Member postings for Lathejack

Hello Andy

The problem you have was one of many faults i had with a new Warco 1330 lathe that i bought from them several years ago, and it is not uncommon. The lathe shown in your link has the same apron as mine, so i assume your lathe does too, but if not the cause may still be the same.

You will find that the pitch of the banding is the same as the distance the carrage travels for every revolution of the feed shaft when longitudinal power feed is engaged. Behind the apron the feed shaft passes through a cast iron trough integral with the apron, the trough side walls are bored to support the feedshaft.

Inside this trough sits the steel worm gear, with the feedshaft passing through it, and this worm meshes with and drives a bronze worm wheel above it. Two or three faults can often be found here that can cause the banding, and you may have one or more.

The bores in the trough side walls can be oversize allowing the feedshaft to roll around as it rotates, taking the worm gear with it. The worm gear can also have a bore that is eccentric to its teeth, this gear can also be a sloppy fit on the feed shaft.

These faults cause the worm gear to go in and out of mesh slightly with the bronze worm wheel when power feed is used, so the carrage does not travel at a constant rate. It is a little hard to imagine this having much affect on the surface finish, but it does, and can show up even worse on softer metals such as aluminium and bronze.

One of my photo albums includes some of what i did to cure this problem. I also had to mount the worm gear on a mandrel and reskim the gear teeth concentric to the bore, there is not quite enough room to bore it out and bush it.

 It does not matter what feedrate you select, the carrage always travels the same distance per revolution of the feedshaft, so the pitch of the banding is always the same. The banding will show up more the finer the feedrate and the better the cutting tool.

Hope this helps.

Edited By Lathejack on 15/04/2013 01:05:02

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Edited By Lathejack on 15/04/2013 01:20:39

Hello Ian

Bright drawn bar will be fine if you can get it at the right price. It is formed straight and round but the surface finish can vary between batches. It is also usually a few thou or more undersize, but this can also vary.

We use bright drawn bar at work and i have once had to use undersize 70 mm bar where 2 3/4 was needed as it was a better fit than the undersize 2 3/4 bar we had. If you wish i can ask them to give me a price for the length you want, i don't live very far from Sheffield.

Seam welded steel tube isn't always formed very round, at least not for a good reliable fit in the bore of your drill head and table casting, with or without a bush.

Scaffold tube to me just seems too rough and flimsy as a replacement. You might find the table and head being pushed away from each other as the column flexes when using the larger drills that your backgeared drill head can manage. If you are not careful you might just end up with a rubbish drill.

I have an Elliot Progress 2G backgeared pillar drill that uses a solid ground steel column of similar diameter to yours, as standard, sat on a tall square cast iron column. I have often thought about using bright drawn bar of the same overall length so that the table can be lowered further to gain more room under the head.

 I will also have a look and see if we have an old hydraulic ram, as JohnF suggests, lying about.

All the best

Edited By Lathejack on 17/01/2013 01:49:15

Hi Chris

Phil W makes a good point about the gearbox on the 1330. The fact is that, in addition to the usual extra change wheels, this lathe comes supplied and fitted with an additional set of gears which use a 100 tooth gear on the gearbox shaft. These are only for generating finer feedrates down to around 0.0026 inches.

When these are in place thead pitches cannot be selected. They do not have to be fitted. If some of the normal change wheels are fitted as shown on the screwcutting chart, say to provide a range of imperial pitches using a 48 tooth gear on the gearbox, then you can select between fine feeds and threads at the flick of a lever but the finest feed will be slightly more than twice the rate.

I have thought about fitting a 96 tooth gear to the gearbox shaft. This would allow a range of similar finer feeds and some thread pitches to be selected without having to alter change wheels. It would have to be remembered that the thread pitches produced would be half that shown on the chart.

Of course, some altering of the change wheels will always be required to cover the full range of metric and imperial threads that the 1330's gearbox is capable of, as is the case with many other makes of lathe. Although some Harrison and Colechester owners can quite rightly enter smug mode on this point.

Hello Chris.

I have had a Warco 1330 lathe for about eight years. Despite a few snags early on it is a very good machine. They are very heavily built, with a much deeper and heavier bed casting than the 1232 lathe and slightly better overall quality, Its design originates from the Harrison M300. As JasonB said, both these machines have power crossfeed. The quick change camlock spindles are also a real bonus.

The geared headstock is extremely quiet, better in fact than some belt drive lathes i have heared. I added a three phase motor and inverter which has just transformed it. I can't fault its accuracy and the accessories that came with it are excellent.

The 1232 lathe can be a good buy, but if you end up choosing between these two machines and can afford the extra, i would go for the 1330.

Incidently, Warco offer an improved version of the 1330, i think it's the WM 330 A. This has improved gearbox and electrical controls and i am sure it is the same price.

If you do decide to buy a smaller new machine, the WM280VF or 290VF are an excellent choice. The beds have very wide and chunky slideways, in fact i still fancy one myself. These lathes are based on the Wabeco D6000.

Toolco and Amadeal also offer versions of these machines, and might be worth a look to compare.

All the best.

Edited By Lathejack on 17/11/2012 20:20:55

Thanks for your replies, i think i've made up my mind to go after reading them, if the weather is ok after Gordon put a curse on it.

As for some traders staying away, i noticed at Harrogate this year that Proops, Rotagrip and Forrest Classics were absent, but Amadeal were there, i think for the first time.

Gene.

Hello all.

I've just noticed the dates for the Midlands show and, as i have never been to it before, i wondered how good it normally is. Is this the show that replaced the Donnington event? How does it compare to the Harrogate show?

Since the Donnington show ended i can usually only manage to attend the Harrogate show each year. I visited Harrogate on all three days with a 125 mile round trip each day and thoroughly enjoyed it, worth every penny. I tend to get machine tool withdrawal symptoms having to waite a hole year between shows, sad i know.

I must say it's the trade stands that is the main attraction for me. I might book a few days holliday and pay a visit or two, it would be a 180 mile round trip for this show so i hope it's worth it.

Gene.

Hello Tractor man.

The Bridgeport is certainly a very versatile machine, and capable of all manner of contortions to get a job done.

We have one at work and on a few occasions long shafts have been safely and securely clamped vertically down the side of the table, or horizontaly on the table with the head tilted over to work on the ends. A bit tricky but sometimes possible.

Five inches of quill travel might not seem much for a machine this size, but most pillar drills up to medium size don't have any more than that. If using it regularly for drilling you just have to be extra careful not to plunge the drill into that nice precision table or milling vice, ouch!

The right angle drives for horizontal milling mentioned by Kwil do work well, and new ones are sometimes on offer at Model Engineering Exibitions for around £200.

I agree with Jeff regarding the copies made in the far east, some of these are certainly just as good as the genuine Bridgeport, so don't be put off if you come across one for sale. I remember a couple of these i looked at several years ago, one marketed by Gate and the other by Warco. They were both excellent in every detail and almost identical to the real thing.

In fact i fancy one myself now. I recently bought a classic Massey Ferguson so it might come in handy.

All the best.

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