Member postings for John McCulla

I spoke to Warco yesterday who said it's most likely that the plate at the front is has been drilled off centre, and they're sending me out a new one to try. Could be a slow process if that's not the issue and other parts need to be sent out, but at least they're trying to sort it. I must say they were very helpful.

Old Mart, the hole in the nut doesn't appear to be offset, but if nothing else works I think a nut made with a custom offset hole would solve the problem.

Thanks Mick, I toyed with the idea of making a brass pin but just decided in the end to stick with the original roll pin. I can also see why Warco didn't drill the hole themselves, because the hole through the gear was not on centre, so a perfectly drilled hole wouldn't have worked. I set the gear up in the drill vice so that it was perfectly in line with the drill bit, then inserted the screw to the right point and drilled it. This left everything lining up properly, but if you flip the gear 180 degrees, the hole doesn't line up, showing the original hole was off centre.

I think my next problem though does merit a phone call to Warco in the morning.

With everything built up the bolt hole in the cross slide nut still doesn't line up with the hole in the cross slide. By leaving the two front bolts slack as David suggested I can get the bolt in, but tightening up the front bolts then results in everything going very tight and/or binding up completely. I tried shims at one side of the front plate, this moved the nut to the correct position when the cross slide is in the middle of its travel, but when moved to either end the nut moves too far to the left at one end, and to the right at the other. Now this suggests to me that nothing is bent, but that either the bolt hole in the cross slide, the hole through the handwheel front plate, or the hole in the saddle casting, have been machined off centre. I think the issue could be solved by the machining of a custom lead screw nut, but I don't really want to have to do that. I'll speak to Warco tomorrow, and hopefully they can provide a solution.

Hi David, I will certainly try that when I'm assembling it. I even wondered if I might need a small washer/shim behind one of the two bolts which hold the hand wheel assembly onto the cross slide in order to align everything properly so that when the bolts are all tightened up nothing is under pressure.

I possibly don't need to replace the screw, however for two reasons I was going to. Firstly, I only needed a nut, but Warco sent a nut and a screw. This made me wonder if they came as a matched pair? Secondly, with everything bolted in place apart from the bolt that goes through the cross slide into the nut, I noticed that the nut wants to sit slightly to the side and out of line with the bolt hole. This made me wonder if something was bent or misaligned with the old screw, causing the old nut to be under pressure and break, so I thought I'd replace both the nut and the screw.

Hi all,

The nut for the cross slide screw on my Warco WM250V lathe broke a while back (the narrow section after the slit for adjustment broke off), and Warco sent me out a new nut and cross slide complete under warranty. It sat in a drawer for a bit as the old cross slide nut was still working, however today I noticed that I suddenly had approx 180 degrees of back lash on the cross slide. I assumed that the nut had failed further, so I decided now was the time to fit the new part. Upon removing the top slide, I noticed that the the single bolt passing through the cross slide and into the cross slide screw nut was very loose. This seemed to be causing the backlash, however I decided to crack on with the replacement. Upon removing the old screw, I have two questions.

1. There doesn't seem to be any support for the end of the screw, it just floats. The front is supported at the handle side, and the nut is bolted to the cross slide, but that's it. Surely that isn't a great design? Or is that the norm on these lathes?

2. The screw that I have been supplied doesn't have a drilling for the roll pin which holds the gear for the power cross feed. Either they have sent me a screw for a machine without that feature, or else they all come like that and I'm expected to drill it. It doesn't seem to be hardened, a file marks it easily, but my question is how do I drill through the piece squarely and in the middle of the rod. I don't have a mill, just a lathe (which would need reassembled temporarily to use) and a pillar drill. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hairy Pete, I think you have it!

Looking at it now, I can't believe I have never noticed that lever, but... I haven't!

Ok, so please explain to me what the difference is between the feed lever and the half nut engagement lever.

Presumably they both drive the carriage using the lead screw, but does the feed lever use additional gears or something? Because the change gears still changed the speed when I was using the feed lever, just not to what I wanted.

Thanks Jason.

They are meshed correctly in the right sequence.

I believe when making the calculations you can simplify it further and ignore the 30 tooth gear as it's simply acting as an idler. (40/80)x(75/60) gives the same result.

I will try with an indicator, although I'm definitely not getting the thread pitches which the chart says.

I have had the lever in all three positions, and none seemed to give the desired thread.

I guess all that is left, bar something stupid on my part, is to count the teeth on the change gears in case they have been stamped with the wrong tooth count.

Edited By John McCulla on 13/07/2023 22:37:43

Hi all,

I recently started trying to cut threads on my Warco WM250V lathe, but I have encountered a problem. I was trying to cut a 1.25 pitch thread, but after assembling the change gears to suit, the thread which was cut was far too fine. After checking with a thread gauge, it appeared to be 0.6. I then double checked the gears and they seemed to be correct, a 30, an 80, a 75, and a 60 tooth, with the gear selector in the A position. I then moved the gear selector to the B position and cut a thread, which seemed to be very slightly finer than a 1.25 pitch. My thread gauge doesn't measure 1.2 pitch, but I suspect that is what it was. I then moved the gear selector to the C position and tried to cut a thread. What I got could hardly be called a thread, but it was definitely very fine, much finer than the 0.6 earlier. Looking at the gear chart on the lathe (I have attached a photo) the results I'm getting would indicate I have a 60, a 50, a 30, and an 80 tooth gear train, but I definitely don't. What's confusing me is that I've done the calculations as best as I can, and from what I can tell, the gear train I have fitted should have given me a 1.25 pitch originally.

Can anyone shed any light on what I'm missing here?

(FYI the number of teeth on the spindle gear is 40, and the lead screw is 2.0 thread pitch if you want to double check my calculations)

Hi all,

Sorry for the slow reply. Life got a bit hectic and I guess I went AWOL

Thanks for all the great advice, and especially thanks to Simon for your very kind offer. Unfortunately I can't take you up on it as I'm over in Northern Ireland.

So just as a quick update, I bought a taper tap and a large (560mm I believe) tap wrench. I clamped the part in the vice, tapped it freehand, and it turned out beautifully. I guess I was overthinking it, maybe it's harder to tap crooked with a larger tap.

Many thanks for everyone's input!

Hi all,

I have a cut section of 60mm round bar in which I want to tap an M24x3 thread. I drilled and bored it out to 21mm, and then attempted to tap it in the lathe, using the tailstock with a centre to keep the tap straight, however it was requiring too much force, I couldn't hold the chuck and turn the tap, and honestly it felt like I was going to break something. I was using the only tap I had to hand, a 2nd tap, but my new plan is to use a taper tap which I've ordered, and do the tapping on the drill press, using a MT2 centre held in the drill press to keep everything square. For this to work, I need to be able to clamp the piece on centre below the quill. My solution for this was to machine a bar of 21mm diameter, which is a snug fit in the work piece, with a centre hole drilled in the end. This can then be put into the workpiece, centred using the MT2 centre, the workpiece clamped up, and then the 21mm bar removed. My problem is that on the side where I started to cut the thread, the 21mm bar will no longer fit. I want to put it back in the lathe and bore it to 21mm again, but I'm struggling to know how to indicate it so it runs true to the bore on the lathe. I only have a dial indicator, not a dial test indicator. Can I just angle that into the bore as best I can and work from that? Or is there a better way?

I've just got a vertical milling slide for my Warco WM250 lathe. I need to make an adapter to mount it on the lathe, but in the mean time, I was wondering what is the best way to hold milling cutters in the lathe? It has MT4 taper at the headstock, so presumably I could buy a collet holder with a MT4 end, but would I need a drawbar extending through the headstock to hold it in? Or is that not necessary? I take it milling cutters are too hard to hold in the chuck jaws?

If it is the case that the bed isn't hardened, how big a deal is that?

I could contact Warco again, but I can't see them doing anything about it tbh. When the machine arrived with me, it arrived with rust on the bed and it took quite a lot of back and forward to get some credit as a compensation.

I suspect they'll tell me its hardened and that's that. I have no way of proving it's not, and I'm not going to pay to ship it back to them for them to tell me it's as it should be.

Just as a random update, I dropped the chuck key yesterday evening, and it left a small dent in the bed, so it really doesn't seem to be very hard at all. I'd be curious to check it with a hardness tester someday, although I'm sure it will be fine, I'll just have to look after it and be more careful!

Thanks for all that info, I appreciate the responses. I do always clean down the ways after using the lathe, but unless I cleaned it constantly while working, I'd never keep swarf from sliding along the bed. I may look at one of those concertina covers to catch the worst of the swarf, but it's good to know that I'm not doing anything wrong anyway.

I've attached some photos, it's hard to see what I'm talking about, you can only just see the worst scratches in the photos.

I'll see what I can do tomorrow but I'm not sure how well it would all show up.

Hi all, I'm looking for some advise.

I purchased a WM250V lathe from Warco back in December. It hasn't had as much use as I'd like since then, but I've used it a bit. I noticed some deep scratches on the rearmost flat bedway, and on further inspection found that the nut on the cross slide screw had split and a large chunk fallen down on onto the bed way inside the saddle. This was then occasionally getting jammed as the saddle was moved and causing deep scratches. Warco were very good and sent me a complete cross slide screw and nut, no questions asked. It's left me with some deep scratches which I had to run a stone over to take the sharp edges off, but since then I've noticed that rearmost bedway in particular also seems to have lots of very tiny little scratches or pits, it's hard to describe. I could be being pedantic and making a fuss over nothing, but I wondered could get swarf get stuck under the saddle and get slid up and down the bed, or are the tolerances too fine for swarf to get in there?

I keep the entire bed well covered in slideway oil, mainly for rust prevention, but is that the right thing to do, or should the bed ways be dry, with only the oiling points on the saddle oiled? I've noticed that swarf seems to stick to the bed when it's very oily in a way that I haven't noticed on any youtube machining videos. Could that be part of the problem, swarf sticking to the oily bed and then getting ground into the bed as it's pushed up and down by the saddle?

I'm grateful for any advice.

Thanks,

John

Edited By John McCulla on 13/03/2023 22:20:33

Where are the measurements on the Warco site? I couldn't see any apart from the tool holder capacity.

Hi all,

I have a WM250V lathe, and some credit to spend with Warco who I bought it off. As I look through their website, I keep finding the stuff that I'd like, such as a vertical milling slide and adapter, etc, is out of stock with no idea of when they'll have more, and other things that I would like seem to have better quality alternatives available elsewhere.

My latest thought was to buy a QCTP, and it appears to me that this item (https://www.warco.co.uk/quick-change-tool-posts/207-quick-change-tool-post-100-250mm.html) is the same as this one sold by Arc Euro (https://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Machines-Accessories/Lathe-Accessories/Tool-Posts/Model-100-Quick-Change-Tool-Post). I'd buy it off Arc Euro as they have a better range of holders available, but I have to spend my credit with Warco on something, and if it was the same tool post then I could buy further holders from Arc Euro going forward. Does anyone happen to know if these are the same tool post?

Edited By John McCulla on 21/12/2022 19:39:03