Member postings for Rob Wheatley

I'm using 16mm tooling on mine now but I do have a quick change toolpost and have milled all the holders out to take them.

Seems a lot more rigid and less prone to chatter with them, I do use inset tooling and take quite heavy cuts though.

Glad you have it going now.

What do you think of it? Only thing that annoys me is the controls not having a stop button, might look at adding one now it's out of warranty.

I did have to sort my steady rest out too, the adjustment threads were stripped out the first time I went to use it!!

I believe that Andrew Whale is a member on here and I hope it's OK to post this link but here is the last in his series with his Farm Boy engine running.

https://youtu.be/oEAs7wVTyPI

He is currently making a V Twin from the same designer.

Hi all

So I want to start making a model engine after getting the mancave set up.

Really want it to be an IC engine as it saves building a steam boiler too.

Though about getting a casting kit, either the Senior from EE or the Centaur from Reeves BUT I decided against it for a few reasons.

Firstly cost, the Centaur is £600 including the head and the Senior is £400

Secondly it only takes one mistake to ruin the casting and it then means ordering a new one, that could drive the cost even higher and the waiting time for the new casting to arrive.

So having been watching Andrew Whale and his series on it on YouTube for a while I have bought the Farm Boy drawings and placed an order for some bar stock.

I will use metric fixings throughout as I only have metric taps and dies, I will also have to convert the measurements to metric as far as I can as all my tooling is metric (and my brain too)

I will probably use pre made metric cam gears too unless I can get my head around making them (and get the cutters)

Doing a bar stock engine at least if I make a mistake it's just a block of metal to replace (I have ordered way more than I need)

As soon as I start I will post some progress pictures.

Now to study the plans 🙂

Clough42 did and electronic leadscrew on his lathe to overcome this issue BUT it involves encoders and programming etc, he drove the leadscrew via belt as his lathe didn't have a gearbox but it could be done on the input of the gearbox to retain the seperate feedshaft a leadscrew.

It did look very good as he just entered the pitch/feed rate in the control panel, no gears or working out ratios, I think he used a closed loop stepper or servo motor, they certainly have the power for it.

I replaced the stepper for the Z powerfeed on my mill yesterday with a closed loop 8N.m nema34 stepper and coupled it directly to the leadscrew (it was a nema 23 driving the handwheel via a belt)

On max speed it can move the head from bottom to the top in about 10 seconds, the handwheel spins so fast now and it's on a bevel gear! The slowest speed is about 0.01mm/second but may be even less.

Now I'm about to change the controls for both the Z and X feeds to pulse generators from the arduino, that is just way too susceptible to electronic noise to be reliable.

Hi Mick.

I saw your post on the Chester DV10VS, I was looking at that one but decided to go with the Warco as I wanted the stand and DRO factory fitted.

No it's driven by the change gears the same as the 250, you can select either the leadscrew or the feed shaft on the gearbox and change the direction and speed but it is still dependent on the ratio of the change gear for the input speed.

I haven't even looked at threading yet so it's still on the change gears it arrived with.

For this price range of the lathes from China I doubt there would be many that are totally independent.

The inverter is tucked away inside the casing at the back, I think its a Delta one and would have thought it would have temp control built in. The fans seem to be to remove the heat from the casing.

The one thing i do find annoying is there is a start button but no stop button, (only the E Stop and that kills power to the inverter) to stop the motor I have to switch the direction to 0, to re start it I have to select direction again and then press the start button.

I may have a look at adding one if I can, I'm sure there will be the option for it in the wiring connections on the inverter.

Had a productive few days, got the basics of the benches down each side done in the garage, one at 4.3m and one at 3m, nothing fancy just 100x50mm timber frames with 2 layers of 18mm MDF on top.

Milling machine is up on the bench next to the lathe and setup and I unpacked the tooling for it.

I couldn't resist having a play with the lathe so decided to make a new chuck key, I have some 25mm steel round bar so grabbed a bit.

On my old lathe (Clarke 300) I could never get a nice finish with carbide insert tooling or get decent chips (it was always stringy and ) it just didn't have the grunt to take a decent DOC, took an initial cut then dialed in a 1.5mm one, well the surface finish was really good and the chips coming off were perfect.

Blank done in no time and into the mill to do the square.

Here is the results, excuse the handle, it's just a bit of 12mm bar I had.

It's now long enough to get a good purchase on and clears the top of the control panel so knuckles are safe.

Hi Derek.

I was looking at the 280V but by the time I had added a stand and the DRO the 290V just made more sense, it has a bigger chuck and spindle bore too.

It looks like the top control panel has been changed for a longer one so the "normal" chuck keys are about 2" too short.

Another thing I forgot to say was it has two fans at the back to cool the inverter I presume, even with the motor turned off they are running at full speed and are quite loud, they do stop if you hit the E Stop though.

I did do a few test cuts and I thought the surface finish was very good.

It was nice to be able to dial in a decent depth of cut for the carbide tooling and not hear the motor struggle.

I'm building the new shed tomorrow and I ordered the wood for the benches today, that's being delivered Thursday and Friday will be taken up sorting all my tools out so won't get a chance to really play with it till the weekend now, I really need to get the Mill off the floor, 😳 every time I look at it I cringe with embarrassment.

I have been here a month tomorrow and had hoped to have it done but the shed has taken over 2 weeks!

Will have to run everything on extension leads for now until I can get a sparky in to fit more sockets and wire the shed (house is rented so I'm not allowed to do it myself)

Sorry i couldn't resist, I just had to put the chuck from my other lathe in this one for comparison 🤣🤣

Hi Tony.

I think it was probably the American Market that made camlock happen for us, they seem to be mostly camlock with their lathes over there so the Chinese had to change for them, we just get it as a bonus so they only have to make one spindle. 🙂

Thanks Thor, I was worried about lifting it but it was so easy.

Forgot to mention, customer service so far is excellent, I emailed them asking what oil to add to the Apron as it was low and they have sent out 2l of oil for it FOC, had a reply within 20 minutes, impressive.

Hey everyone.

Well my new toy (WM290V) is here, it only took Warco (Warren machine tools) a week from the date of order to delivery.

Arrived on one pallet (well two but the crate one on top another normalone), very well packed and even had an anti tilt indicator on it!!

It was dropped off at the top of the driveway by the delivery company (very helpful chap) and now I had the task of moving it through a gate, up the side of the house and into the garage.

I unpacked it and removed as much weight as I could including the tailstock, chuck, compound etc and lifted one end of the crate base up onto axle stands (used my sack truck to lever it up) then did the same the other end so I could remove the big pallet and place my wheels under it, lowered it down onto the wheels and rolled it up into the garage.

Next I assembled the stand, I couldn't find instructions but wasn't too taxing.

The lathe was then rolled to its new home and a chain hoist put on a double joist above, lifting straps attached to each end and now the moment I had been worried about, lifting 250kg up on my own, turns out I had absolutely nothing to worry about, up she went easy peasy.

Once it was high enough I put the stand underneath and lowered the lathe back down, aligning the bolt holes as I did so. The bolts hold the lathe to the stand were tightened up, then I leveled it all out (digital spirit level on the ways)

Levelling feet need another nut on top to lock them once adjusted but they only come with one her foot (well bolts as they are not actually feet) 4 at the headstock end 2 at the tailstock end (will add 2 more at the tailstock asap)

The lathe was pre cleaned and oiled and the DRO was pre fitted I just had the fit the display and the bits I had taken off.

Powered her up a did the test runs, all good apart from the Apron oil level is low and the compound is very tight.

Overall I'm impressed, crossslide and compound are tapered gibs, (compound gib is as loose as it will go, just one turn on the screw and it falls out), they had even pre fitted my QCTP when they tested it.

Couple of minor paint defects here and there and the top of the front plate is creased where the join to the change gear cover is but very I'm generally pleased.

Few things that could be improved:

8 feet bolts and locking nuts for the top and bottom of them instead of only the bottom would be good.

Stand assembly instruction would be nice.

Longer chuck key so the 'T' is clear of the control panel (first thing I'm going to make on it) to save the knuckles.

The usual paintwork defects.

Good points:

Tapered gibs rather than the usual grubscrew adjustment is brilliant.

Camlock chuck mount is excellent.

Has a very bright LED work light already fitted.

Came with a live centre that I wasn't expecting!

Has a mains isolation switch as well as the E stop.

Will add pictures to the next post if I can work out how to do it Excuse the mess in the garage, my shed is arriving tomorrow so can move all the stuff out and get the benches made and the milling machine up off the ground, the garage is going to be machine shop and shed is going to be wood working but it's all piled in the garage at the moment from the move.

Hi Thor.

Yes it is Camlock, D1-4 version as I have just looked it up, sales guy said taperlock !

Hi all.

Just an update on this thread.

I'm all moved up north and settled in the new house now, so finally placed an order for my new lathe.

Spoke to the very helpful people at Warco and I have just ordered a WM290V 🙂 I was looking at the WM280V but by the time I had added a stand and DRO it wasn't far off the price of the WM290V, that has the DRO factory fitted and comes with the stand, well its now just a waiting game for delivery, 5 to 7 days apparently.

I was surprised that it is a new (just out) model that now comes fitted with 160mm taperlock chucks instead of the bolt on ones, added a QCTP and a couple of additional holders to the order so it was £4200 in total 😵‍💫

Now I just have to make space for it lol.

No not new to it but not a veteran either lol.

Thought about a used one but they tend to be the older brushed motors or 3 phase, there are a lot of myford's about but we'll used and old fashioned.

The Chester is definitely separate leadscrew and feed shafts looking at the picture on the website but it is the smaller of the 3.

Warco never seem to have stock of any machines, had the same when I was looking at milling machines, always out of stock!

Jason you are correct, amadeal don't include steadies or 4 jaw chucks but they do a 160mm 4 jaw for £185, the steadies are £40 each and backplate is £45 so not mega, with a stand at £290 it's about the same price as the warco without a stand but does have the bigger spindle bore.

Thor, is it the amadeal 290 you have? Looked at the Warco one but £3995 is a bit too much.

Hi all.

After my plans were scuppered for the workshop 6 months ago due to a lying cheating s**g of an EX, the house is finally being sold I'm going to be moving up to Yorkshire from Kent soon and setting up the workshop again (took 6 months out to regain my sanity etc)

I currently have a little old Clarke 300 mini lathe but want to replace it with something a bit more capable.

Few requirements for the new one as follows.

Must be easy ish to move (counts out the old colchester etc as way too heavy although I would love one)

Must have a powered crossfeed.

Separate leadscrew and powerfeed drive

Minimum 5" chuck 6" preferred

Preferably come with a stand

Ideally at least 1kw (brushless would be better)

So far on the list are:

Chester DB10VS 700mm bed @ £2260 Inc stand

Warco WM280V 700mm bed @ £2995 plus stand

Amadeal AMABL290VF 700mm bed @ £2395 plus stand.

Chester seems the better deal as it has the stand already but not sure on the motor, it says on the website 1200w but in the manual it's only 750w and doesn't say if its brushless.

The other 2 are definitely brushless

Did look at the Seig but it's smaller with only 100mm chuck and 500mm bed

Any other suggestions to look at or insight if you have one of the above would be greatly appreciated.

Moving it has to be easy as I'm going to be renting a house for the first year then looking at buying something, don't want to have to get company's in to do it otherwise a bantam/student it would be.

Rob

Edited By Rob Wheatley on 11/01/2022 22:32:26

My tap and die set came from machine mart, I've had it years and its still going strong, it's a 3 to 12mm Clarke HSS set, taper, second and bottom of each size, die's are non split ones but the threads they cut are not loose at all.

Oh cool, I won't be starting it until probably Thursday, if I can get the ply delivered, insulation was going to be from wickes or B&Q.

Any idea of what thickness it was?

How much do you want for it?

Thanks for the answers guys, so thinking 50mm rockwool with a vapour barrier would be the safest bet then, 60m² is about £200 plus the barrier, 3 rolls of the bubble would be £225.

Did put a breathable barrier behind a lot of the cladding but one side does get a bit damp if it rains very hard, typical it's the side I cannot get to, think its where the rain comes off the roof and hits the fence rails next to the wall bouncing into the side.

Will staple the barrier in first then the insulation.

I'm in the medway towns Pete, are you in Kent too then?