QCTP for Warco WM240 Lathe

[ticker]

I've recently purchased a Warco WM240 lathe.  Has anybody fitted a quick change tool posts to one of these machines?
Warco do one thats specific to this lathe which includes a knurling tool and drill chuck, I have these tools so don't wish to duplicate them.

[mechman48]

I have fitted one to my WM250V-F; it was one I had fitted to my previous machine, a Clarke C500 combo, Warco also said that they could provide one but would require to be machined out (at extra cost of course). Considering I already had the QCTP plus 10 holders I wasn't going to pay for another set so I set about modifying my machine to suit.

What I did was to machine the boss off the compound slide & scraped the casting flat to ensure the QCTP sat flat on top, I initially made a sleeve to fit the bore of the QCTP as it was made to fit a Myford stud but then decided to machine a new stud to fit the QCTP proper. This gave me the opportunity to see what sort of assembly methods the Chinese 'Technicians' used at the factory.. as found the original tool post stud hadn't even been faced off & had been press fitted into the compound slide, the anti rotation pin had been drilled by hand, at an angle, & a 'bit' of a roll pin 'bashed in'   . Having made the new stud I drilled a new anti rotation pin hole vertically on the joint line, tapped it 4mm & fitted a grub screw with a drop of thread locking compound. I finally drilled two other anti rotation / locating holes into the compound slide spotting through from the QCTP tool post. To date it has served me well, should I need to use the original tool post (not so far as I much prefer the QCTP)  all I would need to do is machine up a dummy boss to fit the original tool post.

As the 240 & 250 are not too dissimilar the compound slides are the same so you shouldn't have any difficulty modifying it to suit the QCTP you have /intend to buy. Drop me a pm if you need any further help.

[ticker]

I have fitted one to my WM250V-F; it was one I had fitted to my previous machine, a Clarke C500 combo, Warco also said that they could provide one but would require to be machined out (at extra cost of course). Considering I already had the QCTP plus 10 holders I wasn't going to pay for another set so I set about modifying my machine to suit.

What I did was to machine the boss off the compound slide & scraped the casting flat to ensure the QCTP sat flat on top, I initially made a sleeve to fit the bore of the QCTP as it was made to fit a Myford stud but then decided to machine a new stud to fit the QCTP proper. This gave me the opportunity to see what sort of assembly methods the Chinese 'Technicians' used at the factory.. as found the original tool post stud hadn't even been faced off & had been press fitted into the compound slide, the anti rotation pin had been drilled by hand, at an angle, & a 'bit' of a roll pin 'bashed in'   . Having made the new stud I drilled a new anti rotation pin hole vertically on the joint line, tapped it 4mm & fitted a grub screw with a drop of thread locking compound. I finally drilled two other anti rotation / locating holes into the compound slide spotting through from the QCTP tool post. To date it has served me well, should I need to use the original tool post (not so far as I much prefer the QCTP)  all I would need to do is machine up a dummy boss to fit the original tool post.

As the 240 & 250 are not too dissimilar the compound slides are the same so you shouldn't have any difficulty modifying it to suit the QCTP you have /intend to buy. Drop me a pm if you need any further help.

Thanks for that George.  After reading your post I decided it was time to take my slide apart and have a look at it.  I had thought the stud was held bolted from the underside and that's the reason for it having such a large boss. Your description matches mine right down to the hammer marks.

I've jumped from a Cowells ME lathe to this, having only had it for a month or so I'm not that confident in attempting your solution.  There's only 14mm of material to fit a new stud into and wouldn't be confident the result would be firm enough.

From the top of my slide to center height is 25mm and the hole in the existing tool post is 10mm, would you know if if a QCTP is soft enough to bore out to fit the stud?  thats assuming there's enough meat on it in the first place.

Stew

[mechman48]

Hi Stew
Apologies for late reply, have not kept an eye on thread 
No doubt you will have resolved your QCTP queries by now but never the less; I general find that most of QCTP are heat treated & therefore 'hardened' so drilling these is a no go, some are case hardened so it may be possible to drill through the case hardening with a TC drill & get through to the ordinary steel core of the block other readers may have better solutions  ? hence why I made a new tool post stud/bolt. hope this is of help (belatedly).

Cheers
George

[Jonny]

They are just hardened done 23 holders to at least 1 1/8" high just need decent cutters.
Toolpost same material and will have an over large hole already in with a  sleeve.
I wouldn't risk hss bits to bore it out.

14mm is more than adequate to use the supplied stud. 3/8" depth ok that would take tonnes of pressure.

250 series is a shade over 15mm thick T slot for the M16 stud to screw in to if that helps.

[lordedmond]

George

I have the same tool post fitted to a Myford can I ask the reason for the anti rotation pin in the block?

I also have the hole but it is plugged I would sooner have the holder slip than cause damage to the compound , after all it will only be correct when the top slide is perfectly parallel to the lathe axis . my top slide is rearly set up like that due to TS interference .

when screw cutting using the offset method the pin would be no help to square up the post.

If I have missed something that is staring me in the face please educate me

nice work on the handle repoupoused drilling machine leaver

Stuart

[Jonny]

Stuart its for indexing usually at 90 degrees.
Most of these pins are a pain to locate in to the tight hole.  My current Harrison had Dickson tool post with the plunger pin and the first thing to be junked in favour of a slide in T slot mounting arrangement from my earlier Harrison.
Many a time I would like the indexing but 90% of what I do toolpost rotated at and angle to suit the cutter/job and locked down. Top slide always left parallel to X I always screwcut the way production items are done - straight in.

I do like the ratchet type indexers where you can only rotate the toolpost anti clockwise to go round a rev

[lordedmond]

Jonny

I get that, but its only good when the top slide is set true, I can understand it on a production machine that requires the tool to be reset correctly /repeatable

but the only two tool that I have that need to be set true are the threading one and the part off one

I screw thread  by the of set method because I have the time and a light lathe but lets not open a discussion on that

Stuart

[johnthefish]

Ticker. Have a look at this blokes website. He's fitted one to a 250 and I'm following his advice and fitting one to mine  http://www.cign.org/wm250qctp2.html Hope it helps,John