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.
- 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.
- 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
- fix any problems worn bushes etc This will be roughly in the following order so that it can be reassembled as we go.
- Base
- Bed
- saddle and apron
- headstock
- feed gearbox
- coolant pump
- tailstock
- chucks
- Taper turning attachment
- reassemble and use.
