WARCO WM-250 lathe family and WM16 mill

[Mark P.Participant @markp]

SWMBO and myself lifted my WM250 on to it’s stand.
Mark P.

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

Nicholas, and Sam, to clarify the weight issue, the older DC drive WM250 is listed at 120Kg whereas the WM250V weighs in at 180Kg.

Sam, good idea using the lintel, I've always felt Warco stands come up a little short, but then I am a shade over 6' 2" so even my big gear head GH1330 lathe sits on a 4" RSJ plinth. I didn't bother with the stand for the WM250V as apart from the height issue I felt it was a bit too flimsy so I built a custom stand to meet my height and rigidity requirements.

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Graeme

Now you have gone & spoilt it — We were having a nice arguement until you settled it

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

Posted by Sam Longley 1 on 13/02/2016 17:55:55:

Graeme

Now you have gone & spoilt it — We were having a nice arguement until you settled it

LOL, I'll get me coat

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

For those with WM 250 + copied from my post in another thread…. **LINK**

Not exactly today, more over the weekend; made up a small X axis DRO for my lathe using a cheap digi calliper from Aldi's. The pics show the make up of it, although looking rough & ready I assure you that it was cleaned up somewhat once finished. The block can slide along with the saddle once the 5 mm lock bolt is freed off, when needed the bolt is locked to the underside of the shear & the read head is locked whilst the scale moves with the saddle. As for consistency it has shown to be within .01mm which I find acceptable for what I'm pottering with… not a lot so far…

Using the wiper fixing location, swapped the screw for a 3 mm bolt… the bracket has been soldered onto the scale

Underneath fixing, used metal to metal epoxy resin.

Not pretty but for testing set up …

Set at zero…

135.91mm useable length

Nothing complicated nor aesthetically perfect but a simple enough job for what I use at the mo' until I can afford some decent kit.

George.

[SteveWParticipant @stevew54046]

My WM250 has been playing up and new brushes did not work any magic. I tested the motor with 12V and all looked fine. Looked at the board and again all looked fine. I noticed the resistor marked in the photo was not seated evenly (it is removable) pressed this fully home. On the advice of my wife (who's knowledge of electronic fault finding I previously doubted…) she said" Put it back together and see if it works". Now all working fine. May help others.

I'll never know if this was the cause of the poor/none running!

SteveW

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi Steve,
That was probably the cause. I think the resistor is R21 which senses the current trough the motor. This resistor is probably a very low value (About 0.1 ohm.) so any slight contact resistance on it's connections would have a significant effect. The voltage developed across this resistance is used to provide some positive feedback to compensate for the resistance of the motor windings and also to sense motor overload.

Les.

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Steve – As various horse power motors can be used with this board the value of the resistor referred to has to be specified when ordering a new board dependent on which horse power of motor the customer is going to use. The KB website is good for documentation and will give more info if you need it. Hope your reseating gives you a long term solution.

Rik

[SteveWParticipant @stevew54046]

Thanks for the info. When I got new brushes I gave the size of the brushes. The lathe model was insufficient. When they duly arrived the package was marked WM290 so I may have a larger motor than I thought! In any case it's still running like new so no complaints.

[Bob RodgersonParticipant @bobrodgerson97362]

Graeme, re your posting about making your own stand for your lathe. I have a BH500 and on the warco stand it was too low for me, I tolerated it for a few years but when it became necessary to make my machines a bit more mobile by making trolleys from 4" channel with 500 kg heavy duty castors on them I was really pleased with the extra height.

The trolleys are about 7" tall so the lathe is a good bit higher than before. The only disadvantage now is that a lot more hot cuttings end up down the top of my shirt.

[Martin Botting 2Participant @martinbotting2]

Hello all.

Question that I am sure will have been discussed in these hallowed halls a couple of times, yet I can't find any postings about machining a back plate on my new WM250v. I have fitted the raw CI backplate and I have to machine a register on it so I can mount my collet chuck and I find I can't get close enough with the saddle or the compound fully wound out to get near the depth. To my eye the "spring" cover for the lead screw stops the carriage getting close enough to the headstock. Any suggestions on this? Apart from having a lot of hang out of the tool from the tool post.

Martin

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Some people remove the spring cover, but check to see if you have a "Bump" at the back of the head where the splash back has to cover the motor as they may stop you anyway. The earlier machines like mine are better as they don't have either and my carrage will butt right ypto the head.

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

Martin,

I found the same issue with my 250V and my GH1330, the way those leadscrew covers are fitted is aweful, as it limits the travel significantly towards the headstock. I've removed mine completely, easy enough to do and it allows you to get right up to the backplate and a faceplate when fitted.

[Ed DuffnerParticipant @edduffner79357]

Can those spring covers be re-engineered so they disappear inside the headstock casing? …assuming there's no mechanism to foul.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I think the gearbox that gives you left/right and the 3 speeds will not make that possible. Top part of the head is empty but not much help.

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

Posted by Martin Botting 2 on 31/03/2016 15:28:47:

Hello all.

Question that I am sure will have been discussed in these hallowed halls a couple of times, yet I can't find any postings about machining a back plate on my new WM250v. I have fitted the raw CI backplate and I have to machine a register on it so I can mount my collet chuck and I find I can't get close enough with the saddle or the compound fully wound out to get near the depth. To my eye the "spring" cover for the lead screw stops the carriage getting close enough to the headstock. Any suggestions on this? Apart from having a lot of hang out of the tool from the tool post.

That's how I did both of mine. Swung the compound towards the edge of the backing plate and used the biggest diameter boring bar I had. Not ideal, but it gets the job done with as little fuss as possible.

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

I removed the spring lead screw cover from mine to do the job and left it of as I find it restricts the use of the lathe. If you do the same just undo the cover retaining capheads and unwind the spring from the lead screw. I recommend wearing goggles if you do it and a pair of heavy duty industrial gloves as well – the spring can be quite lethal.

Rik

[Kalev TootsParticipant @kalevtoots29048]

Hello

First excuse my faulty english. I have watching this forum some times and found it interesting. I have planning to buy my first metal lathe and thinking about WM250V or GH550. My budget is 3K euro ( 2400 GPB ). Here in Estonia I found dealers for Bernardo and Optimum brand lathes. Optimum is much overpriced and out of the choice. To choose from only one brand is not good idea. So I look little broader. I also send some mails to Klippfeld ( Austria ) but no answer during a week. Maybe the are finished.

With WM250 allmost is clear, but about GH550 I found rather few discussions. Does anybody have GH550 and what are the experience.

Kalev

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

Hi Kalev, you would possibly get more responses if you start a new thread with gh550 in the title, may get missed in this thread as this is specifically titled for the wm250 lathes

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Update: Until recently I had been experiencing problems with my DRO's misreading on my WM16 mill. I am pleased to say that I have found the cure. I have removed the sheet metal scale mounting clips from both scales and the small digi readouts and replaced them with plastic ones that I made from the stuff that Oompa Lumpa kindly supplied. The scales and small digi readouts are now completely insulated from the mill body.

After the mod I have used the mill over the past few months and the DRO's have performed faultlessly. Pleased I am!

Rik

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Well done, Rik.

I have the same mill, with an independently purchased DRO system from arc, i used mild steel plate and screws and can't say i've ever experienced that problem, my units are clearly well insulated i suppose for whatever reason.

I replaced the original DC motor for a 3 phase AC motor 500w. it was farly easy to devise a method of securing it to the old mountings. I kept the original gear box and replaced a faulty nylon gear.

That and i've given it a coat of black paint, is the extent of my moddery.

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 23/05/2016 12:41:21

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Today I had a bit of a calamity & may have damaged my WM 250 lathe

I was using the powered drive to reduce some bar stock & had the topslide retracted so that the tool was over the centre of the unit to maintain max rigidity of the tool. As the tool approached the chuck I did not notice that the carriage hit the stop & jammed the leadscrew. I made the mistake of trying to disengage the drive rather than turning off the power so it was forced up hard before the motor stalled

This happened partly because my old Drummond M automatically disengaged at a set point & I was not used to having to make a special act to stop this

Is there a switch that can be fixed onto the bed to disengage the power or has anyone actually fitted such a thing or is there any alternative to avoid a repeat of such stupidity

[John RuddParticipant @johnrudd16576]

It should be relatively easy to incorporate a micro switch to prevent such events.

How electrical savvy are you?

Is your machine the dc motor or 3 ph motor version?

If yours has the dc motor, then there are a pair of connectors marked I1 and I2 on the pcb near the front. The switch can be wired to these terminals.

If its the other version, you would need to wire into the fwd/rev sw….

Edited By John Rudd on 23/05/2016 13:53:27

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Posted by John Rudd on 23/05/2016 13:40:45:

It should be relatively easy to incorporate a micro switch to prevent such events.

How electrical savvy are you?

Is your machine the dc motor or 3 ph motor version?

If yours has the dc motor, then there are a pair of connectors marked I1 and I2 on the pcb near the front. The switch can be wired to these terminals.

If its the other version, you would need to wire into the fwd/rev sw….

Edited By John Rudd on 23/05/2016 13:53:27

Well I know it makes your hair stand on end when you poke your fingers in the plug holes

I did not know that there were 2 types of motor , I assume I have 240 V as i plug it into a 13 amp plug socket

Can you give some indication of where i find the PCB please

[John RuddParticipant @johnrudd16576]

Sam,

I dont know the WM series, my own lathe is from SPG and is probably the bigger brother, it does look similar.

Mine came with a 1.5kw dc motor, so if yours is the similar dc motor driven smaller version, then the pcb is located in the box attached to the rear of the headstock.( as if stood in front of the m/c). I think its mounted on the right side as you look into the box….

Can you post pictures?

[Author]

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