Warco WM290V

Greetings all.

I am just in the process of buying a larger lathe. Looking at the Warco WM290V with a DRO. I'm interested in any feedback from Engineers who have one of these lathes, they appear, at least on paper excellent value for money..

Many Thanks

Hi Chris,

The WM290V does look good value with inverter drive and DRO included. We bought the similarly priced GH1236 at work and I later changed it to inverter drive which bumped the cost up by a few hundred. There were a few teething troubles but it has produced some very accurate work over the last few years. I would check that the power feeds are fine enough for your purposes, the finest are still quite coarse on the GH1236. I would not now be prepared to give up the Camlock D1-4 chuck mount for flange mount, but it depends how often you envisage changing chucks.

Andrew.

Hi Chris,

I have a 290 lathe - different paintwork as mine is blue and grey. Mine has a 3-phase motor and inverter drive like the Warco, I do like the inverter drive and the large spindle bore. I have had no problems so far, there is a photo here.

Thor

Hi Chris, sorry only just seen this post.

I bought a 290V last year, really pleased with it generally.

I had a couple of problems, the push button switch kept tilting and locking had a replacement by return.

Established that there is not a lock on the carriage despite what the web spec said.

Had to remove tailstock to adjust the locking mechanism as the quick action lever just went over centre.

Otherwise well equipped with DRO, variable speed, power traverse etc.

Bill D.

Hi Bill,

Your 290 must be slightly different from mine, as mine do have a carriage lock to the right of the cross slide. It is just an Allen screw and is operated by an Allen key from the tool box.
Like on your lathe, I had to adjust a nut to get the quick action lever on the tailstock to lock properly.

Thor

Thor, that's interesting, I did look at those but they were already dead tight I seem to remember, so I checked with Warco and they came back confirming that there was not a carriage lock. Just had another look and I have three each side of the cross slide, two on the outer edge of the carriage and one in by the actual slideway, they are all tight so assume they are for holding all the bits together.

Now, just having a recap on where I saw reference to a lock, it is in the manual and refers to a socket head screw, illustration points to one of the pair to the left of the cross slide, tried again but no, dead tight and makes no difference to the carriage.

Got me intrigued now, is mine just different to yours or is there something amiss with the lock screw.

It's a shame really, all the sophosticated VS control and DRO but a simple thing like a nice carriage lock lever is overlooked.

I suppose like a lot of things you buy, whatever the cost, there is always something that prompts you to say 'if only they had....'

Bill D.

Hi Bill,

The three screws you talk about sound familar to me. I have taken a photo of the right hand side with the carriage lock on my lathe, with the Allen key I use when clamping:

Have you tried that Allen screw on yours?

Thor

Edited By Thor on 26/11/2016 12:51:15

I think the Warco one has the DRO on teh side of teh carrage so in their wisdom the factory removed the lock so people would not moan that they could not get to it. The last 290 I looked at on a Warco stand did not have the locking cap head.

Thanks for clearing that up Jason, my 290 is a few years old and doesn't have a DRO.

Thor

Seems good reasoning Jason, mine has the DRO.

Thanks for the pic Thor, mine looks much the same but with the DRO on the right of the cross slide. In in the manual it indicates the locking screw on the left side.

Having another look at mine the two screws outer screws on each side appear to bolt the carriage to the apron, sticking a finger under the carriage the single inner ones screw into a block that locates under the slide, I assume to stop carriage lift. As they are fully tight I guess that the blocks are machined to give just the right running clearance.

I suppose I could remove one of the blocks and machine a bit off so that it locks when full tightened but that would probably mean that you will have to carefully set it when not locked so that there is not too much play causing lift, even then it could move with vibration, I don't think I will bother, as far as I am aware I have not actually had a problem with carriage moving when doing a face cut.

Other than that I love it, a big improvement on my Clarke lathe I had previously, the biggest joy for me as silly as it sounds is having the carriage on a rack rather than furious winding of the power feed screw to move the carriage back and forth all the time, plus the DRO which is excellent

Thanks guys for feedback,

Bill D.

sorry, should have been clearer - mine has both dro and functional (though difficult to reach) carriage lock.

Hi Everyone

Many thanks for all the positive feedback. After all this and having sold my ML7, I have decided to stick with Myford and a Super 7 with power cross feed. Having said this I have often wondered why Myford didn't increase capacity to a MT3 spindle on the Super 7 series.? Eventually doing so with the "Big Bore" model.

Chris

Dan, from what you say it sounds as if mine should lock as well, might have a look one day. Will have to study the parts diagrams.

Bill D.

Bill,

Would have been more use before, but wasn't at home. This is my lathe:

The brass lever has a stub of allen wrench in it, so fits in the socket screw but goes under the dro to avoid the awkward positioning. The relevant page of my manual:

Shows the lock as component 43. I am sure I have seen a thread on this forum where someone removed it and took a bit off the top surface to make it work properly. Not sure whether this is possible without removing the apron which would be painful.

Regards,

Dan

....Shows the lock as component 43. I am sure I have seen a thread on this forum where someone removed it and took a bit off the top surface to make it work properly. Not sure whether this is possible without removing the apron which would be painful.

​I wrote a post on this some time ago for my WM250 V-F so it may have been that you saw... see link

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=98702

​George.

My saddle lock ...



After some judicious filing... the gap between the saddle top & locking pad can be seen ... it locks up quite solidly now...



George.

Edited By mechman48 on 28/11/2016 19:20:48

Thanks for that Dan, I did wonder about making up a more permanent lever but first I need to do a bit of work on the locating block if it comes out without dismantling half of the lathe.

Bill D

I've had a 280V for a few years and once it was set up I can make some nice parts on it, far better than on my old worn Harrison and it runs at the right speed for tipped tooling. The Harrison felt like it was going to take off if I ran it over 800rpm!

Steve

Can't understand what's happened to my pics... moderator ? they were ok when I posted yesterday, anyway they are in my album 'miscellaneous'.

George.