I ran across an ad for a Clausing Colchester 13x36 lathe SN F3/704xx
I've only seen a picture and exchanged some email with the seller, so
I know very little at this point. The seller is about 2 hours away,
so I can't easily just pop over and look, although I anticipate making
the trip once I have more information.

The seller says it has a noisy gear in the higher range and he says
that lathe is known for that problem. Is that a correct statement? Is
it significant or something I'll have to deal with? If it's actually
a gear with a missing tooth, how would I detect that?

Anything in particular to look out for on this type of lathe?

What year was the lathe made? I didn't spot an F3 series in the
serial number chart in the files section at the Yahoo Colchester
group.

Cosmetically it looks good in the picture. The owner said they've had
it for 10-12 year and made many good parts on it, so it has some wear
on the ways. It comes with only a 3 jaw chuck, some centers, and tool
holder although I don't see a toolpost in the picture. I don't see a
steady or follower listed. No face place. What's a ballpark price
for a lathe like this with a noisy gear, some wear, and very little in
the way of tooling.

RWL

On 2009-07-11, GeoLane at PTD dot NET GeoLane wrote:

I ran across an ad for a Clausing Colchester 13x36 lathe SN F3/704xx
I've only seen a picture and exchanged some email with the seller, so
I know very little at this point. The seller is about 2 hours away,
so I can't easily just pop over and look, although I anticipate making
the trip once I have more information.

The seller says it has a noisy gear in the higher range and he says
that lathe is known for that problem. Is that a correct statement? Is
it significant or something I'll have to deal with? If it's actually
a gear with a missing tooth, how would I detect that?

Anything in particular to look out for on this type of lathe?

What year was the lathe made? I didn't spot an F3 series in the
serial number chart in the files section at the Yahoo Colchester
group.

Cosmetically it looks good in the picture. The owner said they've had
it for 10-12 year and made many good parts on it, so it has some wear
on the ways. It comes with only a 3 jaw chuck, some centers, and tool
holder although I don't see a toolpost in the picture. I don't see a
steady or follower listed. No face place. What's a ballpark price
for a lathe like this with a noisy gear, some wear, and very little in
the way of tooling.

I paid $425 for my 13x36 Clausing Colchester lathe, with some
tooling. (good 4 jaw chuck, bad 3 jaw chuck), etc.

My lathe does NOT have a noisy gear, it is quiet, but it is worn.
I try to adapt to the wear.

On my lathe, the gear box cover is easy to take off with an Allen
wrench.

http://igor.chudov.com/projects/Clau...-Master-Lathe/

i