22-06-2011, 03:04 PM
Hi,
Thanks BMUS and thanks for sharing the story. I too love to keep my eyes open for what is thrown out by other people but might prove useful to me.
I obtained my Colchester Triumph lathe not from a skip but from one of my departments at work; I found it one morning having been placed there by the maintenance crew and when I enquired of it I was informed it wasn't accurate enough to be used and was going for scrap.
Two minutes later I was standing in front of the guy who dealt with all the scrap enquiring how much it was going to cost me? Of course it went all the way to the top and finally a couple of days later after a bit (lot) of pestering on my part it was mine for £25 including VAT. It cost me another £100 cash to hire a wagon and crane to get it home but what a beauty of a lathe and I owned it for over ten years before sadly parting with it because I needed more space in the garage.
The actual fault on the lathe was not accuracy but lack of understanding how to adjust the Matrix clutch. Trying to engage the clutch the actuating lever would set the lathe in motion but not lock. I visited 600 Lathes nearby and explained the problem asking for advice. In simple turns the lever worked through rods and a set of knuckles should engage and lock within the clutch but the knuckles were not locking so the rods required adjusting; once I knew this I easily adjusted the rods by trial and error and finally the clutch locked; this cost absolutely nothing other than the trip to 600 Lathes. Big companies tend to cut a penny in two trying to save money but throw such expensive equipment away so easily. The lathe was fitted with a 5HP 3 phase motor and I'm sure the street lights dimmed every time I used it at night!!
Kind regards, Col.
Thanks BMUS and thanks for sharing the story. I too love to keep my eyes open for what is thrown out by other people but might prove useful to me.
I obtained my Colchester Triumph lathe not from a skip but from one of my departments at work; I found it one morning having been placed there by the maintenance crew and when I enquired of it I was informed it wasn't accurate enough to be used and was going for scrap.
Two minutes later I was standing in front of the guy who dealt with all the scrap enquiring how much it was going to cost me? Of course it went all the way to the top and finally a couple of days later after a bit (lot) of pestering on my part it was mine for £25 including VAT. It cost me another £100 cash to hire a wagon and crane to get it home but what a beauty of a lathe and I owned it for over ten years before sadly parting with it because I needed more space in the garage.
The actual fault on the lathe was not accuracy but lack of understanding how to adjust the Matrix clutch. Trying to engage the clutch the actuating lever would set the lathe in motion but not lock. I visited 600 Lathes nearby and explained the problem asking for advice. In simple turns the lever worked through rods and a set of knuckles should engage and lock within the clutch but the knuckles were not locking so the rods required adjusting; once I knew this I easily adjusted the rods by trial and error and finally the clutch locked; this cost absolutely nothing other than the trip to 600 Lathes. Big companies tend to cut a penny in two trying to save money but throw such expensive equipment away so easily. The lathe was fitted with a 5HP 3 phase motor and I'm sure the street lights dimmed every time I used it at night!!
Kind regards, Col.
