New PM-1340GT Arrived

I cleaned the grease off of all visible and moving parts, any left elsewhere should do no harm.
My 1340 is the older model, no interlock on the gear cover. Must be a new addition.
Enjoy your lathe, it's a great machine.
 
Paul, the most effective way that I have found to remove cosmoline is with mineral spirits and a paint brush. That will cut it quickly and will get it out of the threads of lead screws, etc. Finish cleaning it with WD-40 (full of surfactants/detergents) and then oil it up with way oil.

I did remove the compound to clean it up and clean under it.

Ref. feet for the stand, I advocate using the 1/2" threaded holes since they are outboard. This gives you the most stability and you can get some TECO style leveling feet for it. Search the forum and you will find loads of info on that topic. I believe the larger holes in the stand are for anchoring the machine to concrete if so desired. You likely know that the 1/2-12 holes are Whitworth and you should chase them with a 1/2"-13 tap. I highly recommend you do that while assembling the stand. There is a thread here on that topic.

You likely know this already but just in case, here's a tip - when searching this forum use Google since the forum's search engine is almost worthless. Here is an example for searching the forum on the topic of feet for a PM1340. In a Google search box use "teco feet pm1340 lathe site:www.hobby-machinist.com". Do not include the quotes.

Regarding the interlock on the cover, must be something new. My machine was delivered late last year and does not include that. I am not sure that I would have left it in a control scheme anyway. There are times I want to observe the gears, belt, hall effect sensor, etc. while it is running.

Enjoy that new machine.
 
Alan,

I hear what you say about the 1/2" holes being father outboard but I don't think 2" over 4 1/2 ft. will make much difference. In any case, I got a good deal on some leveling mounts with 3/4" studs so that drove the decision to use those holes. I can always change it if I have to.

The interlock is annoying. If I don't bypass it, I will need to enlarge the spindle hole to use a spider and I am not sure yet how I will do that. Safety is a good thing but sometimes it gets in the way.

Paul
 
Many 1340GT owners have built an outboard spider which can be used with the belt cover on. I recommend using 2.5" steel rod or you can also get steel tubing with 0.5" wall thickness, the latter is much quicker to make. I use two sets of staggered holes for the spider bolts, one closer in is for allen screws the other for cap screws. I also milled some flats around each bolt hole, I use locking knurled nuts to prevent the bolts from backing out. I prefer to use fine thread screws for the spider bolts. In most cases you will probably need to slightly enlarge the belt cover spindle hole, usually this is because it does not line up on center with the spindle. I clamped my cover to my mill as shown below, and took a few shallow cuts. I have given some dimensions for a spider below, this needs to be measured up on your machine and built to your preferences. I used cone head allen screws to hold the spider to the spindle, I made some very shallow holes so they lock onto the spindle, but this is probably not necessary.

I made my own brass tip spider bolts using 0.250 brass rod, turned down the one end to ~0.200" and center drilled the spider bolts and glued the tips in with metal epoxy. I slightly profiled the tips so they will hold stock down to 0.2". In addition I also made some finger spider clamps, the ball in the allen screw head allows the fingers to articulate.

Drive Cover before Boring.jpg

Spider Boring the Cover.jpg

Drive Cover after Boring.jpg


Spider Indicator Large and Small bars.jpg
New Spider  Cap Screws.jpg
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Spider.jpg
 
I built my spider out of 7075 aluminum, plenty strong and easier to machine. (plus I got several feet of 3in stock cheap) I undersized the spider by a couple of thousands then heated it with a torch and slid it onto the spindle. Very tight fit but I also used set screws to hold it on just in case.
 
"In addition I also made some finger spider clamps, the ball in the allen screw head allows the fingers to articulate."

These finger clamps when used on front and outboard spiders are great when dialing a barrel, no stress/bending on the barrel
 
"In addition I also made some finger spider clamps, the ball in the allen screw head allows the fingers to articulate."

These finger clamps when used on front and outboard spiders are great when dialing a barrel, no stress/bending on the barrel
How 'bout a photo? I would love to see what you are talking about.

Edit: Mark tipped me off - they're in his post. I see them now.
 
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Here they are in action. To start on a barrel I will hold the muzzle end with outboard spider and run the live center up to the barrel. Installing the finger clamps with barrel held by the live center makes it a lot easier. Once the barrel is held loosely, pull back the tailstock and I will them set the amount of stick out to be cut into a tenon.

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I am moving slowly ahead with my new lathe. It is still on the pallet, however I have the pallet on a couple of moving dollies so I can move it around a little. I have put together a hoist ring similar to what Mark Jacobs described in another post. I can't get my engine hoist in the right place due to the width of the pallets so I will need to borrow my neighbor's Bobcat again to lift it. Fortunately I can get into my shop with the Bobcat. I am leaving it on the pallet until I get the VFD and DRO installed since it will be easier to get at the back of the lathe that way. I ordered a DRO PROs magnetic DRO and will work on getting that installed as soon as it arrives. I did hook it up temporarily to my rotary phase converter to make sure it runs. I only ran it for a minute but it seems ok. I ordered a VFD and the associated parts to get started on that. Time to talk to Mark about a new control board and proximity switch. When that is done, I'll lift it onto the stands. So far, so good.

Paul
 
So I am finally getting a little more done on my new PM1340GT. It is now on the stand and has been leveled. The VFD is done and Marks's control board has been installed. As everyone else who used Mark's control board has stated, it is beautiful work. The DRP PROs DRO has been installed and seems to work fine. The next step is to finish all the clean up, run it through all the gears and then change out the oils. I picked up a Bison 4 jaw independent scroll chuck awhile back and got that cleaned up as well. Then I will check out the alignment. My first project will probably be a spider. It is going to be a learning curve since my experience has been limited to a Sherline lathe in the past. I know that the lathe does not exist if there are no pictures so:

lathe1.jpg
lathe2.jpg
 
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