Warco GH750/ Chester Cub 630 any good for a hobby machine.

Hi, just wondered if anyone has had any experience with the Chester Cub 630's and Warco GH750's?.

As far as I can tell they are the exact same machine just in different colours.

It will be used at home for hobby use.

I have just had an offer excepted on this:- https://ibb.co/mkdUxw

Not had any experience of these two lathes but looking on the internet they should do very nicely, if it's as good as it looks you should be well pleased!

Chris

If they are later versions of the BH600, Chester Craftsman or Engineers Tool Room BL12-24, they should be quite capable machines. Being gear head, may be a little noisier?

There is a good appreciation / recommendation on the MadModder site

Howard

Martin, Yes I have a Warco GH750 bought new circa 2001 still going great to this day. Only thing I have ever had fail was the halogen bulb [ a few years back ] As soon as I got it I did replace the original motor with a new Siemens 3 ph 3 hp one running of a Eurotherm 650 drive [ now made by Parker SSD ] never had even the slightest problem with Lathe, drive, or motor. It has seen [ and still sees ] a lot of use, and is still bang on to this day. I thought the GH750 was now discontinued. No experience of the Chester CUB

Just looking back, was probably around a year old before I changed the Motor to 3 ph.

Thanks Raymond, I would like the Warco version as it would match my mill but the only gh750 I found for sale is up for more money and doesn't look to be in great condition compared to the Cub 630.

As far as I can tell they are identicle machine?, also are your feed wheels on your cross slide/saddle plastic?.

The Cub I have been offered is 3 phase so I was going to buy a phase converter.

Martin, we were down at Chester at the beginning of the week for their " Open Week".

They have had a couple of old stock Cub Lathes there that they have had for a long while now.

It may be worth having a chat around what best deal would be if you were interested.

I went up to Chester back in 2000 to buy a CUB £2300 with convertor, non in stock just the demo they wouldnt sell. None of the longer lengths either and needed another lathe pronto as was losing money, they wasted me an 140 mile journey despite stating in stock.

Crusader was a lesser model £1950, again non in stock just the demo they wouldnt sell.
BH600 saw one in there £900 is the next model down again to above was in stock but bottled out as didnt feel right pus the naff way of speed changes.

From memory theres a couple of pitches missing wildly used but biggest problem back then was the D1-5 fixing, though seen adverts for them lately.
Long gone are the days you could bargain with them, take note if do phone them above price it could have been had at with convertor.

Do a search on this site for past threads on Chester, will give you some useful background. Then do a search for Warco for comparison.

Edited By Hopper on 09/12/2017 22:00:02

Was that a Cub 630 you were offered at £2300?, I have seen nice used Cub 630's/ Warco GH750's sell for £1500-£2000 second hand, a Cub with DRO just sold on eBay for £2300.

My old Harison L5 used screwed on chucks so is this D1-5 cam fixing quite rare compared to other cam equipted machines?, where the missing pitches for metric or imperial?.

I did research both last month and ended up buying a Warco mill. I would rather have a Warco GH750 as it would match my mill but this Chester Cub 630 I have been offered is in great condition and it's the identicle machine in a different colour.

Hi Martin, Photos of GH750 added to an album. Looking at the original hand wheels they appear to be a type of cast aluminium and not hard plastic as I had previously posted. The GH750 has certainly been a superb purchase and is still super to this day. [ Pity they are Discontinued ] And as for the Eurotherm 650 drive, it too has been flawless in operation. The drive was quite spendy but worth every penny. They are now made by Parker SSD The CUB certainly looks similar although I have no experience of it.

Cheers.

Thanks Raymond, looking at your pictures you may have an earlier machine to the GH750 I have been looking at, it's the later green and some of the controls are slightly different to yours but they are identicle to the Cub 360 I have been offered.

This is the GH750, do you think it's a later one?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F253294238394

Hi Martin, was looking at the lathe [ if I have the correct ebay item ] [ by CJ Machinery ] then that is the same model as mine. The speed /feed control knobs are the original ones on the "for sale " lathe, my ones I made new a couple years back. also that is the exact type of handles that mine had [ before I fitted the cast ones ] The green appears slightly different but that could be down to the photo. so in a nut shell, that is the same machine as mine. After 16 years or so I had a look for my receipt from Warco as to the cost of my one but alas it must be long gone. I can't remember what I paid for mine, but as I said earlier it has been a superb buy

I ended up getting a Harrison M300 in the end, needs a clean up as it's been in storage for 8 years but atleast all the bare steel parts got oiled up before it was stored.

Just need to decide if I want to run a rotary converter or convert it to a variable speed inverter setup.

Good choice Martin if its early 70's to mid ish 80's, later ones are chinese but will be far better than the normal rebranded cheapies you were initially after.

Toughy on powering it i initially had a Transwave Convertor 4kw (5.5HP) still have it as a backup unplug digi and plug in RT job done. Problem i couldnt hear myself think that loud and wouldnt pull the skin off rice pudding. Comparitively then went on to 5hp digi invertor much more usable but still useless had to go for the 7.5KW and just about manages startup with 10" chuck on to 1200rpm. Knowing the troubles had before i havent got the bottle to try any faster but ok with 5 1/4" chuck on. Starts with a right bang with gears meshing and about 1 sec to reach speed at 800rpm 10" chuck.
Do have a lesser 240v 1ph to 3ph 220V Mitsubishi i was going to put on over Christmas, may be some time before that gets tried. Also no point in VFD when you have the best gearboxes on any lathe and will be a pain figuring and wiring in the switchgear a must, dont use without.

Lastly cant believe the prices they are asking £2100 for cheap chinese at least 10-18 years old about that price new delivered. Similarly M300 gone through the roof as well, last 12 months £1800 - £2700 now £3 to £4.5k. Mine cost £750 8 yrs ago when generally going for £1600 - £2200, there at the right time.
Even on old worn out early L5 £1K no gearbox, i paid over the odds £900 for a 20 yr younger 140 with Norton gearbox, tooling etc who they kidding.