Sold March 2013 Back to Archive

Our own Colchester Chipmaster, in use until just before Christmas (the cylinder end cover seen in the pictures was the last job Barry did on it). It's old but un-abused, bed in good condition. I bought it about ten years ago to replace a Colchester Bantam I was using at the time - same spindle fitting (D1-3) but a very much more rigid bed (the Chipmaster was effectively the toolroom version of the Bantam) and a much more comprehensive gearbox - in particular you can change between the common model engineering threads plus 19tpi without having to resort to moving changewheels gears about, as with the Bantam. Since then it's done a lot of work here, continuing in use as a second-op machine when we bought the new CNC lathe a couple of years back.

It's now only up for sale due to the arrival of a larger lathe, being installed even as I write this.

In recent days the clutch has started to slip - happened before, we've adjusted it before, but it will need doing again. The tailstock hand wheel was broken many years ago and has been welded back together, works fine.

On the plus side, it turns accurately and is complete with a good three jaw chuck, four jaw chuck, face plate, travelling steady, ten quick change tool holders (although not the tooling shown in them in the pictures), rear toolpost and bed stop.