Warco lathes

-- anotheri

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Have you seen the special offer pages here?

The fixed speed C6 is worth comparing to a 918. It's a metric machine, but will cut imperial threads.

I've also found Arc to be one of the best suppliers I've dealt with so far. My association with Arc is that of satisfied customer!

Steve

Brendan

John Stevenson has posted some interesting comments on the state of our manufacturing sector, no one is investing in new machinery over here so if it's not quite dead yet it soon will be. Meanwhile the Chinese (and India) are getting the new expensive production equipment that we can't afford. They can thus produce 5 times as much at 1/5th cost; still in the short term we can all benefit by filling up our workshops with very usable kit. Not so sure what our kids will do in 30 to 40 years though.

The BH600 is a fine lathe and I think superb value for the money. My one concern, if it were my only lathe, is that the top speed is a bit limited at 1200 rpm. Too slow in my opinion if you are doing small diameter work particularly in Aluminium, Brass or Bronze. It also takes up a fair bit of room and everything on it is so b*****y heavy! I have no complaints about the fit and finish on mine, not in the Myford class but not at all bad either. I will be fitting a variable speed drive when funds allow as the motor belt is hard work to change so it stays in slow speed most of the time. I have looked at the WM-280 (out of interest only as SWMBO says my collection of lathes IS complete!!) and it seems to fit in the range nicely between the 918 and the BH600. The variable speed is nice but I couldn't help thinking that it is an expensive machine and seems to take the import lathes of that size considerably up market. A sign of things to come maybe?

Talking to the "main man" then, in my experience Roger is extremely helpful and very patient but be careful - he will get your money eventually. I've been to Guilford and after connecting the machine for me and offering me a cup of coffee, he was happy to let me spend as long as I wanted looking at the whole range of machines he has there.

Don't make a quick decision unless you have to, if you keep looking and playing eventually one will grab you as just what you want - that's the one to buy.

Best of luck

Keith

Hi Keith

What's involved with changing the motor belt for speed changes on th BH600? Is this done with a lever or by just physically moving the bel by hand from one pulley to the next. I was interested in the BH600 vs the WM-280 / WM250 vs the Arc C6.

I must say the BH600 looks like a good machine but the thought of jus turning a knob on the WM lathe to change speed is very attractive. Bu then the WM & C6 don't have screw cutting gear boxes......decisions decisions

One other question. Does the BH600 have an (easily) reversibl leadscrew for cutting LH threads like the WM Lathes have

-- gn3d

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Hi gn3dr

There is a lever to release the tension and then the belt needs to be changed from pulley to pulley, not too difficult really but the two speed pulley on the motor means that the motor needs lifting to make the change - it's heavy but a length of webbing makes it much easier. The backgear is engaged with the usual lever/pin system.

I agree in part, turning a knob is the best speed selector available. However, there are many more facilities that I believe are more important on a lathe; correct size for the range of work you will do, sufficient mass to make the machine rigid and stable, decent thread cutting range, reversible leadscrew, backgear to ensure slow speed with plenty of torque, power crossfeed etc. An inverter and 3 phase motor will provide variable speed for the BH600 when I have earned sufficient smartie points from my accountant to be let out with the plastic again!!

Personally I find the gearbox a must have, I hate messing with change wheels and at least you can set up for a reasonable range of threads and feeds and others are available when you get the change gears out. Although mine is an imperial machine I have it set for metric thread cutting and rarely need anything that is not available from the gearbox. Yes I know that some are an "approximation in pitch" but that has never given me a problem. The gearbox also gives a range of feed rates which I find useful for roughing/finishing cuts.

Yes, both leadscrew and feed shaft reverse with the movement of a lever on the front of the machine.

As I said previously I think the BH600 is a fine lathe and excellent value for money, it is a serious lathe with reasonable power but is large and heavy so, if your work is mostly small items, it might not be ideal. It will of course handle small jobs but is a bit of overkill if you are going to spend a lot of time with 1/2" aluminium bar in the chuck. I must admit that the machines you identify seem quite different to me and in my opinion the BH600 only comes into the equation because it is so bl****y cheap. An advantage I suppose of a fairly old and simple design, a very strong customer base and the fact that they make thousands of them. Of course the other two are much more compact if room is a limiting factor. The other issue that is interesting is that up to recent times cheap import lathes have been a real pig to sell secondhand, that is not always the case now and there is a reasonably strong market for some of the better regarded machines as long as they are well looked after. Obviously they don't retain value like a Myford but you don't have to give them away anymore either.

Hope this helps a little

Regards

Keith

Thanks Keith for the very detailed reply. That helps a lot.

Yeah I guess the Lathes I mentioned are a bit different alright fro the BH600. I started looking at 918 type lathes first at when lookin at what was out there progressed onto the models mentioned. My mai concern is not buying something that will be too inflexible later on. suppose I'm working on the saying that you can always do small jobs on big lathe but you can't do big jobs on a small lathe.

Rgds Ge

-- gn3d

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Ger Hi,

I certainly understand those thoughts they are what took me from a Myford Speed10 to three very different lathes. I supported my interest in model helicopters (their early years) with this and an old 918. The Myford did the bulk of the work because it included a bit of milling and the 918 was useful for more general (gash?) work where the thread cutting gearbox was a benefit. Both of these were accurate but I found the 918 a bit light weight and ultimately got frustrated with it. I replaced the Speed10 with a Super7 and felt all my problems were solved. Although they are expensive (even secondhand) it is a first class machine that is accurate, flexible and very nice to use. It is a bit small for some of the work I now want to do building kit cars so I looked at the range of lathes you mention. I had settled on the Warco WM280 when a very nice 41/2" longbed Boxford drifted into view and I bought that. Again a superb lathe but still a bit small for some of the larger work so after much thought I bought a BH600. Ending up with three lathes when I had hoped to make do with one. If I'm honest I expect the Boxford will be the first to go if room starts to get tight and the Super7 will be the last. I suspect the wife will be left to get rid of that one when I've departed.

In my opinion the C6 is an excellent and very solid basic lathe which unfortunately for me lacks a thread cutting gearbox. The Warco WM280B appeared to be well built and very well equipped having the variable speed drive and a gearbox (although a bit limited in range) and a useful centre height, although it lacks a gap bed and is a bit on the expensive side. The price (nearly twice that of the C6) means that the BH600 is only a couple of hundred pounds dearer and therefore there is no comparison for me. It would have been a slightly more difficult decision if I did not have the S7 available for the smaller work but I suspect I still would have gone for the larger lathe. I mainly use HSS tooling (no exotic materials) and therefore don't find the 1200rpm top speed too limiting, in fact if I have something loaded on the S7 I do use it for small stuff and it performs well.

Ger, I'll leave you to it now as I think I have shared my entire thought process with you. As I have said before I don't believe there is a perfect lathe just one that suits you better than the others. Have a really good think about what you want the machine to do and then increase the required capacity by a bit and make that the minimum you look at. Pick a machine that you are comfortable with, several of my friends find the BH600 a bit large and intimidating and no machine is of any use if you do not want to use it. Let us know what you decide on and how you enjoy using it. Good luck.

Best regards

Keith

Just to let you know I decided to go for the BH600 in the end - i

arrived 2 weeks ago and I must say I am happy I went for this model i the end.

I know now when looking at it that if I had bought any of the les featured models models that I would have been sorry

-- gn3d

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Ger Hi, good to hear that you have taken the plunge and joined us "metal heads". I'm glad to hear that your first impressions with the BH600 are pleasing and hope that you continue to enjoy using it. I'm sure that as you get to know it better you will enjoy finding out just how capable a machine it is. Don't forget to keep us posted on how it performs as up to date information is invaluable in answering all those "what should I get" questions. I'm starting to feel a bit out of date myself as it is now over 9 months since I bought a lathe. The wife has no sympathy though, she says I will just have to go "cold turkey" for a considerable time yet. Ah well back to earning smartie points I suppose.

Best regards, good luck with the new lathe.

Keith

arrived 2 weeks ago and I must say I am happy I went for this model i the end.

What did you use to get it into position? Or did Warco position it fo you?

Brenda

-- anotheri

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Hi Luckily at the moment it is located in a friends unused old busines premises so there was a manual pallet truck type forklift thing that used. It is heavy and having looked at it I think when I'll be movin it again (in the next few months to a smaller shed) that I will use a engine crane with a steel pole put through the hole in the headstoc casting (underneath the start/stop switch wiring) Rgds Ge

-- gn3d

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Brendan, like Ger suggests I moved mine into position with a 1000Kg engine hoist. At the time I hired it for the day but as it cost =A320 I've since bought one of the cheap Machine Mart versions (=A3150) which worked well moving my "new" Bridgeport toy. They are a bit of a fiddle to get the legs round the stands but the lathe stand isn't right back against the wall anyway so it worked OK. Once the lathe is up on the stand then taking the weight of each end in turn lets you finally position the machine. I used a sling round the first bed casting crosspiece and it balanced OK with the saddle at the tailstock end. Make sure you secure the two ends to stop it slipping vertically (don't ask how I know) check the sling is secure yourself before you lift. I won't trust anyone else again! My cheap 1000kg hoist lifts it on the longest arm position without a problem but the heavier one I hired objected to this treatment as the safety valve let go and I had to move it in one position. They are heavy but with a bit of care they go into fairly tight positions.

Best of luck

Keith