I have the Chester 626 and have been very happy with it….

Just to add, I also have a Chester 9 x 20 lathe and have had a Chester mini mill…

Of late there has been some maligning of their products.

All I can say is I'm happy with their products and after sales service.

I find them courteous and professional and aim to please.

Just a satisfied customer…

I have no complaints about my Warco VMC, some feel the need for a bit more height from nose to table but so far I don't. Well worth getting a DRO and auto feed if possible. Warco do a variable speed drive version now.

Mike

Have purchased Warco Mills and Lathes for industrial use with no issues at all. Purchased Chester mill for my own use at home. First one supplied rusty, combined metric and imperial leadscrews and indexes. Returned as unfit for use….. Second one supplied – allegedly fully inspected at the UK works by the chief engineer – surface finish no better, motor and control board went with a bang on first turning the supply on…….. Got full refund and went elsewhere!

Make your own decision, but if I was in the market again I would go for a green machine!

Graham

I have a Chester Super Lux…no issues with accuracy or finish. Also have a Warco lathe….the famed aftersales service has never materialised as all emails have been ignored. Just my experience !

I have a 290v lathe from Warco and a Super Lux from Chester.

Both are a second try, the first ones having gone back. Initial response from Warco was disappointing (implied I was being an idiot for suggesting the carriage lock should work, the lack of any way to lock the cross slide wasn't ideal and supposedly hardened ways should be harder than cheese), but came good in the end, and the exchange was excellent, they sent one of their guys out fully equipped to remove and replace.

Chester's initial response was better in that they accepted there was a problem immediately, tried a fix then agreed a replacement without argument when it became clear it was fundamentally broken, but was a normal courier, so more faffing during the replacement.

Honestly I couldn't say there was much between them for service.

The Superlux was however much cheaper than the Warco equivalent at the time, assuming the specification met your needs, mainly as it came with DRO fitted, whereas the for Super Major or whatever it was an expensive uk fitted extra.

I did mention at the Warco showroom that I would have preferred to buy from them as local, but couldn't justify the price difference for what was clearly the same basic machine with slightly different spec, just got some shrugging etc.

Dan

And yet more numerous stories that make me buy good British second hand. I wonder if Myford, Boxford, Harrison, Colchester etc had this many returns in their day? I'd be interested to hear from either Chester or Warco what proportion of machines lead to "customer feedback" and what happens to these returned machines. I hope they go back to China but I have my doubts.

Chris Trice, wondering how many returns for The Brit household names. I sent two Bridgeport mills back when I was managing a toolroom. The later ones became a bit iffy and could not be sorted on site.

As a member who has a lathe from Warco and 1 from DSG and a mill from Chester and a K&T as you would expect they are from opposite ends of the spectrum. The Warco Lathe [ GH750 ] now discontinued was bought new in circa 2001and has been a superb buy, never any problem and still performs great to this day. The only thing I have ever had fail was the halogen bulb !!" Did remove the original motor and fitted a 3hp 3p Siemens one running off a Eurotherm 650 drive [ now made by Parker ] . The Mill from Chester [ LUX ] has been a bit more of a pain, Did quite a lot of work to the interface between the Column/ Base/ Head. involving epoxy injection, now far more rigid very easy to get it perfect in the x-y and it will stay where I set it. The nod from front to back is more of a pain, I feel that the head is too heavy for the column [ you will always have a bit of nod but I would be better with a more rigid column] Having said that it has performed reliably since bought in around 2005 and again I removed the original motor and replaced it with another Siemens 3 hp 3p running through a WEG CFW 08 drive. Hope this has been of some help.

Cheers.

.

I have never bought a machine from either of these suppliers, but Raymond's post prompts an intriguing question:

How does the 'quality control' of current supply compare with that of 2001 ?

Note: I am not 'bashing' Warco, Chester, the Chinese, or anyone else; it's just a simple, honest question.

History suggests that 'Market Forces' frequently lead to cost-cutting [and concomitant quality-cutting ?] …

MichaelG.

Michael

I have wondered exactly the same.

16 years of potentially improving the products since 2001, vs more competition driving prices down.

Something will have to give somewhere.

I have never bought from Chester or Warco but do have a Taiwan built 3HP 14"x40" copy of a Harrison M300. Bought second hand it was built in 2001 Importer/brand is Excel. It still produces very good work, I did make a new beefed up cross slide for it and modified some off the shelf feed screw/nut for the cross slide. I bought this after spending over a year trying to find a good Colchester Student or Harrison M300.

My Taiwan lathe ticked all the boxes, both steadies/pratt burnerd three and four jaw chucks/faceplate/Dickson quick change toolpost and a Newall readout. I paid £1000 5 years ago and sold my South Bend "Heavy Ten" to recoup some of the cost. You need to buy on condition, the brand counts for nothing if totally worn out. When I was working we only got five years out of a Colchester Triumph 2000 before replaced with another one, they where knackered after four years but we had them on five year finance deal.