Member postings for Gareth Jones 11

As it seems to be standard practice on a mill (in the absence of a posh actuated draw bar) are mill spindle bearing arrangements designed to take it?

I haven't looked but I'm fairly sure the WM180 has taper roller bearings which are probably well up to it and I'm worrying unnecessarily.

Hi All.

I've made a simple draw bar to retain MT3 collets in my little Warco. The smack on the bar (with soft hammer) to eject the collet seems mechanically insensitive and can't be good for the headstock bearings.

Is knocking the collet out like this OK? I'm contemplating making a fancy draw bar, capable of ejecting the collet without a knock but it would be quite a lot of work if it's unnecessary.

All opinions welcome.

Cheers, Gareth

That's a mighty spindle on a little lathe. Very impressive. I'd been thinking about front mounting the chucks but I haven't examined them to see if it's possible (pretty sure it is). Might look at a ring/plate to run behind the spindle flange, with the three M8 threaded holes to accept long cap heads from the front of the chuck. That's for another day though as I haven't even run the lathe in anger.

Re drilling/tapping 2 extra holes versus 3 - I knew that was an option but the existing 4 holes in the chuck weren't on the exact same PCD as the 3 on the spindle. They were very close (and there's plenty of clearance in the spindle holes). I chose to centre over the register on the rear of the chuck and set the existing 4 holes square to the mill's X and Y. To re-use one of the 4 I'd have had to pick up that hole and a Chinese (or any) threaded hole is not ideal for accurate location. If I was drilling a 4 and 3-hole pattern on the same PCD, together, from scratch, I'd likely use one hole twice and drill 6 in total. There's actually plenty of meat between old and new holes. More than it looks in my pic.

Thanks for all replies. The level of response on here is great.

Gareth

Dave - I would never attempt to modify the spindle nose for the reasons you stated. I was only contemplating drilling the chuck body.

David - fantastic! Great pic. It looks the same as mine so if you run that mounted direct on the spindle, I can too. Or at least I hope so, because I've just done it - I'm on a nightshift and workload is light fro once, so I had time to set it up on the mill. Clocked the existing 4-hole pattern square and then used DRO's pitch circle function to add a 3-hole pattern. The PCD on the spindle nose is 83.9mm - 84 seems more likely but that's what it measured so that's what I drilled.

Another upside is that I've now got a spare backplate, with fixings and register to suit my spindle. Might be useful for oddball one-off fixture plates or whatever.

Thanks everyone and especially David for the info I needed to make my first mod' (as attached)

Gareth

Thanks Howard,

I should have elaborated in my intro post - I'm a newbie to this forum but not to machining. I do have some experience on lathe and mill.

The engineering shop at my workplace has a Colchester Student and Bridgeport mill and I've used them occasionally for years. Basic turning and milling was a small part of my apprenticeship.

I have most of the basics - turning tools, Micrometers, calipers, dial indicator, DTI, mag bases, Zeus book etc but top of my shopping list is a bench grinder (then I can be not-very-good-at-sharpening-drills at home, as well as at work).

I've got Harold Hall's "Lathework - a complete course" and "Milling - a complete course" and both are great books.

I plan to follow HH's lathework book but the first thing I'll make is indeed a centre height gauge.

A mandrell handle I genius - I'd never heard of such a thing but after your post, I Googled them and quickly found vids on Youtube (one even of a handle on a WM180).

Many thanks again for the welcome and apologies if I undersold my machining experience.

Gareth

Excuse the double post - I'm brand new.

Can I delete it?

No, but a moderator can!  There's no fee...

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 25/02/2023 15:26:49

Thanks David.

Does your 4-jaw have the ends of the retaining pegs visible on its rear face?

Re your vibration - your spindle nose has a 4 hole pattern and a 3 hole pattern (albeit the two patterns share one hole, for a total of six). As both patterns have rotational symmetry, neither should be out of balance.

Hi all,

I've just bought an as-new WM180.

It came with all the standard bits, including a 100mm 3-jaw and "Sanou" 4-jaw.

The 3-jaw bolts directly to the spindle nose but the 4-jaw has a back plate to convert from 4 M8 holes in the rear of the chuck to the standard 3 M8 studs.

I unbolted the back plate from the 4-jaw and the recess on the rear of the chuck is an exact fit over the register on the nose.

Assuming I can drill and tap 3 holes in the chuck, is there any reason why I shouldn't eliminate the back plate and bolt the 4-jaw on directly?

On the rear face of the chuck, the pegs are visible (which retain each jaw screw). I held the chuck in soft-jaws in a vice, gripped a piece of stock in it and heaved the jaws v tight. There was no discernible movement of the pegs. I had worried that, without the backplate, the chuck might try to eject the pegs rearward when tightened hard but seems not.

Is anyone running such a chuck with no backplate?

The plate is approx 18mm thick and saving that space on such a short lathe would be great.

Thanks

Gareth

Thanks for the welcome.

I'm in Wirral, Merseyside.

Will post my query now.

Cheers

Hi all,

I've viewed this forum countless times, for years but only just joined.

My name's Gareth and I've been a maintenance engineer in a large factory for over 30 years. My role includes mechanical, electrical and control work but in recent years I've got more interested in machining.

Never had machine tools at home (except a bench-top pillar drill) but have just gone down the rabbit hole and bought a used WM180. It's as-new, has only been run for a few minutes and came with plenty of useful extras. I'm currently stripping everything and cleaning off the nasty lube, grinding grit and cast iron debris that they are supplied with. It came with 2 sets of 12mm tools (insert and brazed carbide) which are way above centre on the standard 4-way post. I took the post to work and machined the seat 3mm lower on our old Bridgeport.

Still haven't used the Warco yet but stripping it has generated a question which I'll post in the appropriate sub forum.

Thanks in advance for the help that I'm bound to need as I bumble along.

Cheers

Gareth