Formed in 2013 when Lee Coles bought a one-man machining business, Weymouth-based LC Precision Engineering has achieved sales growth in excess of 600% over the past five years.

The company works across a variety of sectors, including defence, motorsport, nuclear and electronics, mainly focussing on work that could be produced on its three-, four- and five-axis vertical machining centres. To further develop its offer, the company has now invested in new turning capacity in the form of an XYZ SLX 1630 ProTurn lathe.
With five employees, including managing director Lee Coles, LC Precision Engineering may be a small business, but it has big ambitions. Over £175,000 has been spent on new equipment in the past two years.
The XYZ SLX 1630 ProTurn lathe is described by Coles as being “in a different league” when compared with his previous experience on manual lathes. While the SLX 1630 may be the entry point for ProTurn lathes, it comes with a cast bed and base, 400 mm swing over bed capacity, 760 mm distance between centres, and a 5.75 kW, 150-2500 rpm constant surface speed spindle.
The SLX ProtoTrak control was key in the decision by Coles to go with XYZ Machine Tools for his move into CNC turning: “The control system definitely sold the machine to us. We specialise in lower volume work with seven out of 10 jobs being one-offs. Therefore, the ability to easily programme complex forms and be confident that we will achieve a good part first time, every time – thanks to features like TRAKing and Do-One – makes a huge difference.”
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com