Glad you have had good service, which is more than ive had with them, a few years ago i ordered a lathe from them at the midland model engineering show, they promised me delivery within a week, six weeks later no lathe more excuses, so i asked for a refund, that was an ordeal in itself.

Upon visiting the show a few weeks ago with a friend, he ordered a mill from them, after i told him about my tale of woe, he thought whats the chances of that happening again!!!, they promised him delivery the end of the following week, guess what he is still waiting, he spoke to them yesterday, told him another two to three weeks, they just came up with all sorts of stupid excuses, the best one was, they get sent out, on a first come first served basis, he ordered it at 10.45 on the first day of the show!!, all in all they dont have the mills in stock, as he offered to go collect it in person, why not just be honest in the first place and say six to eight weeks delivery, what i can see, they must just take orders at the shows, then order them from china, hence the ridiculous waiting time.

… why not just be honest in the first place and say six to eight weeks delivery, what i can see, they must just take orders at the shows, then order them from china, hence the ridiculous waiting time…

I believe this may well be the case; I ordered mine from the Harrogate Exhib' in 2012 & was told it would be 6 – 8 weeks delivery there & then so they were up front with it… it arrived 8 weeks later.

George.

Edited By mechman48 on 12/11/2015 22:07:19

Dan, I'd be very surprised if there isn't a lock screw on your cross-slide, it's probably being obscured by the DRO. When I installed a rather large-ish Easson scale on my 13×40 I lost access to both locks and a carriage oil point (at the rear). The carriage lock was fixed by the same general approach as you took, but the cross-slide lock took a little more work. Instead of mounting the DRO scale directly on the cross-slide, I mounted it on a (approx) 10mm x 40mm section ali bar which in turn is mounted to the side of the slide. Then I made a pin out of a cap-head bolt, turned a slight eccentric on the end, and installed it vertically through the bar, adjacent to the lock screw. I replaced the lock screw with a plain pin that is actuated by the eccentric. It only takes a fraction of a turn of the cap-head to lock the slide, and a small allen key lives there permanently.

Cross slide lock is one of the 4 gib screws that does not have a lock nut, again possibly hidden by the DRO scale.

J

PS my lathe arrived within a week of ordering

Edited By JasonB on 13/11/2015 07:25:25

How strange… Do you have a manual that has a parts breakdown? If that doesn't show anything, I'd be on the phone to Warco… It doesn't seem rational to me.

Mmm, although it can be a bit annoying if you have been told otherwise, I wouldn't worry too much at waiting up to several weeks for delivery of a new machine. At least it means they are waiting for new stock before sending you one of those.

When I ordersd my new Warco gear head lathe, I was told around 6-8 weeks delivery, as they had none in stock. But just 2 weeks later the machine turned up. When I finaly found the time to inspect it a week and two power cuts later after delivery, I discovered it was not a new lathe, as I had ordered and payed full price for, but was in fact a 2 1/2 year old ex demo machine in a terrible mechanical state. It was the very same demo machine I had looked at in their showroom, and told them they must not send.

But from what I have seen over the years, there seems to be more instances of good service from Warco, expressed by customers, than not so good.

On the 280s (and earlier 290s)the lock is the one on the right near side of the carrage nearest the centre of the bed, part 13 is clamped to the bed by the screw. The matching screw on te other side and one from hold a longer block to stop the carrage lifting

The other 4 screws (two each side) hold the front of the apron to the carrage