Well, its not a CNC, but for the amount of work Im doing now this will fit the bill, and Im pretty pumped about it this has been a few years of wanting.
The lathe is a 2012 Clausing Colchester 13x40. The story is that Clausing sold it to a school, they received it with a leaking gearbox seal. Instead of repairing it, they demanded a new one, so this one went back to Clausing. Clausing fixed it and sold it, obviously deeply discounted, to a dealer in Detroit which is where I purchased it. When I got it home I still had to wipe the cosmolene off the ways, so this thing never even got used. Bought it complete with an Acurite 200S DRO for $8500. Bridgeman Machinery sales was the dealer, if you ever need something like this call them I guess they get them frequently and were an absolute pleasure to deal with.
Few specs and some of the features I really like..
- Weighs around 2000lb full of fluids
- 3hp three phase motor
- 40-2500rpm
- Lead screw has a stainless guard on top to keep chips out of it
- With half nut engaged, carriage has less than .001" backlash
- Carriage feed engagement lever is spring loaded, you lift up to engage, just give it a light tap and it pops out of gear back into neutral.
- Chip tray/sump area has a door on front for easy chip removal
First order of business was VFD wiring. This looked like it was going to be a nightmare, but all in all it wasnt that bad. I removed all the wiring from the forward/reverse switches (which have both normally open and normally closed contacts on them). Ran the 24v common from the VFD to one side of each of those normally open switch contacts, other side went to the forward and reverse terminals of the VFD. Wired the foot brake into the safety stop circuit of the drive, still dont have that working how I want it yet, but Ill get there. Right now the foot brake shuts it down, but as soon as you let off it powers back up.
I added an Aloris CXA tool post to it, little big, but nice and rigid and got it for a good deal on here.
So far its working out awesome, the extra weight (even though it doesnt weigh two tons) is very noticeable over my old machine. Can crank on the tool post nut and not budge the machine. It also shows in the surface finish, can take the cuts carbide needs without flexing the machine and not cutting true depth. First project was the outboard spider.
Yesterday was tool storage fabrication day. Attached a 2" steel strap to the splash pan to hold the aloris holders. Also made a little wood deal to hold the tailstock MT3 tools.
Todays project was switching over the high pressure flushing system. Had the pump and filter mounted to the wall previously, old lathe didnt have a sump so I just had a 6 gallon bucket underneath to act as the sump. Removed the factory coolant pump and mounted the carbonator motor with Shurflo gear pump sideways in its place. Since Im using a VFD none of the factory electronics are really doing anything, so I wired the flushing pump into the factory coolant pump switch and relay. Mounted the manifold with pressure gauge and regulator up behind the headstock, couldnt really find a great place for this as the splash pan on this lathe sits back super far, didnt want to have to reach way back there to regulate the pressure.
Final touch will be the DRO. The Acurite rep is going to be installing it later this week, he had to order the spars for it I think. Glad to be having it professionally installed, few of the other lathes I was looking at I was going to have to do it myself again, which is not fun.
Over all if you are looking for an excellent gunsmithing lathe, I highly recommend this series. I probably would never buy a new one at new prices ($13-14000), as I think that is way high. But it is an extremely well made Taiwan lathe with the Clausing name on it, I think it will hold its value much better than the dime a dozen imports out there. There always seems to be at least one or two of the older model of these used on Ebay, just finding a good deal is the trick.
The lathe is a 2012 Clausing Colchester 13x40. The story is that Clausing sold it to a school, they received it with a leaking gearbox seal. Instead of repairing it, they demanded a new one, so this one went back to Clausing. Clausing fixed it and sold it, obviously deeply discounted, to a dealer in Detroit which is where I purchased it. When I got it home I still had to wipe the cosmolene off the ways, so this thing never even got used. Bought it complete with an Acurite 200S DRO for $8500. Bridgeman Machinery sales was the dealer, if you ever need something like this call them I guess they get them frequently and were an absolute pleasure to deal with.
Few specs and some of the features I really like..
- Weighs around 2000lb full of fluids
- 3hp three phase motor
- 40-2500rpm
- Lead screw has a stainless guard on top to keep chips out of it
- With half nut engaged, carriage has less than .001" backlash
- Carriage feed engagement lever is spring loaded, you lift up to engage, just give it a light tap and it pops out of gear back into neutral.
- Chip tray/sump area has a door on front for easy chip removal
First order of business was VFD wiring. This looked like it was going to be a nightmare, but all in all it wasnt that bad. I removed all the wiring from the forward/reverse switches (which have both normally open and normally closed contacts on them). Ran the 24v common from the VFD to one side of each of those normally open switch contacts, other side went to the forward and reverse terminals of the VFD. Wired the foot brake into the safety stop circuit of the drive, still dont have that working how I want it yet, but Ill get there. Right now the foot brake shuts it down, but as soon as you let off it powers back up.
I added an Aloris CXA tool post to it, little big, but nice and rigid and got it for a good deal on here.
So far its working out awesome, the extra weight (even though it doesnt weigh two tons) is very noticeable over my old machine. Can crank on the tool post nut and not budge the machine. It also shows in the surface finish, can take the cuts carbide needs without flexing the machine and not cutting true depth. First project was the outboard spider.
Yesterday was tool storage fabrication day. Attached a 2" steel strap to the splash pan to hold the aloris holders. Also made a little wood deal to hold the tailstock MT3 tools.
Todays project was switching over the high pressure flushing system. Had the pump and filter mounted to the wall previously, old lathe didnt have a sump so I just had a 6 gallon bucket underneath to act as the sump. Removed the factory coolant pump and mounted the carbonator motor with Shurflo gear pump sideways in its place. Since Im using a VFD none of the factory electronics are really doing anything, so I wired the flushing pump into the factory coolant pump switch and relay. Mounted the manifold with pressure gauge and regulator up behind the headstock, couldnt really find a great place for this as the splash pan on this lathe sits back super far, didnt want to have to reach way back there to regulate the pressure.
Final touch will be the DRO. The Acurite rep is going to be installing it later this week, he had to order the spars for it I think. Glad to be having it professionally installed, few of the other lathes I was looking at I was going to have to do it myself again, which is not fun.
Over all if you are looking for an excellent gunsmithing lathe, I highly recommend this series. I probably would never buy a new one at new prices ($13-14000), as I think that is way high. But it is an extremely well made Taiwan lathe with the Clausing name on it, I think it will hold its value much better than the dime a dozen imports out there. There always seems to be at least one or two of the older model of these used on Ebay, just finding a good deal is the trick.
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