My new lathe a Warco 918

George you asked what mods have been added to the lathe, below is a short video (not great-hand held) that shows most of them.

List of mods in no particular order:

Tailstock clamping lock changed to lever type, lathe drive converted to 3 phase/VFD, carriage/way wipers changed to felt, carriage lock changed to Bristol handle, main lead screw drive mod to give forward and reverse, heavy duty 4 bolt top slide mount, top slide and cross slide both have better quality lead screws and nuts with ballrace mounts, both slides have heavier brass gibs and additional adjusting screws, tool post changed to QCTP and rear tool post with mounting plate added.

So quite a few mods/additions the bulk of which is to the top and cross slide and they have been very well engineered.

The only addition I am going to add is a DRO for the spindle speed, they dont cost much and work well, I put one on the mill.

I remember the adverts for these first appearing on the pages of ME and wishing I could afford one. There must be huge numbers of them around with slight variations in paint colour.
Hence I would suggest someone should invent a second stage for the QCGB to give the powers of two and write it up for MEW.

Well the lathe may have a number of modifications and improvements but at 23 years.... the bottom line...does it work ok..?

I have done quite a bit of work with it this weekend (mainly tests) and fortunately all seems well, I turned alu and steel and got a nice finish with both. I did some parting off with a 1.5mm tool front mounted and that had no issues. It does have a rear tool post but I havnt got a suitable sized tool for that just yet. I tried a thread cutting test, not the full thread but the first few passes and that went well and was good to size. All seems to work and I havnt found any issues plus the VFD is nice to use.

Apparently the taper roller spindle bearings are original and they feel good. I clocked the spindle plate and that had 0.0015" runout and the same for the rear flange end of the 3 jaw. I put up a piece of ground bar using the 3 jaw and that was good to just under a thou so more than happy with that. I havnt pushed it too far yet but took some 3mm cuts in alu and 2mm in steel and they were fine, no issues re torque.

So it may be getting on a bit but it still does the job, I just hope it continues but cant see why not.

Ron

Tip: do them up as tight as you can with the supplied spanner. They 'like' being tight for accuracy and grip and won't be damaged if holding work in their capacity range, the standard torque is surprisingly high and hard to achieve by hand.

Neil

Thanks Neil, I didnt know that.

Ron

There's a posh version of the nut with a ball-bearing in it that's easier to tighten too: ArcEuro's page here.

Also, a good description of clicking the collet in.

Not essential, but ball-bearing collet nuts are definitely a step up.

Dave

Ron, if your collet chuck had a standard nut remove it and place it in the cupboard and get one of the Ball bearing type like this.

**LINK**

Quite often I don’t even bother using the spanner for some small stuff, I just close it with my hand.

Edit: Dave beat me to it whilst I was typing!

Edited By Vic on 15/07/2019 11:07:02

Thanks Dave and Vic, something else I have learnt this morning, didnt know about the ball bearing type collet nuts will get one on order.

Cheers

Ron

But don't forget which cupboard you put the nut in as the standard ones can be very useful to give that bit more room where you need to get into tight spaces or close to clamps etc as they are a bit smaller and often tapered at the end.

Thanks for the tip Jason, I will keep it boxed with the collets so I always no where it is.

This morning I quickly totted up the cost of all the tooling and I think the lathe was thrown in for free...LOL

.

Nice !!

MichaelG.

Good result

I have a 2nd hand Chester 920, but not quite as well appointed as your new acquisition. Luckily you will be spared the faff of making the necessary improvements to the base model as the previous owner seems to have ironed out the known wrinkles for this class of lathe. I say this with a note of envy, as I am on the improvement journey myself. The headstock design is pretty basic and like yours, mine has no oiling points for the spindle bearings. Mine is grease lubricated and to be honest I have never added any more. Like most machines, simple things like feeling the temperature of the bearing housing after use will help to develop a feel for what is normal, or otherwise.

The bearings are ordinary standard 32007 taper rollers, widely available and relatively cheap, in the very unlikely event that you ever need to replace them.

Enjoy your new machine.

There was a thread some time ago on ER collets and their tightening up..

When you are chasing that last (few) thou of run-out in said collet, always try use a double handed/handled spanner, with as even force on each end as you can. A single hand spanner pushes the nut slightly over in the torque direction with subsequent off-centering of the collet - try it - it really does so, as the side space tween the threads of the nut and chuck body find their place.

Joe

Thanks guys,

Mike, yes I am lucky in that most of the mods/improvements people seem to carry out on the 918/920 have been done and they have been well engineered.

Re the head bearings, mine has flush fitting plastic caps both sides so I cant add any grease and I dont fancy trying to remove the caps. The bearings seem to be in good condition though so I,m not too worried at the moment.

Joe, thanks for the info re the collets.

Ron

I am really interested in the 4-bolts compound mount. The only ones I have seen so far simply duplicate the original bolt-down mount but with 4-bolts, but yours appears completely different.

Brian

This is the version I use on my small lathe, has worked very well for many years.

Thor

Thanks Thor

Your clamp ring looks like it works in the same way as that shown here **LINK** with the bolts being released to turn the compound. It looks like Ron's doesn't work that way, as it would be difficult to access the cap screws in certain positions

Perhaps the two screws at the front press wedges against a conical stem, like a larger version of that on a Myford Super 7?

Brian

Hi Brian,

Steve's mod was one of those who inspired me to make the longer travel topslide. I have added two photos that I hope may explain how I made it. The arrows in the two photos point to the same countersunk hole/screw, No.1 is the base with a recess on the underside, 1b is a ring that fits inside the recess, 2 is the bottom of the topslide and 3 is the top. The two M6 countersunk screws fits into threaded holes in 1b.

Thor

Edited By Thor on 19/07/2019 08:04:24

Hi Brian,

A picture below of the underside of the mount, you can see the top side in the video I posted. I dont want to take it apart as it is very well set up and adjusted.

I am not certain but I think it is based on a George Thomas design but with some tweaks by the lathes previous owner. I will be speaking with him later today I will try and find out more. You are correct in that the angled grub screws (2 front - 2 rear) lock the swivel via small pushrods with an angled face that contacts the radius. It works very well just a light nip on each grub locks the swivel solid.

Some of the mods on the lathe follow those done by Stephan Gotteswinter to his 920 style lathe. If you go to Youtube and search for "Stephan Gotteswinter Shoptalk #7 The 250 x 550 Lathe" you should find his video which runs through the mods he made....well worth a watch.

I will let you know if I find out more.

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 19/07/2019 08:40:53