Chester Centurion – opinion

[Stuart WinsorParticipant @stuartwinsor24766]

[Stuart WinsorParticipant @stuartwinsor24766]

Does anyone here have any experience of this machine? It's not so much that I need the milling facility (I already have a mill) but I am interested in using it as a lathe. I like the simplicity of a belt drive compared with expensive electronics which will go wrong and the fancy motors that go with them. I like the potential work envelope and a cross-slide that looks beefy enough to handle parting off. I find my existing C3 rubbish in this respect. OK for small diameter Al but not much else.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Personally if I was lookimng for a lathe with the ability to swing 420mm work I would want a slower minimum speed than 160rpm.

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

If I were looking for a belt drive 6 speed lathe from Chester I would go for the 920 and save the rest of the money for a decent mill.

Russell.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

I like the simplicity of a belt drive compared with expensive electronics which will go wrong and the fancy motors that go with them. I like the potential work envelope and a cross-slide that looks beefy enough to handle parting off.

——

A 28mm spindle bore too, ooh

If it has a backgear facility then you've got a rather nice little workhorse

Backgear turns a hobby lathe into a semi-professional machine

[Stuart WinsorParticipant @stuartwinsor24766]

Good point Jason. I'm not sure I will ever need to swing the full capacity, unless I was turning wood <grin>, I just like the "elbow room" and 160rpm would allow up to 125mm dia with Carbide on MS.

Hi Russell, as I mentioned, I already have a mill, a Chester Lux, and there's also a Seig X1 I'm not sure what to do with. I might even consider taking the mill head off the Centurion altogether. I looked at the 920 but I saw somewhere that it cannot do LH threading. I've not had a need for it yet but I don't want to limit myself and find myself cursing my decision later.

I've been looking at the 11x27s (Chester, Warco Amadeal) and Warco and Amadeal have MT5 spindle versions which would be nice. I just wish they were belt drive so that the torque goes up when you slow the machine down for larger diameters. The bigger the diameter, the more torque you need to maintain the force at the cutter tip at a high enough figure to be effective; especially for parting off.

Off on hols very shortly but looking forward to reading further comments when I get back

Stuart

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

For a belt head lathe, you should have one fitted with back gear, I would trust a lathe like this over an electronicly controled one. Ian S C

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Well I have one of the Warco 11×27 lathes and there is enough torque for parting and lets face it you are unlikely to be parting off really large diameters as the tool would just be too flexible.

I have only noticed a drop off in torque when working on 9-10inch dia iron castings where you are limited to about a 0.025" depth of cut if you don't want to stall the machine. As I have said before for ME use its not often you need to go the these large diameters, on a traction engien its liekly to be flywheel and final drive, on a loco the wheels and on a stationary engine the flywheel. For that amount of use I'd rather put up with taking a few more cuts and have the versatility of the vari speed for the remaining 98% of the time.

The big bore one would be nice, if it was available when I bought mine thats what I would have gone with but the 1" I have is not bad.

J

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

> beefy enough to handle parting off. I find my existing C3 rubbish in this respect.

You should be able to part much more than aluiminium bar on a C3. If you are having trouble parting steel, it may be a setup or tooling issue and you may find that you get the same problems with a bigger lathe.

I have a Clarke CL300M which is essentially the same lathe. Even before I amde the Arc Euro roller bearing upgrade I had no problems with parting off. On my current setup I can part off 1 1/4" diameter silver steel, and groove 2" diameter mild steel (too large to part off!) both using 1/16" or 3/16" HSS tools in the normal toolpost or my QCTOP, not a rear toolpost.

Neil

 

P.S. I agree about the DC drive though, although teh new brushless motors are suppsed to be much better. I run my lathe off a 1/2 HP single phase motor, but have a 400W 3-phase motor and VFD nearly ready to fit.

Edited By Stub Mandrel on 18/06/2013 13:44:03

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

What? everyone afraid of being sued?. This seems to be one of those 'less that optimum' creations with a mill head stuck on top of the lathe head. Alledgedly a pile of ….(edit) machinery.

The centre height needs to be in proportion to the width of the bed or the cutting forces on the tool fall outside the support. Building the head up on a little tower to make it seem higher spec makes it very much less rigid which would still be ok for turning the lid on your chocolate teapot but not parting it off from the milky bar.

You are right to be wary of electronic controls as they can at best only have a fraction of the life of the rest of the lathe and may need to be costed in as a consumable. There again the average age of model engineers may only last a couple of replacement boards. The much better alternative is a second hand lathe with back gear.

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

G'day.

Posted by Bazyle on 18/06/2013 13:46:30:

"This seems to be one of those 'less that optimum' creations with a mill head stuck on top of the lathe head. Alledgedly a pile of ….(edit) machinery."

This site is 'less than impressed' with them **LINK**. Lots of good advice there for new lathe purchasers.

Regards from the land of the kangaroo

Cu Later * Danny M *

[Stuart WinsorParticipant @stuartwinsor24766]

Back off hols.

Thanks for all the comments, I've joined the Yahoo 3_in_1 group to gauge get some idea of "improvements" people have found necessary.

I have, however, noted what you have all said and I am moving away from the idea.

Two nights ago the Toolco BG1224 caught my eye. I've not seen this outfit, or their offerings, at any of the shows I've attended – any views? Should I start a new thread to discuss?

[Author]

Posts