New PM-1340GT Arrived

ptrotter

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My PM-1340GT arrived today. Now the fun begins! I ordered the lathe quite awhile ago and originally ordered the cast iron stand. Unfortunately Matt is having trouble with the vendor for these stands and has been unable to get them completed. He offered to send me the sheet metal stand and then replace it when the cast iron stand is available but I felt that once I got it put together, I would not want to do it again. I decided to go with the sheet metal stand as I didn't want to wait any longer and it saves me some money to put toward a DRO.

I requested lift gate delivery but ran into a little issue when UPS arrived. The lathe was loaded lengthwise in the truck and there was another shipment next to it so that the UPS driver could not get his pallet jack under the pallet. Fortunately I was able to borrow my neighbors Bobcat and we wrapped a strap around the pallet and I was able to pull it out of the truck far enough to get the pallet jack under it and maneuver it onto the lift gate. After that, everything went fine. It is now sitting in my shop waiting for me to make space for it and get the stands set up.

I have a rotary phase converter I will initially run it on, but plan to build out a VFD when I get time. I have spent the last few months reading everything on this site related to the 1340GT and have a long list of projects to work on to customize the lathe.

I think I will add a DRO PRO magnetic DRO and my first project will be a spider.

I expect that I will have a lot of questions as I am fairly new to machining, having done a little on a Sherline, but nothing this size and hopefully I will be able to learn a lot here.

Paul
 
Congratulations on a very nice machine. You will find loads of help here, all you have to do is ask.
 
Sorry to hear about the difficulties Matt is having with his cast iron stands. I really think those could could be a very nice upgrade. If he ever gets them. But I also hear the new 1340 stands are better/more stable than the older stands like I have. Can't afford to buy a new stand for my lathe, so maybe I will have to contract one of the local AZ guys to build me some new 'feet' for my 1340. :)

This is quite a step up from a Sherline! You give new meaning to the word 'upgrade'.

There are a bunch of folks here, myself included, that own the 1340. So between us and Matt we should be able to help with any model specific questions you may have. I have a DroPro w/magnetic scales on my 1340 and love it. zero issues with it. There are cheaper solutions available, but the quality of these have served me well so far (I've bought three DROs from them).

The spindle spider is still on my ToDo list, so I will be interested in seeing your ideas.

Also, congrats on your choice of lathes and welcome to the group! :D
 
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Agree with Bill about the CI stands, too bad. But I believe the latest fabricated metal stands are very robust. BTW, I think they are now beyond what you would call sheet metal. I predict you are going to find it quite acceptable.
 
Yeah the castings on the stands are done, we had one batch of them finish up already but they were sold quite a while ago. (Seems like maybe a year already) Im waiting on a local shop to do the machining, I tried one down the street here a while back, then after some time, and nothing, I went and got them. Now they are at another shop, I guess he is really busy, have been there a few months now, hasn't finished. He was also waiting on a DRO for the machine to make it quicker, that took a while to come in and get installed, so that should be done now. They are coming, and its a simple operation, but our own machine just isn't big enough to do them. They are so close, I could finish them up in a day if I had the machine here, but its hard to just go in to someone elses shop and use someone elses machine. I hate waiting on something that if I had the machine I could just go out and do it, but I don't. Its a pretty simple operation, facing the top and bottom, then drilling and tapping some holes. And then painting.
We are moving over the next few months here, that will allow enough room to get what I need to do them in house. (Not moving far, don't worry, only about 10 minutes from where we are now)
I can't wait, I need to get someone in the office to do some of this office stuff, I hate sitting in front of a computer most days, I'd rather be making chips!

Anyway, Glad the machine arrived, hope you will have it up and running soon!

Matt
 
LOL...Spent 35+ years "sitting in front of a computer", designing/writing code and later doing management stuff.

At least it did a good job of paying the bills, and buying my toys. :D

Hey Matt, too bad you don't have a bolted down, machined flat plate next to one of your mills. You could swing the swing the head over and use the quill for small Z-axis adjustments. Just another hair-brained idea... :rolleyes:
 
Haha yes, I actually did one set on one of the 1054TV Mills that we have in the shop, got very creative with turning the mill head 90 degrees, and them turning the turret 90 degrees, so the spindle was set up just like a horizontal mill. But it probably took us 8 hours from start to finish with mounting them, machining, turning them around and squaring them up again, and working with my head at a 90 degree angle too. Just not easy at all. Wish I had a picture of the setup!

On the boring mill, just clamp them down as a pair, do one side, rotate 180 degrees and do the other side. So much faster, so much easier.
 
The steel stands look pretty good, they now have 4 leveling feet holes on the headstock end, unlike the older ones I have seen in pictures with only 2. They also have a nice 3/4" holes in addition to the 1/2-12 threaded holes so I can put in heavy feet. I have most of the lathe cleaned up now and hope to have the stand together tomorrow and will decide how best to lift the lathe onto the stand. I think I have room to get my Bobcat into the spot I want to put it so I should not have any trouble lifting it with a sling on the forks.

With respect to cleaning the lathe, I m using WD-40 as many have and it works pretty good, but I wonder how much should I take it apart to ensure that I get all the cosmoline, or whatever they cover it with, out of everything? Should I remove the compound and cross slide to make sure there is nothing left underneath? Also it looks like the change gears are covered as well, should I remove them to clean them? And how have people cleaned leadscrew threads?

My unit has an interlock switch on the inside of the gear cover that I assume prevents it from running without the cover on. I don't recall seeing this in any of the pictures I have seen online. Is this something new or did I just miss it when I looked at pictures?

Thanks again for all the comments.

Paul
 
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