colchester bantam

[Ian MILLARDParticipant @ianmillard76204]

hi i am thinking of buying a colchester bantam lathe. can anyone tell me if a vertical milling slide can be fitted to the top slide and if the mandrill has a morse taper for mounting arbours. thanks ian

[Ian MILLARDParticipant @ianmillard76204]

[John WhitbyParticipant @johnwhitby39110]

The Bantam is a great machine, never regret buying mine.

It has a morse taper, I think it’s a No4 1/2  but comes with a reducing sleeve to take a No3. The cross slide is solid – no tee slots but it has a number of tapped holes which could be used for fitting a vertical slide. I don’t think Colchester ever made one (and it would cost a fortune if you found one!) but you could make one up, there was a very  good conversion of a cross vice in an early issue of MEW.

I have turned up some morse taper tooling to fit in the nose of the Bantam and hold items like driving wheels for turning.

John

[Author]

Posts