Warco experience – WM18B

[Dave Smith 14Participant @davesmith14]

I have the Warco DRO's (not factory fitted) on my WM16. Originally I had the X axis on the rear of the table. This loses about 25 mm of travel. Normally this has not been an issue. When machining the horn blocks on my 5" Aspinal chassis I needed the extra travel, so I moved it to the front. You lose the stops, but I never use them anyway and it is easy to mount the dro using the T slot. It interferes with the table locks but my handles are knackered anyway and I have removed all of them and use a 'T' handle socket direct on the hex head.

[Terry KirkupParticipant @terrykirkup37827]

Ah, thank you Dave Smith 14, that's very useful information. Should I ever get my hands on an 18B I will do as you have done.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Have had an Economy for many years, relatively trouble free.

Agree with the inability to clamp the head absolutely solidly. I have one piece of kit with some lovely helical grooves when a long end mill dug and swung things around.

Cannot remember using the manual for "Complicated Machine" In the hope of getting a laugh, must look it out and have read.

Probably reminiscent of a German pencil sharpener, MANY years ago "Sharp points upon pencils unobjectionable are"!

Only electrical problem was that the NVR switch stared buzzing. Thinking it was going hone, removed and checked. No fault, replaced it, no buzz- loose securing screws obviously.

Roger Warren told me when I bought the machine that Warco have one or more Quality Engineers in China. He or they missed the two small bandsaws. The first ATE blades despite how carefully it was set up. The replacement had paint in a crack in the casting, despite a request to check and adjust the machine before delivery. In fairness, there was no quibble when I rejected the machine in favour of the cheaper and bigger generic 4.5" saw. The difference was made up by spare blades. This did eventually cause problems, because of inadequate design that only came to light when investigating the failure. It won't recur!

We get what we pay for in low cost machines, with corners being cut in material specification, design and quality.

The Reliant Robin never was a match for a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, nor in price either!

Howard

[PackmuleParticipant @packmule]

Hi dave ,

If you've not found your manual yet ( in English&nbsp If you pm me I have a download of the Grizzly G704 which is the same as Warco. I bought my mill from SPG and again its the same mill. The manual is 60 page pdf.

[Roger BestParticipant @rogerbest89007]

Well I am glad I am not alone with my problems with Warco Products, its good for my sanity, bad news for you lot though.

My e-mail to Roger Warren about my 16B had a section about CE marking in it, but I deleted that as anyone who has sold equipment for so long without worrying about doing that properly isn't going to appreciate a wise-arse.

I never did get the advice about the ticking noise as it rotates or any advice as to the best solution for the safety interlock that conspicuously didn't work when the machine was delivered, but after a week or so of silence I chased up the staff who where very glad to have the extra stuff back that had found its way into my crate and were very helpful about the further issues.

I still consider them a good company to deal with, they do try to make it an easy process, its just that they can't deliver the technical expertise that the world has got used to in other fields because they don't have the design engineers as part of their staff. That said what was your experience last time your car broke down? Most of the times it happens to me the mains dealers are hopeless, they usually have to wait for the "master mechanic" to come in and phone for help.

The 16B is a wonderful machine, I will do a video when I have everything as it should be and I can find all the lubrication points, I think one is under the long-axis DRO scale. I also need to move the short axis scale because it collides with the wall. You get the gist, lots of things to set up and get sorted, little mods to do etc.

ta for all the links

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