# PM-1440GT and PM935TS



## keenlyside (Apr 25, 2017)

Well the new PM-1440GT and PM935TS are both safely hauled home and tucked away. I ordered a while ago last year and Matt was good enough to hold the machines at the factory while I got some space made in the garage. I picked them up last week, deciding to haul them home myself as the lane access is pretty tight for a big truck.

Here is the lathe loaded at the warehouse.








A hailstorm on the way home - the mill didn't seem to mind 







Backing the trailer with the mill into an 8'x8' garage door was a little challenging but I had a friend with me to guide me in. When we loaded in the lathe he drove and I swear he wheeled that trailer right in first time; between the jack posts whats more - they were only spaced about 5' apart.








We de-crated in the trailer and then hoisted from a forged eye bolt in my ceiling. Note, not to insult anyone's intelligence.. do not assume you can lift something this heavy from your ceiling just because you saw it in this picture - I have structural reinforcement in my rafter space that you can't see so again this will not work in a standard ceiling and someone could get hurt or worse. Nuff said.

Lathe hoisted and checking for balance point.








Lathe on machine skates (Hudson Haulers) which worked very well on the lathe (three point). Not as well on the mill (four points) as one skate would occasionally get unloaded where it dropped into a low spot in the floor. I think I am going to make a riser stand for the mill so will ensure I can use three points/three skates under that.







Lathe in rough position down on ply pads (temporary). We used a toe jack to get the lathe off the skates. Same way I will get them back on when wanting to move either machine.







Here is the mill suspended from the same point (again, don't try this without appropriate structural reinforcement).







Lathe all clean and shiny.







The PM 3 Jaw chuck is quite stunning (as is the overall lathe). Looks pretty and I was able to chuck up a ground rod and get 0.0012" at the chuck and was also able to demount the chuck, mount it back up and repeat the 0.0012". It took quite a few tries to get everything clean enough to get the repeat reading (first few times I got much higher TIR but was able to get it back once there was no schmutz on the mating surfaces.







Leadscrew also a work of art.








From the headstock end.







Mill cleaned up and in rough position. Will level and bolt it down later as well.








Yummy grinding job on that table (yes I am a tool sl*t). Nice work Matt!







Thanks again to Matt who was first class all the way, and to David (Kiwi Canuck) for blazing the trail and sharing notes on how he got it done.

It will be a while before I am making chips (have to finish some other projects) but I will post again when it happens and appreciate all the advice from members on this forum

Cheers

John


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## wrmiller (Apr 25, 2017)

What ever you do, don't use Flitz on that table unless you like wearing sunglasses while machining.

I am currently getting my machines set up in their new garage and had a real light surface rust or something on the right side of the table. The Flitz took it right off, but being me, I decided to go ahead and 'clean' the rest of the table. The pic doesn't do it justice, but it is quite shiny. Especially under a LED light.


Where's my sunglasses?


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## keenlyside (Apr 25, 2017)

Ahhh yes, Flitz bad  That does look really shiny. Did it make the surface slick as well?


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## wrmiller (Apr 25, 2017)

keenlyside said:


> Ahhh yes, Flitz bad  That does look really shiny. Did it make the surface slick as well?



A little. I mean I knew how nice of a grind job they did on this table, but for a simple wipe down with some Flitz to bring out that much of a shine shows just how fine that grind is on this table. Cudos to Matt and his factory!


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## jer (Apr 25, 2017)

Good looking machines. I'm jealous of the new mill. I have a 1984 Super-Max, good mill but not pretty and new.

I hope to have the PM1440GT up and running soon too.


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## Kiwi Canuck (Apr 25, 2017)

John, nice to see you got your machines home at last.

So you had to make 2 trips to pick them up, that trailer looked a bit small to handle both at the same time.

Did you get single or 3 phase, can't remember if you mentioned that before.

Looks like you made quick work of getting them off the trailer with your ceiling mounted chain hoist, how did you know it would hold the mill OK, did you have an engineer work it out for you?

Cheers and let us know when you get the machines fired up, maybe before me as I'm still waiting on my VFD's as they just finally got to the border and I haven't been to pick them up yet.

David.


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## lotusjohn (Apr 25, 2017)

Bolting down machinery is not always a good idea. If you live in Earthquake country like I do, You should NOT bolt your equipment down. During the Northridge quake (los angeles area), my equipment was not bolted down and moved around the shop. Several friends had theirs bolted down. Several of the equipment mounting points failed and machines tipped over turning them into scrap.


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## keenlyside (Apr 26, 2017)

jer said:


> Good looking machines. I'm jealous of the new mill. I have a 1984 Super-Max, good mill but not pretty and new.
> 
> I hope to have the PM1440GT up and running soon too.



That Super-Max looks like a stout mill. Pretty and new is definitely nice but we all know I am going to ding it at some point - just a matter of when


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## keenlyside (Apr 26, 2017)

lotusjohn said:


> Bolting down machinery is not always a good idea. If you live in Earthquake country like I do, You should NOT bolt your equipment down. During the Northridge quake (los angeles area), my equipment was not bolted down and moved around the shop. Several friends had theirs bolted down. Several of the equipment mounting points failed and machines tipped over turning them into scrap.



Thank you for this. That never would have occurred to me. 

Hmmm, I was pretty set on the idea of bolting things down. I guess you just use the typical swivel/leveling feet then and call it a day?


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## keenlyside (Apr 26, 2017)

Kiwi Canuck said:


> John, nice to see you got your machines home at last.
> 
> So you had to make 2 trips to pick them up, that trailer looked a bit small to handle both at the same time.
> 
> ...



Hey David

Yep, two trips. The trailer was good for the weight of each unit but not both. Not enough space either (I probably could have got it all on but the weight would have been nowhere near over top of the axle). The guys at the warehouse were good to work with. At one point they were trying all kinds of ways to fork the mill crate into the trailer (it only fit one way and of course that was not the way the wood was spaced on the bottom of the crate); with only a 1/4"" to spare on either side they could not sling it into place either. After a while of this I suggested just to lift the whole affair from the eye bolt on the mill as the crate itself weighed very little and that worked a charm.

I got three phase on both machines, a good friend of mine is an industrial electrician so getting the control cabinet rewiring sorted (and maybe even finding a couple of used VFD's) is not an area I have to worry much about. He is extremely good at what he does and can likely do this in his sleep however the experience of the members on this forum is still very valuable and appreciated as it will help us maximize the design (e.g. things like a Prox limit switch for threading per mksj, not sure I would have even thought of that idea).

For the ceiling, it is massively reinforced across that rafter and the jack posts limited the span to around 5' but nonetheless we were very cautious and I agree getting an engineer to check any design is a prudent idea.

Thanks all.


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## jeff_g1137 (May 14, 2017)

Hi
It is great to get New machines, hope you have a great time on them.


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## hhscr (Jul 15, 2017)

Nice Machines,  making me lean toward the GT lathe!!


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## stevenreich (Jul 15, 2017)

Where did you get these two beauties if I can ask?  I want to check out a PM lathe and mill before I buy them. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## keenlyside (Jul 15, 2017)

From Matt at Quality Machine Tools. Most of us bought sight unseen (lots of pictures seen, just not in the flesh). I do not think you run any risk of being disappointed. Very nice machines. The spindle on my 1440GT shows no TIR movement whatsoever on a tenths indicator. I have not done the mill spindle yet but I imagine it will be very similar. 

Cheers


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## zmotorsports (Jul 24, 2017)

Nice machines.  Congratulations.

Mike


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