Warco 290V comments n feedback

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Mark,

Where abouts in the country are you.? - There may be a member close to you that owns an engineers level and will help you with this.

Regards, Nick

Hi Mark,

The mounts that you have are designed to be used under the stand to level it on an uneven floor. I used these same mounts when installing my Warco 1232 lathe, firstly bolting the lathe securely to the stand cabinets then using the mounts to level the complete lathe/cabinet assembly with the help of an engineers level on the lathe bed. This should give you a sturdy, secure mounting for your lathe and will still allow you to shim the bed mountings if necessary by undoing the bed mounting bolts and inserting shims as required then re-tightening the bolts.

Another option would be to use adjustable raising blocks similar to the Myford arrangement which would be easier to make adjustments with but will increase the lathe bed height somewhat which might be an issue.

regards Martin.

Hi Martin,

thank you for putting me straight! I can see exactly what you mean, except the machine mounts are non adjustable which I have, they have one nut that will tighten down to stand,and just been shocked by the price of adjustable ones sold at warco! And I need eight! £100+! So now on the lookout for some other ones.Regarding shimming, is there a correct method of raising tail stock to slip in shim? Some for of leverage just this was another issue I was contemplating ,and is one to slacken headstock bolts prior to slipping shims in? I will have a suitable spirit level by then!

Mark

Edited By Mark Tyldesley on 10/10/2014 22:32:28

Hi Mark,

I believe you have the same mounts that I bought from Warco which only come with one nut attached. I bought another set of nuts & some flat washers from B&Q and was then able to fit the mounts to the cabinet with one nut either side of the holes in the base allowing me to adjust the height of each individual foot by raising or lowering the nuts on the thread as required then tightening up the nuts once everything was level.

With regard to shimming the lathe, this is a separate issue to actually levelling the machine. Aim to get the lathe level as best you can with the adjustable cabinet mounts. A decent builders spirit level will probably be ok as the lathe doesn't actually have to be dead level to turn accurately but the bed does have to be dead flat with no twist when tightened on its mountings. The process of checking that the lathe is set up properly and turning parallel is well documented on the forum and also there are some good videos on YouTube with a bit of searching if you need help at that stage. If the lathe bed is twisting when tightened down this will cause the lathe tool to follow a slightly different path to the lathe axis as the saddle traverses across the lathe bed which in turn will cause the workpiece to be turned to a taper rather than parallel. Placing shims under the appropriate lathe foot is one method used to eliminate the twist in the lathe bed.

Regards Martin.

Hello Mark.

A very nice lathe you've got yourself there, the 290 & 280 type machines are very good model engineering lathes. I must say that Warco's new version did look very impressive with its new posh stand when I saw it at Harrogate.

If shims are needed to adjust a lathe, they do not go under the actual headstock or tailstock. They are placed under the mounting foot of the lathe bed at the tailstock end of the machine, or under the base of the stand.

But if you are going to fit adjustable feet under the cabinate then you simply adjust these to make any fine adjustments needed, this will twist the cabinate and the lathe bed if needed. But don't worry about it too much just yet, just get your new machine set up and reasonably level without rock and use it and see what it's like.

A few years ago I bought some of the mounting feet from Warco that were supposed to be adjustable. But again these had just one nut fitted but with a hexagon formed integral with the thread, so they were really designed for threaded holes. But with the plain holes in the bottom of Warco stands you can simply fit a second nut, as has already been mentioned by Martin, which is what I also did for my much heavier 1330 lathe. To make adjustments to my lathes accuracy I simply tweak the feet under the stand at the tailstock end.

I hope you enjoy your new machine.

Edited By Lathejack on 11/10/2014 07:54:59

Edited By Lathejack on 11/10/2014 07:55:26

Thanks Martin, I shall get some nuts n washers and do as you mentioned, and as you say there's plenty of information on site regarding lathe leveling ect, but before all that iv aweek in Tenerife to get through! this Monday coming!

many thanks guys for your valuable feedback,

cheers Mark

Thanks Lathejack, ok so using the stand adjustable feet to cancel out twist if any, that certainly makes things a lot easier! Don't fancy lifting the lathe around poppin in shims if at all possible! Well once I return off my hols! I shall set about installing said item! Many thanks again

cheers Mark

Hi All,

Just back from hols, and set about setting up the lathe with the adjustable mounting feet, managed to get it all leveled out, but lathe wobbles on the stand if pushed slightly, which in turn is going to effect lathe bed ect,Something tells me this is unacceptable and maybe I should bolt the the stand to floor and do all adjusting from tail stock end, or can I get away with this slight wobble? Suggestions very welcome!

Edited By Mark Tyldesley on 27/10/2014 10:23:15

Do you mean that there is movement between the lathe and the stand or that the stand and machine are wobbling together? If it's the latter, I'd be worried about the whole heavy thing tipping over on you!

BTW having been to see one myself at the Midlands show, I have ordered a WM290V - and hopefully it'll arrive this week. I will be sure to share any setup issues/secret-suss I discover with all you guys.

Cheers,

Joe.

Hi Joe

yea it's a nice lathe! Regarding this wobble, iv come to the conclusion it's the stand, not ridged enough,plus some slight movement in feet fixtures, bolting to floor direct would solve it, just having to move the lathe again is a nightmare!

If you have any thoughts on bolting stand to floor and ways to level the lathe, be pleased to hear from you

mark

If you have any thoughts on bolting stand to floor and ways to level the lathe, be pleased to hear from you

mark

Mark - Just my three halfpence for what its worth. My Warco 250sits on a bench made from a bit of kitchen worktop. To avoid distortion of the bed the two securing bolts and lock nuts are merely "nipped" and NOT tightened. So far I have had no issues with the lathes accuracy. Neither have there been problems with stability whilst operating the lathe.

Rik

My 280 stand just rests on a leveled ply floor and is bolted to the stand no other adjustments, works fine for me.

J

Mark - when I mounted my 290 lathe on a (homemade) stand I first mounted the lathe on a 15mm steel plate with some threaded holes. The holes at the front and rear end with MF 14 x 1. In these holes I have hollow heightadjusting bolts to level the lathe (see photo below).

When the lathe bed was free of any twist I tightened the M8 bolts going through a hole in the M14 height adjustment or levelling screws.

Thor

Hi Thor Jason

iv studied your pics, and it looks an excellent way to solve the problem, I'm sure the problem I have is theses stupid machine stands, there's just to much movement in them, and the stand does need to be screwed to the floor to aid stiffness, I phoned warco up and they insisted the stand should be bolted down, so bolted it will be! May pour some concrete to form a platform and sink the bolts into concrete while wet save on drilling, cause I'm going to lose some height if directly bolted to floor. Once that's done with stand secured and lathe bolted to stand, I'm still left with alittle shimming to correct any twist, I know the advice is shim under stand, but no chance of lifting all that, so shall be shimming under tail stock, was thinking of using alittle jack once bolts loosened to give enough gap to place shim! Someone going to tell me don't do that I know!

mark

The problem is if you start trying to twist the casting to get it level with shims all that will happen is the more flexible stand will get pushed down rather than lifting the bed casting up.

J

J

so realy I need to shim from the bottom of stand? That still leaves how to raise the stand to shim from there,

Mark,

I have a Warco 1232 lathe which is quite a bit heavier than yours. I started by cementing four concrete blocks (2 for each cabinet stand) onto my concrete garage floor. This gave me a nice level surface and raised the height of the lathe by approx another 4.5". I like the bed set quite high as I suffer from back problems if I'm bent over while standing for any length of time. A few days later I then fitted the adjustable feet to the cabinets and set them on their respective block plinths and then spent some time getting them level both individually and as a pair. I then placed the steel drip tray across the cabinets and lowered the lathe onto the tray with an engine hoist lining the bolt holes up then inserted and tightened the bolts fully. Then using my engineers level placed on the lathe bed, I adjusted the lathe level end to end & fore & aft using the adjustable feet under the cabinets. It took some time to get nicely level but it sits solidly with no wobbles and no shims! I haven't done a parallel turning test yet as I haven't needed to turn any long lengths but it is turning parallel within about 0.001" over 4-5 inches which is ok for my needs at the moment as I'm building a traction engine, not bits for the Mclaren F1 team!!

Regards Martin.

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This was my solution to securing the base cabinet of my lathe.

Obviously I made 4 of these.

100 x 100 x 12 steel plate was drilled in the center and tapped to 12mm. The length of 12mm threaded rod was locktighted into the base and additionally secured with a half height lock nut. This is then secured down to the floor through 2 extra holes in the plate.

The height is then adjusted up or pulled down via 2 more nuts either side of the base mounting point. When level nip everything up both sides of the cabinet feet and recheck level. "Rinse and repeat" !!!

Nick