Used Colchester or New Chinese Longem lathe?

[Oldandconfused]

I have a dilemma and hope you good folk could throw a little light on the choices I have? As suggested above, I can spend around £6,000 on a used Colchester Mascot 1600. Alternatively I can spend approx the same amount on a brand new Longem machine.
As a comparison to the Colchester, I have identified the Longem LG520DS. Both represent a gamble for different reasons. Has anyone got any experience of the Longem lathe? Are the two a fair comparison? Any help or thoughts are very much appreciated.

 

[highspeedmachinist]

Lets see a made in China manual machine and a British manual machine? Seeing that the Clausing has a history, I would opt for it. However, there isn't anything as good (in my opinion)as the old, not made any longer, Monarch lathe of yesteryear.

 

[fegenbush]

I would take a good chunk of old British/American iron over an import just about any day of the week. In my experience, Clausing has a history of standing behind their product and making a machine like a brick outhouse.

/My favorite is a Binns & Berry, but I think it's a personal choice.

 

[juergenwt]

If you buy an older British or American lathe - make sure you can cut Metric Threads. If not - stay away.

 

[taffysmith]

Whether to buy new or used in my view is a no brainer.
I have been selling machine tools for over 20 years
Some points to consider albeit high spec CNC.

A comparable Colchester to the Chinese model you are considering will be over 20 years old.

I believe that a £6000 asking price for the Colchester is excessive considering the recession we are enduring.

Buy a new lathe from a well known distributor/dealer.

There are numerous dealers that will offer you a comparable new machine including XYZ, Excell, Foremost BSA, Dugard etc.

Lastly haggle,haggle and haggle again

 

[highspeedmachinist]

Having done OEM work on many brands, I've walked into factories and seen first hand what a disappointment some of these no names are. Bell Helicopter was experiencing viabration/chatter, which their old Monarch never gave. cheap Jets flinging oil from the spindle. Back then these old lathes could single point metric threads. Our corporate buyer says that only the Germans build these stout machines these days. Hanover, Germany has the largest tool show/exposition in the world. Even bigger than Chicago's.

CNC is the way to go. High speed machining has big advantages. Removing small amounts of material at faster rates, tends to prevent the deformation/warpage of days of old. There are so many new trends/technologies which even extend tool life even on tough/hard materials. Through the spindle drilling has eliminated center drilling and are quite amazing in themselves.

 

[beattsmjk]

I've worked with Chinese machinary and believe me after five years use, its as good as a 25 year old comparable British machine.

 

[ScottyUK]

Keep an eye open for a Dean Smith & Grace machine of similar capacity. You've a good chance of picking up a bargain because you're not competing with the hobbyist / enthusiast market in that size range. DS&G are the equal of anything from the Colchester stable, arguably a better machine and of massively heavy construction. I'd take a 25-year-old DS&G or Colchester over the new Chinese machine, but do your research into prices and shop around for a good one. There are plenty out there, sadly all to many in the hands of receivers. £6k seems high to me.

You might also look for something like a Holbrook H-15 if you can find one, possibly the finest medium-sized British manual lathe ever built. There won't be many under 40 years old but they are so highly prized that they are usually very well looked after and remarkably accurate. On second thoughts, if you find a good one just tell me where it is and then forget about it.


----------------------------------

If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[twinny]

I would find a Graziano (Italian) used lathe if you want to stay down the manual lathe route.
Quite simply the best. I used to operate Harrison alpha cnc/manual lathes, colchester tornado cnc lathes and graziano manual lathes. For manual work the grazzys were the best.

 

[JohnFox]

Hi Oldandconfused,
don't buy Chinese, I have spent a lot of time in India and they use anything and everything apart from Chinese machines.

If you could stretch to 10K I think you might get a reasonable used HAAS machine, not the best but value for money and I have seen their lathes really producing parts,

best regards,
JohnFox