Just to give you guys a little info about myself, the last two years I've been aquirring machinery to setup my own job shop.I purchased this paticular colchester mascot 1600 at an auction knowing that it was missing the coolant tank. Now in the next few week I wanted to get this lathe up and running but seen something weird on the back of the head-stock.I noticed it's missing a few more things as well, the plate that covers the drive motor is missing, as well a cover plate that I'm pretty sure would have the serial number and date attached to it.I've found these two hoses coming off the back of the head stock that look out of place and in place at the ame time. One is capped off at the end its a clear about an 1' ID. The other is a black hose with high pressure fittings. Both are just hanging there and attached to the head stock just under the clutch shaft assembly.So the question is, do these lathes use an external oil pump/tank or what are these hoses for??I'll get pictures posted tonight, they'll describe my scenario a hundred times better. If this is In the wrong section I'm very sorry. Just back from the pub.

• Colchester Mascot 1600 Manual Transfer Car
• Colchester Mascot 1600 Manual Transfer Kit
• Colchester Mascot 1600 Manual Transfer System

If I recall correctly the lube oil for the headstock is contained in a tank which is part of the coolant tank ( I suppose the theory was that the oil tank being surrounded by the coolant tank would keep the lube oil cool ). The pump is in the headstock and is on the same line as the pulley and clutches. You can normally see the end cap on the outer face of the headstock nearest the chuck. It draws oil from the tank and circulates it around the headstock.

The oil is then returned to the tank.The pump you can see in the photograph is the coolant pump.You can normally find the serial number for the lathe stamped onto the slide ways at the tailstock end.Regards Tyrone.

Hello all,I bought this lathe a couple of years ago and within the last few months, the cross-feed has pretty much stopped working or is very jumpy at best. The lathe is a 1967 gap bed model.Here's a picture of the lathe.I have managed to remove the compound, cross-slide and taper attachment from the saddle, as well, I have pulled both the feed rod and leadscrew and then dropped the apron.

I realize that it wasn't necessary to remove the compound and cross-slide, but I figured that while I was at it I might as well. I will also remove the saddle and make sure that there aren't any trapped chips underneath.Here's a couple of pics of the apron assembly.This last picture is of the apron wormbox.When engaging the cross-feed, there is a jumpy movement of the wormbox, so I'm suspecting that the problem lies in there. But upon an inspection of the gears and the movements of them, nothing stands out at all. There aren't any missing or chipped teeth, although the pinion gear in the wormbox shows some wear, but not excessive in my opinion.There are some springs and adjusting screws in the wormbox shaft, but I think that the adjustment is for the kick-out.Does anyone have any ideas.?Cheers.Brian. Hello Henry,Yes, the long feed works just fine and no, there doesn't seem to be excessive play in the main gear train, so I concentrated my efforts on the cross-feed gear chain.

I decided to remove the wormbox assembly from the apron and take that apart.Here's that picture again.You can see the pinion gear and shaft at the forefront which meshes with the wormshaft gear. Upon taking the pinion shaft and gear apart, I discovered that on the left end of the shaft, it was scored as was the bearing and seemed to be much looser than on the right end.

I'm wondering if this is the culprit and causing a bad gear mesh. The right hand bearing is in real good shape, so I may trade the bearings from left to right and see if that fixes it.Before I put it all back together, I will see if a friend of mine has those parts as spares from a parts lathe that he has and replace them if I can.Thanks for the reply.Brian. I always thought those were good lathes. I think they use to call them round heads (round head stock)Good solid machine, coarse can be abused but it looks good from the pics.

I'd replace those bearings at both ends. Bearing house should handle that easily. Good reason for it to jump. Any other parts that look worn or feel sloppy. Now's the time! You'll have a hardworking lathe if you do.

You might look at the drive rod under the screw just to make sure it's solid. I'd also venture to say that might be the original color.dickr.

Colchester Mascot 1600 Manual Transfer Car

It turns out that my friend didn't have those particular parts, so I worked on the lathe for a couple of hours today, starting by trading the bearings from right to left and then took the front saddle clamp off the saddle to have a look underneath. It was suprisingly very clean, with no sign of scoring, whatsoever. This was also a good opportunity to see if the ball spring oilers were working properly. Only one of them would allow the oil to flow freely. The rest were gummed up with what looked like old grease.

I used compressed air to blow them out and followed up with oil and repeat.Then the saddle went back on with fresh way oil, attached the front saddle clamp and then the rear saddle clamp, adjusting the tension until there was no movement up and down, but it still slid freely on the ways. The saddle went back on next, then the cross-slide assembly slid on from the rear, followed by the croos-slide screw; also fed in from the rear.

Next was installing the cross-slide screw keep followed by the cross-slide handwheel, which was adjusted for a smooth but not binding fit.Next, the taper attachment assembly was pushed onto the locating pins and fastened into place, followed by the outboard bearing and nut. This was also adjusted for a smooth and non-binding revolvement of the screw.Now came the installation of the compound assembly.Next came the lead-screw which was fed through the saddle and on into the change gear box, sliding the leadscrew locking collar, the leadscrew gear, clutch gear, retaining collar and snap ring as I fed it into the gearbox. I found that the feedscrew had to be 'not' installed before the leadscrew, in order to line up the gears and splines. Once the retaining collar was adjusted and the setscrew tightened, I then 'pinned' the feed rod in place.Before I tore the lathe down to the point that I did, I was hesitant and outside of my comfort zone.

But having a very detailed parts list and going about it methodically and keeping all of the families of parts labelled and separated into baggies, as well as taking photos of the different stages, it gave me the confidence to delve in. The very best of prince zip. I ended up not having to refer to the photos, but am glad that they were there, just in case.So, with the lathe back together, I fired it up and put it through all of the speeds and feeds and the cross-feed seems to run like silk.

Mind you, that's not under load, so tomorrow I will experiment with some cuts and see how it does.I hope that this post doesn't come off as me boasting. I thought that it may be of some use to others and by going into some detail, it may inspire others to not be fearful of taking something apart and fixing it.Thanks for your interest.Brian. Hi Brian,I just read your posting about the colchester.

Colchester Mascot 1600 Manual Transfer Kit

Very interesting, as I have a strip down job to do on mine. I have a square head version but I think these are pretty similar to yours. I need to replace the half nut on mine and have just posted a new thread asking for guidance. You seem to have gone through what I'm about to go through so would you mind if I pick your brains?Can you tell me exactly what you did to get at the insides of the apron? I don't want to remove more bits than necessary, and I obviously don't want to cause any damage and leave the machine in a worse state that when I started. So a step by step breakdown would be really helpful, if you have the time, also anythings to watch out for such as dowels that can't be seen, bits that will fall to the floor if not supported etc.Regards,K.

Hi Brian,I just read your posting about the colchester. Very interesting, as I have a strip down job to do on mine.

I have a square head version but I think these are pretty similar to yours. I need to replace the half nut on mine and have just posted a new thread asking for guidance. You seem to have gone through what I'm about to go through so would you mind if I pick your brains?Can you tell me exactly what you did to get at the insides of the apron?

I don't want to remove more bits than necessary, and I obviously don't want to cause any damage and leave the machine in a worse state that when I started. So a step by step breakdown would be really helpful, if you have the time, also anythings to watch out for such as dowels that can't be seen, bits that will fall to the floor if not supported etc.Regards,K. Hello again 'K',I see that someone has responded to your thread regarding this issue.

I don't want to steal his thunder, so I will tell you how I removed the apron on mine.First off, do you have a manual for your lathe and a parts list and diagramatical breakdown? If you do, it will be so much easier for you.Secondly, on my particular model, the tail-stock end bearing block, for the lead and feed screws are part of the main bed casting. Because of this, there is a little more work involved.

If your bearing block on your lathe is a separate part, the job will be less involved.If your bearing block is an integral part of the main casting, you will have to separate the lead and feed screws from the gear box, release the tail-end collar grub screw on the feed shaft and slide both shafts through the bearing block about halfway. They should be supported with blocking or whatever you can come up with, so that they don't bind in the bearing block and damage the bearings.On my lathe, I didn't have to remove the saddle, cross-slide, nor the compound slide to remove the apron.The first thing to do is to remove the lower gearbox (threading gearbox) cover.Sorry for the fuzzy pic. This pic shows the left driving shaft gear. There is a retaining collar with a circlip holding the collar. Remove the circlip and slide the collar to the left.

This would be a good time to take a digital picture for your own reference with this cluster of gears and collars. It's not a real complicated arrangement, but I did.The next two pics show the leadscrew gear and the driving gear coming into mesh. To do so, simply roll the chuck around and manipulate the 'metric/neutral/imperial' lever to engage the slots. This is to allow a little more room for the next step.Now, remove the grub screw from the locking collar at the far right of the gearbox.Then, unscew one collar at a time until both are entirely clear of the threads on the leadscrew. It may be neccesary to slide the leadscrew out of the gearbox a little to gain enough space to do so. Now, the leadscrew should be free to slide out of the gearbox. Once the leadscrew was clear of the gearbox and supported, I slid a bar through the gears and collars and pulled the whole lot from the gearbox to keep the proper sequence of parts.Now slide the leadscrew clear of the gearbox and support it.Next is the feed shaft.

Colchester Mascot 1600 Manual Transfer System

There is a pin that binds the feedshaft coupling to the feed shaft. The pin is located outside of the gearbox. Drive this pin out and then slide the feed shaft free of the apron and support it.In this pic, you can see two locking collars on the outside of the gearbox for the leadscrew. DO NOT fiddle with these locking collars.

It is not necessary. It's been some time since I removed the apron and can't recollect exactly how got the leadscrew free of the apron. I think that I had to manipulate the leadscrew at the same time that I removed the apron.Next, are 4 capscrews to remove on the saddle which will detach the apron from the saddle in its entirety. It's a little heavy, but not overly so. It's not a bad idea to have some blocking beneath it to catch it in case it falls.Now it should be fairly straightforward from here. I'll have to go have a boo at what I wrote and make sure that it makes sense.

Feel free to ask any questions. I was a little intimidated when I first did this, but it's really just one part at a time.Oops. Pic 3 and 4 should be reversed.Best regards.Brian. See two locking collars on the outside of the gearbox for the leadscrew.

DO NOT fiddle with these locking collars. It is not necessary. It's been some time since I removed the apron and can't recollect exactly how got the leadscrew free of the apron. Good morning Brian,stopped by to catch up on what's going on.Read about your problem then solving it which is fantastic and I learned by looking at your pics that I am missing a gear for going from metric/imperial threading.Anyway nothing better than fixing these lathes problems,but once fix correctly they will last the next owners lifetime.Na I having to take a leave of absence from my lathe due to work at work and picking up work at the homestead which I posted over in the Doall section.For now not much time for myself but that's OK.