Cross slide adjustment?

Good afternoon,

I have a Warco WM240 lathe. Can I adjust the cross slide to remove 0.10mm longitudinal free travel?

Thank you.

Probably got a split nut that has two small screws to spread the split, not easy to get to but doe soffer some adjustment .0.1mm is not a lot to bother about.

Edited By JasonB on 03/06/2020 13:21:20

Backlash is pretty much a fact of life with conventional screws, if you have adjustable nuts then you may find that eliminating the free movement in one position will make things tight in another. As long as you always approach a setting from the same direction and if you back off make sure you exceed the amount of backlash before reapproaching your setting it shouldn’t cause any difficulties.

Mike

I believe access to the split nut adjuster screws on the WM240 lathe is via the rear under side of the cross slide.

As Jason said, let sleeping dogs lie, not enough to worry about.

If there is a screw adjustment see if the parts list tells you what thread it is. then calculate the amount of turn that will compensate for taking up a mere 4 thou. Then give up. It is only a problem when you have half a turn backlash - think about it

Just Google ..cross slide backlash....there’s loads of info, plus lots of helpful stuff on Youtube..

Good luck..

Hi All, and I hope a Happy New Year becomes a reality for all of us.

I've just taken out most of the backlash on my 290V cross slide, the brass nut has two tiny hex grub screws on its rear end for a 1mm hex key to allow the 1mm or so slot cut across the nut to be closed around the screw threads, and is easy to get to on this model. That was the easy part.

However, can any of you much more knowledgable gentlemen please enlighten me on how the cross slide gib is supposed to be retained and adjusted? There are no gib screws along the side of the slide (unless they used them for the DRO scale mounts!), only this flat headed screw in the front which I thought would have locked the gib in place on tightening. Today, however, after stripping it to clean and re-lube the ways, I find that no matter how much I tighten the screw, when I wind the slide back towards me (front of the lathe) the gib gets pulled in and locks the whole thing up! Any help greatly appreciated, as always.

You can probably eliminate most of the backlash, but you should run the cross slide through its full travel to be sure it doesn't get too tight at the extremes. The other possible source of backlash is the end play of the leadscrew, which may be adjustable by nuts, grubscrews or shimming. I would be pleased to get 0.05mm and think that ever getting less would be due more to luck than anything else.

Looks suspiciously as if that's exactly what they've done - the gib adjusters are behind the DRO, which has to be removed to adjust them. Can you get a better look behind the DRO? Allan head screws with lock-nuts?

May not matter provided the scale is fairly easy to remove - once set up gibs don't need frequent adjustment. Can't remember when I last tweaked mine.

Dave

Isn't that a wedge type Gib?

That screw pushes the tapered gib in, same at the other end of the slide. adjust them equally or something like that.

Link

Edited By Dave Halford on 01/01/2021 20:45:18

That tapered gib doesn't seem to have the cutout for a single screw to adjust it, so there is probably another screw at the other end. It takes careful and delicate adjustment to remove the backlash and not have the lot get too tight. The front screw tightens and when things get tight, then back it off about 10 degrees and tighten the rear one. You will then be close and very small ammounts of adjustment will finish the job.

There should be 4 gib screws...if you can’t see them, then they have used the threaded holes to mount the dro, which. Is quite odd..you need to remove the dro to see what’s been done..you may need to re Mount the dro by making additional threaded holes

The cross slide backlash with the leadscrew is nothing to do with the gib adjustment, this thread is getting confused.

Hi Terry, looks like a tapered gib to me and as old mart has said, there should be another screw the other end, just back that one off a little and screw the front one in. repeat until you are satisfied with the adjustment. If the cross slide goes too tight, just reverse the process.

Regards Nick.

You may be getting mixed responses by continuing a thread which started on a different subject?

Follow old mart’s post at 21:44 and start your own threads in future, for your particular enquiry, is my advice.

Thank you all for the advice, I'm reluctant to move the scale unless forceed to, so after my workshop heater's been on for a while I will check the back end for another screw. Oh, and apologies for the cross-threading

Some gib strips of this type have a slot into which the Adjusting screw fits. In this way the gib is pushed in as the screw is tightened, or withdrawn as the screw is slackened. They can change their setting with vibration from milling or turning.

Howard

Hi Terry

The below quote is from a Wm290 thread on this forum.

It would appear they have gone to a tapered gib to accommodate the DRO fitment.

"What it definitely doesn't have is a cross slide lock - I know some of them do, but the new ones with the tapered Gib don't".

Cheers Michael.

If you don't have a manual for the WM240, then there are lots of results to be found by googling Warco WM 240.