Warco WM18

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

My milling machine is 11 years old now and for the first six n bit years of its life did nothing other than sit on the bench of a late club member after he had passed away. His wife could not bring herself to clear out the work shop, so i paid her for the whole thing, lock stock an barrel and cleared it all out.

The Miller is mounted on my bench with the table at about waist height, which is quite good for me as i am a short version of a man!

The other evening i had to mill some parts that were tall so i wound the head right to the top. To my horror i could now see under the head casting and could see a large crack in the casting.It is not new as the crack has round edges and is full of paint.

This has not been an issue, as i did not know about it and i have machined all sorts of stuff. On inspection It does not seem to open up even when i lock up the spindle head, which would in effect force the crack open.

Only trouble is as far as i am concerned i know its there now and will always be looking to see if its any worse!!!

I also know its of Chinease origin and that's the quality they knock out. I might regret down sizing

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Either leave it and deal with the resulting paranoia or stick weld it with very high nickel content rods, or spend more than the machine is worth having a pro weld it.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Like 'historic subsidence' relating to houses … it's probably moved all it's ever likely to.

The fact that there is [presumably original] paint in the crack is encouraging.

MichaelG.

[Author]

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