Warco Lathe Bedway Scratches

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by John McCulla on 03/04/2023 13:22:25:

If it is the case that the bed isn't hardened, how big a deal is that?

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Not much in my opinion. Most older lathes were unhardened, and kept working until the bed developed a dip bad enough to annoy the operator. Then it was scrapped, or maybe reground. The worst wear is usually close to the chuck because the saddle spends most of it's time in that section.

How hard the lathe is worked and the type of material being cut make a big difference. Worst case was probably piece-rate machining cast-iron, because cast-iron is often covered with a super-hard skin, and broken up cast-iron chips can also be very abrasive. Constantly rubbing abrasive grit under the saddle causes rapid wear, so it's always worth keeping the ways clean, and making sure nothing is lodged under the saddle. Aluminium swarf is almost harmless, mild-steel doesn't cause much trouble, but Brass can embed. Work-hardened stainless chippings and splintered cutters are also nasty. A chip off a carbide cutter that gets jambed under the saddle will scratch anything short of diamond!

An unhardened bed will wear faster than a hardened one, and tend to show dings and scratches. But apply the "so what" test! How badly scratched does a bed have to be before the lathe malfunctions? The answer is scratches are unlikely to cause trouble for years. How long do you expect a hobby lathe to last?

Picking up Tony's point. I own a WM280 which Warco claim has a hardened bed, and a WM18 mill, where they didn't. Neither machine has any obvious sign of heat-treatment. Comparing the two it's obvious that the mill table is softer than the lathe bed. Both pick up dings and scratches, but the milling table is easily marked. No obvious change to either machine's capability after 8 years. I see no reason to disbelieve Warco's claim that the lathe bed was hardened.

However, note that Warco didn't say how hard the lathe bed is, or how deep the hardened layer goes. As I said in an earlier post I only took the claim to mean: 'this bed is somewhat harder than it would have been had we not bothered'.

Words matter when contracts are struck. Hardness is a quality, and like all other quality words is meaningless without a specification. I noticed the spec was thin before buying the machines and managed my expectations accordingly! I don't expect Far Eastern hobby lathes to be specified as well as professional kit costing six to twenty times as much!

Dave

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Without the means to test or another part of the lathe bed to compare with it's hard to know what you have, typical cast iron is only about 10 Hrc so could well be hardened yet not hard enough to register on a 40Hrc file.

My 280 is still going strong after 15 years of reguar hobby use so I'm not too worried

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