I am thinking about buying a Warco Super Major. Has anybody got any pros or cons on this model. I currently have an X2 and have produced good work but I feel I need something bigger. A Bridgeport would be nice but it would be a bit tight in my garage.
*IF* you get a good one, they can work pretty well, somewhat sturdy (the castings are surprisingly thin-walled once you get past the 1/8" of filler, add the filler in the casting flaws to that reckoning) etc., but the alignment can be a bit iffy sometimes ("friday afternoon jobs"?) and they really need the switchgear and contactors rewired as they're configured as though for a 3-phase motor with "plug reverse" which doesn't work too well when it just reverses one of the single-phase windings while it's running... No interlock to prevent it, and it can wreck the motor pretty quickly :( Mechanically they're pretty noisy (the head's full of straight-cut gears made to Chinese "Standards") but can be reliable enough for occasional use - the standard bearings in the spindle/quill are the usual Chinese "bargains" though. - worth looking at replacement fairly soon with something better toleranced? Should you get one, it's worth getting a sparky who knows machine tools to check it over, the Chinese aren't too good at that sort of thing! Pay particular attention to things like earth continuity, insulation etc.
Physically, tramming the head is a bit of a hassle(on a pivot with a pair of t-bolts to lock, no adjusters) , and there aren't any grease ports for the table feed screws so they have to be hand-smothered in grease...One you look closely, you can see where costs and corners have been cut!
Ant chance you could find a used European / American or even Taiwanese machine at around the same price? A secondhand Aciera or Thiel (or one of the Eastern European clones) would be a lot more versatile, around the same price (of you're lucky!) and footprint, and a *much* sturdier machine with power feeds and accuracy built in as standard.
HTH Dave.
Dave
Thanks for that, I have gone right off it! Even though my wife tells me that I am deaf in my old age I still abhor machines that are noisy. I am considering getting rid of the (constantly engaged) back gear on my Viceroy and changing to belt drive over to the main spindle. Aciera's that I have seen go for a lot of money. I was thinking about a Schaublin 13 a while ago but it did not have the milling and drilling head so I did not bother even though it hadall the rest of the kit. I will keep looking.
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