I gave a very well performing Boxford away and got a new and younger WM 250 six speed lathe.

It has got a VFD and a stone to sit on.Plus a much better compound slide arrangement.

A M16 Unbrako 12.9 bolt has had its head reduced 2mm in diameter and surface is at least as good as the Boxford can do.

It has a spindle with 21mm hole and MC3.

I want to have 27mm hole and ER40 instead.

I have slowly to admit that parts are getting to heavy.

A WM 180 has entered my house and will be put on stone and get a VFD plus AC motor.

It is intended to make it turn better than Boxfor or WM250.

Stripped for most parts You can se that the bed-headstock has rigidity as a wet newspaper

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 18/04/2019 17:21:04

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 18/04/2019 17:23:41

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 18/04/2019 17:26:28

The dog demanded walking so I did not finish within the edit allowed window.

Why bother with new chineese when world is full of old My- and Boxfords?

First thing i try is putting my MC3 testbar in spindle as shown on the first (Boxford) picture

On the WM 250 on stone there is no runout close to headstock on my Swiss Tesatast.

On the bar far end it has moved 0.005 mm out and oscilates plus minus 0.005mm.

The WM180 straigth out of box and no stone is still zero close to headstock and 0.01 plus minus 0.008.

The 0.01mm stationary error can easily be shimmed away when it meets its stone.

Concavity on the WM250 facing two 100mm disc are around 0.01mm each.

The WM180 is around double but still concave.

The bedways are definately harder than on Boxfords.

The WM250 was 850€ from Holland and the 180 was in Denmark ca 1000€.

Both came with three and four jaw,faceplate and two steadies.

I will use the 250 to make a new bigger spindle for the 180

Am getting older so it is some kind of race.

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 18/04/2019 18:58:06

Good guess.

Plan is to have Diabas+WM180 slowly revolving (Solar array of course) on my grave.

Text on stone:

Remember to lube .

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 19/04/2019 05:42:32

The new spindle is in and turns freely.

Two  new 50 and 100 teeth gears, that can go instead of present 40 on spindle and 80 on leadscrew, has arrived and are nice.

I would have preferred new gears in Delrin from You_ Engraving (Ebay) but I have lost his address and Ebay is not very helpfull establishing direct contact.

It has  sent me thinking and the other possibillity is to have synchro belt from spindle to a lower idler that also has the existing 40 gear wheel and then makes further changes unnessecary.

Advice sougth please because there is a small devil that tells me to put electric leadscrew on instead of all this medival clockwork technology .

Electric leadscrew

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 23/05/2019 18:51:48

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 23/05/2019 18:53:20

My Weiss Machinery 180 made its first swarf to day.

A new spindle had its final ER40 cup made minus one mm.

Predrilled hole of 29mm was opened to 39mm in eigth pass at ca 700rpm.

Could not provoke chatter as the small 50mm V belt disc slipped first.

At one round per second I cannot hold the spindle with two hands.

I like it more and more but it is not cheap chineese anymore.

Judgement day.

I adjusted the compound slide to 8 degree with a Lidl thing for 6£ for good.

Cut cup seat at 1000 rpm.

Put a 24mm RDG test bar in a 25 mm Arceuro ER40 collet and tested for run out.

plus minus 0.01mm at far end of bar.

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 22/07/2019 14:05:56

A new backplate has been made for 3 and 4 chuck and big cast iron faceplate.

It meant to use the ER 40 thread (M50 1,5mm collett closing thread).

I dare not and will make a new spindle.

The three M6 screw finxing shown will be safer,just a little slower and saves lengths space.

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 31/07/2019 19:27:37

My son has fallen in love with the 180 lathe and I am preparing to send it out in the world.

It has got a 15mm steelplate between stone and headstock as support.I have also ordered a box with ER40 collets 3-26mm.

That means I will not be able by daily use to decide wich of the spindle variants

That is the one I have made

or the proposed is best.

I have  unscrewed 3jaw with backplate from present spindle and screwed the 4jaw plus backplate on and that is around 2 minutes.

I then put only backplate on again to simulate the new and maybe better spindle.

It takes a little more than three minutes to take the three long M6 bolts out ,place three-jaw in drawer

put four jaw on and secure with four long M6 screws.

The new configuration saves ca 20mm length for chucks but makes ER collets less accurate.

Can I have some advice before I write a letter to the Chineese embassy?

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 17/08/2019 20:56:20

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 17/08/2019 21:04:09

I have received a X-mas gift on my dorstep from Amazon four days after ordering.And paying 122 Euro

My 24mm testbar gives total run-out within one division (0.01mm) close to collet and plus minus 0.025(total 0.05) at cantilevered end 200mm away when put in 24 to 23 collet .In the 25-24 it hardly moves near collet and is plus minus 0.015 at free end.

Not bad

I have some spoiled carbide milling cutters and can test these close to collet.

The 12mm cutter in 13-12 collet is plus minus 0.03 but 13 is not a lucky number and in the proper 12-11 collet it is plus minus 0.01.

16mm cutter and10mm cutter run within one division in proper and proper plus one collets.

Very ,very satisfactory.

Edited By Niels Abildgaard on 23/08/2019 13:57:40