Colchester Lathe Company

A tour at the Colchester Lathe Company in Colchester, Essex, UK.

The world turns on Colchester Lathes....

I do not own the rights to this video.

[Canalcoholic]

I need to tell you a story. It will go on a bit, but stick with me.

My father was born in 1926, left school at age 14 and went into a machine shop. Started as an apprentice and was Works Manager by his early thirties, when I was born. He was treated disgracefully by the company when I was a toddler and my mother had to spend some time in hospital, so he told them where to stuff their job. He gained a teaching qualification, started in the early ‘60s as an Assistant Lecturer at a local Technical College, and worked his way up to Head of Department, in charge of dozens of staff, hundreds of students and five large teaching workshops.

With the decline of manufacturing in the UK, it was decided in the late ‘70s / early ‘80s that three of those workshops were to be closed down. He decided that it was time to upgrade his own garage workshop and prepare for early retirement.

Milling machines, shapers, grinders, etc. were to be sold by sealed bids, together with around two dozen Colchester Students. He picked out the best lathe, then swapped parts from other machines to build the best gearbox he could. Then he covered this machine with gunk and swarf, painted “SCRAP” on both ends in blue Hammerite, parked it in a corridor and threw a grubby old tarpaulin over it. It was completely overlooked by local businesses and other bidders, and my father bought it for just £15.

I should confess that, although I could read a micrometer before I could read a book, and could operate a lathe by age 12 (basic stuff like parallel and taper turning, drilling and tapping), I ended up with a career in the printing trade and a predominantly woodwork hobby shop.

He retired around 1984 and died in 2004. When my mother also passed in ‘13 and the house was sold, I moved the lathe and other machinery to my own workshop. Now I have also taken early retirement, with This Old Tony’s help I am getting back to using it.

[patbournes]

The engineering, materials and machining expertise in this video is awesome!!! This is what Britain used to be.

[fraserhardmetal]

This brought a tear to my eye - I had a Colchester Triumph which I sold in 1980 - wish I had kept it now - but it reminded me of a time I was driving over the tops to Colne in Lancashire; just leaving Halifax - it was November, just before Guy Fawkes night in the late seventies, I noticed a tractor loading lumps of timber on to a massive bonfire - the lumps of timber were - machine tool patterns - there were scores of them, lined up ready to be burned. Halifax and environs was an important machine tool manufacturing centre for many years, and we just let it go. Lack of investment and shortsightedness gave it all away. Preferring the easy return on juggling money, we have sold or let die all our hard won heritage in manufacturing. It's not just down to Far Eastern costs - Germany and Switzerland have managed to retain and grow a well respected machine tool industry - the city of London has a lot to answer for - financial jiggery pokery and cronyism - bolstered by self serving, corrupt politicians. - I feel much better for that !

[geoffjones]

I must say. This actually brings tears to my eyes, knowing what this country was like before 1974. Down hill from then on.

[simonreynolds]

My grandfather was a sales executive for this company after the ww2, he travelled to over 50 countries, I still have the old post cards...

[petermartin]

It is a sad indictment of the way this country has turned its back on engineering processes and manufacturing that once was the backbone of its wealth, which has been flogged off to the local scrapman or foreign consortiums. The disappearance and decline of school led creative base skills as part of the education carriculum and technical colleges in favour of turning them into academies - where one can now obtain an NVQ in Origami or Social Media Studies - exacerbates the overall situation. We now have a generation that don't know how to bang a nail in to a piece of wood - let alone what a lathe is. Splendid film. Absolute gem. 👍

[KellerDidThat]

The 60 people who did not like this video don't even know what a lathe is or what its for.. Great video!

[deanrussell]

My grandfather was a tool maker and shop steward - alway went to work in a tie and waistcoat and his light brown overall- slick of brill creme and a a roll up - still have his mics and tables - a wonderful gentleman who would’ve loved this - probably as much as we loved him - thank you

[adolfoespinosasanchez]

My dad is a mechanical egineer he's now 69 and i'm about to finish university in about a year. When he was learning to use the lathe in a tecnical school there was a bunch of brand new Colchester lathes, those used to work always keeping the motor runing, and the chuck started to spin when a cluch was engaged. Time later he started his own workshop which thankfully has never stoped for about 35 years and one of his first machines was big colchester lathe with a 15 hp motor, that thing is a beast. I've seen almost 300 kg parts being machined there, and I have that slow starting noise form the cluth engaging always in my brain. I have used it since I was 12 and that sound just feel powerful and humble <3 . I can even imagine and listen it runing at different speeds.
I woud like to see a modern machine do the same :(

[markhooren]

My father worked for the company for 10 years absolutely loved his job. This was back in the day when this country used to have manufacturing industry

[markhansford]

Fantastic....what a great film, when Made in England meant something.

[nheng]

What an amazing video and piece of history. I've never seen complete machine tool manufacture such as this. The amount of hard work, literally blood, sweat and tears and precision that went into these machines is incredible. Not a Brit but it brings a tear to my eyes too.

[michaelslee]

I love the lady checking the rollers for surface defects and then piffs them into the container.

[hoperp]

My first job, foundry / lab technician at Metalclad, Swansea, Wales, UK. Part of the 600 Group of companies they cast all the lathe beds for Colchester Lathes. My job, included furnace and raw material melt control, chemical analysis of the previous days castings, mould sand analysis, in particular water / moisture content. Long time ago, but never forgotten.

[alasdairhamilton]

When quality and service did mean something 👍👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[ApprenticeGM]

@17:30 "However it is in the spindle bearings that precision reaches its peak" . . . @19:00 "machine can measure 4 millionths of an inch, and in each bearing the dimensions do not differ by more than 10 millionths of an inch". That's wicked accuracy / tolerance / variation for the immediate post WWII period (1960's this film?) and I'm so impressed. Such quality of workmanship, such a focus on doing the best possible, not "good enough" - building up to a quality not down to a price. I want one!

[standonald]

Mr shed man, I now consider myself to be a very lucky person to have a 1918 Colchester master 6" originally belt driven from an overhead line shaft, a three step pully behind the chuck, This lathe I purchased from an advert in a brawed sheet paper 6 tyre kickers had looked at it an walked away from it i went to see it an bought it on the spot the whole machine was brown with rust as it had sat in a garage for many yrs. With the help of a late friend he and i set to made an angle iron frame 50x50 x 5mm 100mm off the floor to hold a very heavy, , large motor. Then out from that frame with more angle mounted a lay shaft and using an old timing belt from my car to drive that shaft, A three step pully on the end of the lay shaft then allowed me to drive the chuck using a 1" ratchet strap running over two fixed rollers an one adjustable roller mounted at bed height to allow me to tension the belt I made to drive the chuck. 6" swing, , 3' between chuck an tailstock overall length 6' 6" a brut of a machine made when Britain was at the leading edge of industry, look where we are now an idiot at the helm and a Chinese virus pandemic running amock that brought us to near bankruptcy a year a go, and a whole year of listening to politicians LYING through their teeth an more U turns than a sat nav, at the next opportunity turn around, turn around, turn around ,

[stevoify]

These old video's don't do justice.
This is absolutely amazing to watch these machines being built!

[MrPhatNOB]

Just bought an old Colchester Student and am absolutely stoked with the machine! Aim to restore it over time.

[wjfne]

The very fine tolerances involved require a very crisp accent to describe.