New lathes or old

I have made similar enquiries and heard a lot of good things about the Warco belt driven lathes, but less positive views on fully geared lathes. It appears that Warco do make some Quality Control Checks (which doesn't seem the case with all the importers). Although some "faults" do seem to creep through the opinions I heard of the after sales service were good -- but this does rely on you (or someone you know) having sufficient experience to know that something is wrong.

As far as I can recall the Warco in its fully equipped state didn't include any kind of collet system. How important you think collets are depends on what you do; I don't think I could survive without them.

At about the same time I got a chance to use a Hardinge HLV-H which had been refurbished by ZMT; this is not a good thing to do if you are considering purchasing an import!

Alan Bain

David. Well the Warco 1340 is a Taiwanese copy of the M300. At least mine is. Later ones have evolved into smarter machines.

Mine has been used commercially since 1994, and before that it was in a school or college from new (1988)

My 1340 has proved to be quite acceptable over this period, but marginally less rigid than the real Harrison M300.

I have no idea how the later ones compare, but on a whole mine has served me well. Might retire it sometime in the next 12 months if I can find a shorter bed alternative, as I have mostly gone full cnc these days.

Wayne....

In article , Alan Bain writes

Thanks for the thoughts, Alan. Any specific details on the gear head Warco lathes (since they were the ones I inclined towards)?

I use collets quite a bit on my Super 7; I imagine I could use ER collets on a Warco-type lathe though.

See what you mean about the HLV-H though; I especially like the sound of the screwcutting stop, I have always wished I had a decent stop arrangement on the Super 7 (I mean rather than a crude buffer type).

David

Thanks Wayne; that sounds quite reassuring - anyone putting a lathe to hard commercial use (as you do) would have dumped it long ago if it were not pretty decent. Probably more than enough grunt for an amateur with occasional aspirations!

Always thought the gear head Warcos *looked* a bit like the M300 - but the 1300 series Warcos do have an extra 1/2" of centre height.

David

On or around Sat, 13 Oct 2007 01:45:05 +0100, David Littlewood enlightened us thusly:

you tend to have to hunt around. The Colchester student I have here had some issues, but even after replacing the chuck it's still not cost anything like the amount that a new one of any credible kind would have cost, for the same capacity.

Lathe cost me about £360, single phase motor was about 130 IIRC, and the new chuck was 300-odd and a very nerve-wracking bit of finishing on the

worst oustanding issue is play in the crossfeed nut/screw, but these crop up occasionally (can be got new, but very pricey) and there's always the possibility of making it adjustable like a later student by dividing the nut in 2 and putting in a tapered wedge. I think I'd rather have a spare to hand before attempting that though...

David Hi, with my access to the forum "sporadic" to say the least these days I had initially missed your post so am late with a couple of thoughts. Apologies if you have already sorted out your decision and spent the money. I recently went through the process of increasing the capacity of my "turning section" (currently 5 lathes but about to shrink considerably according to SWMBO) and agonized long and hard over just this issue.

In nearly two years of looking I couldn't find a decent Colchester or Harrison at what I thought to be a reasonable price. They were well worn, incomplete or bloody expensive. My criteria for expensive was more than an equivalent new import machine. The "incomplete" was the biggest issue for me as excellent machines were offered that lacked chucks, steadies etc and the cost of these was frightening unless one was prepared to wait for the E-Bay bargain to arrive. In the end I decided that life was too short and opted for a Warco BH600. I don't regret buying it as it is a very workmanlike machine and does all I want of it. I personally kept away from the gear heads as they seemed to make a lot more noise particularly at high speed and anyway I intend to replace the single phase motor with three phase and a VFD as soon as I can. However much easier speed changing is with a lever it is still beaten by turning a knob.

One thing that I had initially assumed proved to be incorrect (for me) in actual experience, I had intended to sell my Myford when comfortable with a larger machine. This I have not done and will not do. While just as accurate and with much better capacity the Warco is simply not as "nice" to use on the smaller stuff which still accounts for more than half of my jobs. Would I feel the same about a Harrison or Colchester, not sure but I think so. The larger lathes are heavy to use and even changing a chuck can be hard work. I know this is a personal feeling but after 20 years with a Myford you will notice the difference in the feel. If you decide to try and find a good CVA or DSG then ignore this comment, they have a quality and feel all of their own.

I suppose I'm saying consider supplementing the Myford rather than replacing it with a larger lathe, even larger scale work entails a lot of smaller items. Obviously only possible if you have the room available. I think I have said before here that if I have a job that is within the capacity of the Myford then it is always loaded on that. Don't get me wrong the Warco is excellent - just not as nice to use. It has proven to be very reliable and the only bits I've bought for it are a collet chuck and an additional smaller three jaw. A VFD system will be fitted when "downsizing" releases a little money.

If you have had the time to look at some of the machines you were contemplating I'm sure we would be interested in your thoughts. I think everyone goes through this question and although I made my decision on personal issues I found the thoughts and experiences of others very helpful.

Best regards

Keith

Keith, many thanks for your comprehensive reply. It confirms what I had rather hoped (and fits with Wayne's comments) and is most reassuring with regard to the Warco machines; your comments about the Colchester/Harrison position mirror very much what I have found. I will have to listen to the respective noises and form a view, but I certainly like the thought of an inverter drive; I'm a bit surprised Warco don't seem to offer them already fitted.

I had always intended to keep the Myford - mainly for the reasons you suggest, but also because of location. My workshop (Myford + Emco FB2) is fairly small, but part of the house, and quite warm in Winter. A larger lathe (or milling machine, but that's another story) would live in the garage - also attached to the house, but a lot colder in Winter!

However, I just had some bad news on the work front yesterday, so I may have to hold off on the plans! (If you want to make the gods laugh, tell them your plans.)

David

In article , Austin Shackles writes

Thanks for the reply, Austin. My initial thoughts were that I did not want to spend a large amount of time on refurbishment, though having had some unwelcome news on the work front yesterday I may have to reconsider!

David

On or around Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:19:11 +0100, David Littlewood enlightened us thusly:

it depends partly on what you expect it to do and to what standard. But then that applies to new ones - for example, you can (or could) get a workable basic lathe from machine mart, for about 500 quid. However, it's not much of a machine, and I doubt it has much guaranteed precision.

The Mk1 student I have here had issues, it's true - principally, the 3-jaw pratt burnerd that came with it had a persistent runout, not of the body but in the clamping surface, despite new jaws and several attempts to machine the jaws to cut hold true. Eventually, I bit the bullet and spent money on a new chuck, and now it's pretty close, bering in mind that 3-jaw chucks are almost never perfect.

The only major issue still needs work is the crossfeed nut, and I'll get to that eventually. The newer students (Mk 2) have an adjustable nut in this position, but tend to go for more money secondhand.