Recently I decided that it would be prudent to buy a small lathe. It just made sense to be able to do my own small turning jobs and not have to pay somebody else or try to sneak time on a lathe at work. This decision was a little backwards instead of thinking I want a lathe I will find a lathe I saw machine and thought that would be handy I then looked around and decided the price was OK and there was no end of problems that I could solve with this machine so the deal was done. The machine came with a heap of stuff including user manual which is a great help. If you need a copy it is available from http://www.store.lathes.co.uk/print/MC80C Lathes.co.uk is generally well worth a visit.

The Lathe is a Churchill Cub MK3 the serial number suggests that it was manufactured in 1950. it is equipped with taper turning attachment, 3 jaw, 4 jaw, collet cluck, face plate, driving plate and fixed steady.

This of course spurned a string of events.

1. pick up lathe and trailer home. The lathe needed to be moved out a french door and down a 300 mm step. This stage was completed with no real story to tell.
2. Clean and check for damage and wear, this step will determined future actions. This involve taking many of the sub-assemblies off the machine to clean under them. This stage has grown the lathe was pretty dirty as it is old is painted a lovely shade of pink so it was necessary to add a step in here, Strip back to bare metal machine and repaint. This escalated pretty quickly
3. fix any problems worn bushes etc This will be roughly in the following order so that it can be reassembled as we go.
   1. Base
   2. Bed
   3. saddle and apron
   4. headstock
   5. feed gearbox
   6. coolant pump
   7. tailstock
   8. chucks
   9. Taper turning attachment
4. reassemble and use.