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Warner and Swasey lathes?

440roadrunner

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jun 4, 2006
Location
N Idaho
What can you guys tell me about these?

The price?

Can they be used "conventionally" IE without the turret?

Parts availability?
 
warner and swasey

They are cheap, robust, last forever and can be used conventionally. Make sure you know what you are getting though. Many of them were ordered with the collet closer only and so don't expect to automatically get a chuck with it. For a #3 you can probably find them for around $1000. I have a #6 Bardons & Oliver I may be willing to get rid of. 20 hp machine. It's out in a storage building right now but the last time I ran it ran fine. If you're interested let me know and I will go start it up. It has a three jaw chuck (about 18") and I think I have a four jaw for it. It shifts good and the feed on the carriage and cross slide were fine. I remember having to tighten the clutch nut on the hex turret feed to push big drills and then I would back it off for smaller tools because I could feel the teeth of the clutch faintly making contact. Anyhow, Bardons & Oliver is still in business and W&S is not.

Regards,

Joe
 
W+S eventually became part of giddings and lewis.

They will sell you parts I believe though it does not matter. As with all the old makers the parts are priced such that you can buy another used machine cheaper.
 
Strong simple machine to work on and, reasonably priced to boot. I gave 300 for a #4 and have another 500 or so into having the moror rewound and tooling specific for it. (spent more on boring bars, indexable tool holders and what not but I can use them on other machines so I dont really consider them to be a cost specific to the W&S)

I use my #4 for almost everything, I keep a boring bar in one slide tool and another bar in the oposite set for cutting OD's then a couple drill chucks and a center in the other faces. In the square turret I keep 4 tool holders so I can switch between facing, left and right turning and chamfering with the partoff tool in the rear tool post. For me I'd rather keep a general st up that I can taylot to each part than stop after every operation to change tooling for the next operation.

I'm just a hobbyist, I make parts for my old tractors and repair worn out parts that I can't reasonably make. I don't know how I got along without the turret lathe, it sure has made my life alot easier. The only problem is 1 warner swassey tends to get a little lonley in a shop with a couple of south bends, so I may have to find a 1A or a well tooled #5 to keep it company in the future.
 
work horse

I have a #5 from around 1950. It is old but very strong. Will take a larger DOC than I have the balls to take. Picked it up for $900 fully tooled with a couple boxes of big ass inserts and a power chuck. Made the cost of the lathe back on the first couple of parts on the first job I ran on it. No leed screw so no threading but a die head works very good. Have had no regrets about buying it even though its a dinosaur. Highly repeatable.
 
W&S turrets won WWII

there solid if you get a good one (ain't they all)

you can thread with die heads (i got a couple)

nothin nicer than setting up the feed kick out when your boring or turning off a couple inches of material

my #3 you can only get about 18" or so between centers

there mostly american standard A *-* mounts so if it has a collet system you can easly find a chuck to swap in
 
You guys just keep talking about them little ones!

Put an "A" after the number and now we're talking LATHE.
Price - depends on size, shape, and tooling. Scrap metal to $100K and everthing in between.
Parts - If you've got money, MAG group. If not, Gahr machine.

2 years ago, I bought a 5L Gisholt for parts. Took the 36" 4-jaw, the treading box, and the compound (yep, on a turret) and scrapped the rest.
JR
 
watched eric bruce (you might know that name jr)
stand at the wheel of some awsome cuts on a bomber class 2a we had
back in the other century

guy was made of stone when it came to throwin chips

watched him spin a 1 foot cube into a quad punkin
cool shit
 
4A Warner's

Wipin boy, youre something else!!:D

I remenber Dad gripin about the 4A's, having to tear into the aprons on both the cross slides and cross sliding turret. What a night mare! Anytime we went to Drilco, they always had one or two aprons tore down repairing them. But what MEAN cutting machines they were!:D I don't know of a CNC out there that will compare, or compete to a 4A or 5A today!!!!:smoking:

By the way, I wound up scrapping out that No. 5 given to me. Too much cost to get running when I can buy one running for a cheaper price.

Ken S.
 
Well, guys, the "party's over." I called, left a message. This morning, the $600.00 each price (he has three) turned into a "misprint" and now they're $2000.00.

My brother in law is a machinist, and told me these are big three phase machines.
 
Well, guys, the "party's over." I called, left a message. This morning, the $600.00 each price (he has three) turned into a "misprint" and now they're $2000.00.

My brother in law is a machinist, and told me these are big three phase machines.

Well keep looking, you'll find one in that 600 range eventully, I'f I had to venture a guess 2000 would be for a very well tooled round head or a newer square head machine, while tooling is everythin with these machines 2000 would still be a little steep for my budget at this point.

As for being three phase I run my #4 on a static converter on our single phase power, works like a champ. The size is also an advantage if you have room for it, they're just plain ridged, I've done interupted cuts on mine that I wouldnt dream of trying on any of my other machines. Not to mention taking a .100 off the daiameter in a single pass in mild steel dosn't even make her work. .030 is a heavy cut on my smaller machine, on the W&S thats what I leave for the finishing pass.
 
On the smaller W&S turrets, the cost has a lot to do with it's a bar machine or a chucker. Chuckers are cheaper! You can turn a bar machine into a chucker real easy, but it's very expensive to do the reverse. I've seen places get rid of old bar machines and keep the master collet and all the pads.
JR
 








 
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