Hello Everybody! I am Grant.

Hi Everyone

I am Grant, I love to fettle and tinker with stuff so decided its time to fit the old garage with a "real mans machine" and bought myself a Warco WM250V Lathe.

Being new to the hobby, I discovered that for the money these lathes are ideal for the garage hobby fettler provided you spend a little time setting it all up.

I plan to gain a wealth of knowledge off you good people here so hope you all don't mind if I bombard you with a million questions.

Anyway once my lathe was on the bench, the next order of the day was getting it level, well, as close as my bench and setup would allow anyway. Armed with a precision spirit level I proceeded with some shimming.

Shimming at the headstock end:

Shimming at the tailstock end:

Levelling all done and it was time to give it all a good once over. Removed and cleaned chuck, removed and cleaned gears, aligned tailstock to centres etc....

Did some more research, watched some YouTube videos and learnt HSS is the way forward so on to grinding my own Facing Off Tool:

and Turning Tool:

I ripped a shaft from a old scanner I had laying around as I have read that they are hardened and machined to precision so used this to check the runout. I used a 0.001mm digital gauge for this job. As you can see in the next picture, it was rather difficult getting the digital gauge to 0.000 so I decided that 0.100 would be my new 0 for the test:

The value climbed to a maximum of 0.044mm 190mm down the rod and then started dropping back down towards 0. My bench does have a little bow in it so I am guessing the ways are following this profile. I also considered that the rod may also be flexing towards its end as its unsupported. I thought about drilling a centre hole and supporting the tool/rod with the tailstock but was unsure if this is defeating the whole purpose of the test???? Perhaps you could advise on this matter.

Checked the runout on the horizontal plane. Difference from chuck to end of tool/rod 320mm = 0.220mm.

Made the girl a little apron to catch the chips and offer the ways a little protection:

to be continued.....

Edited By JasonB on 24/11/2015 07:34:10

continued.....

Time for a little fun. I ride dirt bikes, Enduro style with a bit of racing added in the mix. At one event I lost a collet which connects a lifting strap to the rear of the bike. Perfect opportunity to try my new lathe! Took some measurements from the remaining collet and did a little planning.

I faced and centre drilled a rod of 6061 aluminium. Drilled a 8mm hole approximately 40mm deep. I drilled the 8mm hole to 12mm in diameter and then used a mill end bit to drill the seat square. I turned my piece down to the correct outer dimension, removed the piece and turned it 180 so I could use a Right Hand Turning Tool to turn down the inner dimension. Once complete I parted the tool off with a parting tool which was a nail biting experience to say the least. Anyway the end result was good and I am happy with the result:

I now have a pair:

Thanks peeps, please feel free to wing me some advise or criticisms on my work with both lathe and tool. Always happy to correct any faults in the quest for excellence...... LOL!

Cheers for reading

Grant

Edited By JasonB on 24/11/2015 07:37:55

Welcome to the Forum Grant

I have just edited all the photos so they show up, this forum is a bit quirky with attachments. You need to copy the "direct link" from Photobucket and then paste that into the window that comes up when you click the photo icon along the top of the reply box, also set width to 640

J

Many thanks for the welcome Jason and for taking the time to correct my links, much appreciated!

G

Hello Grant, sound like a reasonable lathe when you consider 0.044mm is only 0.0017" and some of that may be the rod?

Welcome Grant

I have the self same machine & have found it more than suits my needs; I have made a couple of mods to it that you may find interesting, have a look in my albums.

George.

Thanks for the "Welcomes" fella's.

Both those mods are on my to do list George, unfortunately I don't own a Mill, so the gib mod will have to take the bench for a while till I acquire the cash to fund one.

I have treated myself to a Multifix tool post for Christmas though. http://www.createtool.com/list.asp?cid=33 I really cannot get on with the Turret style post of constantly checking centre when changing to different tool sizes.

Its not going to be a direct fit so will require some fettling which I will post up once I have received the system from China mid December.

In the meantime I am off to learn how to do some threading!

G.

When I changed to the 'Dickson type' post I ended up making a new tool post stud & machined off the boss from the compound slide, I am keeping the turret tool post supplied with the machine as I may want a repetition set up some time in the future, I know not when nor why just yet, but it's there for use anyhow, all I need to make is a dummy boss... Hmmmm.... I think I had one or two of those somewhere back in the dark distant past of my working life .

George.

Hello Grant,

For anything held in a 3-jaw chuck that's a decent set of readings.

Neil

Several questions for you George, if I may...

How did you remove the original stud. Is it threaded or compression fitted?

I will have to make myself a new stud too and was wondering which metal would be best suited BMS or Stainless Steel, I assume stainless? You can have the stud from my lathe if you cannot find yours, I will definitely have no use for it.

I assume you used your mill to machine off the boss on the top slide??

I will create a new thread along with technical drawings from manufacturer and my thoughts/plan of how I will fit the new tool post to my existing setup. I will mention that I don't have a mill so will be nice to get some members insight on how they would go about adapting the tool post to fit.

G

Thanks Neil, nice to know that those are good figures!

G

Welcome aboard!

Notice that you said that parting off was nail biting experience. Also notice the that your lathe has T slots in the Cross Slide, so onto one of my hobby horses.

Suggest that you make yourself a Rear Toolpost. One will hold a parting tool, and leave your finger nails a bit longer, and your nerves less frazzled. (Often, I arrange a gravity fed drip feed of soluble oil onto the tool, seems to help.) Replaceable Carbide Tip parting tools seem to be good, and less prone to dig ins, but the tips, like all carbides do not like interrupted cuts. Some use two way rear toolposts, which allow you carry a chamfer tool as well. My choice was to make a four way indexing toolpost, to match the Front one. This carries front chamfer, rear chamfer as well as the parting tool. Needless to say tools in the Rear post should be mounted upside down.

Another hobby horse: make yourself a Centre Height Gauge. The time that you save setting tools to Center Height can be used productively, cutting metal!

Good luck!

Howard

Hulloo forum members.

I'm George way up in the best bit of Britain, a bit of background :- many many years as a domestic appliance engineer, then farm worker, computer engineer(strictly a screwdriver engineer), mechatronics engineer, and for the last 5 years in a skool as technician/dogsbody based mostly in the tech department(bliss).

The thing is I am heading for retirement so looking to spend a lot of time in the shed so - any ideas on setting myself up in the shed, - 8 feet x 6 feet, concrete floor and minimal heated.

Thanks in anticipation.

George

Edited By mechman48 on 04/01/2016 10:36:57

Edited By mechman48 on 04/01/2016 10:41:17