Tool holders for Warco WM 180 Lathe

Hi,

Im new to this forum, and having just got into the model engineering game through my recently started job, as a production engineer, I felt I should buy my own lathe for my home workshop, which has been gathering dust. While I understand the full size lathes, I am not at one with the mini lathe world.

I am looking to buy the Warco WM 180 Lathe, as I feel that it will suit my needs, is within budget, and know that it will fit my cosy 10ft x 12ft workshop, along with all the current benches. The tool holder and tool post that comes with the lathe looks to me to be unreliable, and coming from a job where the machines use quick change tool posts, having to use shims to raise tool centre height is less than ideal. I have seen that the A2Z CNC tool post is very popular, and would like to know if this would fit the lathe in question.

Any help with this would be much appreciated.

Hi Owen

I am also new and have recently got the slightly bigger version WM250. I have done much research into this matter and arrived at the conclusion that whatever you buy there will be some degree of modification that you will have to make to the top slide or the new tool post itself.

I have ordered a Multifix Toolpost from createtool.com and will need to do exactly that.

Warco do offer a QCTP that they modify for you in house, but may not be the style you are looking for and last time I checked was out of stock.

Like I said I am a novice to all this myself, hopefully a guru will be along shortly to offer better advice.

G

As far as I know the A2Z toolpost is al.alloy. I have always believed that rigidity is everything with machine tools, especially small ones. I understand that the A2Z toolpost is fairly popular but I would suggest that a steel one would help to eliminate or reduce chatter, which is always a problem with mini lathes.

I made a post and clamp type toolpost about 5 years ago, there are some pictures in my album. There are now about 23 or 24 toolholders and soon to be more. They breed you know!! It's a very rigid set up, and has produced no problems.

All the best

cheers

Bill

I don't think it's too onerous to keep necessary shims with each tool. But I did have a kind friend who produced a box of suitable shims various thicknesses the week I got the lathe. This saves scratching round for odd bits and has saved me hours!

I used to have a WM 180 that I eventually upgraded to a WM 250 (Much to my regret.  The WM 180 was a great little lathe but the WM 250 has been nothing but trouble!) Anyway, and for what it’s worth I used a bit of old circuit board as a shim for 10mm HSS lathe tools from Chrono’s. It was solid, robust, and I never had any problems. I did consider a QCTP when I bought the lathe, but in the end I never did buy it and was perfectly happy.

David

Edited By David Cambridge on 30/11/2015 09:45:15

I use a four way tool post and have shims permanently fixed to the bottom of my most used tooling except a tangential tool which is very quick to set to centre height. Insert tooling negates the need for a QCTP once a shim is screwed/glued to the tool holder. Just one way of doing it.

I should add that I only have an 8 x14 Lathe which is not that rigid to start with so didn't want to add extra components in the tool holding system that could make things worse. 

Edited By Vic on 30/11/2015 10:36:38

I would use the Dixon type tool post. Readily available, I believe the size is 00 available from various suppliers.

I also use a Dickson type tool post on my WM250 & it is the 00 size iirc, no need to glue / fix shims to tools, but each to their own as the saying goes, just enjoy.

George

I bought a wm 250 but unlike David's mine has been great. The only handy hint I can give is if you do buy one the metal straps that secure the pallet can be cut up to make excellent shims (dozens of um !)

The Myford QCTP's were available at pretty reasonable prices on ebay recently. They are branded ones too.

Not sure how suitable they are for your lathe though. The holders are limited to 1/2" tools and the holder base is 1/4" thick. I think they also offer one with slightly more capacity via a thinner bottom. There are 2 fixing stud sizes available. You may need to make a bush to get a precise fit.

I use 10mm tipped tooling and from 1/4 to 3/8 hss bits in mine on a Boxford. It's a "packed up" version that I assume myford did for their larger lathes. I've also bought one to replace a multifix on a wabeco mini lathe.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 30/11/2015 18:14:20

Edited By John W1 on 30/11/2015 18:47:14

I have a 4 way for my Corbett lathe and have just made four 2 way toolposts gives me 12 tools shimmed by a couple of feeler gauge sets all for under £20, just as quick to change as a QCTP and a dam site cheaper

Mick

Good idea Mick.

With insert tooling these days QCTP aren't really that quick any more and are expensive to populate with holders. They also take up more space.