I'm sure you have seen several threads on "What lathe to buy" on this forum already

From my limited experience, it would be helpful to know the proposed use, do you intend to work on motorbikes or scale model engines for example – what do you mean by "smallish parts"?

Warco have an open day this coming weekend (I think)

Here's my thoughts on my WM180: https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=141354

Edited By Andy Carruthers on 05/06/2019 22:41:09

Is Warco one of the most popular of the UK Chinese machinery suppliers?

Delighted with my G600. It was well worth the wait .After some minor cleaning an lubrication it is great .The gear change is all done from the double handle . It is just that , two handles to rotate one gear selector . Chuck needs to be rotated a bit to aid selection . Speed range is good .400 to 2000 rpm .Accuracy and precision are excellent as is the fit an finish .

Selection of longitudinal and cross feeds is very easy to use and much better engineered than on the 280 . In fact the whole machine seems better thought out . Friction for the dials is by sprung loaded balls , much better than the bent strips of metal on the 280 that is replaced .

The system of retaining the few change gears is much better than the 280 . Warco had to send me a selection of fixing studs to get the gears on the 280 in line. Even then I had to place plastic discs between the gears to get them to line up in a reasonable manner. No issues at all with the GH600.

Not so good bits . Well the MT3 bore in the tailstock is about 20mm shorter than a typical MT taper and not very well finished . Not a real problem, it hold things OK.

The Manual is a joke . Far worse that they usually are , It seems to be a cut an past job. Shame that most of it comes from a manual that spends its time refering to using the potentiometer to control the variable speed !!

You don't need a gear-head machine to cut threads. Less expensive types have a selection of 'Change Wheels', ie gears of different sizes, that are set-up manually to get the ratio needed to cut the wanted thread. Might take 10 minutes to switch gears to make a different thread. The advantage of a gearbox is speed and convenience, not capability. I bought a WM280 rather than a GH600 because I didn't have space for the bigger lathe. The 280 does everything I want but I can't deny changing gears is an oily faff.

Trouble with seeing a Colchester is you've now got high expectations!

Cutting stainless can be fun, not! When you get to that stage worth asking advice on the forum if you have trouble with it.

Dave

Gear heads actually tend to have higher bottom speeds than traditional back geared belt heads (BH600) but do have potentially better torque than the electronic drive lathes at low speed where the electronic drive has been used as a cheaper option than back gear.
So a back geared belt drive is what you really want.

While learning screwcuttiing it is worth making a mandrel handle and doing it manually – with instant stop and reverse.

The GH600 is a generic Chinese 12×24, 12×36 which has been around with minor changes and lots of paint versions for about 30 years. With that info you can find about 100 reviews and videos.
However it is a big lathe by home standards. It does provide extra rigidity which is good for stainless but for items smaller than 1/2 inch not the best choice. Sure they say a big lathe can do small things etc but safety, speed of start/stop, energy consumption, cost of tooling all play a part.

Not sure about that, its a 11x 24. I would say it's a 280/290 bed and tailstock with a geared head replacing the variable speed head. Think I would prefer the geared option over belts and back gear which saves all that faffing about with belts to change speeds.

Should have better low end torque with the gears than the vari speed machines. As Andrew says check that the pipe thread pitches are easily obtained with the supplied gears or at a pinch can be cut with the addition of readily available MOD gears. If it is anything like the 280 then the metric machine has more pipe thread pitches than the imperial though they may be a fraction of a percentage which should not matter.

There are not many reviews of the GH600 as Warco have not been selling it for long, maybe less than a year.

Edited By JasonB on 06/06/2019 16:30:02

Jason

The GH600 is similar to the 280V but the bits are its not straight swaps. The bed is narrower than the wm280V ,only 150mm wide .

The Tailstock is a similar shape but the locking lever is at 90 degrees to the bed compared with the 280V where it is parallel rather like the WM80.

They clearly have a wide selection of components to choose from in the part bin.!!

Brian

Thanks for the details about the bed Brian, seems odd to give you that extra torque and then bolt it to a more flexible bed?

Is Brian the only person to have purchased one of these lathes to date?

I was hoping there would be more opinions from other owners on this thread.

– Not that I do not value your opinion Brian. I am planning to give you a call in the near future with more questions.

Something with a backgear would be preferable for threading. The backgear on the lathe I use slows the spindle by a factor of 7.1, down to a minimum of 30rpm.

Hi Jed,

I could have written the same post as you have above.

I am thinking how to lift it onto a bench before I worry about the tooling (although I do have some on order).

It had not been shipped yesterday when I phoned Warco, but hope to have it within a week or so.

Maybe we should start another thread: Getting up and running with a GH600?