PM-1440GT Accessories?

While you are waiting, I highly recommend reading John L. Hinnant's precision rifle book. It's not youtube, it's paper. But it will teach you a lot about barreling rifles. There are lots of books out there covering all the tiny details, but this one is the real deal.
 
pontiac428 said:
While you are waiting, I highly recommend reading John L. Hinnant's precision rifle book. It's not youtube, it's paper. But it will teach you a lot about barreling rifles. There are lots of books out there covering all the tiny details, but this one is the real deal.
Click to expand...
Whoa! It must be out of print. It's $190 on Amazon and eBay. Brownells has it for $60, but I'm not friends with them anymore. I'll keep looking. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
Beantown said:
Whoa! It must be out of print. It's $190 on Amazon and eBay. Brownells has it for $60, but I'm not friends with them anymore. I'll keep looking. Thanks for the suggestion.
Click to expand...
Brownell's sells them for John, but you can also contact him directly. He's a nice fellow.

It's a good idea to follow solid, time-tested information until you develop the sense for what works, what helps, and what doesn't. As much as I like forums, when it come to "gunsmithing" it's hard to tell the yahoos from the original gangstas. It's like playing guitar or speaking a foreign language, there are people who can mimic and there are people who know the rules.
 
pontiac428 said:
Brownell's sells them for John, but you can also contact him directly. He's a nice fellow.

It's a good idea to follow solid, time-tested information until you develop the sense for what works, what helps, and what doesn't. As much as I like forums, when it come to "gunsmithing" it's hard to tell the yahoos from the original gangstas. It's like playing guitar or speaking a foreign language, there are people who can mimic and there are people who know the rules.
Click to expand...
Well said!!! I will see if I can find his contact information. I'd rather get it from him anyway. Thanks!
 
Thanks! I ended up getting it from Brownells. I was mad at them after they tried to hose me on some gift cards, but I guess we can be friends again.
 
A few comments from a long time PM-1440GT owner.

As stated earlier, gunsmithing isn't very demanding. This lathe is way more than adequate for that purpose. I built my first PRS rifle on a Smithy 1324 using dial indicators on the carriage and cross slide. It shoots better than me.

An 8" chuck is the perfect size for this lathe. A 6" chuck doesn't allow the full use of the 2" spindle bore. Make a chuck cradle for mounting and dismounting as they get heavier the older you get.

The top of the line adjustable chucks tend to have more accurate scrolls. They will maintain their concentricity over a larger range. I have a Gator 8" adjustable. It has been more adequate for my needs. When doing high precision work I always dial in the chuck for the diameter I am working.

*TIP - When doing high precision work, run the lathe to warm it up before making final adjustments.

Any jawed chuck you get should have 2-piece laws so you can use soft jaws.

A 5C collet chuck is nice but not necessary right away. Combined with a collet closer they fantastic for running lots of small parts. For one-off or a small run of parts where a collet makes sense I tend to use collet a hex block in the 3-jaw chuck.

A BXA size QCTP is the largest you would want to use on the compound slide. For my needs, which often is turning large diameter stock, aluminum & steel, I found the compound slide to be a week link for rigidity. I went to a solid tool post mount and a CXA size QCTP so I could use larger tools and take heaver cuts. Not necessary for gunsmithing.

I have drawer full of import insert tool holders. They were great when I was on a tighter budget but I have slowly migrated to higher quality insert tool holders. The one area where I would recommend starting with a high quality insert tool holder would be parting tools.

Don't get too caught up on insert tool holders. Properly ground HSS cutters have their place and many times out perform inserts on our hobby size lathes.

Keyless drill chucks are great, and I have several, but I would also add a keyed chuck. I find keyed chucks hold taps better when power threading.

I went with the EL400 DRO and magnetic scales from DRO Pros. Zero complaints.
 
jbolt said:
A few comments from a long time PM-1440GT owner.

As stated earlier, gunsmithing isn't very demanding. This lathe is way more than adequate for that purpose. I built my first PRS rifle on a Smithy 1324 using dial indicators on the carriage and cross slide. It shoots better than me.

An 8" chuck is the perfect size for this lathe. A 6" chuck doesn't allow the full use of the 2" spindle bore. Make a chuck cradle for mounting and dismounting as they get heavier the older you get.

The top of the line adjustable chucks tend to have more accurate scrolls. They will maintain their concentricity over a larger range. I have a Gator 8" adjustable. It has been more adequate for my needs. When doing high precision work I always dial in the chuck for the diameter I am working.

*TIP - When doing high precision work, run the lathe to warm it up before making final adjustments.

Any jawed chuck you get should have 2-piece laws so you can use soft jaws.

A 5C collet chuck is nice but not necessary right away. Combined with a collet closer they fantastic for running lots of small parts. For one-off or a small run of parts where a collet makes sense I tend to use collet a hex block in the 3-jaw chuck.

A BXA size QCTP is the largest you would want to use on the compound slide. For my needs, which often is turning large diameter stock, aluminum & steel, I found the compound slide to be a week link for rigidity. I went to a solid tool post mount and a CXA size QCTP so I could use larger tools and take heaver cuts. Not necessary for gunsmithing.

I have drawer full of import insert tool holders. They were great when I was on a tighter budget but I have slowly migrated to higher quality insert tool holders. The one area where I would recommend starting with a high quality insert tool holder would be parting tools.

Don't get too caught up on insert tool holders. Properly ground HSS cutters have their place and many times out perform inserts on our hobby size lathes.

Keyless drill chucks are great, and I have several, but I would also add a keyed chuck. I find keyed chucks hold taps better when power threading.

I went with the EL400 DRO and magnetic scales from DRO Pros. Zero complaints.
Click to expand...
Awesome! Thanks for taking the time. Hopefully I don't regret it, but I went with the ER-40 collet chuck. I'm honestly second guessing myself on that one.....I already have ER-40 collets, so I figured that would save me some money and for the most part I think it should work fine. As I get build some skill I figured I could go the 5C route later.
 
@Beantown

Congratulations! Enjoy adventure!

I don't think you will regret getting the PM1440GT. I like mine! Of course, there is always some other feature or knob that one lusts for! I also have an old South Bend 10" Heavy, which needs some TLC, but I still use it a lot. The one thing about it, compared to the 1440, that I prever is the Norton gear box with its 10x7=70 TPI/feed positions. I think the PM1340 also has a Norton box, but I don't think it has this many positions. Also from what I have heard the 1340 has kind of a splash oil system and it tends to leak. I do not find that my PM1440GT leaks at all.

By the way, PM service has been fantastic. These guys have been very helpful and responsive to me. So I buy from them knowing that if there is something wrong they will figure it out, and probably fix it, or try to help you do so.

As far as speeds are concerned. I don't know who it is that runs an 8 inch chuck at >2000 rpm. On the other hand my VFD set up lets me run my 1440GT right down to a few(<5) rpm. I am not for sure there is a lot of power down at these speeds, but sometimes these low speeds are handy. Also, if I recall correctly the Hitachi VFD Jog feature runs at 6Hz so this is already 1/10 that of 60Hz. Combining this with the low speed gearing and the spindle is hardly turning. This is unimportant for most folks, but handy if you are winding things like electrical wire coils, springs, .... or even fishing reels!

On most of the lathes (independent of supplier), the manuals are a bit sketchy or even non-existent. Only a few of the possible TPI, Feed, and X-Feed settings are provided in the manual or on the lathe plates. The X-feed rates are seldom accurate. After you get your 1440GT you may find you would like to know what other TPI etc values you can obtain with all of those knobs and external gears. I wondered and so wrote an excel spread sheet / workbook to generate them ALL. I designed it for my PM1440GT, but then extended to to several of other lathes. Anyway it is all set up for the PM1440GT and can be used manually to find a single value or by using the built in macros to automatically generate a table of select or all of the possibilities. Other macros allows you to search the large table for exact or approximate values. I posted it on HM and so it is available to everyone here:
B2 said:
Re: Improved Version: TPI, Feeds, X-Feeds: Generalized Lathe TPI Excel file: "TPI_ManyLathesRev1 N502_1630"
Click to expand...

Grab the first zipped file if you want the version with the macros already installed. There is also a tab with a Readme file to help explain the workbook and macro operations.

Dave L.
 
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