Would a PM-1440E-LB make a good gunsmithing lathe?

Is the 1440E Chinese or Taiwan?

Bill

The PM1440E-LB is Chinese. Also the "LB" indicates Large Bore. Just in case you were unsure the nomenclature.

On edit, I probably shouldn't have mentioned those as they are well beyond the realm or scope of this forum truly are production machines.
 
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Actually the Grizzly G4003G is a Chinese lathe. The Eisen 1236GH is more comparable to the Precision Mathews PM1340GT just a little smaller. Both Eisen and PM are Taiwanese as origin and quality.

If you are looking at the Eisen 1236 take a look at the Precision Mathew PM1340GT. It is a high quality lathe and I can actually speak from personal experience on that particular lathe.

You're right, the Eisen 1236gh IS the exact duplicate of your 1340, only a smaller version. Im not gonna lie, spending thousands on a Chinese lathe makes me nervous about buying a lemon. Read one story where a guy discovered a strip from a tape measure installed in his machine as a bearing shim. Another where his bearing was not fully (1/2) supported by the race. As with the gentleman with the beautiful G4003g above who found one of the most basic assembly needs (mounting the motor pulley properly in line with the driven pulley fubar'd.

That Eisen 1236 can be had for around $4200 with stand and chucks and stuff. 5K with DRO. Taiwan made..............Too bad I can't view much of anything in Austin
 
I have been in that dilemma of which machine(s) to get...
I took the approach of determining the company I thought made the better products, and settled on Precision Matthews products.
I understand in the early days of Quality Machine Tools; the owner of the company, a guy named Matt, was talking to the Chinese about specs of a machine. They nicknamed the machine a Precision Matthew... and the name stuck.
After choosing a company, then to choosing a lathe and mill worked it down to these:

Lathe: PM 1236 or 1340GT
Mill: PM 932 or 936 (Note this is a larger difference, as one mill is a head mill, the other is a knee mill).

Did exhaustive research, had the chance to look at a few machines, and determined I would go this route:

Lathe: PM1340GT
Mill: For now, a PM932PDF (power down feed), and later find a Bridgeport and rebuild it.

The reasoning for the lathe is the Taiwanese made; Fit, detail, careful assembly, and the Norton gearbox... not having to hassle with gears to do threads (I probably will rarely do Metric threads).
On the mill... it was a more difficult decision: The PM936 is a Taiwanese 2/3 or 3/4 size (cannot remember at this point) Bridgeport design, knee mill... and a rather nice one at that! This would really be a nice machine to own and make chips on, however there are space and moving issues in the current basement shop which would make moving a knee mill design both difficult and potentially dangerous (size, top-heave design, and weight). Also, in the future, I may CNC the benchtop 932, depending on paying projects.
And having two mills, a smaller one and a larger one, made sense to me.
At this point, there are no plans for a second lathe, so getting a higher quality lathe made sense to me.

There may be a small amount of gun-smithing in my future, so having machines that are capable of tighter tolerances (the operator is the REAL tool), made sense also.

It took me over 2 months of reading, studying, and looking... to come anywhere near a decision... I think I have read every thread at this and another forum that has to do with the PM machines I was interested in; as well as talked to a number of forum members, visited a few forum members who have machines, and visited shops that sell Jet, Grizzly, and other machines. (I still think the PM machines are the better deal).

So my advise: Define what you want to do (most important)... then take your time. You will know when you have done enough research and will make the right decision... and will be thankful you did enough research to satisfy your own needs.

Then let us know what you came up with, and at this forum, we (grin) require a receive/unpack/setup/first chips thread, with LOTS of pictures. No thread, it did not happen... LOL

BTW: RayC, at this forum, is a source of information... PM him. Sometimes he is busy, give him a few days to get back with you.
 
After Coolidge posted is trouble with the pulley and belts I inspected my G4003G motor, pulley and belts. Never did have a vibration problem and the motor and pulley looked great. As far as the paint, I agree, it could be better. Mine peeled some and has primer showing in spots where it came off during original cleaning. All in all it works great.

Dave
 
Mill: PM 932 or 936 (Note this is a larger difference, as one mill is a head mill, the other is a knee mill).

Did exhaustive research, had the chance to look at a few machines, and determined I would go this route:

Lathe: PM1340GT
Mill: For now, a PM932PDF (power down feed), and later find a Bridgeport and rebuild it.

The reasoning for the lathe is the Taiwanese made; Fit, detail, careful assembly, and the Norton gearbox... not having to hassle with gears to do threads (I probably will rarely do Metric threads).
On the mill... it was a more difficult decision: The PM936 is a Taiwanese 2/3 or 3/4 size (cannot remember at this point) Bridgeport design, knee mill... and a rather nice one at that! This would really be a nice machine to own and make chips on, however there are space and moving issues in the current basement shop which would make moving a knee mill design both difficult and potentially dangerous (size, top-heave design, and weight). Also, in the future, I may CNC the benchtop 932, depending on paying projects.
And having two mills, a smaller one and a larger one, made sense to me.
At this point, there are no plans for a second lathe, so getting a higher quality lathe made sense to me.

There may be a small amount of gun-smithing in my future, so having machines that are capable of tighter tolerances (the operator is the REAL tool), made sense also.

It took me over 2 months of reading, studying, and looking... to come anywhere near a decision... I think I have read every thread at this and another forum that has to do with the PM machines I was interested in; as well as talked to a number of forum members, visited a few forum members who have machines, and visited shops that sell Jet, Grizzly, and other machines. (I still think the PM machines are the better deal).

So my advise: Define what you want to do (most important)... then take your time. You will know when you have done enough research and will make the right decision... and will be thankful you did enough research to satisfy your own needs.

Then let us know what you came up with, and at this forum, we (grin) require a receive/unpack/setup/first chips thread, with LOTS of pictures. No thread, it did not happen... LOL

BTW: RayC, at this forum, is a source of information... PM him. Sometimes he is busy, give him a few days to get back with you.

Slight correction. Matt/QMT doesn't have a 936, he has an 836 or a 935 knee mill that is a 2/3 size Bridgeport. The 836 is Chinese and is identical to the JET JVM836 which is a step pulley machine but doesn't have much of a low speed, if memory serves only has a 1.5 hp motor. It has tilt but does not have nod nor power down feed.

The 935 he carries is Taiwanese and comes in either single or three phase, step pulley or variable speed and has a full featured Bridgeport style head with a 3hp motor. This mill has tilt and nod features on the head and and power downfeed.
 
the G4003G has the Norton style gearbox for threading/IPR.
An important part of the comparison.

Not all QCGB are created equal. The Norton (open with shift levers) is an older style, but that doesn't necessarily make it inferior to the (newer) fully enclosed gearboxes.

Why?

You have to look at the range of threads and feeds allowed without changing gears. The G4003G allows ALL inch threads AND feeding without changing any gears.

The Grizzly G0750G is a recent Grizzly 12x46 addition, yet it's QCGB is (IMHO) inferior to the (cheaper) G4003G. It requires you to change gears for almost every thread. And when you are done threading, to make it go back to feeding, you have to change gears again. Not really sure were the "Quick" in QCGB is for that scenario.

Guess what?

The PM 1440E-LB looks EXACTLY like the G0750G. If it has the same QCGB (which I bet it does), than I would look for another machine.

Strongly consider the PM 1340GT. From all accounts, it is a good machine, with fewer compromises than the Chinese lathes. Is it less capable that a 1440? Consider this: most 1440 lathes are the same machine as a 1236. The headstock casting is 1" taller (or it gets a spacer), and the bed is 4" longer. Whoopee. Doesn't really change the machines capabilities (raise your hand the last time you turned an object greater than 12" in diameter? Nope, me neither). Same weight to the casting. Same bed width. All the extra length and height does is make the machine slightly less rigid. go figure.

Full disclosure: I own a Grizzly G0709G. I think if I had to do it again, I might have spent more time looking at the 1340GT. The G0709G has a great QCGB, btw. I can cut ALL inch threads and feed without having to change any gears. The only time a gear swap is required is to shift over to metric threads. But it is definitely a chinese machine, with all the care and feeding they put into such things. The motor mount looks like some one shaped the mold with a machete and not much love, and there are some other similar issues.
 
Thank you all for the outstanding advice!

You all brought up points in this thread and others that I never considered and that helps me narrow my focus. Looks like I am going to go with the Grizzly G4003G to accompany a Tormach 1100. I suspect that the capabilities of the Grizzly should meet my foreseeable needs, while freeing up some of the budget to outfit the Tormach.

Worse case scenario I would be able to use the Tormach to refine the lathe if necessary, and I should be able to flip the Grizzly locally should I outgrow it.
 
I've had both machines, The 4003G treated me well for quite some time but then I started running into serious problems. I really, really liked the quick-change gearbox. Perhaps I just got a lemon, or maybe I was just incompetent when it came to troubleshooting and fixing the machine.(You can see the entire process here on the forum) I was also very disappointed in the tech support from Grizzly, although they are very pleasant to work with they simply kept transferring me to a new person every day. After two weeks, I was burnt out.

I then proceeded to sell off the grizzly and upgrade to the 1440E-LB. One thing that I did not realize is that it has no quick-change gearbox, which I still miss to the date. Besides that though, I absolutely love the machine. The quality is better than Grizzly in my opinion. The 3-year warranty is also very appealing, as I know that Matt looks out for his customers and machines.

The 1440LB also came with a three jaw chuck that only has about a thou of runout, which is pretty fantastic. I can't say that I have put the large bore to very much use though!

Good luck with your choice! I always keep in mind that Grizzly is all about high-volume, whereas Precision Matthews is a low-volume seller. I find that this shows in the quality of machinery.
 
I own a pm 1440elb lathe and love it,I got it new from Matt and when it arrived I was shocked to see I got more than I expected!!!!The manual is crap but the lathe is very good.I have had it for about a year now, and it does me very well.
 
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