Ainjest High Speed Treading Unit on my new Master 2500

[Will NobleParticipant @willnoble66529]

I'm slowly working out just what I've bought in terms of the Colchester Master 2500 that has appeared in my garage. It was bought on a well known auction site, based on description, photos and communication with the vendor. It's an imperial model with dual reading dials and appears to have been reasonably well treated, only reportedly used flooded with oil for parting off, facing and tapping small hydraulic rams for the last 15 years. It certainly looks that way.

Now I've got a closer look at it, I've been surprised to find an Ainjest High Speed Threading Unit. It hadn't been recognised and noted by the vendor and I didn't note it in the pictures.

From what I can find, opinion seems divided on their usefulness – but I'm a sucker for a challenge.

Needless to say, there's no handbook, or instructions, bar the exploded diagrams in the parts manual. I've found a youtube video of one being used on a Student but that's about the only useful thing I can find. The reference on here to a link to a handbook is broken.

If anyone has a handbook/instruction book I can beg/borrow/steal and copy – or a digital copy/link – I'd be very grateful.

Will

[Will NobleParticipant @willnoble66529]

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

Hi Will,

Congratulations with your "new" lathe, have you tried to contact this firm? And an old thread here. Lathes.co also seems to have a manual.

Thor

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Didn't Model Enginner's Workshop run an article on the Ainjest in the past two or three years?

I've forgotten how to find/use the MEW index so you'll have to check for yourself, or perhaps Neil knows.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

There was an article on them in MEW ( or ME) about a year to 18 months ago by our member Andrew Johnston, I expect he will be along later to tell you he likes his one.

Also use the search on the home page to find mention of Ainjest

Edited By JasonB on 14/05/2018 07:27:32

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

It was in issue 225, pages 12 to 15.

John

[S.D.L.Participant @s-d-l]

What is not to like about been able to thread at turning speeds?

We had on at work ( old Job ) but threads were far cleaner turned at proper speeds with full form insets in 316 stainless steel.

Steve

[Will NobleParticipant @willnoble66529]

Posted by Thor on 14/05/2018 05:28:30:

Hi Will,

Congratulations with your "new" lathe, have you tried to contact this firm? And an old thread here. Lathes.co also seems to have a manual.

Thor

Thanks for the reply. I've followed the links, one way or another, and not got too far. The Lathes.co article says it covers all models but it appears there are quite a few and I don't fancy spending £39 on the possibility it isn't covered.

The search facility on the forum produced two returns and what looked like a useful link to a document – but it's broken.

I've now found the Issue 225 article John Hinkley suggested (thanks, John) in the archive and must go and digest that one to see if it all marries up. The problem I've found so far is that lots of the Ainjests have more controls than mine and are designed for metric-based machines. Whilst me and the lathe are both dual reading, the basis of the threading unit is good old fashioned imperial. It looks a lot simpler than the metric version and the lathe layshaft gearbox copes with either at the flick of a lever (no change wheels) but I want to be 'in the know' with the finer points, if possible.

Will

[Anonymous]

Now that JasonB has edited his post so that my surname is spelt correctly I can make my own post.

As stated I have an imperial Ainjest unit on my Harrison M300. Like SDL I can't see why one wouldn't like it. It makes imperial threading simple and fast. This is especially true with internal threads in blind holes where accurate automatic disengagement is a boon. On my unit there doesn't seem to be any way to mount the dial thread indicator, but that would only be of use for metric threads on an imperial lathe. I don't cut many metric threads, and if I did I wouldn't bother with the DTI any more. Instead I'd rig up up an encoder on the main spindle and use a bed stop so one could still use the Ainjest unit, but reverse the spindle to get back to the original start point. There is a unit called a Metradial that can be used for metric threads, but it isn't perfect, and the errors accumulate with the number of passes. They do come up on Ebay now and again, but they're not cheap.

I've sent a PM regarding a manual.

Andrew

[KettrinboyParticipant @kettrinboy]

At work we had 4 Colchesters . 2 Triumph 2000.s and 2 Master 2500,s all had Ainjest quick threaders fitted , 3 imperial and 1 metric , for batch production of components with threads on they saved no end of time and for threading close up to a shoulder again they really score over conventional screwcutting , a couple of things to watch though are not to forget to disengage the trip lever underneath after finishing threading or you can bend it if the carriage is moved too far and when engaging the threading lever make sure its a firm engagement or sometimes it can half engage and bugger the thread up , otherwise they are a very useful addition to a lathe.

regards Geoff

[Will NobleParticipant @willnoble66529]

Thanks everyone.

Looks like I'll be making use of it. I'll work out the intricacies of Metric threading once It's all set up and running on Imperial. I do most certainly cut Metric threads as well, so this looks like it's going to be fun……….

Will

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