Warco GH600

[TriumphboyParticipant @triumphboy]

Hello Warren

Thanks for the post of the tool post!

I see you fitted a GIB (I think it's called) type rather than a piston lock.

What size did you use please? I don't want to screw up and order the wrong thing and have to return it.

Nice work with the spindle.

Thanks in advance.

[Warren WakelingParticipant @warrenwakeling14550]

hi Triumphboy

no problem heres some links

**LINK**

**LINK**

**LINK**

and any molel 100 tool holders you wanna use. Im useing the silm!

hope this was helpful

[Warren WakelingParticipant @warrenwakeling14550]

Hi all added this today

[TriumphboyParticipant @triumphboy]

Hello Warren

Thank for taking the time to reply and the links.

Hadn't realised there was a spindle available as well. Makes life a little easier.

I've spent more time changing tools than the actual cutting. A good investment methinks.

Thanks again.

[Warren WakelingParticipant @warrenwakeling14550]

Hi Triumphboy

no worries your welcome.

[Jed MartensParticipant @jedmartens56976]

A wee update, really enjoying the lathe, and still very much on the steep part of the learning curve, but starting to make some useful and accurate (albeit simple) parts.

However I now have to make my first repair, and I don't think it was my fault…

I've belatedly discovered what a good idea it is to lock the carriage when parting or making facing cuts, so the locking bolt (discussed earlier in this thread) has been getting a work-out. I noticed that it seemed to lose holding power, and then the cap-head bolt stopped tightening. It looked to have minimum thread engagement, so I replaced it with a longer bolt, which worked for a while, but now it's clear that I've stripped the threads.

The threads are in a steel plate that sits under the lathe bed, behind the apron, and is pulled up when you tighten the locking bolt. I can see a few ways of fixing and even improving the mechanism, but the big challenge is getting at it. I suspect I might have to remove the lead screw and/or the apron.

So first question – has anyone modded the locking plate or had it off? Any tips on how to get at it?

I managed to get a nut between the lead screw and locking plate, run a long bolt down to it, and tighten it all up. The saddle locked up rock solid. So I'm happy that the basic mechanism can work, it just needs some decent threads to you can really tighten it up.

Edited By Jed Martens on 07/02/2020 14:30:51

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Based on my experience with one its belt driven predecessors, some of the capscrews seemed to have been made from a very high grade of plasticine, rather than steel!

On that, the saddle lock was a piece of plate, short enough to be removed towards the Tailstock once the clamp bolt had been removed..

If you don't fancy making a complete new locking plate, you could either drill and tap it larger, say M12 and then bush it back to original size, locking it with an anaerobic, or Helicoil the stripped hole

If you do have to remove the Apron, it is heavy.

Following the good advice provided by Geoff Halstead, I lowered it t, using two M8 studs, and nuts. (Find my article in MEW on repairing my smash up, which details the method )

I may even be able to find Geoff's instructions. PM me with an E mail address and I can send over a picture of the Apron part way through its descent! The Clamp Plate is visible in the background. Possibly even "lift" some of the words from the article, if you ask nicely, although the picture is pretty self explanatory

Howard

[TriumphboyParticipant @triumphboy]

Hello Jed

The easiest way I can see is to use an M8 Helicoil / Recoil repair.

It's possible to drill straight down from the top and all the way through with the tapping size drill

Drill the clearance size of the OD for the helicoil in the yellow block and fit it from the top.

You'd need to make a shoulder bolt, or it may be possible to sleeve the yellow block to reduce it's size again.

That is all I can think of after looking at it.

As a bonus, I've used recoils to increase the strength of the threads in plastic and other soft materials in the past so it should be more robust.

Failing that, a lot of work I think.

Best of luck.

[Jed MartensParticipant @jedmartens56976]

Thanks guys, the helicoil is an interesting solution I hadn't considered. I've never used one, but the simplicity is tempting…

Another thought that occurred to me as I stared at the lathe this evening – is appears simple enough to removal the carriage entirely, which would give me direct access to the locking plate. If I remove the "thingy" (don't know the technical term) that holds the right-hand end of the lead screw I should be able to wind the carriage off the end of the bed. It is no doubt rather heavy, and there looks to be some gib screws that will need to be slackened off, but this seems to be quite a clean way of getting at the problem part. Or is it a daft idea? I've never removed the carriage before…

[Jed MartensParticipant @jedmartens56976]

So I managed to convince myself that removing the carriage would be easy enough…

And it was! Not as heavy as I feared either.

That was the good news. Bad news is that I still can't get at the locking plate…

One of the fixings is hidden behind a cast-in lug…

So nothing for it but to take the apron off. Which is easy enough with the carriage already off the lathe…

So the offending part. Not just a stripped thread, but a chunk of the casting has chipped away…

And to complete the picture, it has cracked through…

So I'm glad I went to the trouble of removing the carriage and apron to get at the part, as it clearly needs properly repaired or replaced.

What to do?

* I can ask for replacement part and wait for it to arrive. Will the new one be any better than the old?

* Make a new one from scratch. I don't have the cutters to do the counter-sunk cap-head screws. And the mating surface with the under-side of the bed looks to be be ground, so perhaps this needs to be finished beyond what I can manage on the mill.

* Repair the part – there is a fair bit of clearance between the underside of the part and the lead screw – enough space to bolt on a chunk of something to give the part rigidity and drill/tap it to provide the locking function…

Any thoughts? I think I'm leaning towards repairing it at the moment…

 

Edited By Jed Martens on 08/02/2020 10:28:43

[TriumphboyParticipant @triumphboy]

Hello Jed

A big well done for having a go to remove the carriage and finding the offender.

It may just be that it was broken all along hence the reason for the thread failure. Also. Thanks for the pictures! It helps me if I ever have the same problem.

As for the cap head countersink, I have done this recently by drilling to the near depth that is required. If you then grind that drill bit of the same size, maybe a worn out one, flat on the grind wheel, It will do the job perfectly well. Probably best to clamp the workpiece before both operations.

Well done from me once again.

Cheers

[Martin Wood 1Participant @martinwood1]

Hello Jed,

I would make new out of mild steel flat stock. With regards to counter bored holes pre drill with diameter required.

Grind drill with flat bottom then finish pre drilled hole to depth. You could mill a relief on clamp end and fix nylon or brass strip. I ordered the GH600 and its due to be delivered on Monday. I will strip my machine down before using as from your pictures looks like sharp areas everywhere .

Martin

[TriumphboyParticipant @triumphboy]

Having fixed 3 oil leaks so far, two on oil sight glasses and one on the main carriage handle that was dripping on the floor.

One sight glass needed a nip up and the other wouldn't seal. I removed the ridiculously hard plastic O ring and replaced it with a nitrile rubber one. Nipped up gently it seals perfectly.

The leaking handle was leaking from the spindle and the 3 screw heads which had a little RTV on them. Useless. They were replaced with fibre washers and I made a gasket for the body of the block with the spindle through it to the carriage. Solved that one!

There is another one which is dripping through from the gearbox into the left hand cover and dripping into the top left hand draw via the thread on the mounting bolt. It is very difficult to see where the oil leak originates. At the moment, I think it's coming from the gearbox spindles inside that left hand cover and running down and eventually getting into the draw.

However, I called Warco for some help. I called and got through twice and waited for someone to ring me back. I waited a few more days and tried many times to get through. Left a message eventually and still no one replied!

Phoned again next day and spoke to a gentleman who said they'd arranged for their service company to ring me. WSM. Nobody bothered to inform me! Next day WSM rang and an appointment was arranged for someone to visit.

I've read many good things about Warco customer service and they seem to have fallen short on this occasion.

Hopefully we can solve this oil leak as it's quite a big one.

Cheers

[Jed MartensParticipant @jedmartens56976]

TB and Martin – thanks for the suggestion re: drilling the counter-sinks for the cap-head bolts. I think that in retrospect I should have done this (God knows I have enough chewed up drills to grind flat) and made the part from scratch.

Sadly patience isn't one of my few virtues. I spent the day going with my first idea…

I started with some stainless square stock that was about the right size, and used my rotary table to mill out a 12mm round shoulder. I would have used the lathe for this, but…

The shoulder was drilled and tapped to M8 (which I didn't get concentric, as you can see). The setup was a bit shonky, hence the poor finish. And the collets everywhere, and the swath…. it was one of those days…

Note to self, when I can't find the spotting drill tomorrow, it's hiding in the t-slot…

As for the original plate, the chewed up M8 hole was drilled out to M12, and the new part inserted…

The idea is that the thread engages where it did previously, but there are many more threads than before, and the plate underneath spreads the load, hopefully relieving pressure on the crack. I did manage to get a nice tight fit.

 

The piccy above was before I ran some M3 screws through the part to fix it to the clamping plate. I added loctite for good measure, since I hope never to see this part again. Here it is fitted…

 

It looks close to the lead screw, but there is plenty of clearance.

Here's the new "shoulder bolt" for locking…

Ok it's just a regular bolt with a bushing, but it works well. It goes from loose to totally locked in less than half a turn, and it's a lot sturdier than the original.

There's still a lot of reassembly to do, but I've called it a day and opened a beer. In retrospect…

* I learnt a lot about how the lathe works.

* It was a great opportunity to give the lathe a decent clean

* The new clamp works better than the original, and should last a bit longer, given it was twice the number of threads. I also prefer using a spanner to lock the carriage, as I have plenty of spanners, but usually have to go looking for the alan key to lock the carriage with the old bolt. And I get more leverage with a spanner…

* It would have been a lot quicker to just make the part from scratch

* This was an entire day of my life I will never get back…

@Martin Wood, my fingers are shredded, there is no part in that thing that has been de-burred. If you have time to take it to bits and clean it up, it will be time well spent. On a positive note, the internals of the apron looked pretty clean and well made (not that I'm an expert), and it all came apart and went together again without issue. So I'm not complaning

 

Edited By Jed Martens on 08/02/2020 20:22:43

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Altogether, sounds like the job's a good 'un as JS would say.

You know a lot more about your machine, it less likely to scalp or skin you, and best of all, the lock now works.

So not a day wasted, but one of useful learning, and increased confidence

Sounds like WIN, WIN, WIN. Nothing succeeds like success

Howard

[Henry BrownParticipant @henrybrown95529]

I've been following this thread as I've just taken delivery of a GH1322 from Warco, a very similar machine with a little more swing. The mods too the saddle lock are especially interesting…

[Dan_BParticipant @dan_b]

Hi,

I have read through this discussion and found it very helpful to read about your experiences with the GH600 as i'm am seriously considering placing an order.

Could you please confirm if the machine is capable of screw cutting left hand threads?

Thanks

Dan

[Jed MartensParticipant @jedmartens56976]

I've never tried it (still trying to get the hang of right hand threads), but you can reverse the lead-screw direction relative to the spindel – ie: have the cutter move left to right when you engage the the half-nut. Does that result in a left-hand thread?

[Lee KennedyParticipant @leekennedy29914]

Thanks for this thread, interesting stuff. My GH600 was delivered early January but it’s still on the pallet due to my workload at the moment.

i do plan on stripping the machine and cleaning up all rough edges.

Also thanks to Jed who very kindly allowed me to visit him and see the GH600 first hand before I placed my order.

lee

[Dan_BParticipant @dan_b]

Hi,

Thanks for confirmation on the screw cutting.

I have now ordered my GH600, really looking forward to it’s arrival.

I am planning my tools and it would be really useful to know the spindle thread size, any current owners know of hand what it is?

thanks

Dan

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Would be surprised if the spindle thread (Assuming a screw on chuck ) were anything other than Right Hand.

A Left Hand thread would encourage the chuck to unscrew when cutting!

Warco spec says that the Chuck mounting is Flange. So no Mandrel thread. Chucks are probably retained to flange by three or four studs and nuts. Posibly M8?

GH600 owners can confirm these details

Howard

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

I suspect Daniel was caught out by his auto-correct, and was meaning to say "any current owners know off-hand what it is?" regarding the spindle thread size.

Unfortunately I have no idea, but someone might.

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

I would not be placing an order unless I had studied the specification thoroughly beforehand.

I’m not, but I did look and – as Howard posted – it clearly states:

Chuck mounting

Flange

I never use ‘auto-correct’.🙂

[Dan_BParticipant @dan_b]

Thanks for clarifying. My previous experience was with a Myford 7. I hadn't really given the chuck mounting much thought as the Warco machine is supplied with 3 and 4 jaw chucks. I had just started thinking today about my current collet setup and if i could adapt with a new back plate for the Warco.

Regards

Dan

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Hopefully, if your present collet set up is 2MT, (being ex Myford 7 Series ) you won't need a backplate.

All that will be needed will be a 4 MT to 2 MT reducer. They are available. Chance are that a 4MT – 3MT sleeve will come with the lathe, but you need to look for a 4MT – 2MT.

Take a look at: Arc Euro (They offer both Open Ended, and Tang versions ) Chronos , RDG or Warco themselves

And there will probably be other UK suppliers.

Howard

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