New To The Forum. Thinking About A Pm-1030v!

Ken from ontario said:
I am in the same situation you were in a year ago but I'm convinced the 1228 VF-LB is the right lathe for me,
Click to expand...

Ken, I have the PM1228 and I like it, but it was recently pointed out to me that the PM1127 now has the D1-4 spindle just like the PM1228.
The D1-4 spindle was the main reason I went with the PM1228 along with the larger motor and slightly larger swing and bed length.

But... Had I been able to get the PM1127 with the D1-4 spindle, I probably would have gone that way since it comes with more accessories,
mainly the 4 jaw independent chuck, a faceplate and a QCTP.

http://www.precisionmatthews.com/shop/pm-1127vf-lb/
 
Thanks Frank for the new info, didn't know PM1127 now comes with DI-4 spindle.
 
i just aquired a PM1022V and love it so far.. i am not sure what kind of "barrels" your thinking of.. but you would need a cat on the back end of the spindle.. also if you could take a steady rest and convert it to full roller bearing (not rollers on the end of the fingers but rather a tapered roller bearing in it) in witch you can have another cat to hold the other end of the barrel.. most barrels will fit most of the way through that 1" bore,.. esp hunting barrels. you just can't get the shank end of the barrel (unless your working with a .22LR which more then likely will have pretty much a straight shank to the muzzle). You should be able to drive it with a dog.. Yeah.. "gunsmiths" using big machines is pretty much the way.. but a lot can be done on a smaller machine.. Contender barrels, 30-30's and that ilk, pistol barrels, semi autos. You get the picture.. the one that would be a bit tougher in my mind would me like a double bbl shotgun.. or a long shotgun barrel..
 
"According to the manual my bench only needs to be 26" wide to accommodate the 1127. Can someone please confirm that for me?"

Check the manuals and documents near the end on all of the machines for more information. For the PM1127 :
Length 55" x width 27.5" x height 26.5
I would think that the 26" however would work fine as the chip tray is larger than the overall footprint of the machine. The important part is the lathe mounts are securely on the table. I am going to put my lathe on a bench 52" long so it will hang over the ends a few inches and I am assuming the gear box will be more than this 3" difference.

Your story sounds similar to mine except I started looking at used first but liked the new features if they could be had at a good price. I think the used market is comparatively expensive here so started looking more closely at new machines. I had never seen any of the Chinese imports so I also went to HF to see theirs. My impression was that they must have redefined what a metal lathe is. (This is a metal lathe??)

I immediately started looking at the 10x22 and 10x30 lathes as these seemed to be about the space, money and weight I felt comfortable with at the time. I almost bought one of the Grizzly lathes as my parents live in Springfield but after looking at their offerings in this size noted that their lead screws were actually metric with dials marked in inches. So on these machines 0.100 was actually 1 full revolution + ~0.004. I would have preferred to have a all "true metric" machine vs. this mixture but would prefer to have an all inch/imperial lathe all things being equal. Quickly decided I would not buy a Grizzly for a lathe or mill as they don't tell you this up front anywhere (maybe something that is not precision). I am glad I got to see it first rather than be faced with the decision to ship back or just keep it rather than incur this cost. Grizzly have had quite a few negative reviews as well.

The Weiss machines I expect are all metric and found few others in my size range. After this I decided that PM was the right choice for vendors as they are very specific that their machines are all inches, and they seem very competitive if you look closely and they have a good warranty that few have. Nobody else says they are true inch machines, so I am not sure what the truth is on the other choices. For PM I could not find any significant negative reviews. A couple minor issues like they had to wait longer than they wanted.

Others have said get something larger than you think you need. For $100 the jump from the PM1022 to the PM1030 was an easy step. Moving to a PM1127 for $900 was a bit more than I had planned but when looking at added features and tooling I convinced myself it would be worth the step. The PM1228 again is only $100 more so ... Once there you ask yourself should I just go ahead and get the PM1236 for just $100 more than the PM1228 (more like 300-400 w/ tooling). The PM1236 is a much larger machine if you look at the weight and features. However from my perspective it is not worth the extra money for me as some can be bought and added inexpensively (coolant, light). The foot brake is not essential IMHO and adding would be a bit more difficult but possible. If the PM1236 was a VFD machine I may have chosen the PM1236 in the end as this was the largest negative for me on this machine. This was something that I really wanted (VFD) for a CNC like application that I won't go into here. In general it is larger than I really wanted or can imagine using at this time. With the gap feature than none of the others have, the max swing is 17.5" (wow).

Using my personal calculus I have decided to order the PM1127. The PM1228 was not enough of a difference with less tooling compared to the PM1127 to sway me. The size and $ of the PM1236 was too much machine for me IMHO.

I am not sure this is helpful to others but these were my decisions. In general I thought the the PM machines were the best option with what I have learned and no close 2nd really exists once you do some careful looking. In the end it was which PM machine was best for me. I am going to hold off on a mill until I get settled into the lathe. I won't be spending a lot of time on deciding who the vendor will be next time. Just a size and $ decision.
 
This post is old a hell but relevant to my situation. gregc if your still around I'd be interested to know on how you've like the 1127.

Thanks
 
I can't speak for him, but I have been very happy with mine. I had a similar thought pattern going into it, and went with the 1127. It has done a great job for me and held up to my learning mistakes.

I started looking at mini lathes, Sherline, etc.. The jump to the 1127 was a good size one, but I still think it was for the best. I would have been disappointed with the smaller machines. I've even had a couple of times I wish for a larger machine, but that's going to happen now and again at almost any size.
 
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