# Colchester Master Face Plate Find



## Brain Coral (Jan 13, 2014)

Hello all,

Through another thread, I came across a fellow Colchester enthusiast who is in the process of restoring his own Colchester Master lathe. The workmanship that I am doing pales in comparison to what Gilles is attaining. He does outstanding work and through a casual exchange, he indicated that he knew of a fellow on Kijiji in Quebec Canada that was selling NOS Colchester LO spindle 12" face plates. 

With Gilles extensive help, I am the proud new owner of one of those faceplates.... 

Unfortunately, I bought the very last one... 

It took awhile to arrive but was worth the wait... the way that Gilles had thought out the careful packaging of the faceplate was worthy of pictures....










The faceplate was in brand new condition and only needed the original "cosmoline" cleaned off....










Gilles had bought one for himself and could have easily made a few bucks for himself, but instead, he only acted as an intermediary and passed the face plate along to me at cost.

This is a testament to this site and the good and helpful people who are here and just want to help.... :thumbsup:

Cheers... 

Brian


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## valleyboy101 (Jan 13, 2014)

Nice find Brian!  L0's aren't easy to find, let alone an essentially brand new one, looks good on your Collchester - but I think I would have looked better on mine.  Just a little envy.  The head of my 13" Student looks identical to yours except mine has a horizontal top surface -  a place made for clutter.
Congrats, Michael


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## Brain Coral (Jan 14, 2014)

Thanks Michael,

The fellow that was selling them had 5 of them to start with. I was just lucky to get one at all. He was selling them for $50.00 each, so with shipping from Quebec and my friends time, I'm in at $100.00 right to my door.

Brian


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## valleyboy101 (Jan 14, 2014)

Hi Brian,
I think that $100.00 is a very good deal, just a backing plate for a chuck goes for more than that.
Michael


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## Brain Coral (Jan 15, 2014)

OK.... Nothing to do with the faceplate, but when I bought my Colchester Master, it came with an EC Collet chuck, but no collets.... 

So, for the last year or so, I have been on the lookout for a set of collets... casually so... I recently saw a bunch for sale, individually, with a "Best Offer" option and put in a "lowball" offer on six of them. I had an almost immediate response and won 4 of them with counter offers on two more. Counter/ counter offer and won the rest. I was shocked, so I bid on the last three and ended up winning them also.

Now, I didn't end up with a full set... I am still missing three from 1" to 1 3/8" but I am still in at under $300.00.

I will find the rest over time, but I am so very happy with my purchase. I had the day off in between jobs and the tracking indicated that it would be delivered near the ned of the day, so I spent the day in my shop, working on a lathe restoration.... looking and listening for the UPS truck... :ups:

Here's a couple of pics of the first six collets. The rest should arrive tomorrow...







Here is something that I learned this evening about the collet chuck. This chuck is an LO mount with a scroll and chuck key. ( I am sure that those of you who are familiar with this chuck will already know this ) I had played around with the chuck before I purchased the collets, and on one occasion managed to get the cap bound up in the threads of the chuck. It didn't take a lot of effort to extricate it, but I was mystified as to what went wrong. I figured that there must be a burr in the threads.... Tonight, I had the same problem when I popped a collet into the chuck and tried to thread the "nose" on... I was only using light hand pressure and was always able to back it out, but I thought... " What the heck is going on ? "

I ended up taking the "nose" completely off the chuck to inspect the threads and, BINGO... !!! I saw a small keyway in the "nose" and and corresponding key inside the chuck.... No wonder it was binding !!!... So, I thought that I would add this to my thread in case someone else had the same problem....

Here's a couple of pics of the keyway and key...








If you don't align the keyway with the key when seating the collet, it simply will bind and go nowhere... anic:

I will have to scribe a mark on the "nose" so that it is easier to determine if they are in alignment when together, as you lose sight of the keyway when assembled.

I am gloating just a little, but also passing this little tidbit along to those that may need it.

Oh, and by the way.... these collets appear to be Brand New Old Stock...
Best regards... 

Brian


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## valleyboy101 (Jan 15, 2014)

Nice tidbits Brian,
I've never seen collets like that but they sure look like they would work beautifully, and a good British brand.  Another thing that I din't know that I needed!  They make my 5C s look pretty lame
Congrats again, I think you can afford a bit of gloating.
Michael


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## azzrock (Feb 25, 2014)

hi Brain. Well done and great photots. Your master apears to be in great nic.
do you know if this guy has any more l0 collet chucks?
aaron


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## Brain Coral (Mar 1, 2014)

Hello Aaron,

The collet chuck that I have came with my lathe. I think it is designated as an LC 15. The collets were bought on Ebay and the faceplate was bought from a fellow in Quebec that was only selling the faceplates. 

I will PM you to give you a link to some collet chucks that are for sale on another site.

Cheers... 

Brian


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## hvontres (Mar 2, 2014)

Brian,
I have a couple of questions about the collets:

1) what is the diameter of the pilot on top?

2) What is the taper angle in the closer?

3)What is the major diameter on the taper?


I am trying to figure out if EC colles would fit a closer designed for B-42/173E spring collets as well.

Thanks,


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## Brain Coral (Mar 4, 2014)

hvontres said:


> Brian,
> I have a couple of questions about the collets:
> 
> 1) what is the diameter of the pilot on top?
> ...



Hello Henry,

1) The pilot dia. is 2.045" ...

2) Taper angle is 27 degrees included angle or 13 1/2 degrees per side...

3) Major diameter on taper is 2.791" ...

Brian


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