Holes drilled in side of Warco Super Major column?.

Hi, I am looking at a used Warco Super Major but there is some strange holes drilled in the side of the column and two in the side of the base under the table, do you think it may have had a DRO previously fitted?.

%5Burl=https://ibb.co/dXjhL6%5D%5Bimg%5Dhttps://preview.ibb.co/cNH2L6/IMG_7698.jpg%5B/img%5D%5B/url%5D

This should work

https://ibb.co/dXjhL6

in a word ...no

I will have another go, I tried to upload pictures into my album but they just won't go.

[url=https://ibb.co/dXjhL6][img]https://preview.ibb.co/cNH2L6/IMG_7698.jpg[/img][/url]

I really don't know why it doesn't work, I have just posted the link above on another forum I use just to try and the picture of the mill came straight up.

Try this

Done with the jpg link you provided earlier in the thread (https://preview.ibb.co/cNH2L6/IMG_7698.jpg) and the Image icon at the top of the posting page; the one next to the camera

No, I haven't a clue what the holes are for

Bill

Edited By peak4 on 28/11/2017 01:45:11

Edited By peak4 on 28/11/2017 01:46:45

Thanks for that Bill, do you think the holes were used to hold a DRO sensor?.

I think those are for a power feed to the head elevation

Possibly the pair under the table were used to hold a DRO rule. They're quite close together though.

I suppose the pair of holes on the column might have supported a DRO display but it's an unusual place to put it.

Mystery!

Dave

The standard powered head elevation as supplied on the Chester Super Lux (same design basically) mounts on the top of the column. Unless this was a home made drive to the manual handle shaft it would probably be for something else. Maybe an air/coolant system mount or a light.

Martin C

It's probably fine and I am just being suspicious for no reason, it's either an 06 or 08 Warco Super major( the date stamp isn't that clear in the pictures).

It's a family that are selling it and they said it belonged to a late family member, there is no tooling at all with it.

One thought I had was are the bolt holes for an old DRO setup, i.e. it's been stripped off to use on a new mill and the tooling has been kept also.

It's probably genuine though.

Hi Martin,

An odd place to fit a DRO arm, but not impossible...how about a one-shot oiler system ?

Either way I doubt it would cause any issues.

Regards, Chris

Hello Martin.

I have a Warco Super Major mill, and I fitted it with Sino Dro.

The holes under the table may well be for the read head of a Dro scale, they look to be in a very similar position to the read head I fitted to my machine. Just above those holes, on the on the end face of the saddle I think I see a further hole and there is probably another hole on the other end cheek which is out of view, this would have probably had a long mounting plate fitted for the scale itself. I can't think what the other holes on the column are for.

Regards Anna

It's just very odd, if a late family member did own it and had sadly passed on it would still have all the tools and and DRO fitted.

As I said earlier it could be 100% genuine but part of me is thinking has someone bought another machine because they have had issues with this one and kept the tooling and DRO.

My other option is a nice Tom Senior Light Verticle.

I have asked the question to the family selling it and have been told the late owner converted this mill to CNC and didn't get on with it so it got converted back and then he became ill.

Anyway I am going to have a look tomorrow and see what it's all about, I haven't even seen any Warco machines at all and the only mill I have ever used is a Bridgeport at engineering school, I would love one but as my workshop is 2M X 7.5M internal I want something a little smaller.

Hello Martin.

As you say in your post I have not been at all happy with my mill. Whilst I was not expecting anything like Bridgeport Quality from a cheap Chinese machine I had somehow expected something more for around £2500.

My machine had a long list of defects from new, some I have managed to cure some are not possible to be fixed. On looking at the picture of the mill in question I note that the column has been detached from the base. This may have been just to make it more manageable to move the machine as sub assemblies, or possibly like mine, the column has had to be shimmed to bring it square with the table. This machine really needs DRO to be usable especially on the Z Axis Like you I would love another Bridgeport but don't have the room. As an alternative I would love the Precision Mathews 9/35TV milling machine, a slightly shrunken Bridgeport type machine made in Taiwan. but as far as I know it is not available in this country. Please feel free to PM me if you require more information.

Kind regards

Anna

If the column has been separated from the base, it may well need retramming. (That was a rod that I made for my own back on my Warco Economy!)

Howard

I am guessing they set up the column st the factory, so if the column is un-bolted from the base it will need setting up again?