:Happybirthday:Happy birthday to me as I have finally pulled the trigger on a 932 Mill. I have several lathes and have always wanted a full size knee mill; just never found a good one for what I wanted to pay. Figured this would a least be a good start for a person like me that just likes to tinker. Read a lot from this web site on the pros and cons. Call Matt up and talked to him on several occassions. What a nice fellow, he answered everything I threw at him. Anyway he hooked me up and mill should be getting shipped this week. Can't wait.
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PM932 on the way
- Thread starter p500hemi
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2013
- Messages
- 378
Congratulations!
You'll love it, I just got mine last week and set it up this past weekend. Now I just have to figure out how to use it
).
BTW Matt at QMT was great to work with and he really helped me out selecting the right mill for my home hobby shop and setting me up with a vise, collet set and keyless chuck package.
).BTW Matt at QMT was great to work with and he really helped me out selecting the right mill for my home hobby shop and setting me up with a vise, collet set and keyless chuck package.
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2013
- Messages
- 11
I certainly hope that you like it, and it performs well, especially seeing as how I ordered the same mill, and it should be arriving late next week. I asked Nicole about a 220 plug for it, and she mentioned that it was designed to be hard wired- I should have known that. I agree that Matt is a super guy to deal with, and that makes me very comfortable buying from him. He sent me via email an owners manual for the pm45-932, and I didn`t think much of it. Grizzly has a similar mill, that comes with an excellent downloadable manual, that is a lot more detailed and for me, easier to understand. Let us know your thoughts when it arrives. Best.....Art.
Heh... I complained about the manual a bunch too. According to Matt they have been working on it for a long time, they've even tried paying people to rewrite it, but they never get a product they're happy with. I can see how that could happen - there's a heckuva lot going on on one of these machines, being comprehensive would indeed take some effort.
Be wary of the Grizzly manual, though. While it's "mostly" the same machine, it is not 100% equivalent. In particular the electrical box is wildly different between the G0755 and the PM-932M (as I spent a decent chunk of time mucking around in there, this was an unwelcome discovery!).
Woodyplacks
You are totally right about the manual. Not worth the paper it is printed on. I have just kind of stumbled my way through figuring everything out. I put a longer cord on my mill since it didn't reach where I wanted to be. I thought the wire was a little undersized so I also went up to a #12.
So far I have spent about 38 hours just going over every aspect of the machine. Expect China quality and don't expect it to work accurately right out of the box. Lots of loose screws, misalignment, poor finish quality, extremely dirty (metal shavings everywhere), dirty lead screws with minimal lub. All these things can be worked through, just takes some time. Gibs were of pretty good quality, but did need adjusting to remove as much slop as possible without causing undue wear.
In the near future I will be posting pics of all the things I went through that I think might be helpful to you and others. Tramming the column to head squareness both in x and y axis needed some work, showing bracket that helped that process, tramming spindle head to table (as again it was a little off), etc. Only thing I am not satisfied with at this point is the spindle play. Even with the spindle head locked there is 2-4 thou slop in the bearings. Preload is fine, probably just the poor quality of the bearings.
Have fun. More to come later
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2012
- Messages
- 5,596
My thoughts on this I think are pretty fundamental and have been witten here many times before... No machine that's been crated, transported and lifted with straps will be be trammed or aligned upon initial installation. Matter of fact, some equipment vendors only sell machines with service contracts where the warranty is not valid until the equipment is setup (or verified as being properly setup) by a factory representative. Contracts like that are payable annually with first year due up-front and usually cost between 5 and 10% of the purchase price. When the installer arrives, the first thing they do is clean the machine (the exposed areas and leadscrews are shipped with cosmoline on them), change the oil, properly grease the exposed areas, position it and align in. Obviously that won't fly in the consumer end of the market so, the user needs to do that work.
Also, yes... Unlike Lagun's, RML-series (sold under many names such as Leblond and KO Lee and some South Bends) you won't find perfect paint and epoxy finish on these machines. It adds expense and does absolutely nothing to improve the working performance of the machine. It does add to the amount the customer pays though... You can buy this same machine from Lagun -but you need to ask for a quote which will include a service contract fee.
As for the loose bearings... Please keep us apprised and let us know if/how it shows up in the work piece.
Ray
Also, yes... Unlike Lagun's, RML-series (sold under many names such as Leblond and KO Lee and some South Bends) you won't find perfect paint and epoxy finish on these machines. It adds expense and does absolutely nothing to improve the working performance of the machine. It does add to the amount the customer pays though... You can buy this same machine from Lagun -but you need to ask for a quote which will include a service contract fee.
As for the loose bearings... Please keep us apprised and let us know if/how it shows up in the work piece.
Ray
Please post pictures of what you went through. I am curious how you trammed the head to the column.
edit: just wanted to add that 2-4 thou slop on the spindle when locked seems like a lot.
edit: just wanted to add that 2-4 thou slop on the spindle when locked seems like a lot.
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2013
- Messages
- 11
Yesterday, 09/25, my pm932 arrived in my driveway, on an extra long pallet, because I had asked Matt to not stack the base to the top of the mill crate. I`m a one man outfit, and this made it a lot easier, and safer. Lucky for me, 2 good friends came along, and helped me get the mill and base up a small ramp, and into my 12x16 wood floor outside shed. The floor is rugged, and didn`t sag. I`m thinking about bolting a couple of sheets of 3/4"x30"x30" plywood to the base for added stability- it may not pay for me to try to level it on a wooden floor-your thoughts? The milling machine , in my out door shed, will be about 60` from my house circuit breaker box, so I bought some 10-3 uf wire to hook it up. After I figure out what to put under the base, I`ll do what most of you guys did, and borrow an engine lift to hoist the mill on top of the base. Now, after it is all fastened down, I expect to have to go all over it, the way I did with my pm1127lb. Carefully clean, maybe change the oil in the gear box, attach the power feeds, tram, etc. I always thought that was part of the fun, and yes, that does require several hours to get it right. I bought a used Bridgeport, j head, years ago, that I had to spend days to get that right. Matt does, in my opinion, a very good job of checking out the machines, but after they are bounced around in crates, hoisted with chains, straps, fork trucks, etc., there is no way that they won`t need to be adjusted, especially if fine accuracy is needed. The spindle bearings on a new machine should be perfect, or darn near it, even if they are Chinese. BTW, if some one knows of replacement US spindle bearings, {numbers}, that would be welcome info for future reference. Anyone experiencing bad parts, including bearings, especially on a new machine, should contact Matt; he will make it right! Happy Milling..........Art.