Warco Mini Lathe

Having inherited my late fathers early Warco Mini Lathe I have got used to its limits and found it quite usable for most tasks. It will never be on a par with the Boxford, Myford or Harrison lathes I have worked on in the past.

I recently needed to use the face plate for the first time. After a struggle to clamp a large disc to it and make it run true I watched Ades Workshop on You Tube. He had problems making a Warco face plate run true.

I checked mine for run out on its face finding it was 30 thou out of true and twelve thou on its outer rim. I was able to true it up by machining both faces, it is quite soft cast iron. To my surprise there were flecks of what looked like brass in the dust after I had finished.

I had thought of buying a Warco lathe many years ago when I was struggling with an old Myford ML4. I still think Warco are worth considering but need careful checking.

Um, I thought you were always supposed to true up a new faceplate on its lathe? It's easy to do and guarantees the faceplate is true to the lathe.

Dunno about the Brass flecks. Some cast-irons are strengthened by adding copper but I've never noticed any in the mess.

Dave

Cast iron machined hard with carbide tooling can produce brass coloured chips! If you really push it you can get blue ones too!

Paul.

It may be so for a cheap combination, but both faceplates I have ran true on my Raglan LJ. Not checked, but I anticipate they will also run true on my 5”.

If flange mounted, the faceplate will need mounting in the same orientation every time it is mounted, I expect.

I believe you!

But before using a faceplate for the first time, I suggest it's always worth putting a DTI on it rather than trusting the maker or any previous experience suggesting all will be well.

Faceplates aren't like chucks where the manufacturer has to get it right in the factory. A faceplate is easy to improve in the workshop when fixing a bad chuck might be impossible. If a faceplate's not spot on already, a facing cut will soon provide 'good as it gets' accuracy on that particular machine, which can only be an advantage and it's easy to do.

Dave

Thanks for the feedback folks. I admit I didnt think to check the face plate before trying to use it as it was still in its packing. I agree the chucks look to have been made to a better standard .In the past I have found face plates have usually been dumped in a cupboard and rarely used. I have cleaned up a rusty Harrison face plate once and then spent a day cleaning the lathe and re-grinding the tool before using the face plate.Less haste more checking come to mind.

I did. And I will - before I need to mount something that should not need shimming, as they ofen do.