Grizzly Mill Or Pm

My $.02 is by from Matt at Precision Mathews. His customer service is the best I have ever received, period. To give you reference I am a project manager in construction and have purchased hundreds of millions of dollars worth of materials and have never received the service Imhave received from Matt. I shop for everything, but will never shop for another metal working machine, I will just call Matt. If he does not have what you need he will either get it or tell you where you should by. Just my $.02 your mileage may vary...
 
I have owned the G0755 for just over 3 years. It has performed flawlessly. It is tight and accurate still. That said, I think Matt has some great products and stellar service. I would stay between these two brands for the 45 class machine.
Happy shopping,
Dave
P.S. don't forget budget for tooling.
 
almost retired said:
There is another model I found today that looks better for the future. Charter Oak 12Z which used to be IH as I understand.
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Missed the part about the 12Z in my initial read of your post, sorry. I had a 12Z. Called it 'El Hefe'. (see the thread in the CO sub-forum) I had a PM25 and wanted something bigger. The 932 didn't have enough Y axis travel, and Matt was not yet selling the 940 or I would have without a doubt bought that instead.

I put a 3-axis DRO on the 12z, and converted it to belt drive (gears rob too much power, and are too slow). Then I installed their one-shot oiling system, which requires you to machine the saddle and gibbs. Then I started REALLY getting serious in truing up/scraping/lapping the ways, gibbs, and table. Then I put ball-screws on the X and Y axis. Took a year to get the machine where I wanted it. And it is a heck of a little bed mill I must say. After all the mods I did. A good friend bought it, even after having a horrible customer service experience and quality issues with his CO mill (it ended up going back). And he still loves it. But the work involved in getting that machine to that level of performance/capability is not something I would suggest someone new to machines even attempt.

Truth is, I'd probably still have that mill if Matt at PM hadn't made me a Deal of the Century on a PM935S. I won't go into any specifics, but I wouldn't even attempt to put the stock CO 12z machine on the same level as the PM 932 or 940. And it isn't even close on the customer service. I have bought 3 machines from Matt, and if I ever need another he is the only one I will be calling.
 
A secondary thx to all here...I was unfamiliar with PM mills and it seems you guys like them much...the prices are definitely right when considering new vs the used mills (even though knee) I'm looking at ....(Geez, I don't feel so dumb now but I feel like a ripoff selling my Jet for $2000! (Oh well, he did get all the collets, a vice and angle vice that I put a lot of work into (grinding and I added a set of brass jaws to both) and the other accessories and a lot of both steel and carbide tooling.
 
Broad requirements, a 1 1/2 to two hp spindle is easily stalled, think bigger. You also desire a large Z Axis without a knee, this is difficult to find at best.
Good Luck
 
I have a Grizzly G0602 lathe. I have had it for a year and had to machine every surface in some spots 0.01 to get the warps out. There is a reason Grizzly has one of the nations largest part warehouses, because they make more off parts then the equipment they sold in the first place. This is actually my second Grizzly lathe it was a replacement for the first defective one I received. I also have a Grizzly scroll saw, had to replace the motor after 2 hours use. My advice, unless you want to become a millwright don't buy Grizzly. Also keep in mind these mills have a head stock that hangs on the dove tails. This means when you tighten the Z axis gibs it changes the cutter angle ever so slightly. I managed to fix that issue by scraping my ways and using a counter balance system. They are also on a rack and pinion which can make fine feeding and plunge cutting kind of ugly, cause there is a slop in the column and gear train you really can't do much about. As with a knee mill all the weight is in the table and the cutter is held solid. If I was going to do it again I would give some serious thought to this KBC VM-12 R8. http://www.kbctools.com/products/MACHINERY/MILLING MACHINES/MANUAL MILLING MACHINES/2430.aspx
Changing belts would be the least of my worries, a VFD or DC convert is easy to do. And I am partial to DC as you can get free treadmills all day long with 2-3 HP motors.
 
Great ideas. Lets just pretend I don't know how to operate a mill even though I work close to one of the largest machine shops in the US. I am kind of leaning now toward the PM-932 or 940 with the DRO. I have some time coming off for the holidays, so I can call. Sounds like the company is straight up, so I could ask a few things. It did cross my mind about getting one of the other mills, so I had more money for tooling.
 
Food for thought: The 940 has 22 inches max distance spindle to table! Hell, my 935 knee mill doesn't have that much. Heck, most 1ox54 knee mills only have 17". If you need room under the spindle, this is the mill to get. Just my $0.02 of course. :D
 
I only have the Sieg Super X2 from LMS, it is a pretty good little machine. I have modified the hell out of it and increased it capabilities quite a bit. They have a bigger 5500 model that I probably would have got if it was available at the time. Not bad specs for what it is.
 
I would like to add a number +1 for PM if for no other reason than the customer service.

I have a 1030V lathe from them and I was having an issue with my gears on a Sunday around 5:30 PM and Matt was helping to troubleshoot. Then sent me a bunch of spare parts free of charge to get things moving faster. It inspires a lot of confidence knowing that anytime something goes wrong, they will make it right with as little hassle to you as possible.
 
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