Colchester-Harrison Conventional Lathes

In an industry that dates back several centuries, wood-turning lathes were known of in the 1650's, brand identity built up over the years is crucial. This long established brand name is part of 600 Group PLC. The 600 Group has been supplying machine tools and providing support in their installation for over 150 years. 600 Group is UK's largest manufacturer and distributor of machine tools and sells its products in over 100 countries.
The Colchester Lathe Company was first established in 1887. Although officially known as The Colchester Lathe Company from 1907 the company was actually established in 1897 by John Ephrain Cohen. The company had its centenary in 1997.
In 1992, Colchester moved production to Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire and now operates from the largest volume lathe factory in Europe. Today the company employs personnel in the design, manufacture, sales and after sales of a comprehensive range of lathes.

West Yorkshire-based TS Harrison & Sons has been at the forefront of centre lathe manufacturing for a century, with machines in daily use throughout the world in the manufacturing and educational marketplace.
With investment being made to support the large distribution network world-wide and to appraise new materials and technologies, Harrison hopes to further maintain its competitive edge long into the future.

Since 1992 Colchester and Harrison have been based on one site in Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire. The Heckmondwike site is Europe's largest lathe manufacturing facility.
Fresh thinking and new advances in machine tool technology, has enabled both companies to enjoy successful positions in their respective markets. Products are sold through a global network of distributors (some of whom are also subsidiaries of 600 Group). Spares are sold both through the distribution network and direct to the end user.

600 Lathes markets a comprehensive range of CNC lathes, manual / CNC lathes and standard centre lathes under the Colchester and Harrison brands.

Colchester Manual Lathes

With a range of traditional centre lathes, which complement our highly successful CNC technology machines, Colchester maintains a heritage that spans more than a hundred years of lathes making. Throughout the world, apprentices and engineers have trained on Colchester lathes while production, toolroom and maintenance departments have used Colchester machines as the bedrock of their turning capability. Click here to download Colchester Manual Lathes brochure (345 KB)

Harrison Mini Range

The Alpha U is like no other turning system on earth. From a single console the machine can be operated manually, semi automatically, under full CNC or remotely to produce virtually any batch size of any turned shape. In manual operation using the electronic handwheels the Alpha U can be used exactly like a conventional lathe. Any turner can use this machine. Click here to download Harrison Mini Range brochure (205 KB)

Centre lathes

The Harrison V Series Variable Speed Centre lathes are built to the world's highest standards and offer supreme performance and precision combined with reliability and long life, meeting all international safety standards, including the latest European CE requirements. All V Series lathes allow you to achieve the perfect cutting speed for today's materials and tooling making them ideal for development, toolroom and education and the most demanding of job shop applications. V350 The V350 is a compact, high speed lathe combining powerful robust features with precision capability. This lathe was the overall ability to handle the small to mid range turning requirements of many toolrooms, production workshops and educational establishments. V390 The V390 gives the increased benefit of improved machine performance, which guarantees customer satisfaction in a complete range of production, maintenance and toolroom applications. Modern technology providing maximum cutting performance and fine finishing capability. V460 Whether on production, maintenance work or in the toolroom, the V460 represents an outstanding investment with operators immediately responding to its easy positive and comfortable controls. V550 The V550 features a number of outstanding characteristics, making it a natural heavyweight champion in any workshop environment.