My new lathe a Warco 918

I have bought loads of lathe insert tool holders + **mt & **gt inserts from Banggood, never had an issue with any of them. There aluminium **gt inserts are excellent & @ around £8 for 10 inserts with free postage are a bargain as far as i am concerned. Also there carbide end mill cutters i find very good indeed especially on harder materials, there bargain price also helps when i can buy a set of 4 or 5 carbide cutters for the price of 1 cutter in the UK. For me personally its a no brainer.

Well, I've shied away from Banggood for quite a while but based on the above and chatting with friends I've just ordered a boring bar (S16Q-SCLCR09 16x180mm Boring Bar Tool Holder) for a fraction under £8.50. I'll report back...

I,m sure you clever chaps will know, will sticking a flat bar magnet 50mm x 10mm x 2mm onto the back of a digital caliper affect its performance/display..?

I am thinking not but I dont really know for sure and thought you guys may know, its for an idea I have but I dont have a magnet yet to test it out.

Ron

I've just tried a strong magnet on the back of a cheap digital calliper (I don't use them in the workshop, they are useless for repeatability compared to a simple mechanical Vernier) and didn't care if it hurt it. It didn't change the reading or stop working. However I can imagine the magnetism picking up all sorts of metallic debris and it sticking to the jaws causing you some grief.

Martin C

Hi Martin

Thanks for doing that test, appreciated. The swarf issue did cross my mind but I wouldn't be using the Jaws.

Ron

I took a gamble and bought a cheap £8 . digital caliper for a little project I am going to try on the lathe.

I expected it to be rough and it is but a couple of hours stripping it down and improving where I could and its now much better than it was. I need it to be reasonably accurate but not perfect and a few comparison tests against my Mitutoyo and it is within 1 to 2 thou along the full range of 6 inches so thats fine for how I hope to use it.

Just to give some idea of how rough it was,the top and bottom running faces of the beam looked as if they had been finished on a bandsaw but at £8 what can you expect. I used a very fine file and draw filed the faces finishing with 800 and 1200 paper, after readjusting the head it is quite smooth, very smooth actually considering.

I made the mods and waiting for some magnets plus I need to make a mounting block and a couple of other bits, I am sure you can guess what I,m up to, it may work out it may not but hardly a drama if it doesnt at £8.

Edited By Ron Laden on 29/05/2020 11:10:43

Did you add those countersunk holes? That might help us guess.🙂

Edited By not done it yet on 29/05/2020 11:24:45

Yes I added the csk holes.

Made and fitted the mount to the caliper.

p.s. Pan head screws as I don't have any csk at the moment. 

Edited By Ron Laden on 31/05/2020 10:38:35

Sorry should have said if it works out it is going to be a poor man's DRO for the carriage, I say poor man's as there is only £8 in it so far..

Looking with interest Ron as I to have a 9x20 but Im using a clock for mine. I tried to drill and hacksaw a Aldi calliper a few years ago but it was so hard that the drills would not touch it and similar with the hacksaw .

Bob

Hi Bob, well that speaks well for Aldi calipers as this cheapie I have which is said to be stl stl/hardened is the strangest stl I have come across. It cuts and machines so easily I can hardly believe it is stl. However it is non magnetic but I, m guessing it is some Chinacheeseium concoction, the non magnetic is a bonus though for the way I am going to mount it.

Will post more when I,m a bit further on.

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 31/05/2020 11:01:35

Nice looking job, Ron!

A long time ago, I tried drilling an LIDL digital calliper. After regrinding the drill three times for the first hole, I gave up!

A proper DRO now lives on the Tailstock!

Howard

Hi Howard,

Yes I am sure any half decent caliper would be made of better stuff than my cheapie but hopefully it will be ok for my purpose, after all it wont be under any stress not that any caliper should be of course. The good thing is the caliper is reasonably accurate for how I will be using it, measuring and setting lengths of cuts etc, it is within 1 to 2 thou of my Mitutoyo across the full 150 mm.

I have been thinking of giving the idea a try for some time so when I saw a digital caliper for £8 I thought I would give it a try, will see how it turns out.

Ron

The carriage DRO is just about finished, waiting for some magnets but temporarily fitted it with some smaller ones I had which did in fact hold it well enough. I went down the magnet route as I wont be leaving it on the lathe when not required and I can see it getting damaged if left in situ all the time. The magnets make it easy fit/easy removal it takes just seconds. The swarf guard I have made up is also fitted via magnets so again quick fit.

Quite pleased with it considering it cost £8 plus some offcuts and a bit of time.

p.s. Click on image to enlarge.

Edited By Ron Laden on 01/06/2020 16:59:18

Has anyone heard, read or know of the cross slide been converted to power feed on the 920 lathe, the usual mods to the 920 are well documented but I havnt found any mention of a power feed. I would be surprised if it hasnt been done when you consider the number of 920,s that must be out there, if it has been done I would be interested in their approach.

I have sketched up how I would tackle it and have been looking at what I think would be suitable geared motors, currently considering the Mclennan range (picture below) 24 volt, 30/1, 110 rpm (24v), 15N/cm, decent quality with all metal gearbox and reasonably priced. The motor is a bit of guess work as I dont know what sort of torque is required so the one I am considering is down to my thinking it would be ok.

A gentleman in Germany sells small lathe electronic leadscrews for a living and offers stepmotors in the range of 1.5 to 3,3 NewtonMeter for leadscrew and crosslide.Your proposal is probably not to big.

Steppers for lathes

The real problem is to make sure that feed stops imidiately if lathe spindle stops unexpected.

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 10/06/2020 15:32:37

Thats a good point Niels, though I dont quite know how I would achieve that with the drive been independent of the lathe.

The other thing I will need is a method of engaging/disengaging the drive from the cross slide lead screw. I am thinking of a small dog clutch though I have no experience of designing/making one so I will have to get the thinking cap on, it doesnt need to be anything complicated.

Ron .

I removed the cross slide to size things up and found a couple of surprises, the first is the saddle and cross slide running faces have at some point been scraped so that was a nice find. The second was that it will be quite easy to modify the saddle to accept the drive shaft, just need to put the saddle up on the mill and cut a channel out through the rear. A spigot turned on the end of the lead screw to connect to the drive and that should be about it, the rest of the drive assy will be fixed to the rear of the saddle.

There is just enough space to mill a couple of pockets for a front and rear microswitch which could be worth doing to prevent any overrun of the drive.

That is a nice leadscrew nut, much better looking than the original design on my Chester 920. I think this must be one of the many improvements made by the previous owner. I asume that you will be removing the leadscrew to make modifications for the motor drive. If you do, would you be willing to post a picture showing the nut? I would be interested to see how backlash adjustment is done.