Thought I would post my experience of moving of a lathe to the first floor. After ordering a Wabeco D4000 back in September, it was due to arrive in December, but Wabeco couldn't complete the order till February.

This morning it arrived by special courier, in a crate measuring 132cmx58cmx68cm weighing in at 110KG gross. Thanks to a brilliant courier, we got it up a double curb with the help of part of an old pine bed and two house bricks. Then he even helped lift it up a steep set of steps in to the hall way. Glad to give him a tip, if he hadn't been such a good bloke, I would of been the proud owner of a front of house plywood bench.

It took a good 30mins to out smart the plywood crate, leaving the lathe on a euro pallet. At this stage, the lathe was way too heavy to move any distance, even with the tailstock removed. To get round this, I unbolted the metal brackets which are screwed to the lathe, from the pallet, repositioned the lathe to one end and redrilled the holes and fastened it. This left almost half of the pallet free, which I cut off with a hand saw.

Once the pallet was shortened, it made it much easier to handle and get around a corner. Lifting the lathe without the pallet was totally impractical, because of the fragility of the enclosure and awkwardness of two people holding the bed. Between two of us, the lathe went straight up a set of 45 degree Victorian stairs relatively easily. The half pallet made it really comfortable and more importantly, safe, to get a firm hold and really didn't feel like a 70KG machine. Once off the pallet, the D4000 can just be lifted by one person(with difficulty), from the floor and up on to a 850mm high bench.

Considering the small difference in price of the D4000, when compared to the Proxxon PD400, I would say that you stand to get a substantially more robust and serious machine if you go for the Wabeco. The most important difference for me is the heavier bed and cast iron tailstock. Also, the Wabeco has properly engraved and very grippy knurled dials. The Emco plastic dials frequently stuck and were literally a total pain to move when they seized through warping with age.

The lathe came with a Zultra 3 jaw chuck, which I believe are made to DIN 6350 (Bison spec) and are made in Poland. One of the best things about my C5 was the Tos chuck, which still holds sub thou runout. Hopefully this Wabeco 3 jaw will give similar tolerances, although a collet chuck is always an option in the future. The PD400 came with a really nice QCTP, but the D4000 and C5 only come with a standard clamp type tool holder. If you want one of the eastern Multifix clones sold on Pro-machine tools, it's another £200+. If you take a look at the pictures, the D4000 is also covered in grease nipples for various bearings, including two for the headstock, tailstock, two on the saddle and two on the leadscrew.

I've got to admit that all these new features are going to take some time to get familiar with. For instance, what kind of grease gun and variety of grease would be best for these maintenance nipples?

Apart from the lack of toolpost, which is understandable considering the general quality of the machine, the lathe is a great improvement on all the lathes I've experienced, with perhaps the exception of the ME90, which was just as good quality, but limited by its size and power. The pictures below show the lathe on the pallet before I shortened it.

Edited By Nick anon on 25/02/2016 00:16:17

Edited By Nick anon on 25/02/2016 00:22:16