Does longer lathe ways have any disadvantage

[hacklordsniper]

And here is my new smaller lathe in the factory. Due to the Chinese hollidays comming now, it will be finished and shipped in about 20 days.

I requested some special details, a VFD, smaller power motor and to keep all standard headstock gears (usually they insert only 2 gears with VFD, HIGH and LOW and that needs 5.5 kW motor)

I was amazed they even printed a new speed chart for headstock since this is the first time they build this type of headstock, motor and VFD combination. Weiss is one of the best manufacturers i ever worked with!

 

[Lathejack]

Hello Hacklordsniper.

I'm surprised you changed your mind and decided to go for the smaller machine, but I don't blame you, I think I would have done the same.

I have been considering buying one myself from one of the importers here in the UK, and couldn't decide whether to go for the 1000 or 1500. There is a company called BSA Machine Tools over here who import a 1250mm version, which is an even closer copy of the original Colchester design. So I may take a look at this but I suspect I will settle for the 1000 model, the same type as yours.

The 1500 version is a big machine and a bit daunting for the home workshop I think. The shorter one will be less of a worry to take on, and should be easier to sell on should you ever need to. It must have taken a bit of courage for you to contact the factory and tell them you had changed your mind so late in the build of it, but they seem to have taken it well.

I am impressed with the fact that you have this guy Alex Stone at the factory who is keeping you updated with how the machine is progressing, and who is ensuring the quality is to a good standard.

However, when the lathe arrives I still think it would be a good idea to lift the headstock cover to check all looks ok, and to at least drain and replace the oil in the headstock, gearbox and apron as soon as possible. To simply run it and use it straight out of the crate for a prolonged period of time without checking would be a mistake. I base this on past experience with many of the enclosed oil filled gearboxes on some of these lower priced Chinese machines, and some Taiwanese.

Thanks for the very interesting set of photos.

All the best.

 

[hacklordsniper]

Hello Lathejack,

even a 1000 mm center distance is more than i will ever need, even my last 700 mm was enough except machine was not enough rigid and i wanted a more simple way to cut threads than to spend 30 minuttes changing gears for every pitch and feed speed. Since my entry hall to my shop is only 2.4 m long, we would have serious problems to move in 2.6 m long lathe trough small, one man door. First order was more made with heart than with brains, and im so glad manufacturer was so kind to help me out. They dont sell many 1500 mm center distance lathes and for future buyer they will need to repaint it (since every reseller wants his own colors) and machine included many custom things (large electrical cabinet, VFD, DRO, QCTP...). So its a question how long they will have to stock this machine to sell it.


i will definately check all that details, i always do it like this, open all covers and clean it. I never run the machine out of the crate. Mr. Alex Stone job is to agree all details with buyers, order machine production and arrange payment and shipping. First time my smaller lathe had some defects (and its also manufactured at other sub contractor of theirs than this large machine) but i can say they were fair since they sent even heavy parts like gearbox with DHL. And even after warranty problem they replaced the milling machine spindle (it was a combination machine) without any questions asked.

But this time it should be ok, since every screw, nut, washer, gear... and paint is triple checked by this guy. I will have more pictures on 08.10.2014, i will keep you updated guys

 

[hacklordsniper]

The lathe is finished, also a bandsaw i ordered with it. Unfortunately lathe has some problem with constant cutting speed function so im awaiting from my contact to check it and do final quality control.

Im waiting pictures in a day or so, but i recieved the bandsaw pictures today (not so interesting)

 

[hacklordsniper]

Here is some news, some bad, some good.

Lathe is completly finished. Unfortunately on last quality control they determined the 2.2 kW singlephase motor is too weak for this lathe. It can spin the lathe only to 2500 RPM and work ok, at 3000 RPM it does not have enough power anymore. I was faced with decision to change the motor to 3 phase 5.5 kW or keep it as it is (without any additional payment)

However to get 3-phase power i would need to pay a 3-phase fee about 3000 $ + all installations, work, cables...

I recieved some photos of cuts, and you can see the first picture is a face cut, second shows a cut done in one pass, and third one shows a finishing cut. Considering the work im doing, and considering i dont have any need or interest for very heavy cuts and the price of 3 phase installation i accepted it.

So i accepted my max speed is 2500 RPM, maximal speed for heavy cuts is 1800 RPM. The lathe is cleaned and prepared for shipping and hopefully will sail in a day or two. I will send more pictures when they arrive.

I was impressed manufacturer and the test guy clearly notified me about problems they faced, they offered me to upgrade to 3 phase motor and VFD without any charge or fully refund my money if im unhappy with any of offered solutions. From all Chinese manufacturers i worked, Weiss is absolutely amzing and i somuch regret i did not buy a mill from them

 

[Lathejack]

Hello Hacklordsniper.

The lathe is looking good, I didn't realise it was equipped with Constant Surface Speed as well, very nice.

Your band saw looks quite good, it looks like the 7x12 capacity saw. I have the same type, I've had it for a few years now and they are quite good with only a few irritations, but nothing serious.

As is common the oil filled worm and wheel gearbox on mine contained dirty and contaminated thick pasty oil.

The blade guides are not quite in line with each other, so they can move the blade slightly out of square the further they are extended.

The back stop guide bar is also badly mounted on some versions, these are the ones with the hydraulic ram that is mounted diagonally. On these the bottom of the ram is fitted where the back stop guide bar was originally intended to be located, which is in a thickened area of the base casting. With the bottom of the ram fitted there they simply drill another small hole to one side through the thinner portion of the base casting and pass the now threaded end of the back stop guide bar through there with a nut at the back.

The end result is a rather sloppy and fragile back stop, so I have never used mine and plan to modify it one day. Originally the hydraulic ram was intended to be fitted vertically with the bottom of the ram mounted to a bracket bolted to the cabinet. This required the coolant tray to be shaped to fit around the ram, so to avoid this a bit of cost cutting has crept in on some of them. Some versions do still have the ram mounted vertically and with the back stop guide bar fitted into its intended position.

Only small faults and it is only a saw bought to take the hard work and drudgery out of workshop activities while I do something more interesting on the lathe or mill, but it was certainly worth the money and I wouldn't be without it.

 

[hacklordsniper]

thank you for all this new information. I have no experience in band saw-s but i definately know i need one. I somehow managed to get away with angle grinder until now, but im too tired of it. After cutting my material with angle grinder i need 1 hour of machining just to straighten or square the piece. Sometimes i even cut alluminium pieces from 50X50mm stock with a roughing end mill making a mess and wasting material.

I will remeber all of your comments and check them when it arrives. There are 2 models of this size, with and without worm gear. I just took the worm gear one since it was more expensive for 50 $, not knowing any advantages or disadvatages. I still did not recieve pictures of lathe, i asked but i got an answer they are improving paint, parts and so on for it to be perfect for me. Lets hope it will really be like so

 

[hacklordsniper]

The day has come, lathe completly finished, packed and shipped. Its sailing from Shanghai port on 24.10.2014 towards me. It can be seen they painted some details just now, as pallet and cables have traces of spray paint.

Can someone comment that leveling feet, i did not see such type until now?

Now the waiting...

 

[hacklordsniper]

More pictures

 

[hacklordsniper]

More pictures

 

[hacklordsniper]

Ok, the lathe is here. Time to move it inside (that will be fun) and then i will let you know how did it go

 

[Swifty]

After watching it being built, it will be interesting to see final pictures and your comments once it is set up.

Paul.

 

[hacklordsniper]

After watching it being built, it will be interesting to see final pictures and your comments once it is set up.

Paul.

Haha, that is funny. I usually have bad luck, but hoping this time it will be better. Still preparing move in logistics, i hope it will be in until tuesday.

 

[hacklordsniper]

Ok, its in. It was a 6 hour struggle. The garden trough which we had to pass is wet from rain that is pouring last 2 weeks or so. Altrough we placed heavy wodden construction soon the forklift fell in the soil up to its chasis. Then we got a tractor and spend 2 hours getting the forklift out. After it we called a friend with huge 4x4 bobcat machine that has hydraulic arm. After getting the machine in we managed to move it inside on manual forklift. While we were celebrating the machine is inside we heard a loud sound. The operator forgot to pull hand brake on bob cat and it slowly rolled away trough my garden, trough my fence, across the road to a 3 m deep water drain. Then we called the largest 4x4 tractor to pull him out. Luckily his back is just a cast iron weight and no damage was done.

The move in started at 17:00h and ended little before 1:00 in the night. The lathe looks spectacular at this moment, quality looks amazingly good. This lathe really made it up to my standards. All my remarks have been noted (using a machined spacers for mounting dro scales, not just bunch of washers, and so on).

Tomorrow i need to cut out the wodden flooring and put alluminium plate and put lathe on place to clean it. So far, quite happy!

 

[Swifty]

Glad you managed to get it in position, the machinery needed to shift things was getting bigger and bigger. The lathe certainly looks very nice, wish that I had a nice clean workshop like yours.

Paul.

 

[Lathejack]

It's home at last! Very nice and I'm very envious.

I see it has a guard to stop lubricant from being flung off the geartrain onto the drive belts, a neat touch.

Does it have an adjustable counter weight at the rear of the headstock spindle to balance it, as some versions do, or is that a spreed sensor I can just see on the end?

I recently enquired about the same type of lathe from Chester Machine Tools here in the UK. The current price is around £7800 with tax. That includes DRO, two chucks, steadies, face plate and coolant plus tools. They have some in stock but I don't no who in China assembles them, and they won't have the same attention to detail that yours has.

Anyway, more photos please when you get the chance, and let us know how it runs and cuts the metal, and how much noise it makes.

I want one!

 

[hacklordsniper]

Hello,

im still cleaning the machine and its tools, unfortunately the lathe has caused me great sickness. I was cutting out floor to install alluminium floor plate i had to open door and window for smoke to go out, and me geting really sweaty and -2 celsius draft trough the workshop got me the worst cold i had in last few years so im tied to bed currently.

Yes, there is a simple but clever protection from gears spitting the oil on gears, and yes there is balance weights on the spindle. I cant tell you how it cuts since i have still not came to this step. Until now i only run it about every gear combination for 30 minuttes to test gears, it is very, very silent.

At first i would like to glorify my contact in Weiss, mr. Alex Stone for taking care of this lathe. For three days im trying to find casting sand, cast iron swarf, loose bolts, broken bolt heads or anything wrong, but there is none! I even checked the gearboxes but they flushed them and put new oil before delivery so there is nothing bad inside. Furthermore they used such quantities of anticorosive agent even if lathe fell in sea it would not rust. There is really nothing to fix or modify, everything works "out of the box".

In process of shipping and moving in there were 2-3 small ( about 10x10 mm) paint damages which i repainted in minute or two (and that is simple since they use RAL colors i can buy them in any color shop).

However there is some small problems, but nothing about the lathe:

1. They forgot to ship me a 4 jaw invidually centering chuck. It did not fit in machine crate and they forgot to load it in ship separately. However they have apologised and will imeadately send me the chuck by DHL at their cost (ouch that will be expensive...)
2. They forgot to order and ship me a mounting plate for 6 jaw chuck, it will be shipped with DHL immeadately at their cost, and i will need only pay for plate (because they assumed the 6 jaw chuck does not need adapter plate)

The bandsaw is great, it did not work out of the box, but it seems one fuse during shipping broke to pieces and fell apart. I cant blame manufacturer for that, and it was a 1 $ repair. After replacing the fuse, work excellent.

Suprisingly, this is a first machine from China that did not need any spare parts or fixing!



Here is some pictures i make just now, if you want some specific ones, please say so. Cool thing is that dials and leadscrews are metric, but you can flip it over for imperial view (altrough not needed with DRO). I have also checked headstock with bore camera and they really use splined shafts, not keyway like some cheaper manufacturers. All together, they have not lied me any detail!

 

[hacklordsniper]

Little update, i have opened the headstock to check how it looks inside. There was absolutely not a grain of cast iron inside, casting sand or anything, its so clean like its washed in some part of production. I replaced all oils with high quality Shell Omala, ISO 100. All gears and splined shafts look like excellent quality, and everything looks so massive it will surely last a lifetime. I did not reuse old gasket as it did not look like something worth saving, instead i used Loctite quick gasket, it always worked for me.

The only thing i noticed the original oil was quite thin and seemed like not a high quality oil. But on the other hand even the manual says to break in the lathe and change oil, so why put in there some expensive oil that will be drained anyway or it could be some special oil for first filling.

The headstock is amazingly cleverly engineered, except the drain hole which is on the worst place. I will turn a M16X1.5 adapter to fit a 1/4 BSP ball valve there, so future drains will be easier. I took pictures and will post them. After placing the new oil, lathe is even more silent and now sounds like a swiss watch. I lost one plug screw somehow, and i made a new fine thread screw in less than 5 minuttes (including cutting it from stock on band saw), its such a joy to have this gearbox, any thread or feed takes just few seconds to set up.

 

[Swifty]

I use hydraulic oil in the headstock and apron of my lathe, it's rated at ISO 46 and it's fairly thin. You will find that a lot of people use this oil. Perhaps this is the type of oil that was originally in your lathe.

Paul.

 

[hacklordsniper]

Ok, so here is the picture of headstock gears.

Furthermore there is pictures of tailstock DRO i installed today. I used a display i found on ebay and igaging scale. You will notice i modified the scale to be screwed to tailstock from inside, and cut M3 threads in scale head, drilled the casing trough so i can assemble scale from outside (before the screws holding the case were screwed from bottom). Its nicer and simpler then using brackets.

And thankfully to 3D printer and ABS i had a quill adapter ready in 1 hour.