Play on warco mini lathe saddle

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

Hi out there. The play on the saddle of my mini lathe is getting far too much. I took the saddle off, and found that the two metal bars that act has guides had the following problems. The bolts holding the guides had become very loose to the point of almost coming out. I have read that some people are replacing these bolts with studs and lock nuts. Can anyone please let me know who sells the studs here in the U.K.

I understand that there must be a bit of play between the bolt diameter and the hole in the guide, but is it normal for the guide to have oversized bolt holes,

the play I had was rocking from side to side of the saddle. Is there anything I can do to reduce this. It’s all a bit Micky mouse. Thanks.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

The bars sound like gib strips. The screws should already have locknuts on them no need to replace with studs. If you must replace them they are highly likely to be a standard metric thread available widely.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

The plates just stop any lift, they don’t guide the carriage.

Are they like other Mini lathes with three cap head screws (no locknuts) and the two adjusting grub screws (with locknuts).

Not hard to thread a bit of 6mm bar to make your own studs or you can buy M6 studs off the shelf

Alternative is to use shim material to set the gap rather than the two jacking screws then you can tighten the three cap heads nice and tight.

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

Yes it’s the same set up. Three bolts. I take then that the guides are the small bits of metal with two screws each, and there are four on the saddle. I will see if there is any adjustments to be made there. Thanks

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Not sure what your 4 bits of metal are unless you are looking at the wiper felt covers.

 

The carriage is guided by the Vee on the bed and it’s matching vee groove. If your plates were loose then that allows the carriage to ramp up the vee when sideways pressure is applied and is likely the rocking you are getting. It also allows the tool to be pushed off the work as the rear or the carriage can lift.

The shere plates need adjusting so they don’t bind on the underside of the bed front and rear but allow the minimum amount of carriage lift. You will need to adjust them and then check the carriage moves freely along the whole length of the bed, adjust again etc.

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

Hi, I am sorry if I am being think, but if I have it correct. The shere plates do two jobs. The first being to stop lift of the saddle and the second to act has gib,s to stop the diagonal play of the saddle. So to adjust I need to set the shere plates to stop upwards moving and also push them towards the carriage to stop diagonal play also. Have I understand this correctly. Thanks

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

No they just stop lift hence the screw adjusters work vertically. They do not guide the carriage, that is what the Vee does.

Have a look here about saddle adjustment. No mention of gap to sides of bed just underside of bed.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Frank at LMS has three videos on adjusting these plates. This point in the second one shows how the saddle can rock when they are loose.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

What Jason is saying is that if the saddle can lift.  It can ride up and down the Vee of the Prismatic bed, and be able to move to and fro across the bed.

If the lift is minimised by adjusting the bolts and gib screws, the saddle cannot lift, so it cannot move to and fro across the bed.

So tighten the bolts, and then adjust the gib screws to minimise lift, and the movement should then be reduced to an acceptable level.

Just as the LMS video shows.

Howard

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