There’s something extra cool about restoring machinery. For whatever reason, seeing this video which features a 700 hour restoration of an old Clausing Colchester lathe hits different then that which shows the restoration of a car or vehicle. Maybe it’s because of all the parts and pieces the lathe has created over the years, the amount of people who have touched it, operated it, and created things on it. Something about a piece of equipment that’s not made to be enjoyed or beat on, but rather something that is made to work day in and day out, year after year, completing the work of a machine shop, a factory, whatever.
Maybe it’s the idea of not throwing away something so finely built and engineered. After all, it was built to be used, maintained, and serviced. The disposable world of 2021 by and large does not produce machines like this where they’ll be able to be taken down, cleaned up, fixed, and reassembled. No, we’ll go ahead and dispose of them and simply get a new one.
Here’s to hoping that this classic lathe, will all of the work and care that’s been invested in it will be working long after we’re checked out. What a project!
I think in my country this is called repainting a lathe
what toy store school did they go to. no new bearings or seals seen. scraping ways is a priority in making the machine ‘new’ again. better off leaving all the garbage in the ways and gibs. they make up the tolerance on the worn parts.
lets see these guy do some scraping for an hour or two.