Colchester Bantam 2000 - Thoughts?

[Chaz]

Details on the Colchester (and any other lathe) here http://www.lathes.co.uk/bantam/

Not sure if this is for the 2000 model specific, but some details below.

The approximate weight of the standard lathe was 756 lbs (343 kg.)

[Neale]

I know it's a difficult choice - I went through the same decision process a year or so back and went with the second-hand British option over the Warco same-price alternative. In your case, though, you are comparing two very different machines. The Warco is roughly equivalent to my Myford Super-7 which is a great machine, very useful, pretty versatile, etc. But next to a Bantam it's a bit of a lightweight. Less capacity, and that increased mass translates into greater cutting capacity (much faster metal removal, etc). As long as it's not too worn...

In my case, what swayed me was that the second-hand machine came with a heap of tooling, chucks, collets, etc, and the Warco with the bare minimum. You are going to have to buy cutting tools in either case but chucks can cost a fair bit, and from what I read the Bantam had a D1-3 spindle nose mount and these days that's not a common size. OTOH, I think the Warco has its own unique chuck mount which can be a bit fiddly to use when changing chucks.

Can you realistically think through the kind of jobs you might do on the machine and see if that guides you? Remember that you can do little jobs on a big machine but the opposite is more difficult...

And while the Bantam might be the right size machine for you, this particular Bantam might not be! There are plenty of them around (very common machine in training workshops and the like).

[Chaz]

I know it's a difficult choice - I went through the same decision process a year or so back and went with the second-hand British option over the Warco same-price alternative. In your case, though, you are comparing two very different machines. The Warco is roughly equivalent to my Myford Super-7 which is a great machine, very useful, pretty versatile, etc. But next to a Bantam it's a bit of a lightweight. Less capacity, and that increased mass translates into greater cutting capacity (much faster metal removal, etc). As long as it's not too worn...

In my case, what swayed me was that the second-hand machine came with a heap of tooling, chucks, collets, etc, and the Warco with the bare minimum. You are going to have to buy cutting tools in either case but chucks can cost a fair bit, and from what I read the Bantam had a D1-3 spindle nose mount and these days that's not a common size. OTOH, I think the Warco has its own unique chuck mount which can be a bit fiddly to use when changing chucks.

Can you realistically think through the kind of jobs you might do on the machine and see if that guides you? Remember that you can do little jobs on a big machine but the opposite is more difficult...

Many thanks for your response.

In terms of job sizes, I dont think Ill ever do anything 'large'. Most of the stuff I will do is Aluminium and Id rather have something that is easier to work with and potentially 'cncable' in future unless I manage to get something that is CNC from the start.

For example, I would want to do some gears, OD around 58mm, brass. Alu wheels for RC car, OD of around 80-90mm. I dont think ill ever need the size or speed of a big machine but I'm 100% open to taking views on this.

The myfords are nice but a common set of complaints is that they are a bit small and too expensive for what they are. I missed a lovely machine that sold for £900 with loads of tools (probably worth as much).

In both cases, the Warco and Bantam come with little, so Id need to get. The Warco comes with 2 chucks, a few steadies etc but nothing else. The Bantam will be with nothing as such.

To me, the Bantam might be a bargain if its not too difficult to sort it out. They seem to sell for more money generally but im crap scared of buying something that cannot be fixed or is simple uneconomical to fix.

If someone knowlegable could view and advise, that would push me to the larger machine. One thing that concerned me is that this guy seems to buy and sell / trade factory type machines. Perhaps buying at Auction or estates being would up. He had asked some engineering guys about the lathe and this 'incorrect leadscrew'. I got the impression that if it was worth buying, perhaps one of them might have considered it. If they havent, why not?

[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.

[Chaz]

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.

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

[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

[Chaz]

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

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).