warco 918 bench lathe

[wally robsonParticipant @wallyrobson55094]

thank you

[GordonHParticipant @gordonh]

Posted by Csl55 on 22/04/2022 13:38:45:

there used to be a 9X20 lathe group on yahoo. a group of them put together a tricking out guide for these lathes. it contained all the useful mods and add ons. the name Cletus Berkeley compiled it. it should be possible to find a copy. some of the info may have made it to a groups .io group. worth looking for.

from what i remember the problem is caused by misalignment of the idler pulley. i have traded up to a boxford now so no longer have the lathe.

I used to be a member around the time yahoo closed the groups.

It moved to

**LINK**

https://groups.io/g/9x20lathe

Gordon

edited to add text

Edited By GordonH on 22/04/2022 18:40:17

[wally robsonParticipant @wallyrobson55094]

thanks for link. I'll join them

wally

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

FWIW, my new Mill/Drill shredded the primary belt very shortly after arriving.

Having aligned the motor with the intermediate pulley, the replacement primary, and the original secondary, belts are still going strong over 20 years later.

So motor alignment, or misalignment, might be the first thing to check.

Hopefully, the problem can be cured by a simple check and reset.

Howard

[wally robsonParticipant @wallyrobson55094]

thanks I'll be trying that next

wally

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

I was fortunate with my 918 the previous owner had modified the lathe and engineered out the problems that the lathe in its standard form is known for. He also discarded the clutch assy (ribbed belt) and fitted a 3/4HP motor with VFD driving the spindle direct from the motor. The lathe is 24 years old in very good condition and with the mods I would go so far to say its an excellent machine. I have also added a cross slide drive to mine which works well.

I know what you mean Wally with regard to the 5mm drive belt looking too small, that was my first impression but the Gates belts are excellent, strong with very good grip and drive. As Jason says the belts are readily available for around £15. With regard the belt coming off the pulleys as already mentioned check the pulley alignment, it needs to be pretty well spot on . Also check the tensioner wheel I think there was a forum member a while back who had a problem with that giving belt issues.

I have the original manual but the Grizzy link you have been sent is in fact a better version. My manual says to release the belt tension before starting the machine but I have never done that and its fine though mine has a different drive setup to the original.

Good luck with it, if you can sort the niggles I think you may find it to be a decent machine.

Edited By Ron Laden on 23/04/2022 10:06:01

[wally robsonParticipant @wallyrobson55094]

thanks Ron. I feel more confident with the machine now and sure that I can modify it to suit when new belt comes next week. The mod I did on carriage lift has worked well already. And the grizzly manual is very useful. ta again

wally

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

Hi Wally

I remembered a link a couple of people sent me when I first got my 918, it covers a number of mods/improvements people tend to make to the 9×20 (918) lathes. You may find it interesting, the first mod people tend to do is to improve the clamping of the compound to the cross slide as it is said to lack rigidity in its original form. I was fortunate in a number of mods had been done by the previous owner of mine and very well engineered to boot.

http://bedair.org/9x20camlock/9x20project.html

Cheers

Ron

[wally robsonParticipant @wallyrobson55094]

thanks ron

I will try the mod for compound to cross slide. I don't have room for a shed so keep it at a men in shed that I go to but means I can only work on it 3 times a week. Also I am working on building a replica hand mortar wheel lock gun, so pretty busy. Now we have to build bird and insect boxes for a community garden near us. ah well keeps me out of trouble

[wally robsonParticipant @wallyrobson55094]

I now find the aluminium pulleys are 3/16 out of line and the clutch drive pulley even worse. It's no wonder not a lot of work done on this old lathe. Too busy putting belt back on maybe! Ho hum, I've a bit of fettling to do

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

Well at least you have found something Wally, 3/16" out of alignment I would have thought more than enough to allow the belt to ride off the pulley. Also check the tension on the belt adjuster wheel once you have corrected the alignment. I found mine a a bit soft so adjusted the spring, I have approx 5mm movement each side of the belt at the centre of the longest run of the belt. It doesnt want to be too tight but also not slack enough to allow the belt to ride across the tension wheel.

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

I bought one of these lathes years ago, and quickly modified it to use a 3-phase motor and VDF – similar to the picture shown earlier in this thread. When I bought the lathe, I also bought two spare drive belts, after reading a load of bad advice in various forums that these belts break repeatedly while I was deciding which lathe to buy.

I modded my lathe at least 12 years ago, and I am still using the original belt, despite stalling the machine many times over the years. This mod also allowed me to dump the strange manual clutch (slipping belt) arrangement that it used to have.

There is a a lot of information about improvements and modifications on this site: LINK , and many others.

I modified the compound clamp, increased the cross-slide travel, and other odds and sods. I have found the lathe to be perfectly adequate for all the work I have used it for over the years. There is also some stuff online about these lathes arriving from the seller in questionable condition – still caked with casting sand, loose bolts, misalignment, etc, etc, so it seems a little unfair to condemn the lathe until it has been checked over.

[wally robsonParticipant @wallyrobson55094]

thanks. What a great site you linked me. I'm more confident now that this lathe will be alright once I do work on it. I must say it certainly looks l good strong little model makers lathe.

perhaps I was a bit hasty, but I didn't expect it to need so much work. All good fun though

wally

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

Hi, Wally – good luck with working on your lathe. Sadly it seems to be a 'feature' of modern engineering that 'tuning' has to be carried out to make stuff work 'as required' – on the other hand, I have two lathes and a mill that I could never have afforded if I had got them from Western suppliers, so I had to buy 'Chinese' and do the work. I have seen ludicrous prices for (for example) Myford lathes, even second hand, such that it was cheaper to buy and modify eastern machinery. I think also some reputable companies buy these chinese machines, strip and rebuild them and still make a profit.

At least II learnt my way around my machines by having to do this kind of work, and it kept me happy for weeks!

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by An Other on 25/04/2022 08:39:34:

… Sadly it seems to be a 'feature' of modern engineering that 'tuning' has to be carried out to make stuff work 'as required' – on the other hand, I have two lathes and a mill that I could never have afforded if I had got them from Western suppliers, so I had to buy 'Chinese' and do the work. …

 

Me too, though I didn't have to do much to my machines. But any fettling needed on these machines is only a feature of modern engineering as a consequence of the very limited amount of money hobbyists are prepared to pay for their euipment. Model Engineers have extremely short arms and keep our wallets padlocked at the bottom of a deep pocket protected by an irritable rattlesnake. We think a few thousand quid is a lot of money.

Bad mistake to believe Far Eastern hobby lathes are representative of modern machine tools. Truth is, a new industrial machine costs 6 to 20 times more than the hobby equivalent. And, Industry has moved away from general purpose tools towards specialist equipment, CNC and Machine Centres, all rarely seen in hobby-world. As a result, Model Engineers don't compare like with like, and fall into a trap labelled 'unrealistic expectations'!

If modern machine tools were no good, we wouldn't be surrounded by wonderful affordable technology. Take a £50 computer hard-drive apart and look at how accurately it's made. Then try and copy the mechanism! Hard drives aren't made in a shed by blokes with a Super 7, Tom Senior and thou micrometer! Sadly, it's unlikely any of us will ever own even the most basic Machine Centre – they're just too expensive. As a result, our understanding of machine tools is often horribly out-of-date.

My Far-Eastern gear turned out to be better than expected. Although clearly made down to a price, it does more than I need, and I'm able to make things. Hard to tell the difference between a mild-steel rod turned by me on a Chinese lathe and another made on a Colchester. The difference between machines is more to do with feel, slick operation and stamina than the individal parts they make. For the same reason clapped out old lathes in skilled hands can still do useful work.

Dave

 

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 25/04/2022 09:38:38

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

I had a Myford super 7 for over 40 years, beautiful bit of British precision engineering with a nice feel it was worn out when I bought it & still is now that my son has it, difficult to turn parallel.

My Warco 290V is rough as a badgers ar*e but a very capable machine, no nice feel to it & some of the construction techniques are shockingly bad but overall very pleased with my purchase, easy to turn parallel, I have already gone down the electronic lead screw route & am assessing a spindle clutch design, my next task is to sort out the sticky cross slide.

Tony

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

Wally, one useful mod you may want to consider is adding a digital readout for the spindle speed, low cost at around £15 for a set which includes the hall sensor ready wired, the magnet and the display. Easy to fit as can be seen in the pics below, you may just see the small disc magnet sitting on the spindle at the end of the sensor.

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

Just noted something very odd – I was browsing this thread without being logged in, and read SoD's latest post about the comparison between hobby and professional machines. I agree with his comments, but wanted to point out that many (most?) of us are in this as a hobby, and many of us are 'knocking on a bit', so I for one am cannot give much thought to professional machines. I can only continue my hobby by using these 'hobby' machines because thats all I can afford on a pension – there is no way I can go out and spend thousands on a machine. I suppose if I and others could do that, there would be no need for all these websites outlining improvements to these machines.

However, this is where I found a problem. I logged in to make this comment, but found that SoD's post had disappeared. Scrolling back through the thread (now logged in)_ – SoD's post has disappeared completely. I had 3 pages of posts on this thread, but now there are only two. SoD's post appeared just before the photographs from Ron Laden, but now it has gone. If I log off, it reappears – very strange.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Have you got SOD on your ignore member list? Click "my Posts" on the top green bar to see any ignored members

Edited By JasonB on 25/04/2022 19:38:56

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

Nope – SoD is not ignored. A couple of others are ignored – but they don't disappear. Don't worry about it – life is far too short.

Edited By An Other on 25/04/2022 19:50:52

[wally robsonParticipant @wallyrobson55094]

thanks ron

maybe I'll do that in future

wally

[wally robsonParticipant @wallyrobson55094]

The ball type clutch? pulley for lower spindle speeds seems to be removed by many. Was there a problem with this? With new belt on it the clutch? it slips on balls so no strong drive to spindle. I s there adjustment on it?

[BountyboyParticipant @bountyboy]

Hello Ron,

I was wondering where you purchased the Hall effect speed sensor from, looks like a useful addition?

Thanks,

Paul

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

Hi Paul yes it is useful and reliable also, I got it from a well known auction site there are a number of sellers and the current price is around £16. I put one on my mill as well as the lathe. The only additional part you need to power it is a plug in 12V DC adaptor but they are as cheap as chips off the same site.

Ron

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