Hi Chris,

The WM290V does look good value with inverter drive and DRO included. We bought the similarly priced GH1236 at work and I later changed it to inverter drive which bumped the cost up by a few hundred. There were a few teething troubles but it has produced some very accurate work over the last few years. I would check that the power feeds are fine enough for your purposes, the finest are still quite coarse on the GH1236. I would not now be prepared to give up the Camlock D1-4 chuck mount for flange mount, but it depends how often you envisage changing chucks.

Andrew.

Hi Chris, sorry only just seen this post.

I bought a 290V last year, really pleased with it generally.

I had a couple of problems, the push button switch kept tilting and locking had a replacement by return.

Established that there is not a lock on the carriage despite what the web spec said.

Had to remove tailstock to adjust the locking mechanism as the quick action lever just went over centre.

Otherwise well equipped with DRO, variable speed, power traverse etc.

Bill D.

Thor, that's interesting, I did look at those but they were already dead tight I seem to remember, so I checked with Warco and they came back confirming that there was not a carriage lock. Just had another look and I have three each side of the cross slide, two on the outer edge of the carriage and one in by the actual slideway, they are all tight so assume they are for holding all the bits together.

Now, just having a recap on where I saw reference to a lock, it is in the manual and refers to a socket head screw, illustration points to one of the pair to the left of the cross slide, tried again but no, dead tight and makes no difference to the carriage.

Got me intrigued now, is mine just different to yours or is there something amiss with the lock screw.

It's a shame really, all the sophosticated VS control and DRO but a simple thing like a nice carriage lock lever is overlooked.

I suppose like a lot of things you buy, whatever the cost, there is always something that prompts you to say 'if only they had….'

Bill D.

I think the Warco one has the DRO on teh side of teh carrage so in their wisdom the factory removed the lock so people would not moan that they could not get to it. The last 290 I looked at on a Warco stand did not have the locking cap head.

Bill, mine from a bit more than a year ago does have a carriage lock – but it didn’t work on the first one they sent me. It tightened up all the way without locking. I think the clamping piece is not quite sized correctly. Even the second one doesn’t lock very tight. You should be able to see what is supposed to be happening in the parts diagram.

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.

Chris, I like mine, but I would get the 1236 if I was doing it again

sorry, should have been clearer – mine has both dro and functional (though difficult to reach) carriage lock.

Dan, from what you say it sounds as if mine should lock as well, might have a look one day. Will have to study the parts diagrams.

Bill D.

….Shows the lock as component 43. I am sure I have seen a thread on this forum where someone removed it and took a bit off the top surface to make it work properly. Not sure whether this is possible without removing the apron which would be painful.

​I wrote a post on this some time ago for my WM250 V-F so it may have been that you saw… see link

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=98702

​George.

Thanks for that Dan, I did wonder about making up a more permanent lever but first I need to do a bit of work on the locating block if it comes out without dismantling half of the lathe.

Bill D

Can't understand what's happened to my pics… moderator ? they were ok when I posted yesterday, anyway they are in my album 'miscellaneous'.

George.