Total beginner needs help selecting PM lathe

U

USMA84DAB

Registered
Registered
Joined
Mar 17, 2020
Messages
10
Just spent 2+ hours reading prior threads about this topic. Want to run the scenario by the gallery of experts to head in the right direction.

Background - I am a veteran in the VA Vocational Rehab program. 100% disabled. (Don't be fooled - the VA disability rating system is a mix of witchcraft and voodoo - I still intend to be self-reliant and earn my keep.) I will go to Trinidad State gunsmithing school in June (Coronavirus allowing). The intent of buying a PM lathe is to build rifles in my home business. I intend to get to 20 hour work weeks, accommodating standing/sitting times for the jump school-fostered back challenge, as well as the other souvenirs from my time with Uncle Sam. My intent is to get 20 years out of this rifle shop. At 77, that would be enough and I figure I will have earned my keep.

I must submit a list of required tooling (with justifications outlining why I need it) to the VA in order to support my request for the grant to buy the machinery. I am examining the PM 1440GS, 1440BV, and the 1440GT. Features that my instructor at Trinidad State has pointed me towards are: 2" spindle, ability to use low RPMs, slow/fine feed rates, variable speeds.

I have "heard" from reading here, and from my instructor at school, that mainland equipment is to be avoided. This would eliminate the GS & BV. The price tag of $10,222.94 for the GT is breathtaking, however. I want to be relatively certain that this level of machinery is necessary to build dangerous game rifles and such before I waltz into the VA and stick my paw out asking for $10,000+ for one piece of machinery. If that is the price of admission to the ballgame, so be it. I just have to have my ducks in a row when I take that news in to the case worker.

If not for the point of manufacture, it would seem that the GS model is ideal. Am I missing something? Is the China manufacturing issue being made too much of? $6,783.91 is alot less than $10K!

The BV has the unicorn of variable speed, no spider, and China ancestry. Why or why not choose this model? $7,683.91 is $1K more than the GS for, basically, the variable speed? Am I missing anything else? Is variable speed crucial to barreling rifles?

As I read and tried to understand the prior threads about adding variable controllers I started to convulse. Re-wiring the lathe, as in the GT purchase thread, scares the bejeebers out of me. Just from a practical standpoint, with the endurance/stamina issues I have to manage, it sounds like I will spend the first two months of "working" on assembling and upgrading/finishing the lathe. Two months of work with no revenue is not attractive. Then there is setting up the mill. Will I ever earn a dollar? A bit dramatized, but hope it illustrates the view from my foxhole.

I have some time on mills while bedding rifles at GA Precision. I observed lathe operations to learn about them, but got very little hands-on time.

I simply do not possess the technical expertise, and certainly not the experience, to effectively weigh out these three options. I could really use the experience of you guys here to get me pointed onto the correct mix of features/capabilities of these three machines. I need to get the Goldilocks lathe. Then I can focus on effectively barreling rifles vs. building or redesigning/repairing the lathe.

Thanks a Chinese boatload, in advance, for your help!!!!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I recently went this same debate for reaming and threading bolt action barrels. I ended up going with a 3-phase 1340GT and added a VFD. It's got as much low-end grunt that you'd want, variable speed and a proximity stop. In the end, it was about $10K. I don't personally think you need the 2" spindle bore but I guess it would be nice to have. I've not run into anything that I can't run through my spindle. The proximity stop for threading, 3-phase motor with 1-phase input is worth not have a 2" spindle.

Mark Jacobs, mksj on here, can help with the VFD. It was daunting for me but there are lots of people here that can help. It won't be two months of working on the lathe. It'll be a week of work with 3-4 weeks waiting on all your parts. LOL
 
Just my two cents:
(1) I appreciate your service,
(2) Great choice to buy a Precision Matthews,
(3) Try to swing a Taiwanese model,
(4) Don’t sweat running 3 phase on your single phase 220V. A lot of ways to go with that.
 
I thought that you could order pm equipment with VFD preinstalled?

They seem to be a great vendor as we have read nothing but good things.

Here is our suggestion...make PM earn the sale...

Call them on the phone or request a call on his web page.

Have the discussion of what you want to do and let him give you the information needed to help you decide on the model.

3 phase electrics cannot be beat as the motors are usually industrial where single phase are maybe more towards retail quality.

Proper VFD allows single phase operation and infinite variable speed.

Our old SB 14.5 in back gear dies MPR...Minutes Per Rev.

Great for turning to a shoulder.

PM may also be able to provide suitable documentation to support your grant application, the sale is the motivation.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
Not specifically gunsmithing, but I do have a 1340GT and will be doing some in the future. As others have said, doubt if you need 2" bore - fun, but not required. If you are going to chamber barrels, the 1340 is a fine choice, accuracy is excellent. If you intend to turn tapers on barrel blanks, you need a taper attachment. The 1340GT will do it, but isn't as rigid a machine as the 1440 class - gravity is your friend, buy pounds to get the rigidity you'll need for long cuts with enough depth of cut to make carbide inserts work. Also (1340GT), low speed for threading is 90rpm. High on pucker for threading to a shoulder . Two work arounds: VFD with a precision stop (also takes care of single phase input to drive 3 phase motor, see Mksj), or watch Joe Pie's upside down threading away from the spindle video (tool upside down, he doesn't stand on his head). I emphasize with you. Most of us probably fussed with the same decision for longer than we spent with most of the other life changing decisions in your life, and most of those other things cost more (car, house, wife, kids, dog, etc. - mostly it all works out, well except you can't leave the kids on the side of the road "they" say.) Tooling is always the elephant in the room. Easy to spend as much as the lathe. Kind of like the old axiom, spend as much for the scope as you spent for the rifle. If you only have one dip in the well, look at tooling also (boring bars, insert tools, replacement inserts, good 4 jaw chuck, DRO could be fun but not required, good drill chuck, good live center, etc.). Drills, taps. What about a mill and that whole other can of worms. As I reread this it sounds a little daunting, but you are essentially starting a business where you don't have the luxury of time to collect all the stuff many have spent a good chunk of our lives pulling together. You do have the advantags of knowing what you are going to do, as opposed to just getting a lathe to "make stuff", and allows you to really focus on the problem. As others have said, thank you for your service (that seems hollow sometimes, but you hurt from believing in a bigger picture, not just from a high school football injury) - so really, thank you. And good luck.
 
GL - see you are "just down the road" in Lawrence - maybe I could sweet talk you into a show and tell of your lathe?

TQ60 - will employ your counsel about the sale

All - will see what PM says about factory installed VFD
 
USMA84DAB said:
GL - see you are "just down the road" in Lawrence - maybe I could sweet talk you into a show and tell of your lathe?

TQ60 - will employ your counsel about the sale

All - will see what PM says about factory installed VFD
Click to expand...

You are going to be very impressed with Precision Matthews’ customer support.
 
USMA84DAB said:
GL - see you are "just down the road" in Lawrence - maybe I could sweet talk you into a show and tell of your lathe?

Would be glad to give you a tour. You are about an hour to here, another 20 minutes to the shop. Send me a chat and we can figure something out.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top