1st Class service from chester

Hello Nick I'd be interested in reading how you get on with this, as I nearly bought one of these myself. It was a toss up between the 626 and the Warco VMC, but the VMC got the nod on the basis of the 'paper' specs. The proof will be in the pudding as mine doesn't arrive till the end of the month.

Agree about the good customer service from Chester though. My lathe arrived last Friday, found a problem (a few actually) after it was unpacked, cleaned and on the stand, rang them Tuesday, they collected it Wednesday, and are delivering a new one on Monday!

10/10 for service so far, 5/10 for the machine. New one should be better I hope.

Peter

Hi Peter,

What did you mean about the advantage of the Warco on the paper specs ? Istm that the Chester very slightly outpointed the Warco and I ordered mine on the basis of W's superior rep for service and their ability to deliver to the door (actually inside the door)

David

Hi David,

It was mainly about the overall working envelope. I checked the specs on both and they came out as follows. I know it only comes up to small differences, but it could be important someday. However, I believe both have been known to differ from these when it is actually delivered

The cross travel on the 626 is 135mm/VMC 152mm, spindle to throat 155mm on 626/165mm on VMC, quill travel 80mm on 626/89mm VMC, table travel

365 on 626/370 on VMC, spindle speed 190-2100 on 626/160-2540 on VMC, spindle to table 330 on 626/345 on VMC.

Price wise the Chester was =A325 cheaper than the VMC, at =A31425/=A31450, and that includes a power feed on the table for both of them.

Regards

Peter

I may be wrong but I suspect that the differences may be measuring/imperial-metric rounding errors. If you compare the two machines side by side (as I have at a ME show), I think you may find the finish quality on the Warco is far better. I have nothing against Chester (I have three of their machines including a mill and only one Warco machine which is a bigger mill) but overall, I have found Warco's QC better. It may amount to no more than extra filler in the castings and a better paint finish but their attention to detail is arguably better.

I'd ask both companies for a more accurate view of the measurements and probably, bearing in mind only £25 difference, go for the Warco.

Having said that, ISTR the 626 was probably one of Chester's better finished items but although I've never had any problem with Chester, the general consensus seems to fall very much in Warco's favour when it comes to delivery and after sales service.

Good Luck!

Mark

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I think the Chester specs may have changed recently On their website at it says : "The 14" knee travel means you won't have to relocate your part during tooling changes!" - I don't see how they can have 14" of knee travel and a max spindle to table distance of 13" ? Also they give the table long axis travel as being 425mm which is slightly better than the Warco.

David

This is one of the things that concerned me, the mass of conflicting information they had between website & catlalogue brochure. The web page also says it has only 125mm of cross travel! I phoned both Chester & Warco to check things out before I ordered, and Chester confirmed 135mm on cross travel, and 365mm longitudinal. I ordered the Warco machine a few weeks ago, and the delivery date is loosely around the end of August.

My replacement lathe from Chester arrived yesterday, but they delivered it to my office instead of home(!), so I have to wait until later today when they will pick it up and deliver it correctly. I hope that this one will not have the faults & spec. changes that the first one had.

Peter

Never seen a mill with a hole machined into the table?????

Mark Rand RTFM

I have 8-(

Joules