Member postings for Bowber

Looks good Geoff, I've been using TIG on an amature basis for 20 years ish, I've had a bit of training from my mate who's a coded welder, you know the sort, can pick up any welder and weld any clean bit of metal while making it look easy and the finish is beautiful. Unfortunately my welding isn't close to his but it ok.

You need a pair of thin TIG gloves and I use my little finger to give me stability, the gloves stop you getting burnt while doing this. I presume your using an automatic head shield, if not get one.

The great thing about TIG is you get very good penetration and a lot of control over the weld, I've welded M6 stainless nuts onto stainless plate with a tiny barely visible bead at the join, try that with an arc or MIG.

Steve

Well my Warco WM280 arrived yesterday afternoon...... and I was busy sign writing a van that had to be finished so I had to leave it until I'd finished at nearly 7pm!
Very frustrating having it sat there tempting me away from working, anyway after my demonstration of self control me and a few others got it into the workshop (which is a complete mess as I'm changing everything around) assembled and cleaned, but not properly set up yet as it's not in it's final position.

First impressions are good, the finish is generally good and all the important bits look and feel nice.
Bits that aren't as good as a high quality, and high price, lathe are bits like the handles running on spindles that are slightly too long so they slide in and out a bit, and the friction dials rub slightly, I'm not bothered but some one who's a bit OCD might be.

I've not had chance to do any proper turning yet but a quick test showed a much better surface finish and it's way more accurate than my Harrison, I could also take a tiny cut cleanly that the Harrison just wouldn't have done.

Power wise I had it on the high speed range and lowest speed and took a 0.5mm cut on my test peice and it didn't show much speed drop and held steady once it had dropped, then turned quite happily and quietly at 1000+ rpm, My Harrison didn't get run at full speed as it was too noisy, perhaps an indication that the headstock bearings weren't good when I got it.

Over all I'm very pleased with the Warco but some serious work will soon tell me if it was the right decision.

Steve

I've just going through something similar at the moment, but the opposite direction, my old L5 has worn out and I've decided to buy a new slightly smaller lathe because the second hand lathes I've looked at so far have made me want to cry, I even looked at one where the owner had welded a new 4 jaw chuck on to the 3 jaw face plate!

Anyway after looking at the various suppliers I've gone with Warco, my lathe left today so hopefully, in a few days, I'll be in a position to tell you what a Chinese lathe is like compared with an old worn out British lathe. Warco have been very good to deal with so far and even rang me today to say the lathe had left.

Steve

Hi

Thanks for the replies, I had a look on ebay and found plenty with buy it now but that doesn't give me an indication of the price they are selling for, however I think I'll put them on a bid auction rather than buy it now.

Still got to find out if the small one is a small or medium though.

Thanks
Steve

Mmm, the smaller one might be a medium, the collets are 22.17mm o/s.

Steve

Hi

As the title, i have a (I think) a small collet chuck with 40 int taper and a large with 40 int taper

The small chuck has 6,10,19 & 1/4,3/8,3/4 collets and I've made and used the 12mm & 1/2" collets.

The large has some collets but I've not measured them yet, I used to use these years ago with an old milling machine that has since been scrapped and now I'm having a huge clear out before my new lathe is delivered.

So are they worth much? I've looked on Ebay but they all seem to be buy it now so it doesn't give you much indication of what people are willing to pay.

Thanks
Steve

I've got a Warco 280V on order at the moment so I'm doing the usual looking around the internet for tips etc.

i read some where that some one was having the same problem and after blowing a few boards and a motor replacement he found the controller info and it said about the Acceleration pot needing to be set to 2 seconds (or something like that) and all the boards from warco had been set to 0.

He'd also been told not to start the motor at high speed but these modern inverter controls have soft start built in so it should not matter?
Have a search as I can't remember where I read it and he may have been on about a DC motor and controller.

I'll have to check this when I get mine.

Steve

I've turned one and did struggle to get just the right taper, it doesn't take much for it to be wrong, also the finish needs to be very good so as Brian suggests you may be better buying a blank.

Steve

PM answered Phil

Thaiguzzi, I'm taking this opportunity to downsize and re arrange my workshop, the Harrison has been good and got daily use when I was self employed but now it's hobby use only, I got rid of my big mill years ago and bought the smaller CNC and I've not regretted it yet.

Steve

I had another go at cleaning and adjusting everything, even took the gap out and made sure it was cleaned properly. result on a 50mm bar was 0.0035" over about 4" and that was back from the wear area so definitely time to say good bye to the old girl. (only have an imperial mic big enough)

I've been holding off doing some small model parts because of this and I've been thinking of a smaller lathe anyway as it fits in better with my future plans and will fit in my work area better so a smaller lathe will not be a problem. I also only had a screw on chucks for years before this lathe so I'm happy with that.

I also had a measure up of the various dimensions and was quite surprised how small the movement on the Harrison is, I'd had it as 36" BC but it's only 24" and the front edge of the tool post has about 115mm movement from centre out and about 470mm saddle travel with about 350mm being useful with a chuck in.

Anyone want any parts

Steve

Thanks for the info about the Warco lathes. There is no way the Harrison would turn parallel over that length and i don't think it ever has.
I did have a large Pultra for a while and that was very accurate but unfortunately it didn't have a saddle feed and I didn't want to ruin it by adding one so I sold it.

Steve

Hi, thanks for the replies.

Believe me I'd rather keep it, I've got the measurements in various ways and the bed wear happens in a pattern up to the most worn area, I can feel it on the V with my finger. The DTI also confirms it and shows the bed moving towards the middle of the lathe as you get closer to the chuck. This is measured against the side of the bed.

I can repeat the taper turning consistently on large or small diameter work and can get the same measurement using a 40mm ground bar held in the chuck only.
DTI zeroed at the chuck end at the average runout on one full turn, move to the outer end and take the average of the runout and it has moved away from the tool post. This method removes error from chuck or bent bar.

I'll admit I've not done a super accurate check but all my checks are adding up to the same error. It also seems that most of the error is from the bed wear and not from the head stock bearings.
I'm going to do some more checks before making a decision but as it is the lathe can not create accurate shafts.

Any one using lathes like the Warco or similar.

Steve

Forgot to add, I also have a CNC mill now which is one of the reasons the lathe hasn't seen as much use, there are many jobs I'd have gone to the lathe for that now get done on the mill.

Steve

Hi Ian.

I'm undecided. If I found a very good older lathe like a boxford then I think I'd probably buy it but it'd need to be in good condition and have a good selection of equipment.
If i bought a new machine then I'd be getting all the basic equipment to start with but it'd also be quite a hefty investment.
Also the bore through the spindle is a consideration, one of the handy things about an old industrial lathe, but there are ways around this and it's not been essential so far.
I've had one or two items were the swing has been handy and the gap has been out for one job I can remember but I'd have found another way to do the job.
I've only just started thinking about this so I've got lots of ideas going around in my head and it's always good to talk to other like minded people who'll come up with points I'd not considered.

Re the Harrison, I think it's just tired and has been a good lathe but I'm now having to spend more time taking inaccuracy into consideration than doing the job. I've also tried jacking corners etc and can't get it to change. In fact the base cabinet is so strong I can lift it at one corner and a DTI on the tool post position shows no movement on a bar in the chuck. I get more movement by pushing and pulling on the tailstock.

Steve

Hi all.

Been a lurker here for many years and not posted much but here goes.

I'm wanting a bit of advise re my old Harrison 11" lathe. It has the L00 nose and I've had it for over 20 years. It came out of a collage and was reasonably worn when I got it.
I used to use it constantly for making parts for various projects and I guess I wore with it but now after a period of not much use I've been using it to make some parts and I'm finding it turns tapers >0.05mm over 50mm so that's quite bad.
After a bit of investigation I've concluded the headstock bearings are worn but there is also wear in the bed, I've not measured this yet but a simple rule test shows it clearly.

So do I sell it as a well worn lathe with all it's bits, I think I got everything with it, even had a taper turning attachment that may still be hanging around, or sell the bits on a well known site, or try to find new headstock bearings and see if it's still usable with the wear on the bed?

I must admit I'm leaning towards selling it complete or in bits and using the money towards a new lathe or very good second hand one. New would be nice instead of having part worn bit's n bobs but it's an expensive option and I know I'll not get as good a lathe as the Harrison used to be, but a new chinese lathe will be a lot more accurate and would probably last me a lot of years. The Harrison was also on the large side for most of my work so a smaller lathe isn't a problem.
What do the buyers of a current new lathe think of them compared to an old lathe, are they worth looking at?

Steve

Quite possibly Marcus, however the threads I've done have had a consistant feel to them.

I tend to cut them slightly large and try the nut and then adjust the settings so I get a nice fit.
The exception being an M6 twin start which fitted straight off.

Steve

Ahh, the mythical self locking thread is finally found!

The NF wizards are included but don't work until you purchase a code. Not sure if there isn't a thread milling wizard in the normal wizards.

Just checked and there is a thread milling option in the normal wizards. I seem to remember that the NF one worked better though.

I think I just used a sensible speed, probably 75 - 100 mm/min but I can't remember. I tend to use slower speeds and work up but as I tend to do one offs I forget for next time

Steve

Late entry to the discussion I know but...

I've used the cutters shown by the original poster for a few years, they work very well and I've done smallish threads, twin start M6, and large threads, M16 + using two different sizes of cutter. All have been external threads though.

All my threads were coded using the NF wizard available in Mach3.

Steve