Warco Super Major Milling Machine – Stripping Gearbox

[Lee Jones 6Participant @leejones6]

[Lee Jones 6Participant @leejones6]

You know those jobs you wish you had never started!!

So when pushing the mill, the gears can make a tremendous knocking sound.

Being the inquisitive type I really wanted to find out what's going on. With a view to identifying any potential issue early and thus prevent any further, potentially irrecoverable, damage.

On my Harrison M300 lathe, viewing the gearbox is a simple matter of loosening a few cap-head screws and lifting off the top plate.

The Mill looked a little more involved, but not a lot more (spoiler: I was wrong)!

Remove face plate and dials:

Remove the motor:

Remove the 6 cap-heads and simply lift the top plate.

Ah, balls! Looks like the gears get lifted out with the top plate.

Have a quick peek inside, then put the plate back on.

After much; pushing, pulling, bashing (rubber mallet) and screwing (using them as a press, it went back on.

Put everything back together and forget the the whole thing.

Ah balls! The 1, 2, 3 gear selector has disengaged !!!

Re-strip – this time we need to go big. In for a penny …

Taking another look at the exploded view parts list to locate all of the curclips and bearings.

Now we play a little game of 'jimmy up the plate and bash down the gear shafts' using pin followers (so as to avoid lifting all the gears out before I've had a good look at them).

Success:

Now time to drop the oil.

Ah balls! Dropped the plug and overwhelmed the funnel.

Oil everywhere. All over the floor and contaminated the cutting fluid system:

Gears out:

Nothing appears out of sorts. No worn teeth. Everything looks tight and in good order.

Time to put it all back together again.

Also think I found the source of the clattering. There's a plate at the back of the mill head which protects the screw. A little grub screw keeps it in place which was pretty loose:

Once we're all back together, I'll give it a test by removing it during a heavy cut.

Fingers crossed!

[John BaronParticipant @johnbaron31275]

Hi Lee,

A very nice breakdown of the gearbox and components. Thanks for posting !

That duplex gear just behind the spindle that is moved by the selector arm on yours is the one that was plastic on mine, the one that I replace with a steel one.

[Lee Jones 6Participant @leejones6]

Ah yes, good idea. Steel for the win!

[Phillip SlatteryParticipant @phillipslattery23566]

Great little write up and or warning 😛

What do you think of the mill ?

[Lee Jones 6Participant @leejones6]

To be honest, I don't have anything to compare it to.

It's doing what I require of it. Although it is still noisy during some operations.

[Jordi TomasParticipant @jorditomas]

Hi,

I have a chinese milling machine, whith the head as this one Warco, but with the round colum. And I would like to ask you if anyone know wich model is this Warco, in order to ask if is possible to buy the squared column individually?

Thanks

[wendy jacksonParticipant @wendyjackson]

Hi jordi. Sorry but round and square column are totally different and nothing is interchangeable.

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

From looking at this, seems like a good idea to leave my mill alone !

As I said before Let sleeping dogs lie !! If it aint broke, dont fix it.

[jacobsmessParticipant @jacobsmess]

Apologies for resurrecting this but do you have any photos of how the speed control levers should be oriented or engage? I lifted my gear set out and drained the oil as one of the brass stops on the levers had come loose but when I replaced the gears and top plate I have no speed controls. Mines a major GH but I suspect theyre all the same

Thank you

 

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

With reference to the photo, each selector arm has a pin with a loose bronze quadrant on it – these need to be engaged in their dedicated ‘groove’ on the ‘sliding’ element/cluster of each shaft.

Holding or ‘fiddling’ them in position whilst you replace the shafts may require some dexterity.

Once engaged, the lever spindles should fall into the position they were in before you stripped it.

If stripping an unfamiliar gearbox one must explore, record, and reach a full understanding of the relationship of the working parts before each is removed.

[jacobsmessParticipant @jacobsmess]

Thanks, I worked it out in the endacrually but hopefully this works to help someone else in the future.

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

Something caught my eye on the orginal (5 year old) post. Is that a crack in the head casting? Looking at the last image. It looks like the flange / slot for the head tilt bolt is cracked. It could just be a mark on the rdge of the flange but it looks like it continues through the bolt hole to the bottom of the slot below the bolt.

Robert.

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

That mill looks pretty identical to the Chester Super Lux which I use to have.  I had the motor shaft shear off flush with the top of the gearbox.  That proved to be the last straw and the m/c was part chopped in for a Gates PBM2000 Milling machine (beefed up Bridgeport)

Colin

[dixiethedogParticipant @dixiethedog]

Hi, I am a newbie here, so I can’t believe my luck in finding this post to read through.

I pulled my Super Major head apart (years ago…) and wished that I had not touched it. It had a leak from the circular plate that is held on with 3 screws that can be seen in some of the posts photographs. I wish now that I had just put up with the oil leak. 😒 For various (health) reasons I have not spent any time in my workshop for ages but decided the other day to crack on and fix (put back together) my mill. But wish that I hadn’t… Getting the gear shafts in, in the correct order for tooth alignment has me going mad. So that is a job for another day. But is nice to see that it can be done as shown in this great post.

Just as a side note. I have never owned a machine that has caused me so much aggro as the Super Major and yet I am still considering buying a Warco lathe. Am I mad?? Brett

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Brett,

I assume that you have a copy of the user’s manual? If not, you can download it from Warco’s web site. It contains the usual exploded views showing all the parts, in their positions relative to one another. That should give you some indication of what goes where.

John

 

[dixiethedogParticipant @dixiethedog]

Hi John,

Yes, I have downloaded the manual from the Warco site. I can see (and I know) which shafts go where, but to assemble it I am just trying different options, eg inserting shaft one, then shaft three and them shaft two. And then the same again in a different sequence. It is all trial and error. Mostly error at the moment.

Brett

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

In that case, I would be looking for a video or photo sequence of someone stripping one down and take notes to work out the reverse procedure – as the good old Haynes car manuals used to say.

John

 

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, in this day and age, and with digital cameras in abundance, it’s always a good idea to take photos, or even a video of a strip down of anything you are not familiar with, and taking photos of individual parts in situ from different angles, can help enormously, especially if something has been apart, or is going to be for some time.

Regards Nick.

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

Dixie, I’d imagine the shafts with the moving gears have to be held in mesh and go in together, at the same time ‘fiddling’ the selector fork quadrants into their correct grooves in the sliding gears.

Easier with three hands.

[dixiethedogParticipant @dixiethedog]

Thank you everybody for your replies. You are all right. 😊

Do you know when you are having one of those days, a day when everything you touch goes wrong? Well I had one of those days yesterday. 😂 Luckily though, my glass is always half full so I can laugh about it once I calm myself down.

I decided to walk away (as it were) from my milling machine and instead spray (paint) a KTM motorbike. I turned my compressor on (which is my main workshop/shed) and went into my spraybooth (shed), mixed primer and after panel wiping things down etc shot some primer (2k hi build if anybody is interested?). I noticed as I was spraying my air pressure seemed to be a touch too low and was not adjusting up or down from the spray gun. Back in the main shed I found the sound of hissing air. So too cut a long story short, the solenoid valves must have been jammed open by dust or similar. So I have new parts on order.

I then went out to collect my grandsons from school and got a flat tyre.

Yesterday was one of those days that I wish that I had just stayed in bed!!!

I have actually missed out something to talk about, about my milling machine so I am going to get my camera out and take a pic or two to share and hopefully see if somebody can help me along with something that is a sticking point for me now? Pics later. Thank you to all. Brett

 

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

Nice to know that I am not alone in having days like that !

There used to be a song about that some years ago

“My Momma told me threre,ed be days like that ”

How true !

If I ever end up in that mess, I think I would simply put a match to it !

[dixiethedogParticipant @dixiethedog]

LOL, I have just stayed in bed for the last two days. Not much can go wrong in bed. Well, apart from the difficult ups and downs. 😟That is getting in and out of bed with my knackered false hip.

[dixiethedogParticipant @dixiethedog]

I am purposely not touching, not looking at or not coming into contact with my Mill this weekend. I am walking away from it. Or driving away from it, to go and buy some new bearings. The bearings seem OK but it seems stupid whilst having it in bits not to replace them now rather than later. And then full steam ahead. Again. 😊

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