New Warco Lathe and Mill

Hi gents

I recently took delivery of my workshop's newest residents, and they are poised to be lifted onto their homes this week once we get the engine hoist!

A couple of weeks back a man with a lorry delivered these packages:

Inside was a WM-18 mill:

... and a WM-250V lathe:

The workshop is nearly complete and it will soon be time to lift them onto the new bench!

Question to anyone who has installed these - how level does each machine need to be? Can they cope with a bit of tilt or do they need to be bang on (at least to a certain tolerance)?

Am going to need to make some standoffs for the lathe as the swarf tray is made to fit their stands, and would not sit flat on a bench. Nearly there though!

Cheers

Edited By Ross Lloyd 1 on 20/05/2018 17:12:10

Hi Ross,

Congratulations with your new lathe and milling machine. When setting up your machines it is preferable to have a flat and level benchtop, the lathe bed should then be without twist. An ordinary carpenters level will be of some help, a more accurate/sensitive level better, that is what I used on my lathe. I also made some adjustable leveling feet and then followed Harold Hall's advice on setting up a lathe to turn parallel. I made a 30mm dia. test bar with two collars following Harold's advice. The test bar is also centre drilled at each end so I can use it to adjust the tailstock.

Thor

Forgot to mention that if you don't want to do any actual cutting of your test bar, you could use Rollie Dads method.

Edited By Thor on 20/05/2018 17:33:24

Not critical in my experience. Some types of machine are quite bendy and it pays to get them level as a first step towards eliminating twist and other faults. Once twist is eliminated, it's not necessary for a machine tool to be level in operation - they are often used in ships at sea. Your mill and lathe are comparatively tolerant - reasonably flat will do. I set mine up on a garage concrete floor without bothering with a level at all, and came unstuck only because the lathe rocked on a tiny bump in the floor (fixed with roofing felt, a rubber mat would be better.) Note that 'flat' is not necessarily level, or that level is automatically flat.

More important is for the stand to be rigid. Always good to minimise vibration.

Dave

Nice!

I've never bothered too much about level, more bothered by stability.

Enjoy!

Jim

Doesn't have to be 'level' in the sense you are thinking about, as long as there is no twist in the bed. Mine is set on the cupboards supplied when I ordered it plus sat on a couple of rubber mats on my garage floor & checked for level with a digi level, so far it hasn't given me any problems. I used a couple of HSS tool steel blanks to sit the digilevel onto front & back shears.

Across shears at headstock end...



​...at tailstock end... no 'Twist'



... Along front shear...



...rear shear... lathe ' out of level ' by 0.1* along bed length



​Not overly concerned by 'out of level' by that minute amount... just happy that bed is not twisted.

George.

If I am not mistaken the WM250 is essentially the same machine as my Chester DB10, and if so there is little you can do to adjust the bed as the mounting holes run laterally (along the lathes length) rather than across the lathes width which would assist in untwisting the bed should you need to.

I got around it by mounting on a very sturdy bench with a solid metal surface, luckily that was all that was need with mine to turn parallel cuts.

Absolutely. A think there's a fair amount of hocus-pocus about that. I never bothered, so long as the thing didn't rock, and although most of my stuff is to a couple of thou, I've done a few bits and pieces to a few tenths.

One mistake I made early on with my WM250V was to engage longitudinal feed on a locked saddle when I'd meant to engage crossfeed. That bent the pinion that engages with the bed rack and snapped one of the keyed bushes in the headstock geartrain - without breaking the leadscrew shearpin. Warco sent me a new keyed bush immediately, but the bent pinion gave me a difficult tight spot every third turn of the carriage handwheel. At first I shimmed the apron to reduce engagement, but 18 months later discovered I could straighten the pinion with a standard crowbar!

Just be aware, and take care. I've found it a good machine.

Mick I Think I have a similar problem with a bent pinion. Can you elaborate on how you straightened the pinion please. Regards Dave

You need the 'toe' end of the crowbar, not the end with the deep 'U' bend and forked tip.

Run the saddle 2/3 to 3/4 of the way towards the tailstock and stop at the tightest spot - where the pinion's at its highest.

Place the toe of the crowbar against the top of the pinion shaft, with the shallow bend bearing against the underside of the l/h nearside saddle retainer. Lever up carefully to push down on the pinion - try the saddle handwheel to see if it's reduced the tight spot. Reposition and try again until the saddle runs smoothly.

Obviously don't use excessive force. Hope it works for you. So far as I can tell it's completely cured the problem on mine.

Oh, and my crowbar's 18 1/2 inches long. The previous owners left it in the house.

Edited By Mick B1 on 21/05/2018 09:44:10

As for my WM16 mill... I set it 'level' on a self levelling screed pad I did during garage conversion; I purchased 4 adjustable pads ( Warco iirc ) & levelled up the mill on these using a carpenters level & checked with digi- level. the only problem with the stand is it is too light for the mill ( & same for the lathe ) so I fastened it to the OSB / sheet studding with large shelf brackets, has improved stability a lot more...

George

Hi

Thanks all for the suggestions, good to know its more the twist than anything I need to worry about. I will see how we get on and if we are struggling will give the advice Thor gave a try.

Cheers

Update: The lathe is on the bench. The mill is waiting its turn for the engine hoist, rusty knackered old thing from a local tool hire firm. After a false start where they forgot to supply the leg pins, amazingly it sailed through picking up the WM250V. I've not had a chance to test for twist yet, which may demand buying a digital gauge.

Ignore the improvised shim under those cutters, they were just enough to make some chips on a quick test piece!

Edited By Ross Lloyd 1 on 02/06/2018 23:57:39