Niccolo M.
Member
13" Colchester
Colchester. Colchester and Harrison were purchased by the 600 group, they have the Clausing brand. In the United States if you want a new Colchester or Harrison Lathe you get it from the Clausing Dealer. The Colchester and Harrison lathes are made in England. Clausing has a clone of the 15” X 50” model that is made in Taiwan for significantly less money than the Colchester but still has the Gamet spindle bearings. That lathe is way too long through the head stock. Clausing also has the Metosa line of lathes made in Spain. The 13” Metosa is a good lathe and again less money than the 13” Colchester but it doesn’t have the pressure lubricated headstock clutches, gears, shafts and bearings of the Colchester. It is short enough through the headstock though.
I’m in the Gunsmithng business, if I were to purchase a lathe just to do my own gun work I would look very hard at the Grizzly 13” X 40” Z Series lathes, either the G-9730 or G-9731. Gunsmithing places very little stress on a lathe and the Z series should last you very well. I have looked at the lathes in the Grizzly showroom including the G-4003G and I like the Z Series better.
You can find a Southbend Heavy 10” in great shape for the right price if you look long and hard enough. I have a Southbend Precision 9”A that I fell into. It came from an Instrument repair shop and had seen very little use. This lathe is in my shop and I use it regularly. But you will not find the customer service or parts supply to support it. Yes there are used parts on ebay and there are some NOS parts available from Logan but they are EXPENSIVE.
You could look at the Jet brand of lathes if you want but I doubt that you will find the customer service from Jet as from Grizzly. By the way the new Jet stuff is nothing like the old Jet stuff.
I purchased my Colchester brand new in 2003 because that is what I wanted. I purchased my Clausing Kondia mill new for the same reason. I wanted to make money not repairs to my equipment. You could buy two G-9730 Z series lathes, tool them up and wear them out for less than I paid for my Colchester without tooling. I’m in my fifties, ran machine tools for more than 30 years and was tired of working around the idiosyncrasies of the machine to make parts. When it came time to buy my own machine tools I bought what I thought was the best and I bought new.
Good Luck,
Nic.
Colchester. Colchester and Harrison were purchased by the 600 group, they have the Clausing brand. In the United States if you want a new Colchester or Harrison Lathe you get it from the Clausing Dealer. The Colchester and Harrison lathes are made in England. Clausing has a clone of the 15” X 50” model that is made in Taiwan for significantly less money than the Colchester but still has the Gamet spindle bearings. That lathe is way too long through the head stock. Clausing also has the Metosa line of lathes made in Spain. The 13” Metosa is a good lathe and again less money than the 13” Colchester but it doesn’t have the pressure lubricated headstock clutches, gears, shafts and bearings of the Colchester. It is short enough through the headstock though.
I’m in the Gunsmithng business, if I were to purchase a lathe just to do my own gun work I would look very hard at the Grizzly 13” X 40” Z Series lathes, either the G-9730 or G-9731. Gunsmithing places very little stress on a lathe and the Z series should last you very well. I have looked at the lathes in the Grizzly showroom including the G-4003G and I like the Z Series better.
You can find a Southbend Heavy 10” in great shape for the right price if you look long and hard enough. I have a Southbend Precision 9”A that I fell into. It came from an Instrument repair shop and had seen very little use. This lathe is in my shop and I use it regularly. But you will not find the customer service or parts supply to support it. Yes there are used parts on ebay and there are some NOS parts available from Logan but they are EXPENSIVE.
You could look at the Jet brand of lathes if you want but I doubt that you will find the customer service from Jet as from Grizzly. By the way the new Jet stuff is nothing like the old Jet stuff.
I purchased my Colchester brand new in 2003 because that is what I wanted. I purchased my Clausing Kondia mill new for the same reason. I wanted to make money not repairs to my equipment. You could buy two G-9730 Z series lathes, tool them up and wear them out for less than I paid for my Colchester without tooling. I’m in my fifties, ran machine tools for more than 30 years and was tired of working around the idiosyncrasies of the machine to make parts. When it came time to buy my own machine tools I bought what I thought was the best and I bought new.
Good Luck,
Nic.
