Best of all, you kept an old piece of iron alive.

Good investment. I’d take that over a PM any day.

Just bought one of these, 2004 model, probably one of the last built in England. Came from an Australian defence dept technical college, so very little wear. Cost just over $6K AUD, so I think a way better buy than anything else, new or old, I could get for the money. I've converted it from 3 Phase to single phase, VFD for spindle, single phase coolant pump etc.

thank you so much for this final on this Harrison m300. Thanks for your response to my question of final cost. I too took a gut punch and bought a telescoping steady rest for a 13" southbend

I must be getting slow. Just got your color scheme. Goes well with chambers, receivers and longer parts.

Great video

Beautiful lathe. I actually like the square styling better than the rounded castings used on the vintage machines.

Great set of videos on this great machine. I have a green one in very good shape from a small hi-tech proto lab. Your first video makes excellent points on what to look for and the real world effect, for instance, of bed wear on diameter. I think the value of these machines, UK built, have been climbing as their numbers dwindle. Good for me as I dropped $2500 into it in 2004. This machine seems overlooked for gun work but the spindle bore is excellent for that. Made child's play out of threading shotgun barrel for new choke. Using a Rohm set-tru 3 jaw.

Good job Spitfire! Some time ago I visited the Schell Brewery. Enjoyed it very much. Stay healthy my friend.

Have you tried further adjusting the tail stock? Any taper across a length should be fixable. Not that it’s bad at all it just doesn’t need to be there ya know lol

Enjoyed the walk through, you've done a great job on the Harrison lathe. Makes a change than just seeing repainted ones. Tony

Congratulations Very Nice work on the restoration. I like my Harrison 12” so much I bought another one .between the 2 I have virtually every accessory in the catalogue and I keep one in metric and the other in imperial screw cutting (slightly older model with more change wheels ) fantastic machines and I suspect they will still be around in 100 years when the Taiwanese stuff might not be?

Great machine . I also have one over here in the UK. Mine is a dual imperial and metric dial version. I would love to get the ways ground like yours but i make do. You done a great job on her.

The utility in disengaging the apron crank is both to be able to use the weight of the handle to "drag" on the carriage and to avoid that the weight of the handle affects your cut when it "drops" after reaching the top position. 1st use case: Let's say you are cutting threads with hard carriage stop. You want the weight of the handle to force the carriage into the stop, so you disengage the crank, rotate it in a way the handle is "falling" towards the stop and push it back. 2nd use case: Let's say you are cutting very fine threads with a very small depth of cut. When the handle reaches the top of its course, it will fall the equivalent of the backlash you have in you have in your carriage gears, which may lead to leaving marks, momentarily compromise rigidity and turn your threads out of spec. Btw, I have the exact same lathe, but in a less beautiful condition, let's say it like that. I got it with a 3 and a 4 jaw chuck and also a steady rest. I bought a follow rest after that for a project. I found it on the website of a machinery dealer in baltimore. If you never tried one, I highly suggest it for someone who's turning relatively long and thin parts like a rifle barrel.

Thats a fine machine now restored. Thanks for sharing the costs, they are difficult to get. My M300 similar age also has ~ 20 thou / 0.5mm dip in the bed and wondered about regrind / rebuild prices. The headbearings are also well under a thou and gearbox clean. With a bed regrind I believe they also have to adjust the leadscrew heights ? So I am pondering a metal epoxy build up and scrape. Great to see it operating , so many videos don't show method, I didnit know about the saddle pull freewheel , will try it tonight. Cheers.

You mentioned noise several times. For a few hundred $$ I'm running a Hitachi 3HP VFD with 220V single phase in. At typical spindle speeds I use, the machine is nice and quiet (relatively) no rotary phase conv noise. Also, I typically run the VFD at about 70% for the gear range I'm in. This knocks the noise way down. Did the same on my Bridgeport. Couldn't stand the gearhead noise so leave it disengaged and cut out the timing belt with a pair of shears 🙂 For small precision work, the machine is virtually quiet.

Those guys did a very, very nice job on the restoration! And your painting adds a great deal as well!

i wonder how much you payed for grinding the bed and all the other stuf ?

I've got one similar but it has 0.020" wear on the front Vee in the central area. All other bed locations are ok, what do i need to do yo fix this?

So I know who to hire to rebuild a Harrison M300 if I buy one :P

May i ask what quick change tool post are you using ? and did you need to modify anything to put it on ?

I heard you can’t rescrape and ground flame hardened beds? I would imagine you shimmed the apron and headstock etc?

Yeah I don’t believe I’d ever own a grizzly or precision matthews clough42 bought a brand new the smaller grizzly knee mill and yeah the thing was like 60 tho out of square brand new they made it right but screw that old iron is what it is and they’re almost always way better than that

That could be the last lathe you'll need. It seems to do all you'll need. .......... but c'mon we know you by now. There WILL be lathes in your future.