I have one almost exactly the same and find it does every (reasonable) thing I've asked of it.
Mine also has the swivelling universal table, so make sure you don't need that facility before committing.

It might well be three phase, so do you have a suitable supply?
If it is the same as mine, the main 1HP motor is dual voltage, so easy enough to run off a inverter/VFD, but the table feed motor is 415v only.
I replaced it with a single phase motor, but it's too big and heavy, and does cause a bit of tilt on the table.
I must get around to finding the star point of the old motor, so I can swap it back and run it off a second inverter.
In the short term I help balance it with a universal dividing head bolted to the left hand end, which is useful anyway as it takes a Myford chuck.

The need for two inverters wouldn't be a problem, if I'd gone down the route of a Transwave or similar setup.

Bill

I think Gary Wooding has a 3000 rpm version. You just need to double all the plated speeds.

The quill vertical head has doubled the price.

The positives are

The gearbox shaft bungs are undamaged so the gearbox has never failed.

The power traverse claims to have the other gear ratios (they should be sitting in the top of the motor.)

Negatives

Where is the horizontal abor and bearing support.

It's outside.

If ever there was a classic case of to big a vice that's it.

I think 2B has more x travel, lathes.co.uk would know

Hi Mark, A good thing is if it comes with the extra head raising block, as they never come up for sale, even eBay.. The coolant tray is massive so getting through a doorway is a problem, and mine was welded on.Its much heavier than I thought!Gary Wooding has a beautiful example, and shows what can be done with this machine with skill and vision.

Vic

Centec's are currently a good investment.

Quill V heads have gone from £300 to £1500 in 12 years

Even a Centec 2 has gone up £500 and an 'overarm' is now £160

Cherry Hill, one of the very best, if not the best, model engineers, uses a Centec 2B.

I've fitted VFDs to the the spindle and power feed motors, and added a DRO to mine. It makes for a very nice machine. See my album. One rare thing on mine is that the spindles are ISO30.

Mark, you have a PM.

Mine came, with a single phase main drive and with a tiny VFD already fitted to the power feed. The VFD is a tiny fractional HP device which I’ve never interfered with.

I don’t even change the gear ratio of the power feed since selecting the combination that seems to work OK for me. Highest speed setting is OK-ish for return travel – I’m not usually in a rush – and is less arduous than winding the table back to origin (no half-nuts on my table).

I actually burst the star point on my two 3ph motors and added two 2nd hand Mitsubishi VFDs under the suds tray. I have no need to access them, but they are easily visible and out of the way. The major difficulty was the removal of the table motor – see my album. I made a little control box which I mounted on the end of the table – this provides finger-tip control of spindle and table speeds and directions. I would hate to be without it now.

I have one just like that. Most certainly Gary’s was made by himself (he made several) and I expect mine was made by him, too. A very handy piece of kit. The long version saves a lot of manual exertion (which is getting to be too much, for me, these days).🙂