Warco Mini LATHE Upgrade

Do you want to completely change the feel of your mini lathe? By making some new larger handles from brass to replace the cheap feeling handles on the lathe, the Warco WM180 feels a 100 percent better. Hopefully this video will help you if your thinking about making a set yourself.
Link to Snap gauges below
www.amazon.co....

[@ServiceProcess]

Big thankyou for this Joe. Looks great and I want a set on my lathe.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Hope you get round to making them.

[@doc1701]

Thanks for taking the time to upload this video, Joe. I'm a woodworker with a C3 Sieg mini lathe and I love it. I made similar replacement handles from aluminium I had around the place since I used to turn aluminium and brass on my wood lathe before deciding I 'needed' (doesn't everybody need one!) a mini metal lathe. Cheers from Australia.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Really glad you enjoyed the video. I have a few upcoming videos of little modifications you can make on a mini lathe, so hope these help with any improvements you’ve been thinking of making.

[@dr1verman]

I know a little, not a lot, there is still loads more to learn. I am hoping to retire to the Philippines in a couple of years, I am spying out different machines, Warco is the best I have looked at so far, am going to see them mid Sept. Perhaps when I am in my new workshop you can give me advise on how to do a KZbin channel when I get it set up.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Yeah of course I can. Always enjoy seeing people workshops and would love to see some of your work.

[@stevedack124]

Hi. I’ve finally received my WARCO WB240 lathe, and thanks to Joe the first job is making the handles. I also ordered the 5 inch band saw which was used to cut the 25mm brass to length. The cut was perfect, far above anything I could have done with a hacksaw. So far my experience with the new tools is very good, WARCO were easy to deal with and everything worked out ok. Joe could you do a piece on the WARCO DRO, the lathe came with the unit fitted b4 dispatch and it seems mighty complicated. Keep up the good work.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Hi Steve glad your lathe turned up and a bandsaw is a game changer I wouldn’t be without mine now. So the DRO is it like the one I have on my lathe ? If not I will struggle to talk you through the settings.

[@stevedack124]

Hi Joe. The DRO was fitted by WARCO it’s the larger unit with all the Tan and sine as well as a calculator. I’ve had a little play and it’s making much more sense now. The handles worked out really well, much better feel. As you said the saw is a game changer, I wonder how I managed b4. Next job is the cartridge lock and make a travel stop. Keep up the good work. Steve.

[@dr1verman]

When you tighten your chuck, use BOTH hands on the key, and make it TIGHT, and then TIGHTEN it again, or you will get vibration and/or, you workpiece will fall out. Always tighten on the same keyhole by the makers name.

[@weldingrod6578]

Great videos mate. Just got my WM180 and love it. Putting the tapers on the handles, are you moving the cutting bit outwards manually? Can’t quite see it on the footage, cheers.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Hi Jimmy glad your enjoying the videos. So for the taper I set the compound rest to the angle I wanted and the wound the compound slide in and out whilst moving the top slide in after each pass.

[@Mystereed0]

Excellent video Joe, really like the new handles, definitely planning on doing this once I get mine.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Yeah makes the lathe feel so much better. Just make sure all your handles and gibs are tight as the extra weight will make the handle drop to the bottom if not.

[@Mystereed0]

@@MachiningwithJoe Good point, I hadn't thought of that, perhaps using aluminium would help with the weight.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Yeah possibly I do like the look of the brass thou and with everything tightened a little it works great.

[@Festivejelly]

Where do you get your stock from? I've seen some sellers on ebay but I was thinking id probably want to get a bit of a mix of offcuts.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

So on eBay SteelcityGav is who I use for 99% of me steel alloy orders. Also I’m always on the look out for job lot of engineering steel off cuts from large business as their off cuts is plenty for me as a hobbyist.

[@tennpikr74]

Thanks very much, i was wondering how a taper is done.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Your quite welcome glad it helped. 👍

[@majackson14]

As a time served turner so much of this fills me with horror. Long sleeves, chucking measuring devices onto a bench, rubbing freshly turned metal with your hands, the tool post locking handle over the chuck, get a centre in when you are knurling . Mate I wish you well but accidents waiting to happen. If your metal fits face off as close to the chuck as is safe ( especially with soft metals) to get a good square finish.

[@terrinewman7390]

well done !!

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Thank you Terri

[@dr1verman]

If you bolt your machine down to a sturdy surface, it will be like a different machine.

[@dr1verman]

Ream on 1/4 drilling speed and use coolant/lube.

[@gillian9178]

You want to get yourself some GT** inserts, these are inserts for aluminum which work brilliantly on aluminum, brass, stainless & mild steels. They work far better on these small lathes like the WM180 & smaller lathes still, far superior cutting & brilliant finish compared with MT** molded tips you are using. The GT** tips also put less load on the motor as well where they are so sharp reducing load at the cutting tip of the insert. I dont know if you are familiar with Ades Workshop channel, a very clever guy with a WM180 & uses nothing but GT** inserts on every type material.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Thank you for your comment Gillian I’ll have to look into these because I have found myself struggling to get a brilliant finish on aluminium so hopefully a set of these will help. Can you recommend any particular place to buy them ?

[@Wozza1534]

Where did you get your snap gauges from buddy

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Hi Andrew I've updated the video description to include a link to where I bought these. Don't get me wrong they are not the best quality but for the price and how often I use them these work ok. Hope that helps.

[@douwemonsma5874]

nice!

[@dr1verman]

Knurling is a metal displacement rather than metal cutting, it needs to be done slow like Reaming, you will get best results with a copious amount of coolant (I mean a coolant flow, not a coolant spray before you start). Your Knurl should have ended up a diamond pattern, coming up to a point, possible problem with your knurl,,,, not on centre height putting more pressure on one of the rollers. Not enough pressure anyway. Insufficient coolant (not sure you can do coolant on your current setup.) Tighten jaws securely Take workpiece out as little as possible Use live centre where possible for support Leave drilling until last to keep the workpiece solid My ops would have been, Face and turn o/d C/drill and use live centre knurl using coolant and ensure rollers are equal pressure by being equal height turn taper, chf as required drill and ream part off properly, never hacksaw a part deburr You didn't need to ream actually, you could have used a flat bottom drill AFTER you had gone full diameter with a 118 degree drill point (to stop it wandering) Hope this helps

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Yes thank you for all your comments recently they have helped a lot. Really sounds like you know what your doing plus with all that experience you have put yous advise clearly into practise. Hope your enjoying my videos and thank you again for all your great advise.

[@kassilewis5511]

The diameter of the part has a pretty strong influence on the quality of your knurl. If you take the pitch factor(#teeth on the wheel per inch x pi) and multiply it by your diameter you will get "x.xxx". Whatever that number is drop the decimals and divide by pitch factor, that will give you the diameter that your part needs to be for perfectly spaced knurl around the part. If you don't know the number of teeth on the wheel, roll the wheel across a sheet of paper and use a tpi gauge to determine how many. Also my clamp knurling tool likes to operate best under a pretty strong amount of pressure at low speed. When you get the part running under the knurling tool if you keep a hand on the carriage wheel, adding light pressure to move toward the chuck it will feed itself down the work at its own pace. Your mileage may vary but it works extremely well for me, hope it helps.

[@jinxycob]

You consided a devil forge furnace to recycle those waste chips

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Never really thought about it. Have you had some good experience with one ?

[@jinxycob]

@@MachiningwithJoe ask me again in a month am planning on having one of there 4KG size... I get a lot of waste aluminum from milling I plan to reclaim

[@MachiningwithJoe]

I’ll have to look into them the idea seems like a good way of reusing old chips.

[@mikebarton3218]

You're using a pinch knurled as a bump knurled.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Hi Mike yeah I had to unfortunately as it didn’t open up larger enough for my piece of work. Didn’t press to hard thou as it was brass

[@alyo3299]

Who is joe

[@MachiningwithJoe]

I am Joe the channel creator and beginner Machinist.