Precision Mathews

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Has anyone seen a good, objective review/evaluation of the Precision Mathews lathe anyplace on the internet??
 
There is a yahoo group called "bluemachining"
 
Ed, that appears to require registration to view. No problem if someone wants to join though. :)
 
Weiss is the euro version of the same lathe. Even the "mother board" has Weiss printed on it.
http://www.weiss.com.cn/
I received mine about 3 weeks later than originally told. But I have read that is the SOP on imported lathes. If you happen to order when they are in stock, then you will get it quickly. In my case the shipment was about two weeks from leaving China when I ordered mine. I have found Matt (the owner) to be a stand up guy, so far. He has returned my calls every time I had a question. The machine was gone through by Precision Matthews before they ship it out. They found that the 4 jaw chucks were incorrect so they did not ship them, but are sending out the correct ones in about 4 weeks. Also there was a couple day delay because the 40 position tool holders were not included or something. Also He gave me $200 off of the DRO because I was willing to install it myself, and another discount for paying up front, all in all a savings of nearly $300. Just got it bolted down two days ago so I cant give a real opinion yet. But time will tell.
 
I have the PM1127VF-LB and it's a pretty nice unit. You really want to do a complete tear down to check everything, but that is SOP on any Chinese machine these days. I have a bad apron. My apron's Ways are not machined/ground or anything. The front of the apron is .028" higher than the back of it going by the height of the crossfeed table. The back gears all need to be bored out slightly and the bushings they ride on need to be cleaned up. The drive bushing has a pin in it that is always drilled offset and the pin bent. It's usually broken/cracked on arrival so you'll need to make another one. My front Gib's are not fitted and when tight have over .005" of play but I think it was from the apron not getting fitted to the machine. It's been 2.5 weeks and I'm waiting to find out of I have to exchange the whole unit or if I can get just the apron replaced. I always ask for Matt as he is the owner and a very knowledgeable guy. I also noticed that since the apron wasn't fitted the leadscrew also doesn't make contact with the crossfeed gear box's gear that is supposed to ride on it. So most all the problems are re leated to a one part manufactures defect/oversight. It's pretty powerfull at low speeds in low. I was making some .02" DOC in some steel (was a huge bolt in a previous life) at 120 RPM and up to 1200 RPM. I kept forgetting which way to throw the crossfeed handle and end up crashing the damn thing. Really only been an issue 3x and I think I might never do that again this week. :) . Oh the max speed on mine is 2200 RPM. The 3 Jaw is slightly out of balance. I'm going to see if their isn't something I can't do about that. The actual 3 jaw chuck is very good. I can set up a piece to .002" run out with repeatability with it. I took it apart to clean and inspect and I was surprised at how well it was built. I hope to replace it with a Bison down the road. The spindle is close to a D1-4 spindle w/o the taper.

When you call and Matt isn't their just ask when he'll be in and talk to him directly. It sucks for him but he is the one in charge and the most knowledgeable. If he isn't in ask when he will be and call back latter. I also bought a PM45 Mill as well. I haven't got it set up just the crate torn down. Would I buy the lathe again? If the apron issue gets resolved here pretty soon then probably. If a South Bend or Harding Lathe went up for sale here for $1K then I would get that obviously but the PM1127VF-LB is a good lathe.
 
EdK said:
It didn't use to. I guess they've changed their policy. The review on there is very good so it might be worth joining just to read the review if you're looking at buying a PM lathe.

Ed
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I am the one with that PM 12x36 lathe, and I wrote that review, so thank you. It started with a review of the lathe, but it is also a sort of blog that I keep on changes/modifications to the lathe as well. In fact the recent post I made on repairing a lamp happens to be the lamp that sits on top of my PM 12x36 lathe ;)

Will
 
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