Colchester Bantam 2000 - Thoughts?

The incorrect leadscrew is in my opinion not the leadscrew, but one of the Spindles in X or Z. Eventually the machine was sold as imperial and a damaged spindle was changed with a metric or vice versa, but without changing the dials as well.
If you are not sure with the machine, take a dial indicator (with large foot instead of ballpoint) and holder and a long guide shaft and test, if the machine is ok. check the gear for speed and feed, the guides the backlash and the levers for engaging the feed and leadscrew.

Normally I say, if you get a machine that is big enough
for your job and new with guarantee, take this. But the colchester is the same price and a much more rigid and powerful machine like the little chinese.

If I want believe tony's website, then the machine from Ebay is a bantam 1600, but they can run 2000 turns, maybe thats the reason for the other name. The other 2000 in reality a harrison looks completely different.

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Originally Posted by uli12us

The incorrect leadscrew is in my opinion not the leadscrew, but one of the Spindles in X or Z. Eventually the machine was sold as imperial and a damaged spindle was changed with a metric or vice versa, but without changing the dials as well.
If you are not sure with the machine, take a dial indicator (with large foot instead of ballpoint) and holder and a long guide shaft and test, if the machine is ok. check the gear for speed and feed, the guides the backlash and the levers for engaging the feed and leadscrew.

Normally I say, if you get a machine that is big enough
for your job and new with guarantee, take this. But the colchester is the same price and a much more rigid and powerful machine like the little chinese.

If I want believe tony's website, then the machine from Ebay is a bantam 1600, but they can run 2000 turns, maybe thats the reason for the other name. The other 2000 in reality a harrison looks completely different.

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Yep, the one is a Harrison M250. The one in the listing is a Bantam 2000 (and not the M250) as you have stated.

In tonys site, the bantam2000 is identically to the harrison M250. But the sign an the Ebay machine is M2000, why they have named different machines with the same name, who knows?

But I have seen another Bantam right now, it seems in much better condition and have Chucks with it, but not collets.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COLCHESTER...3D231773982948

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Originally Posted by uli12us

In tonys site, the bantam2000 is identically to the harrison M250. But the sign an the Ebay machine is M2000, why they have named different machines with the same name, who knows?

But I have seen another Bantam right now, it seems in much better condition and have Chucks with it, but not collets.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COLCHESTER...3D231773982948

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Thanks, saw that. It looked 'old' but having taken another look, it looks fairly clean and worth a look. They are offering shipping too, else i cant easily collect (hence why the other one was appealing too).

I have a bantam 2000, and while very similar to the harrison 250/300, there are subtle differences. For example, I favour the colchester because the cross slide is operated by my left hand, saddle is operated by my right (I came from a boxford), on the harrison you would operate the cross slide with your right hand, and the saddle with your left (same as a myford) for me it`s a bit like having to re - learn how to use a lathe when I use my friends harrison, I always end up crashing into the workpiece because of the way the handles are set. I have also had a myford, and by comparison, I would much prefer the colchester as it`s about 3 times larger.

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Originally Posted by needleworks

I have a bantam 2000, and while very similar to the harrison 250/300, there are subtle differences. For example, I favour the colchester because the cross slide is operated by my left hand, saddle is operated by my right (I came from a boxford), on the harrison you would operate the cross slide with your right hand, and the saddle with your left (same as a myford) for me it`s a bit like having to re - learn how to use a lathe when I use my friends harrison, I always end up crashing into the workpiece because of the way the handles are set. I have also had a myford, and by comparison, I would much prefer the colchester as it`s about 3 times larger.

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Thanks, so based on all of the above, which would you recommend?

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Originally Posted by Chaz

Thanks, so based on all of the above, which would you recommend?

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I would certainly choose the colchester over the myford, simply because of it`s increased capabilities. One thing that I maybe should mention is that my colchester is 3 ph, and has a dual speed motor. This meant that I had to go for one of the bigger phase convertors, (transwave), as opposed to one of the small VFD`s (well, thats what my electrician advised).
This added a fair bit on to the total cost of the setup, whereas my friend uses a harrison which simply runs off a small VFD, and ultimately gives him full speed control.

Unfortunately, I can`t comment on the warco, as I have never used one ! or even seen one in the flesh. I also think that a good used harrison will always hold it`s money, so that may be something to consider if you plan on changing in the future. Sorry I can`t be of more help.

Looking carefully at the lathes.co.uk article, I think the Bantam that we are discussing is a Mk2 2000, which is definitely not the same as the Harrison 250 clone later Bantam 2000 (Mk3 Bantam). Position of saddle handwheel and leadscrew lever notwithstanding (and I understand the issue having a Smart and Brown and a Myford in the workshop with opposite handed controls) my personal choice, if the Bantam is in reasonable condition, would be to go for the Bantam. Again, based purely on personal experience and my own needs, I find that the bigger, heavier, machine just seems so much nicer to use, and the extra capacity is there if needed. Mind you, that is comparing the S&B to the Myford; the S&B has a similar capacity to the Bantam but weighs around 3 times as much, so not quite the same animal. I used to use a Bantam many years ago in the student workshop at University and I remember it as a good machine to use. However, I would still wonder about hanging on a little longer just to see if a better-equipped machine turns up (or even have a look at some of the dealers' websites to see what is on offer there - G&M, Home and Workshop Machinery, etc). The eBay machine seems a bit short on the tooling and chucks and there is that question mark over the replacement topslide feedscrew (if that's what it is).

The difference in the scales isn't really important. If you have a 1/10" or 2,5mm spindle, then the difference is only 0,04mm per revolution.
If you make a raw work with the machine, then a mm more or less makes nothing. After that you take away 2-5/10 so you need only 1/5 of the spindle, so the maximum error is in the range of 0,008mm.
The backlash of a spindle is more important.

Thanks. Still a bit confused. Are we saying the 2nd 'old' lathe is better than the first (original ebay advert) and it seems the Warco is generally not the first choice?

I bought a 4KW VFD to power a few different things. It *should* power most of these lathes but I dont have their exact specs to know for sure.