Chester UK Lathes

[brian]

Has anyone got any experience of Chester UK lathes? I am thinking of buying a 220 or a DB8. Any advice gratefully received!

Thanks
Brian

[the_viffer]

I bought a Chinese lathe (not from Chester) in 94. I bought a Chester mill some years later and a couple of years ago I bought a minilathe (from Warco). I now have a '78 (Warco) chinese mill. I've often used a friend's biggish (6" centre?) fairly recent chinese lathe

My Chinese lathe was truly a dog. I'm not the most skilled machinist you ever saw and the lathe didn't flatter my abilities. I was glad to see the back of it.

I replaced it with an ML7 which is OK but perhaps not as good as the reputation despite having been fettled by a real perfectionist. It has a low top speed. For fairly fiddly bits I bought I bought a minilathe which is fine and has nice high top speed. (For really fiddly bits I have a lovely English clockmaker's lathe.)

The Chester mill I never really trusted. Maybe it was me, maybe it was the mill but I always felt happier only roughing with the mill and finishing by other methods. I sold it and replaced with a heavier second hand far eastern mill. It has evidence of having been assembled & made with care which I didn't feel was the case with the Chester mill.

My friend's big chinese lathe (and now I think of it his big mill) are very good. I'm not sure who supplied them. Possibly Chester possibly Warco. A fancy UK, US, German or Swiss job would probably be a tad more accurate and a trifle nicer to use if well set up but much more expensive especially new.

So my experince of the older stuff is not so good but for the newer things I think you get a lot of competent machine for the money. Lots of people will tell you to buy s/h English but it is easy to get ripped off especially if lacking experience.

On balance I think a new far eastern lathe is not a bad choice. I don't know either of the lathes you mention but if they are nice and meaty then I'd expect them to be satisfactory.

I know by the way a well known commercial loco maker who for many years used a Chester lathe. If it was rubbish he'd have dumped it mighty quick. He now has a Colchester but that is because it was offered at a price it would have been rude to say no to.

Good luck

[wayne]

The Viffer Mentions the limiting factor of the ml7 top speed

I have just finished rebuling my 1949 ML 7 with factory reconditiond parts, with the new type spindel and bearings it can be run up to 2000rpm the same as a super7 the spindel and berings are a direct replacement fo the white metal beringed ml7

So top speed may be not such a problenm, now just need a variable seed controler and motor

[the_viffer]

I thought about the solution you adopted wayne. It seemed to me that the cost of a new spindle and bearings and so forth was the same or more than the cost of the minilathe. Two (or three) lathes are handy because I can leave a time consuming job set up in one of the lathes while I run something off on other of the others. The small lathes don't take up too much space and happily live in a cupboard when not in use.

I'm not saying my way is the only way and other ways of dealing with slow ML7s are wrong.

Cheers!

[spurley]

Hi Brian

I bought a Chester 3 in 1 (lathe, mill an drill) nearly three years ago and I am very happy with it. There are a few 'Chinese' features which I have corrected or can live with; the cross slide has a fair bit of backlash whic I tried to correct early on but now live quite happily with and the motor 'lower pivot' points have quite a lot of play. This results in a sort of harmonic vibration which can affect the finish on longer higher speed cuts. To be corrected during my Christmas break.

Overall I am very pleased with it and have managed to create a chassis for my Tich which runs nicely on air and has been commended by the crustier members at my local club. As an entry level machine for price and overall 'useability' I think it is fine for the price.

Cheers

Brian

[spurley]

Had another thought about this machine; I fitted studs in place of the allen head screws to attach the chuck(s) to the mandrel. I have also fitted them to my faceplate too. This helps to speed up the change from one to another. The original attachment was three socket head (allen) screws and a special short allen key which made anything approaching quick changes impossible.

This dodge was also recently detailed in Model Engineer, just thought I'd better mention it.

Cheers

Brian

[brian]

Thanks for the replies. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't buy something awful!

Brian

[chameleonrob]

can you let use know how good your new lathe is if it's a chester (or warco etc.) lathe. I'm considering getting a lathe from them (the DB10V) and would like to know if it's worth the money they're asking.

rob