WARCO WM-250 lathe family and WM16 mill - 001

George, do you find that table will actually stay in any raised position during a reasonable-sized cut?

I had one of those before my current 6" and no matter how hard I tightened the clamp screw the angle would always creep during a cut. I even tried viagra to make it stay up.

Hi Sid

Haven't actually tried it in the vertical.. nor the horizontal yet.. not had the need so far as been piddling about with making stuff to make stuff or replace stuff, if you get my drift e.g had to replace the supplied clamping bolts for my mill vice as they were the usual chinese crap as far as bolts go, inferior metal & too short, i.e. today when I finished making a vice stop & was aligning the vice along the 'X' axis, as I tightened the clamping bolts the threads stripped, no excessive leverage used just a normal open ended spanner so ended up having to make 2 new bolts.. out of proper steel! I reckon all of the far eastern machinery is supplied with the basest of clamps / bolts as far as steel quality/composition goes.

G

Looking forward to the delivery of my new WARCO WM16 milling machine and CY90 bandsaw tomorrow afternoon. My newly ordered WM250 VF lathe however does not look as though it has departed the far flung asiatic shores yet but I am hoping that until it does arrrive I will be able to use the mill to fashion a diamond tangential type turning tool holder ready for its arrival. -----Rik (somewhat impatient)!

Rik,

When you get your mill some would say strip it all down & do a clean up job on it before use as quite a lot seem to have done (some just for the hell of it ?), I personally did not, apart from cleaning off the transport / factory grease & applying oil to the leadscrews & dovetails as looking at mine.. with a torch under the table, & in the column I could not see anything untoward so left well alone..my motto .'.if it aint broke don't fix it ' .

All I did was to ensure all the leadscrews operated ok without any feeling of binding or slackness, locking screws were in good nick & not broken..these are made of some sort of Magalloy or pot metal & can be easily stripped, I have replaced 2 of mine (under warranty) even tho' no undue pressure has been applied (am looking at making alternatives).

Make sure your gib stribs are snugged up as I found on mine as there was a bit of slop on the table, check your backlash too as most of these eastern machines will almost certainly have some, can be adjusted but can be awkward to do. I fitted DRO's on my machine X & Y axes so this eliminates the need to check the dials & wondering which side of the line you were set at..( or on the line.. photos in my album) making all a much more accurate measuring method.

Tramming your milling head before use is a must; I checked mine with a centering indicator followed by a DTI & found  0.000" right to left on X axis & '0' to .-0005" (minus half a thou' front to back on Y axis so pretty good 'straight out of the box' but I wouldn't like to say this is the norm on all machines, check yours. I fitted a couple of head locking blocks once everything was locked up so there would no chance of the head tilting (Pics in album)..well virtually no chance..nothing is guaranteed 100%,  I've checked mine a couple of times & nothing has moved. Some say fit a 3 bolt locking system to the head..up to you! since mine has all the above I have not felt the need to..but that's just me, so all in all 'straight out of the box' has been pretty damn good for me..or I've been bloody lucky !!

You'll have received your machine by the time this post is read, & no doubt have 'made swarf' but even so 'enjoy'.

Cheers

George

Edited By mechman48 on 30/05/2013 22:45:12

Edited By mechman48 on 30/05/2013 22:53:45

I've considered doing that to mine (several times actually). However, I have a power feed and the odd time I've pushed it a little too much and had the cutter stall. At this point, the power feed continues for a few seconds until I can summon up the wits to kill its power. Some real damage could be done ..... if it weren't for the fact that the head can untilmately tilt (notwithstanding its locknut).

Belatedly returning to the question of fitting a drill chuck with a tang-type MT2 arbour to the WM16, I've had no trouble doing that with my WM14, which is a similar if smaller machine. You do have to bash it out though, which is worrisome. I've recently noticed that Arc Euro have a range of threaded chuck arbours which would allow mounting a chuck with a drawbar and using the 'self eject' mechanism. They also do screw-in tangs which would allow the same chuck/arbour assembly to be used in a drill press. Think that's the way I'll go. Usual discalimer.

Bob.

Thanks George for your valuable advice re: WM16 mill. Mine has been delivered and it is sitting on and bolted to its castored cabinet as I speak. However, I was a bit (no VERY) surprised that the machine was completely brain dead when power was switched on - big disappointment!

I noticed that the emergency power off button was rotating unnaturally freely so I removed the front of the control panel only to discover:

A: The button retaining collar had not been tightened.

and

B: Because the button was allowed to rotate a wire connected to it had pulled out - the machine was therefore knackered in the extreme.

This was most surprising as the supplied printed test record by inspector Dongfa Yan itemised the emergency button as inspected and passed.

Warco claim "Each machine is fully engineer tested before despatch". Would that be a WARCO engineer or a non WARCO engineer?

WARCO's workshop chaps were very helpful and got the wire back in the correct hole (over the phone you understand) but still no life - until one of the techs suggested that the chuck guard was in the wrong position - it was, and I was left feeling a pratt - I had no idea that it was linked to a switch.

Anyway, there she sits (now fully functional in my "tardis" and it looks vast. I am sure that it will be eminently capable of anything I chuck in its direction. I am so glad I went for this instead of the smaller WM14.

Rik

Hi Rik, congratulations with your new WM 16. Sorry to hear about your troubles getting it to run. The micro switch in the chuck guard gave me trouble to, had to open it up and adjust it to work correctly.

Thor

I found that the guard on my WM16 interfered with the use of my vice and various other fixtures I use, so I took it off, I also deleted the micro switch,as there is only myself that uses it there is no problems.I did the same with the guard on mw WM250 I find that the guards cause more problems than they are worth just keep hands and any loose clothing clear of rotating parts.

Regards Mark P.

Hi Rik

Congrats on getting your 'new toy'' sorry to hear your initial probs, forunately I didn't have any electrickery probs with mine,but as with all these chinese imports QC leaves a lot to be desired & the 'test record' can be construed as much relevance as the proverbial chocolate fire guard! as proven with my 250V-F, a few not so small probs with that on delivery but that's another story albiet resolved by Warco, I can hazard a guess that 'Dongfa Yan' may be related to Hu Flung Dung..!

As with Mark P I removed the guard as it was interfering with my vice too so I ended up fabricating another version out of 2mm Acetate bought from a local DIY store, I also removed the side post ,just leaving the microswitch bracket fixed & the switch permanently in contact so no bother rememberng to close the guard to energise the switch. The guard can be lifted on & off & is secured by a couple of small brackets with small nemo... neomid... neodim.. aah b*****cks! a couple of small earth magnets which stick it to the table.

As supplied with machine..

2 mm Acetate fabrication..

Much better view..

Have yet to fit rear panel, can't decide whether to fit another panel or a clear PVC flexible sheet... I think The PVC sheet is the way to go .. mmmm! maybe switch the front panel to the back & put the PVC sheet in front, held on with more neo..*******! earth magnets,  that way I can move the PVC easier than taking the acetate on & off, & it should act like a cricket net if anything untoward happens, absorbing any impact...?

Regards

George

Edited By mechman48 on 02/06/2013 12:30:05

I must do the control box mod (ie put it on a stick) to my WM16 George, mine is the early model with the box bolted direct to the head make using the quill lock hard as it hits the reversing switch.

Mark P.

How to combine fish-keeping and model engineering.

Seriously, that does look a really dandy guard.

Neil

Rik,

When you get your WM250V-F I would carry out the same checks as the mill, backlash, snug up gib strips etc .NB. Make sure that you test the saddle for free travel all the way from tailstock to headstock without it binding anywhere, on the first delivery of mine this was a major prob' as the saddle was binding on the bed casting.. manuf /assembly / QA fault' this was soon remedied as I sent it back after a few phone calls, plus e-mail with pics to Warco, received replacement within the week so thumbs up to Warco for after sales response .

The compound slide gib strips are of MS & are not exactly what you would call a good fit so I intend changing them to brass... eventually ! I also checked the alignment of the tailstock & found it to be out approx' .006" ,how I found out was when using a drill once I noticed the drill (new one) pulled in toward the small center drilling, which indicated a misalignment of the tailstock barrel so out came the indicator & DTI's & after a bit of tweaking on the tailstock adjusters(I also noted that the scale on the tailstock rear didn't quite line up on the 'zeros', I've managed to get it to wtihin .0005" now & the scales read 'zero', also today when I tried drilling again the drill lined up with the centre drill so Bob's your auntie so to speak.. so check yours when you get it!.  I had a similar problem with the electrics on the lathe; no power on start up, checked around & found the tab on the drive end guard was bent & not pushing in the microswitch cut off to the motor, bent the tab out ..still no power.. found  the emergency stop retainer was loose & had also disconnected one of the wires, reconnected the wire, resecured the retainer,power on...bingo !  so much for QC, & supposedly also been checked by one of Warcos engineers... hmmm? ..  so check out your electrics first when you get it.

Another mod I did was to make a larger collar to fit over the compound slide friction scale as I couldn't get my (chubby) finger & thumb in to set a zero, obviously made to fit Chinese size fingers, . Thought I had a pic in my album but not, will post it later. So that's it for now,will post again when I move pics into my album.

Cheers

George

Edited By mechman48 on 02/06/2013 22:41:58

George - thanks for all your tips which I feel sure will be useful to other users as well. Have not managed yet to duplicate the test readings in the test report - I'll get the time though although I am not optimistic that the report will add to the value of the machine if I ever (unlikely) sell it on. Your comments are highly valued and I have printed them out for future reference. I have only "run the mill in" as per GRIZZLY advice and have not yet cut swarf but compared to my previous micro/mini setup this machine is VAST!! Do you remember that first girlfriend you could not stop looking at? -------- Am I sad or what? ----- Rik

Rik / all

Glad to be of assistance to you & others on this thread; check out my post as I've added a bit on the electrickery, just bear in mind that my write ups only apply to my machine & not neccessarily to other members machines, Thor, Mark P etc... you may hopefully get an updated version by the time the next shipment arrives, &/all where QC may have been improved... ?

Stub Mandrel..nice one, but if I see any fish floating around in there then I've got a BIG, BIG problem

Have been giving it the once over tonight & have noted a couple of other bits re the change wheels,but am burning the midnight oil so will double check & write up later. I would be interested to know if other members have noted any other items / concerns on their machines that I have not covered..so far.

in retrospect; before anyone pulls me up re the drill pulling in, I thought of the drill bit running out of true..but checked it out on my surface plate & no discernable eccentricity / out of round... constructive criticisms always welcome but please be gentle with me , after all I am only a junior member ..

Cheers

George

Edited By mechman48 on 03/06/2013 01:14:15

Does anyone have any practical tips for adjusting the leadscrew backlash on these machines? The Grizzly manual covers it in basic fashion but the adjustment screws are pretty much buried and I didn't have much luck on a quick-look a while ago.

I have a DRO and tend to make-do but it really could use some adjustment on both axes.

As mentioned in previous post; I made a larger knurled grip to fit over the friction collar on the top slide as I could not get a grip on it to set 'zero' due to 'chubby finger' syndrome. I was going to make it a shrink fit but couldn't quite get the dimensions right for hot water expansion method & had no hotplate in the w/shop so I made it a press fit.

1. Original as supplied with machine:

2.Manufactured new knurled collar

3. Press fitted to handwheel over original collar.

4. Reassembled to top(compound) slide

Obviously the OD can be made to suit your own dimensions but I made this to look cosmetically in keeping with the topslide scale & I can now easily grip to set zero.

Cheers

George

Nice job George!

There are some very reasonably priced heat-shrink guns around that make a useful workshop addition for small (and not so small) heat shrinking jobs. (As well as heat-shrinking of course).

Edited By Sid Herbage on 07/06/2013 21:24:58

Thanks for the reminder Sid, I have a heat gun somewhere in my shed that I used for paint stripping some wood a while back..never dawned on me at the time .. just goes to show the old grey matter is not as quick as it used to be, you know what I mean.." now where did I put so 'n' so, what did I do with....! even better.. now why did I come in here! .

G.

Just for the sake of interest what oil do you put in your WM250 gearbox?

Mark P.