Warco Minor mill

If you have the room I would recomend a mill with vertical dovetail

rather than a round column.Arc eurotrade seem to do a reasonable benc mill.

I've got Posilock and Clarkson and have just started using an ER 2 collet set.The ER collet system wins hands down for me,no more takin one chuck out to put a drilling chuck in,and then changing it bac again to start milling.

The ER system will hold mills,drills,countersinks and centr finders.Each collet has a 1mm range.

Alla

-- Allan Waterfal

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I would echo what Alan has said about a milling machine with a round column, the only z travel that you have accurately got is travel of the quill, this is a pain if you are using a long tool then a short tool in the same position e.g. drill then countersink a hole. A machine with a head or wind up table located on dovetail slides is a less frustrating machine to use but it depends on your budget. This said many fine models have and are being built on round column machines, just look at the machines used in the step by step articles in Model Engineer quite often it is a round column machine. If You are buying new I would recommend a machine with a R8 spindle this gives you the option of holding cutters directly in the spindle with R8 collets or with a collet type of chuck such as a Clarkson autolock or one of the cheaper copy's available. Morse taper collets are not really for milling but for drilling, in industry Morse tapers are rarely used for milling. Also R8 has a key and keyway in it so if the drawbar thread ever picks-up or gets tight for any reason it will prevent the collet or chuck etc for spinning, but Morse taper could be a pig to get out should this happen. If a R8 machine is abused this key can shear off in the spindle such a when using a large diameter face cutter and the arbour slips on the taper and try's to drive on the key. A quick check on how hard a life a second hand machine has had is to stick your finger up the spindle and see if you can feel a key. I have purchased a lathe from Warco and found them to be a very good company to deal with, but I purchased a milling machine from Chester UK and would not recommend the company but the machine was OK when it eventually arrived.

Hope this helps - Paul.

In message , westgard writes

A Google search will throw up a lot of information about Sweet Pea on the web. Some of it concerns some relatively small but nonetheless useful and important modifications. I presume you already have a copy of Buckler's book.

Good luck with your project.

Thanks Allan and Paul - I understand that I ought to keep away from

round column and go for a (more expensive) dovetail solution. What about the Warco VMC then ? Seems like a much larger mill (415kgs). The table size is, however, th same as the Minor´s but it has considerably less XY-travel and spindl stroke than the Minor. How much does this matter ?

Mike, thanks for the encouragement for my Sweet Pea project. I hav Buckler´s book on the bedside table and will start building as soon a I am tooled up.

ag

-- westgar

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Although a lot of quill travel seems good,you want it as little extende

as possible to avoid deflection. No matter how much X and Y travel yo have it will always be less than you need.But more is definitel better.

I've got a Tom Senior light vertical,it's only got two and a hal inches of quill travel,I just wind the knee up and down with the quil retracted,usually to about 1/8" from the end of the mill or drill tha I am using.This also means less bending down to see what's happening.

Warco seem to have a decent aftersales service,which from persona experience is more than can be said for Chester UK. I initially bough a 626 mill from Chester and returned it for a refund.I was going t have a VMC from Warco but then the Tom Senior came up and I bought i instead.

I've just had an email from someone who is returning a Coventry lath to Chester because of problems and their attitude.

One thing I would recommend is a 3 phase motor and an inverter.Got bot my lathe and mill fitted up like that.

Alla

-- Allan Waterfal

----------------------------------------------------------------------- Allan Waterfall's Profile:

Don't worry about the smaller spindle travel, as the table moves up and down on the VMC -and it is fixed relative to the head. So if you wanted to drill a deeper hole you would drill as deep as you could with the quill, then wind the bed up a bit and carry on. The minor is a beefed up drill with an x-y table added, wheras the VMC is a propper milling machine. If you can afford the difference I'd definately go for the VMC, I'm sure that at some point you would regret it if you could have and didn't. The R8 spindle gives you more options as well

-it's the industry standard for milling machines so more chance of picking up cheap or second hand tooling.

Regards

Kevin

I agree with the others - reject the round column in favour of the dovetail every time. I've used both and there is really no contest. My mill has INT30 and a friend has R8, but we have both switched to the ER system (with suitable adaptors) as being far more convenient than Clarkson or Posilock. Fittings for R8 are cheaper than INT30, and easier to get. I don't understand the Chester bashing. I bought my lathe from them several years ago, and quite a bit of kit from them since, and have always found their attitude and after sales service to be superb. I have no hesitation in recommending them.

Thanks to all - for contributing with information of great value !

The best combinations of qualities for a milling machine should be: dovetail - R8 spindle taper - ER collet system

regards

ag

-- westgar

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I went through this process last year and looked at a lot of mills from different suppliers. In the end I bough a VMC from Warco and have had no regrets. I replaced a few slot headed set screws with decent allen headed ones. Mine came with the power cross feed as standard and it was a bit noisy. This was pretty much cured by adjusting the meshing of the drive gear with shims.

One advantage of this type of mill which others haven't pointed out is that a cut is put on by lifting the table. The screw is acting to force the table upwards and backlash is automatically removed. On the fixed table models you rely on the wieght of the head dropping down onto the screw to take up backlash - almost certainly OK but no guarantee.

Do go look at the machines. They look smaller in the catalogue than they are in the flesh. The VMC is not a small bit of kit and needs a lot of space around it.

My second choice had I not had space for the VMC would have been the Arc-Euro table top machine, of which Warco are now marketing a version.

I've found Warco very helpful. They delivered my machine already on its stand and put it in just the right place.

I have both ER and Clarkson chucks. Have had no problem with the ER but I stil find the Clarkson more confidence inducing - screwed shank cutters in a Clarkson chuck simply cant shift, whereas in the ER the hold depnds on how tightly the chuck is closed.

My other purchse that I wouldn't be without was an electronic edge finder, bought from J&L on special offer for about =A315. Worth its weight in gold.

I'm a bit slow replying - my post follow up didn't seem to work.

I've had a Warco Minor for about 10 years. Given no trouble. It did all the machining on a Sweet Pea and seems to be coping with a Sweet William OK.

I accept the argument about a dovetail slideway being better than a round column, but in practice I've never found it a problem. Maybe I've just not needed long vertical cuts or much concentric work.

Dave Burrage