR ,IF THEY DO ITS NEAR$4,000 STARTING PRICE. IF ITS HAS YOU SAID , MY OFFER WOULD START AT $750.00 STOP AT A GRAND. BUT YA NEVER KNOW YOU MAY BE RIGHT AND ANOTHER BETTER ONE WILL COME UP.


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## hermetic

Hi, investigator? anything happen with the Colchester, I would look to see if there are any teeth missing from the rack which drives the carriage along the bed. This is exactly like my lathe, a Colchester Student Mk1 and I have a .pdf manual if you need one! Good lathes, go in with a low offer because of the damage.
Phil


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## jdh

I have talked about the lathe with the owner over the phone a while back. It seems to me that a forklift did the damage and there is indeed a broken gear in the apron. That is replaceable though not inexpensive. There is a great gear shop in Midlothian Texas that can make a new gear for it. They are not cheap but they do good work. The gears may be Mod. as it came from England. at least my Harrison gears are.

If the lathe has little wear on the bed and all the running gearing works good it would be sort of a rare find. Those lathes are well made however not idiot proof. Fork lifts are good tools used properly. Used wrong they can do more damage than a wrecking ball.

I am lathe poor so I really do not need it but it seems like it is worth a close look. The price is right.

Joe


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## Investigator

I passed on the lathe.  I was a bit afraid of the damage I found, as well as any concealed damage I'm not knowledgeable enough to find.  The biggest thing was the lack of a 4-jaw and steady rest to me.  Those 2 items were very pricey when I looked around to get an estimate on 'total cost' of getting it ready to use.  Having to buy tooling made the cost not so good in my opinion.


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