very nice bit of kit that. i was going to get one of them was ex school shop use but lack of funds put a stop to that purchase. then a few months later i got a chester 626 mill yet again ex school was in the school for 2 years very little use and still had the packing grease on it in places and it was only use to machine plastics. enjoy the super major it is a good machine and sure you will be turning loads of stock into chips.
Alan You might want to attach a rare-earth magnet on the oil drainport plug to help catch any metal flakes/etc and keep the oil cleaner. Check the clearance between the top of the oil drain plug and any moving bits and pieces, and choose a rare-earth magnet that will clear all the moving bits and pieces Looks like a good mill, I know you will get lots of use out of this. One add-on down the road might be to put a VFD between the wall power and the plug - giving you wide variable speeds AND the ability to boost the motor speed occasionally for those jobs that absolutely need more than the top end speed of that machine - I like the Hitachi VFD, but there are a wide vvariety of VFDs out there John
Very nice Allen Santa was running a little behind but you will have to forgive him he has been around for as long as I can remember. But as long as he comes through like that I would take a little late any day. Can't wait to see the projects coming next. Very happy for you.
Hey Allen believe it or not I’ve just bought a super major also together with a gh1236 lathe trying to set project up atm the top head of the mill quite a conundrum I used Chinese 1ton engine crane with 8ton ram I’m completely new to this sort of work/hobby I learnt so much just watching this excellent video 💯👍🏻🇬🇧
Hi Alan: You bought a piece of machinery with features built into it, and an apparent level of quality such as I had not seen offered, in the market for home shop owners. Simply superb. My recomedation to you, is that you buy an R8/ER40 Chuck, to facilitate tooling changes by using straight 1" shank arbors for your drill chuck and all other tooling. With a set of ER40 collets, an ER40 chuck/collet combination has such gripping power, that dedicated end mill holders in different sizes are not necessary. Not to mention fooling around witj the draw bar for every tooling change. You can do this transition gradually as finances allow. Unfortunately, Banggood ER chucks and collets are useles because of their many issues (concentricity, finish, etc.) Try CTC Tools for good quality at affordable prices, and reasonable shipping charges. Cheers Jorge
Congratulations on your choice of Mill, I am slightly bias as I treated myself to this mill with 3 axis DRO fitted, it came as an early xmas present, I know you will do great things with it, I came across your channel a few weeks ago so I am still catching up on your work. I lifted mine with a 2T engine hoist, it lifted it lovely, all the best for the new year.Bob
Very nice looking machine hope to see more as you use and progress also be nice to hear your thoughts on this mill as time goes by. Thanks for sharing best regards Shaun
Hi Alan, I have a Warco 290v lathe very happy with it, worth having a very close look round it in detail, on mine some wires needed securing with ties some were to close to the work spindle inside the head casing, very good interesting video as always.
Bought one of these in June 2015. Generally pleased with it and have done some quite large work successfully. I note that you drained the gearbox oil - a very wise move. I didn't and within six months the oil seals were leaking and the bottom bearings were shot due to grit in the oil. I stripped and rebuilt the gearbox with good quality bearings and new seals and it was a completely different machine - much quieter and smoother. If you see any discolouration in the sight glass at all, recommend you drain the oil and flush the gearbox well. Since the rebuild the oil has stayed absolutely clean. The only other major problem I had was the Y-axis gib strip. It was oversize and "fitted where it touched" as my father would have said, It could not be adjusted properly so I had to laboriously lap it to reduce the thickness and then scrape it to restore the lubrication. Was rewarded with much smoother operation of the handwheel and no binding. Highly recommend fitting DROs - makes life so much easier. I see they are now fitting a cheapy to the quill - I did this as a retrofit. Enjoy it - I certainly have had lots of fun with mine and have clocked up over 400 hours on it.
Hi we are two California desert dwellers new to your channel. We like your channel because you are into smaller machines the lathe and the mil are more our size around the shop. I worry about that rear cabinet door being up against the brick wall unable to open in rush. I see something we use a lot as a pair vintage machine machinists at about 7:11 into the video we see what we believe to be daily oilers those are common on our machinery. The mill looks really nice.
Hi the electric cabinet is powered from a wall socket next to it. It houses a transformer some relays and circuit breakers if I have a problem I can turn it off at the socket
@@enotsengineering Ok thank you in a video it just looked odd to see that little door blocked but now I clearly understand. The mill looks really nice this mill you have and those z axis features for controlling the depth of cut looks to be really nice.
@@enotsengineering I've had mine for about a month now. Very pleased with it. I removed the 6 M6 bolts behind the wiring panel twisted it around and hung it on the wall to give me an extra bit of space in front. Taking it off revealed access to the head lead screw which I was not expecting so I had to fabricate a matching cover. Now trying to figure out why the x-axis is a bit stiff. It was stiff before I shifted the electrics. I don't think the two are related :). I did manage to break the spindle capacitor housing while moving it into place. First thing I machined was a polythene plate to hold it all together - works great but if you ever have to go inside that box, be very careful to discharge those capacitors. I thought I had fully discharged them by shorting each one with a piece of heavy copper cable. I had not and paid the price.
Hi Folks. Another way of lifting is an engine crane. I bought a two ton lift rated one off-bay for a little over£100 and it has proved very useful - even use it to repot large plants! Wear steel capped shoes/boots. Keep arms and legs out of the gravity shadow and use rated slings for lifting (eg Machine Mart). Have mill head up high, slings around head and lock head to column. Ideally have someone with you, not in involved in lifting but with a mobile phone. BobUK
very nice machine, always nice to have a new one from warco, service from them is 2nd to none, good luck with the machine and happy new year 2019 regards...Keith in Swindon
Hi Alan. Lovely mill. You said the stand was an optional extra but i am sure it's supposed to come as standard with the Super Major. What's your opinion on the overall finish of the machine?. Like you i have been looking for 18 months now and I am weighing up the Super Major and the Chester Super Lux. I look forward to seeing it in action. All the best. Jim.
Hi Jim if I remember correctly they are the same machine but the super major has the power feed on the spindle. The stand did come as part of the kit I notice that Chester have DRO as standard and there are differences in the number of tee slots on the table. The latest Warco have a change to the table travel and prices have just increased.
As far as I knew all guards have safety interlocks. WARCO gearbox. Does that mean plastic gears? That would worry me a lot. Prices have really come down over the years. A WARCO Super Major milling machine costs about the same as an introductory professional 4 channel oscilloscope with a few options enabled. The top of the range WARCO costs about the same as a mid range R&S oscilloscope with again a few options enabled. I just find that shocking. It is still nice having new toys though.
Thank you a lot for this video, it tells a lot about the nitty gritties when installing a industrial greade machine in a home work shop. After a good year of usage, what is your conclusion to this Warco mill? What can be expected in terms of precision, handling and reliability?
Hi Lorenz As this is my first mill I can compare it to others.The mill works fine the problems I've had have been with the power feed and the DRO which are add ons to the original machine. Both are now working ok
@@enotsengineering Thank you for your summary. I'm in the process of (slowly) building up my own tool shop and I'm struggeling to make up my mind about what kind of milling machine I should accuire. These Rong Fu based chinese Mill-Drill machines, like your Warco, offer some pretty appealing benefits, like large travels, good drilling performance (I suspect at the cost of some milling performance), small footprint and an overall weight that can be handeled without specialized equippement. On the other hand, used mills of some western brand (Bridgeport, Deckel, Aciera...) offer rigidity, precision and better milling performance (at the cost of drilling performance). But these machines usually do cost more despite being some 30-40 years old and they are very heavy. Furthermore, in order to move them to the intended location, I would have to take them partially appart.
Hi Allan. I enjoy your videos, thanks for taking the time to make them. I'm looking at buying this exact machine and wonder what your opinion of it is now that you have owned and used it for a while. Thanks Jonathan
Just watched your new install ..of the super major..looks good but how aweful is that ruler attached to the table ..looks like an old piece they threw on ..agh...
I'm beginning to realise that brand new is the way forward. Second hand machines go for silly money, even at 10-15 years old. On top of that you've got transportation to arrange and pay for. Might as well enjoy the "newness" and the warranty period and free delivery. Then in years to come, sell it for what you paid for it. There, think i've talked myself into it. lol.
Hello friend, I have seen that your brother has bought a mill a little smaller, which of the two would you recommend, talk a little about both, and give me your opinion, I will also work with steel, not only aluminum, how is it? its precise and noisy mill? Thank you very much, your opinion will be of great value to me. Greetings from Spain.
Hi They are both different machines the bigger one has a gear box on the head the smaller machine speed is controlled by a digital motor so you have more speeds to choose from. One will hold a 50mm diameter cutter the other only 16mm I would suggest that you look at the on line catalogs for WARCO and Chester as they have a vast variety of machine sizes
Thanks I understand. What I want to tell you, if you had to buy a machine today, would you buy the same SUPER MAJOR or a similar HBM45 gearbox? Is it noisy at high speeds? Is 1600rpm enough? my works will be similar to yours. Your opinion and experience with the machine is of great help to me, thank you very much. It is difficult to make a decision, I would not want to be wrong.
Hi I would buy the same machine. Its a. heavy duty machine compared to my brothers and has the advantage of power feed in the z axis by setting the depth stop you can engage the feed and when it gets to the depth will return to the upper starting position. As for noise it makes more noise than an electric speed controlers but it has steel gears and is oil filled so it should last a lot longer. Ive had no problems with the speed range
Hi Alan, I have a Warco ZX7045 which is effectively the same machine(hey what is in a name). As someone else pointed out below these are really RF45 clones that have been around for some time so there is a lot of info around on getting the best out of them. In particular Stephan Gotteswinter has done some great RU-vid videos on tweaking and mods to his RF clone. I am sure you will enjoy your new acquisition.
