New PM-1228VF-LB

[StormForge]

Hi All! I'm a new forum member and just took delivery of a new PM-1228VF-LB. Everything looks very nice so far. It was well-packed, the build quality looks great, and it fired up first time with no problems. I'm a little puzzled with the main carriage feed which has a dial marked in 16-thousandths of an inch per line with 95 lines per revolution. I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with that -- I guess I need to buy a DRO ?

First question for anyone who has assembled one of these: What are these two black metal channels that came with the stand? I don't see them in any of the diagrams and they don't seem to have an obvious purpose?

Thanks!
-Bill

 

[Bob Korves]

I guess I need to buy a DRO ?

Use a magnetic back dial indicator mounted parallel with the front bed ways, indicating carriage travel. Cheaper than a DRO... The issue is likely a metric bed rack. Using carriage hand wheels is not a very accurate or easy thing anyway, in my experience, though my lathe is Chinese as well...

 

[StormForge]

Thanks Bob - that's a good option. My old benchtop lathe was inferior in every way except it had a 0.001" dial which moved the carriage 0.1" per revolution -- very handy and pretty easy to get (fairly) accurate results. The hand-wheel on the 1228 moves the carriage 1.5" per revolution which worries me a bit since it seems like it may be hard to physically move the wheel in 0.001" increments. Maybe I'm worried about nothing though -- I'll do some cuts this afternoon and find out!

 

[Bob Korves]

My old benchtop lathe was inferior in every way except it had a 0.001" dial which moved the carriage 0.1" per revolution

.1"/revolution, that would be sloooooow for re-positioning the carriage...

 

[fradish]

The metal channels are just for shipping.

 

[StormForge]

Thanks Frank! Although my metal channels came wrapped in bubble wrap?!?
B0b -- yeah, it could take a while to run the carriage to the other end -- but it was a small machine...

 

[StormForge]

So, how do folks deal with carriage handwheels that move a lot for each turn? Do you just develop a knack for turning the handwheel in very small increments, or do you use the compound for lots of your X travel on small/fine parts?

 

[fradish]

That's odd! My lathe was bolted to the bottom of the box through those. I forget exactly
how it was done, but my chip pan was a little bent (really minor) and I remember that the
lathe was bolted through the chip pan and into those channels. I kept them thinking I'll use
them for something some day.

 

[fradish]

You may be interested in this post...

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/pm1228-compound-t-nuts.62477/

 

[Aukai]

Humph, at least you got yours. I heard the container was in, but no communication if it passed QA, and if it was going to ship yet. Happy for you