I have one of its baby brothers. sold by Warco as the WM180 and by other retailers (eg Amadeal and Chester) under other names. They are made by Weiss Machinery in China, and are almost identical to the range sold in Germany under the "Optimum" name. I think the factory producing the Optimum machines may be under German management.

The overall design of mine looks very similar to the WM250. My gear/pulley cover was originally held on by a couple of knurled nuts, but I found that inconvenient and hinged it at the back. I did find myself going in there fairly often, both to fit changewheels and to switch one of the drivebelts between pulleys. The 50 to 2500 rpm variable speed on mine isn't continuous. Rather, it is in two bands of 50 to 1250 or 100 to 2500 rpm, and the drivebelt has to be shifted to get from one band to the other. That was a fiddly and tedious job, because to slacken/tighten the belt an Allen screw on the back of the lathe had to be accessed by feel. I have modified that to make life a bit easier.

As mentioned above, mine is a smaller version, and the WM250 may differ from it in relation to the way the gear cover is retained and the drivebelt. It looks as though it has a tumbler reverse and a knob offering a choice of fine feeds, so is obviously a more sophisticated machine than mine. The ideal thing would be to hold off until you have seen one, at Warco in Chiddingford Surrey (they used to have models on display at Newton Tesla's place in Warrington, but I don't know if it's still there or whether there is a WM250 on display), at Amadeal in Leytonstone or at Chester Tools in both Hawarden near Chester and in Burntwood Staffs.

Andy

I've got one,had it for a few years now and am pleased with it.It does all I ask of it( and takes a bit of abuse!) only complaint there is no back gear as standard but have made a set of parts for one, to fit when I get round to it.

Regards Mark P.

Hi Stuart

Google is not strictly correct.

Yes, back gear does reduce the speed but it increases the torque.

Running at a low speed with a variable speed setup would give virtually no power at the low end of the speed range.

Back gear lowers the speed and converts the available power into a useable force.

I worked in an aerospace company and they had a large CNC machining centre that had 50 horse power at very high speeds for aluminium. In his wisdom the boss put a batch of hardened steel components on it. At the low speed that was necessary the horsepower dropped to 2 HP. The job had to be done on that machine so the boss did not lose face.

regards David

Further to what David says there is little noticable drop in torque on these lathes when you slow them right down. The only time I have notived it is when turning large diameters at the slowest speed, for example I found when machining a 9" dia cast iron flywheel that I could not take more than 0.025" depth of cut without the lathe slowing and much more than that would stall it.

But lets face it how many times on a model do you need to use close to the capacity of the lathe, on a stationary engine its just going to be the flywheel, on a loco the wheels and on a traction engine the flywheel and final drive.

The backgear is just a quick way to get a fast & slow speed without having to change the belt on the typical Myford type lathe and as its mechanical you get teh torque advantage.

J

J

Both belt drives and back gears are constant power transmissions, ie, you get the power out that you put in, less any small losses. So either system can be used to reduce speed with a commensurate increase in torque. However, V-belt drives have limitations on how small the pulleys can be, as well as the centre to centre distances for the pulleys. So a large speed reduction with V-belts results in large pulleys with wide spacings. A back gear is a neat way of getting a large speed reduction in a small space, usually within the headstock itself. Since it is gear driven it is not prone to the problems of belt slip.

The loss of power at slow speeds is one reason I don't run my lathe from a VFD.

Regards,

Andrew

I've got one and love it. Very accurate. Like people say the torque is low at low speeds.Mine tries to compensate by piling the power on and speeding up. I wouldn't swap it for my old myford which was well worn and about the same price. The WM 250 is a handy size for most things.

Mark P. I'm interested,tell us more please…

Hi Stuart
David Warren kindly loaned the BSMEE a small lathe for our exhibition and I for 3 days demonstrated to youg persons and getting them to use the lathe. It took me a few hours to tidy up the jibs but turned out to be a very successful little machine. If it is up to 3.5g loco building. Do not know what you are planning to build. please let us know.
Bob

Stuart don't think you will be unhappy with the WM250,I would buy another if I had too. It doesn't take up much room in the shed,my shed is 8×10 feet got lathe,mill,floor standing pillar drill two benches one with a simat 101 lathe on it a motorbike, bandsaw and room for the dog (just) when I'm down here!

Mark P.

Re tumbler revers, just stop flick the switch into reverse and thats it, you can even give the speed knob a tweak and back out faster than you went in. But as you say for occasional screwcutting its not an issue

Stuart, the end cover does not hinge, you unscrew two knurled knobs and move it out about about 25mm and can then lift it up, I'l have a measure & take a photo in the morning of the exact amount of space needed, 250 may be a fraction less than my 280.

Also if you can afford the extra get the 250 with power cross feed.