warco lathes.

I Agree that people only seem to post when they have an issue

But

Don't think it's a case of not fair as it is a comment upon failure issues not on numbers sold or good machines or position within the market.

this whole post was written as much as information for those like me (now) who are looking for a new machine and want information upon quality standards and service.

You have and are free at any time to post about how good your machines are as is anyone else, if they can be bothered to or not is up to them.

I feel the quality of my first warco lathe a 10 year old second hand BH600 was excellent, which is what prompted me to buy my next lathe from Warco but This lathe and the ensuing lack of good customer service has tainted that opinion badly

All my posts are my personal opinions based upon how I feel I have been treated, to which I am entitled as are you.

It's Called freedom of speech........

If people didn't post negative comments companies like Vauxhall for example could get away with the Zafira fire debarcle scott free and loads of people who's cars burst into flames for no apparent reason would be well out of pocket or someone could even have been killed. I am sure there are plenty of Zafira owners who love their cars and don't post about it !!

Further to an older post on this thread as to if Warco monitor this site the answer is yes as a comment made by me about warco was raised in a conversation the other day but was previously only been made on this site and not verbally, so either they do or someone keeps them up to speed.

+1 to Graham and Jason. For what it's worth, my experience with Warco is 2 lathes, 1 milling machine and a bandsaw none of which have had any kind of electrical fault so far.

It would be wonderful to have proper statistics on this. As it is, I think the most that can be said is that 'cheaper lathes tend not to be as well made as expensive ones'. Amazing! Who'd have thought that might happen?

Dave

.

I am lead to believe (from a reliable source) that Warco have a policy of not engaging in debates on internet forums regarding their products and any issues. They like to keep their discussions regarding such 'in house' via their customer support. - Others choose to do so apparently Warco do not.

No idea why, you would have to ask Warco themselves the reasoning behind this.

Regards, Nick

Anthony, freedom of speech is fine, and I fully understand your disappointment with your recent Warco lathe, I would no doubt react in a similar manner. On the point of fairness, to say 'many of Warco's customers are having wiring issues on several of their machines' is the point on which I would say is unfair as there are 'many' on here and throughout the ME arena that are perfectly happy and have had no issue with their machines.

deleted

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 07/05/2017 15:53:04

If that's directed at me JS, then who the hell do you think are you to tell me to shut up!. Talk about downright rude and obnoxious!!! So I don't have the right to freedom of speech, I have to shut up? I know you can be an arsey git but right here and now butt out, nothing to do with you or to coin a phrase once used by yourself -  ' nothing to see here move on'

Edited By Graeme W on 07/05/2017 16:16:36

Graeme W, well said mate.

+1 for that Graeme .W - and this individual is supposed to be a moderator? What sort of a joke is that? Get a grip Neil!

Rik

Probably I was the last person to post having a problem with wiring in a Warco lathe, and the reason I did post was not to complain about or bad mouth Warco, I just wanted help to solve the problem, which I did thanks to some very helpful folk on here.

That said, I honestly was not expecting the lathe to be faulty straight out of the box, I made it very clear to Warco that the lathe was for export and wanted to be sure it was fully tested before dispatch as obviously they won't be able to fix it from 2000miles away. Was told that it was standard procedure from their side to do thorough checks on export machines so I was confident. Not that I'm dissatisfied or anything like that, just to be clear, but it does dent a bit my impression of the product...

Well chaps, all a bit of a mix up and JS comment wasn't directed at me, we've cleared things up offline so enough said. Let's leave it at that

But it was directed at someone wasn't it? I think your response in your previous post may still be valid, at least on someone else's behalf.

Edited By Lathejack on 07/05/2017 21:12:56

Edited By Lathejack on 07/05/2017 21:13:26

So the question is who was it directed at ?

regardless it was a very offensive post especially when the poster was a moderator

the post was certainly not moderate

Edited By Antony Powell on 08/05/2017 06:58:55

As the machines would have gone through several other couriers/transport companies you will never know how they were handled (nornally delivered by Warcos own transport) quite possible it worked OK in Warco's warehouse and the wire that was not in very tight worked its way out during the journey.

Tony,

I have a personal interest in the Runmaster story. Could you please explain "down side is 21 day wait for three phase or 42 day wait for single phase and they are both end of line limited availability."

- Why is there a 21/42 days wait?... are they awaiting stock or are these electrical mods which they are doing in-house?

- End of line limited availability?.... does it means that they will stop supply after current stocks are exhausted?

I am just curious.

thanks, Ketan.

On the other hand anyone buying a far eastern lathe is doing so due to the attractive price, and would have to be a bit thick to expect the quality of say a Hardinge for the price. All these machines are made to a price point and if that means not spending time lacing the wiring then that is what you get for your money.

Anthony, you have said elsewhere that you can't afford to go with say a new harrison and went for a cheaper Warco do youthink you would be getting a machine of the same build quality?

Myself I would rather have a lathe with a bit of untidy wiring than no lathe at all due to comprable sized machines costing more than I want to spend.

J

Jason

I doubt that many people expect Hardinge performance when buying a cheaper lathe, there might be a few that look at the far eastern machine specification with rose tinted spectacles but its not fair to describe them as 'thick'.

'Not spending time' lacing is not the problem, what is more important is electrical safety and supplying a product suitable for the purpose as the thread started by ChrisB recently shows. If the fault on his machine was caused by a wire coming loose, then the consequences of the loose wire would have been a lot worse if it was a safety ground wire.

Ian P

Ian,

I fear you're leaping ahead of the evidence such that it is.

The actual problem with ChrisB's lathe was that a 5V control wire came adrift from the contactor. The effect was that the motor would not run in forward, ie it failed safe.

With one exception, I've never seen a complaint that one of these lathes became dangerous through faulty wiring. I'd suggest that's because the earth wiring is both simpler and connections are solidly bolted to the lathe itself. Most of the complaints on the web about Far Eastern lathes are that they 'stopped working', for a variety of causes, some related to cost-cutting and poor workmanship, but not all.

The only safety exception I'm aware of might be Antony's lathe where an earth wire melted. I would dearly like to see a professional analysis of the root cause of his damage. It appears that an earth wire melted, but there was no damage to the live wire. Antony didn't see the damage occur, and the fuse remained intact. That unusual combination suggests that the lathe was damaged by something else, not by an internal fault. If that's right then any other lathe would have suffered exactly the same damage. We don't know though.

Before retiring, 'expectation management' took up a fair amount of my working day. Briefly, this consisted of explaining that 'quality' was off the agenda, and that the name of the game was defining what the business meant by 'fit-for-purpose' and 'value for money'. This was difficult because the accountants wanted cheap whilst end-users wanted gold-plated brand-names irrespective of cost. The same tension is true of buying a home lathe. Basically we have 3 options:

• justify buying a new professional lathe, it will be good, probably overkill, and will be very expensive; You get what you pay for.
• buy a second-hand professional lathe, here the risk lies in the 'second-hand' part, it could be anything between a bargain and a dangerous money-pit, for example the wiring might be completely shot due to old age.
• buy a new hobby lathe, it will be a third of the price and there will be limitations. You pay for what you get. The main protection is that it can be sent back if it goes horribly wrong.

I wonder how many hobby lathe owners would be prepared to pay to have their wiring beautified? It might be a wonderful business opportunity. Or perhaps there's no demand at all. I had a good look at mine, it ain't pretty, but it's certainly not dangerous.

Cheers,

Dave

Edit. Why do mistakes only appear AFTER hitting Save?

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 08/05/2017 12:15:18

Dave

The only evidence I have is what I saw in the pictures and reading that a wire came loose. The untidiness of the wiring is of no concern to me (other than indicating a poorly finished product).

Fortunately the wire that came loose was in the low voltage wiring and it self-indicated itself by stopping the machine working. The loose wire could just as well been carrying mains, when it might have stopped the machine running (a good thing), however it could equally well been a safety ground wire, the machine would still work and the user might operate the machine for years without knowing of a potential problem.

Its not stretching imagination to suggest that if one wire can come loose so could another. If that second wire brought mains voltage into contact with the metalwork a potentially dangerous situation (even fatal) would have existed.

Accidents rarely happen because of only one thing going wrong, usually there is combination of factors that conspire or coincide. I admit two wires detaching as I have suggested is an unlikely event, but 'unlikely' means that the possibility still exists.

Unless regulations have changed I recall that it is mandatory for detachable metal panels to be earth bonded with a wire and not rely on the panel making contact with, say, a painted surface. The panel on ChrisB's lateh does not appear to have a bonding wire so for that reason alone I would consider the wiring substandard.

The wiring would not stop me from buying a Warco product but I would certainly be checking it carefully before I used it.

I agree with you about Anthony's lathe but personally would need to know a lot more about the cause to diagnose what actually went wrong.

Ian P