Warco mini lathe WM180 motor replacement

[@MachiningwithJoe]

How many of you have had this fault ? And if so have you done any modifications to stop this happening again ? E.g cooling fan, Brushless motor conversion.

[@haemhorrhoidian]

Had my WM180 for 2+ years now,never had anything like this happen though,i like you have modified my lathe a lot also,indexing system,winding handle,brass handle upgrades,quick change toolpost,DRO's,the list goes on really,i'll be cracking on with a power feed soon too.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Glad to hear you haven’t had any problems like I have had. Luckily since this nothing else has gone wrong. If you need any ideas on the power feed I have done this and it is great. Link below if you have time to watch it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZXVo3yDeMutgKM

[@jonofalltradesmasterofnone832]

Joe, that is exactly what happened to mine when I stripped my motor down I had the same missing brush. So now I strip it down and clean it once in a while but as I said in my earlier post only engage the gearing for the lead screw when you need it to save power reduction. Ades workshop independent power feed is the way to go.

[@jonofalltradesmasterofnone832]

Joe, check out RotarySMP to see what these little lathes can really be turned into.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Hi Jon sounds like possibly a common thing then the motors just aren’t man enough. Yeah the independent power feed seems like a good idea definitely worth looking into.

[@blackknightcustom]

Great video. I shared it to my Facebook mini-lathe group.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Hi Black Knight Customs thank you so much for sharing. Hopefully this video will be helpful to more people

[@Festivejelly]

reckon its worth chucking a VFD on this lathe or is too small? Im looking to get the Warco WM250. I already have a 180 but I think its motor is underpowered.

[@originalcaruso]

I replaced the triacs in driver board with higher current components - was a few years ago - to mitigate against over-current situations. Also fitted a slimline cooling fan sourced from a PC hard drive and 3D printed casing

[@stepheneurosailor1623]

The new lathes WM 180 are brushless.

[@tattoos1988]

I don’t have the warco lathe but I want one I have the Chester conquest lathe which I have done all the mods to it to make it better my next project will be to install a new motor more power more torque not to take heavy cuts but to have a smoother cut as my motor gets hot and stutters and that’s with .2mm cuts great video mate Ade did the upgrade to add a bigger swarf catch with aluminium for the back

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Yeah a motor upgrade sounds like a good idea I would like to upgrade to a brushless motor but not sure how it will work yet as I’ll need a new driver circuit. For now I’m thinking of adding a cooling fan to keep the motor cool.

[@tattoos1988]

@@MachiningwithJoe have a look on KZbin some youtubers have done the fan upgrade and they have done it really well using a computer fan

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Cheers dude yeah I’ll have a look before I do it. I have some ideas already so will be helpful to see how others have done it.

[@michaelfloody9944]

Hi Joe. Great video. learned a lot about my wm 250 as they appear to be simarily built. My 250 just gave up and stopped working as it has done before, just change the 10 amp fuse which had gone before which is what I did.However replace the fuse and the blue light came back the front but registered 0 revs Looked at the back fuse whis is also 10 amd that was fine but changed it anyway. Still getting 0 revs and no sign of life ifrom the motorSo Changed the pcb for another one still no life in the motor . Blue light still coming on with 0 revs. any thoughts on this particular problem.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Hi Michael first of all thank you glad you enjoyed the video. So this sounds a lot like another duff motor. I would if I was you check you are registering some voltage at the motor. If your getting some voltage to the motor and it’s still not working chances are it’s dead. If you are feeling adventurous you could remove the motor and remove the brushed to see what condition they are in. Let me know how you get on.

[@richardwebster5081]

Hi Michael, I have a WM 180 which stopped working the other day with a sudden pop. Like you I have replaced the fuse which had blown, and it's now showing exactly the same symptoms as yours with the blue light on, 0 revs. Warco are telling me it's likely to be a PCB blown, just wondering what your fault turned out to be. Thanks for any advice you can give!

[@causewaykayak]

Really useful video. I am waiting for my WM180 to arrive. Great excitement re arranging shed. Its 3 years later so Warco now claim Brushless motor. Will it be better ? ? I want to ask a favour. My plan is to set machine on a steel channel section (which will sit on wooden bench). Warco cant tell me the bed dimensions so I can buy the steel ... Anyone with the 180 WM could you let me know the bed footprint. Inches or millimeters is all fine (bi lingual here). MANY THANKS DEFINITELY a SUB.

[@graveneyshipright]

Joe I have the bigger brother of you lathe and that had and sometimes still does have electrical issues. yous just stopped right mine stops then restarts, I was thinking of installing a foot treadle or a bloody big handle and inviting friends and family round to turn the handle or peddle .

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Haha yeah good idea make it a rule if you want to come in the workshop you have to hand crank the lathe for 30 minutes. 😂😂😂

[@brenwyattm0rij909]

Hi Joe, my Chester DB-8VS motor has just gone pop. Only 7 months old. Just out of interest, is the a make/model on the motor? Cheers.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Sorry to hear the Bren when I’m next in the workshop I’ll check on my spare. If it’s the same fault as mine the brushes burnt out. Cheap fix if so as on eBay they are about £10.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Sorry for the late reply so the Original motor has a Warco sticker on it with following details Motor:83ZYT005A Voltage 240v Power 600W Speed 5200u/min Current 2.5A Hope that helps.

[@brenwyattm0rij909]

@@MachiningwithJoe I was sent a new motor from Chester Machine Tools FOC. I fitted with the help from your video. I also cut a new vent in to the top of the motor house as recommended from the chap at Chester. I’ve also orders a temperature gauge for the motor, just to keep an eye on it after long periods of use. Cheers !

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Glad your all back up and running again. I think these mini lathe really suffer if you use your lead screw for power feeding it puts a lot of extra load on the motor. Maybe think about adding a separate power feed if you use it a lot. All the best

[@colinmartin2921]

I have just ordered a 180 and having now seen the various videos of burnt out motors, I wish that I had bought the equivalent from Amadeal, which has a brushless motor. The Amadeal plus extras is about the same price as the Warco........

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Hi Colin don’t let the motor issue put you off, if it does go Warco Customer services were very good and had a replacement sent out to me within a few days. And as I found out when I stripped this down a few weeks back this lathe comes with tappered roller bearings in the headstock as standard so that is a big advantage other most other lathes.

[@sharkworkshop1593]

I have a Chester 920 lathe which is similar in size.no motor failure but the build quality of these chinese lathes can sometimes be poor, with holes miss drilled and poor meshing of gears, no motor failure yet but chester and warco seem to do their best to provide good customer service

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Hi shark diy yes I have noticed some of the faults you listed. Being these Warco lathes are meant to be on the better end of the Chinese lathes wouldn’t like to think how poor quality the cheap budget Chinese lathes are.

[@kencroft7933]

You said the lathe has a brushless motor and in the next sentence you said maybe the brushes are worn out!! It is not a brushless motor. Brushless means no brushes!

[@robc8468]

I believe the issue is lack of cooling the internal motor cooling fan is not going to move enough air at lower motor RPM speeds at the very time often the higher loads of heavier cuts is being put on the motor I believe the solution is to mount a computer case fan muffin fan on the back of the motor to move as much cooling air as possible regardless of motor speed. I plan to wire the motor to run constantly whenever the lathe is plugged in to the main power and just unplug the lathe when not using it.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Hi Rob yeah your probably right and I’ve been meaning to do this mod for a while I have the cooling fan just haven’t got round to doing it. Touch wood 🤞🏻since my motor burnt out i haven’t had an issue since.

[@lindawilson813]

Had the same problem one of the brushes had broken up .Warco sent a new motor straight away must be a common fault

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Hi Linda yes I think your right common problem but I don’t know what your experience was but I found warco customer services very helpful

[@SodiumInteresting]

Hi Joe, yep this has just happened to me. very annoying

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Sorry to hear that Thomas. Contact Warco if you haven’t already that are very helpful. If you get stuck drop another comment and I’ll try to help.

[@SodiumInteresting]

@@MachiningwithJoe Warco got back to me, they said they won't have any motors in stock few several weeks but will send one out when they do. I'm hoping some new brushes will bring it back to life as I did temporarily have it running again for a few minutes after swapping orientation of the brushes. I didn't tell warco that as Im pretty sure there is more damage. there was sparks and smoke. did you find out about a brushless conversion? I did search some searching but haven't found anything

[@MachiningwithJoe]

No I haven’t looked into it yet. I do think it is a big job as you can’t just swap the motor you need a few more parts. I imagine if it’s like mine getting some new brushes may fix it. I bought some upgraded carbon brushes off eBay for like £10. Worth doing

[@SodiumInteresting]

@@MachiningwithJoe yes I did the same £10 each from ebay, they should be coming on Saturday. it's a bit worrying when you dont know for sure whether it'll run again without significant repairs. the control board could be fried for all I know 😅 stupidly I threw out the spare brushes that came with it so I have to wait a few days. I remember thinking do I need these little things? it's so stupid because I knew what they were

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Haha yeah these things happen and we all throws bits out then need them again. Hopefully the new brushes will fix it and you’ll be back up and running.

[@dr1verman]

Did not realise the motor was so small, (you might need to revise the depth of cut that I thought you should manage on Aluminium provided it is mounted securely) at any rate, it should be sufficient to take the slop out of bearings to stop chatter.

[@MachiningwithJoe]

Yeah the motors on these mini lathes are tiny. Since doing an additional power feed upgrade to allow a separate motor to drive the lead screw for power feed the motor is coping a lot better. Fingers crossed it doesn’t burn out again.

[@robertbutler8004]

It really tells you the quality of this brand of lathe when this guy unboxed and used this lathe on Jan 15 2021 and here we are Feb 12 2021 replacing the motor.I think this is a brand to avoid purchasing.