Hi all

Currently looking at a Marlow 3a and a warco VMC(the warco has a DRO fitted).

I'm after some general thoughts, over what are the pro's and con's of each? The marlow is a model 3 phase but its not such an issue to convert and I do like the idea of variable speed if I used an inverter.

Whats a sensible price to pay for each if they have the same about of bits, clamping kit/vice/etc, any other advise appreciated.

Regards

My Warco Lathe/mill combo is pants!

Very shoddily put together and some design flaws.

Their spares part service has also been poor.

Still waiting for a cross slide nut for the last 9 months - needless to say, I have now modified my machine to use another leadscrew and nut

Hopefully the run capacitor, which blew up two days ago, will be delivered a bit sooner.......


[Edited on 25/1/13 by minitici]

A friend has a Sieg Super X3 (I think), which he's bodged a DRO onto by using the guts of some digital verniers. The DRO functionality is very very useful, you really should try to get one that has it. It doesn't appear to have any fast-winding handles so moving things a long way takes a while - don't know if that's par for the course though. There's also a lot of backlash in the horizontal winding handles which is annoying but not the end of the world.

I think i'm going to go for the marlow, although at 700kgs it'll be a little heavy to move around.

Its a rising bed so shouldn't be too much lash, 3phase but only 1hp so £100 for an inverter to have variable speed.

Good point about the DRO Dave, this has one powered feed, you can get some pretty cool DRO kits now too.

With machine tools - as opposed to cars - weight is good! Milling involves interupted cutting and vibration is a problem. But the biggest you can fit/afford. For moving around most mills will break down into chunks.

I would go for the Marlow unless it is a complete wreck. Check the slides by seeing whether the resistance is fairly even with the gibs moderately tight. The odd hole in the table will not kill you and makes you feel less bad when/if you sink a drill through yourself (guess how I know that!).

Convertors are a doddle and great to use but make sure that the motor is dual voltage otherwise the convertors are much more expensive.