# Bantam gears?



## jetstuff (Mar 18, 2021)

I have a Colchester Bantam lathe,  I need to change the gearing for some thread cutting, all the gears churning around make for quite a noisy lathe, what is the best combination to use for a quiet life when not screwcutting? (retaining the power feeds). THANKS!


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## RM-MN (Mar 18, 2021)

Gears that are properly meshed don't make a huge amount of noise and plastic gears make even less.  The gears are mostly there to create the proper ratios for gear cutting and power feeds, not power transmission so plastic gears hold up well in this situation.  They can be injection molded gears or 3D printed gears.

With that in mind, for normal feeds, you want the slowest gearing of the leadscrew.  Put the smallest gear you have against the biggest gear you have that will fit.  There should be an intermediate compound gear.  Put the smallest gear alongside the big one you previously installed and match that up with the biggest gear you still have that you can put on the leadscrew.


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## jetstuff (Mar 18, 2021)

Thanks, I already have the set of changeable gears on the Bantam, they are cast iron. There is a seperate gearbox for the feeds.


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## Jasonb (Mar 18, 2021)

Belt conversion works well, see this thread





						Lathe design not keeping up | Model Engineer
					






					www.model-engineer.co.uk
				




As Said get the gears meshing right and they won't make much noise, a strip of copy paper between then as you set their position on the banjo does the trick.


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## jetstuff (Mar 18, 2021)

Thanks chaps,  there didn't seem to be any adjustment possible except for the 'banjo',  I just know it sounds different with every change of gearwheels for threadcutting, and wondered if there was a 'preferred' set up when not.
(oops Jason, missed your belt conversion link with all these ad's floating about.... that looks interesting)


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