Warco Mini Lathe

[Martin Hamilton 1Participant @martinhamilton1]

Jason are you sure your WM280 has these gib adjusting screws, that diagram you show is for the mini lathes which does have these. I didn't think the WM240, WM250 & WM280 lathes had these gibs & adjusting screws under the saddle. They certainly didn't have any adjusters on these lathes the last time i was in Warco's showroom a few months ago, they also don't show these gibs & adjusters in the Warco parts manual for these machines ?

[Bill PudneyParticipant @billpudney37759]

FWIW google "mini lathe tapered gibs". I made and fitted tapered saddle gibs some eight or ten years ago, and it made a huge difference. Mine were more or less i.a.w. "bogstandards" method.

No doubt older (I almost wrote "…and wiser&quot  heads will comment about Chinese quality etc etc but sometimes you just have to go with what you have.

cheers

Bill

Edited By Bill Pudney on 23/06/2019 04:55:12

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Posted by Martin Hamilton 1 on 22/06/2019 22:04:04:

Jason are you sure your WM280 has these gib adjusting screws,

Martin, that was meant as a reply to Chris who mentioned his 280, to show hime the Mini-lathe plates are different

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Posted by Peter Russell 4 on 22/06/2019

The reason I have discovered for the worst part of the rocking and I hang my head in shame is because I fitted a DRO sensor and thought wrongly I had it clear of the bed now that has been removed its better but not good so its a new saddle from ARC for £19 ish as there is a bow in it where the clamp plate goes.

Once I have this I will update.

Many thanks to all who responded.

Hi Peter,

just read this. I would suggest that if you want a new saddle, consider buying it from Warco as the SIEG saddles are designed for SIEG machines, and probability of them fitting your machine are low. Also, things like these are not retro fit and probably will require some scraping, even after you get a saddle from Warco.

Ketan at ARC

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Posted by Martin Hamilton 1 on 22/06/2019 22:04:04:

Jason are you sure your WM280 has these gib adjusting screws, that diagram you show is for the mini lathes which does have these. I didn't think the WM240, WM250 & WM280 lathes had these gibs & adjusting screws under the saddle. They certainly didn't have any adjusters on these lathes the last time i was in Warco's showroom a few months ago, they also don't show these gibs & adjusters in the Warco parts manual for these machines ?

Well my WM250 certainly has a rear gib strip with five adjusting screws and locknuts and I can verify that they are somewhat awkward to adjust. The photo below is at a very strange angle but you can see the gib and the screws.

There are also guide blocks at the front of the saddle but these have no adjustment, I tightened mine up by rubbing the top edge of the blocks on wet and dry. The right hand front block also forms part of the rudimentary saddle clamp and the whole thing was left loose to enable it to move when tightened with the clamp screw on top of the saddle. I modified the clamp arrangement see My Web Page and ended up with a working saddle clamp and a well fitted front guide.

John

Edited By Journeyman on 23/06/2019 09:48:10

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember32069]

[This posting has been removed]

[Martin Hamilton 1Participant @martinhamilton1]

Barrie

It certainly is, it is certainly a very impressive little machine & very accurate indeed. Adjustments are so easy with the tapered gibs on both the saddle & cross slide. You are able to eliminate any movement to such fine amounts + factoring in back lash on the cross slide/leadscrew & saddle/leadscrew can also be reduced to around .0015" – .0020". The finish on the material is unbelievable straight of the tool with no polishing. You can take cuts down to a couple of tenths of a thou if you wish, just out of interest & not something i would normally do i wondered just how much it would remove on a piece of 1/2" diam mild steel with the cheap Banggood carbide inserts that i use. I got up to a 3mm depth of cut ( 6mm off diameter) & it done it ok. So stopped there.

[Martin Hamilton 1Participant @martinhamilton1]

I spoke to Warco this morning about whether there were adjustment gibs & screws on the saddles on there current WM180, 240 & 250 lathes, they confirmed there is none on these lathes. If you have a Warco lathe with this facility on the saddle it was probably made either by a different factory that supplied Warco in the past or the generic design of these lathes which all seem to be the same machines supplied by different sellers around the world was changed to not have the saddle gib & adjustering screws. Its obviously cheaper to produce a machine without this extra facility.

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