warco mill help needed

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warco mill help needed

This topic has 14 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 2 November 2010 at 23:32 by Versaboss.

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31 October 2010 at 22:15 #57927
edwood
Participant
@edwood57471
hi

i have recently bought a warco mill drill and some mt3 collets .every thing ok working in the vise but cutter wont reach workpiece when on the bed am i doing somthing wrong or do i need to extend the cutter somehow hope somebody can help

many thanks ed
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31 October 2010 at 22:15 #5267
edwood
Participant
@edwood57471
31 October 2010 at 22:16 #57928
edwood
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@edwood57471
31 October 2010 at 22:45 #57931
NJH
Participant
@njh
Hi Ed

Which model mill/drill please?

Norman
1 November 2010 at 09:01 #57937
Dusty
Participant
@dusty
Hi Ed

I think that your problem will be solved by lowering the head. Most of these mill/drills have on the right hand side of the head two clamp bolts. Slacken these and the head can be lowered by use of the handle on the left hand side of the head. The other thing is if you are using M.T. collets in the nose of the machine you are losing about 4″. The easiest way round this is to purchase a proper milling chuck and collets(about £80) this will give far better security for your milling cutters anyway. The other alternative is a an E.R. collet set up. The 3mt collets may have seemed a cheap option at the time but as we have all found to our cost saving a few quid can cost dearly in the long run.

Hope this helps Dusty
1 November 2010 at 09:43 #57938
MICHAEL WILLIAMS
Participant
@michaelwilliams41215
If your machine has reached the limit of adjustment and you can’t get the cutter any nearer the bed then make a base plate to mount on the table and mount the work on top of that . Making a base plate is a useful thing anyway since you can mount all sorts of work on it using whatever tapped holes you put in it to suit your own purposes . A base plate also protects the milling machine table from abrasion by rough castings and damage from accidentally milling right through the work into the table .

A base plate can be made as an improvisation which you use just for the one job or it can be a properly made piece of equipment with a thought out system of tapped holes and T slots . The properly made version is usually called a sub table .

Sub tables have been described in the magazines in the past – perhaps Dave C or some other good soul can give you the actual references .
1 November 2010 at 14:19 #57948
edwood
Participant
@edwood57471
hi

thanks everyone for your advice i cant see anyway of lowering the head,so i will go for buying a proper chuck and collets.i like the idea of makeing a sub table sounds very usefull.

once again thanks for your advice regards ed.
1 November 2010 at 19:23 #57953
Dusty
Participant
@dusty
Ed

It would help us to help you, if we knew which Warco machine you are talking about. Is it new or previously loved? I personally do not know of a Warco mill/drill that does not have some sort of adjustment to the head. I have a Warco minor(no longer available)

I can get the spindle nose to within 3″ of the table when at the lowest point on the column and around 15″ at the highest. So you see with 4″ travel on the quill I can reach the table. If you are thinking of purchasing a posilock type milling chuck can I enjoin you to buy both metric and imperial collets, it works out cheaper in the long run.
1 November 2010 at 20:00 #57960
Bogstandard
Participant
@bogstandard
Ed,

Most people usually have the trouble of not having enough throat room. And use collets to give themselves a little more room. In fact I use them all the time, and my ER system is very rarely used.

There is nothing wrong with using collets in your quill for holding cutters. For the size of machine you have (it can’t be too small because of it having a 3MT), collets are perfectly fine for holding cutters, in fact I hold 1″+ with my large machine with no problems at all, and have never had a cutter slip.

If you are going to get yourself a collet chuck, ignore the Clarkson type, they are too limiting on cutter shank sizes to be held. They are more for industrial use where very heavy cutting and standard sized cutter shanks are used. You will be much better off with an ER system. The ER collets usually have a 1mm closing range on the 25 and 32 systems, so will hold both metric and imperial cutter shanks and twist drills as well. For a 3MT sized machine, you can’t go far wrong with an ER32 sized system. Plus if your lathe has 3MT or above sized spindle taper, they can be used as a rudimentary collet chuck to hold your round material for machining.

Bogs
1 November 2010 at 21:20 #57966
edwood
Participant
@edwood57471
hi dusty

the mill i have is the warco mini mill drill it was bought new from warco two months ago when the head is at its lowest position there is about 3.5 inches from the bed

chronos do a posilock collet system chuck and eight collets for£85. also a soba system

with 15 er colletts and chuck for £115. warco are about £99 for chuck and 4 colletts

any advise on the best one to go for, as havent a clue

ed
1 November 2010 at 22:35 #57970
Bogstandard
Participant
@bogstandard
Ed,

One thing I didn’t mention was types of cutters.

If you go for the posilock system, they can only be used with screwed shank cutters.

Seeing as to how most cutters nowadays (including all the cheaper ranges) are either a Weldon shank or just a plain shank. ER and your plain collets will hold ALL types.

It is a fact of life that ER are more expensive initially than the Posilock system, but you have a choice, buy the cheaper Posilock, and only be able to use a fraction of the available cutters (screwed shank cutters only), or go for the ER system (all shank types) and be set up for life.

The larger the size of number for ER, means that it will hold larger sizes of cutters, so really, ER25 is the smallest size you should go for, and ER32 would be the ideal.

I hope this has made it clearer for you.

Bogs
2 November 2010 at 09:04 #57983
Dusty
Participant
@dusty
Hi Ed

I totally agree with Bogs, an E.R. system has a number of advantages, and as he rightly states you can use them in the lathe. I invested in an E.R. 32 system some time ago and have never regreted it. It is up to you now and how much you can afford, if you are considering using them in the lathe make sure your lathe is capable of holding them. An E.R. 32 system would be much to big for a 2 1/2″ centre height lathe.
2 November 2010 at 09:30 #57985
Peter G. Shaw
Participant
@peterg-shaw75338
Hi Ed,

I too have the Warco MiniMill, and one of the reasons why I bought it (not the main reason I hasten to add) was that with MT3 spindle, I could share things with the lathe.

I also use MT3 collets, and like you, have found that they do not reach down to the table – perhaps as well though! They are ok when using Warco’s cheap vice. I have also knocked up a 100mm x 75mm square block by welding two pieces of angle iron together and then skimming two opposite surfaces. On this is bolted a piece of aluminium plate which has a lot of holes drilled and tapped in it and doesn’t matter if it gets damaged. This does enable me to mount some smallish stuff for milling.

Incidently, I have bought all the metric MT3 collets I can find, but of course sods law has struck – one of my milling cutters is imperial!

When I get round to it (anyone got one? A Round Tuit, that is! ), I will be making a tilting vice as shown by Stan Bray some years ago in MEW.

I also have ideas for using bits of angle iron, suitable cleaned up and bolted together directly onto the table.

Hope this helps.

Peter G. Shaw
2 November 2010 at 15:45 #58005
edwood
Participant
@edwood57471
hi

my lathe is a chester db7 with a3.5 center hight and a mt 3 mandrel so i will go for an er32 system and hopefully get the best of both words,anyway whats another weeks pension in a search for happiness

many thanks ed

strangers are only friends you havent met
2 November 2010 at 23:32 #58034
Versaboss
Participant
@versaboss
Ed, if you are tight on funds register yourself with PayPal and buy the ER collets and chuck from

http://www.ctctools.biz/servlet/StoreFront

in Hongkong

Super quality, super low prices and super service!

Last time they even ‘doctored’ the invoice so I did not have to pay import taxes (but don’t tell that around )

Greetings, Hansrudolf
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