# Waiting  on my just purchased PM-1236T



## COMachinist (Jun 22, 2018)

For all you great members that have  PM machines that have not been folowing the new lathe thread. My loving wife of 48 years gave me funds to get a new lathe. Just a word ithe 1236T is the only lathe I have room for, so that is what I bought, I got to say Matt and the people  at QMT are the best. Their customer service is second to none an I am really looking forward to my new lathe. I’ll be posting some pictures and first impressions, as I have only seen one post on this lathe, andI ‘m hoping it will as good as everone subject the Taiwan lathe are. So stand by. 
Thanks for everyone’s inputs.
CH


----------



## DrAsus (Jun 22, 2018)

Congrats!!

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk


----------



## Janderso (Jun 23, 2018)

I sure do see nothing but positive comments on this forum that PM and their sales/support people are a big step above the competition.
In this day and age, customer NO service is the standard.
I think we all share your excitement.
Congratulations.
Buy her some flowers.


----------



## wrmiller (Jun 23, 2018)

Your lathe is basically a slightly smaller version of the 1340GT that many of us have here. Which means that there will be lots of folks who can help when you have questions.


----------



## markba633csi (Jun 23, 2018)

You'll have fun with that-  are you going to restore the Clausing too? 
Mark


----------



## pacifica (Jun 23, 2018)

The 1236 might be more ridgid even than the 1340gt, which is always a plus. The only downside is it is only available in single phase. If you decide to get a VFD in future you will need to get a 3 phase motor.


----------



## COMachinist (Jun 23, 2018)

markba633csi said:


> You'll have fun with that-  are you going to restore the Clausing too?
> Mark


Not sure yet. I want to keep this thread about the new PM-1236T, I'll post what I'm doing with the clausing, in that fourm.
Thanks
CH


----------



## Dawn (Jun 23, 2018)

That's going to be a great lathe.


----------



## COMachinist (Jun 26, 2018)

Just an update, the lathe is in Chicago, il. I also ordered a Bison D1-4 8” back plate for my 8” Bison 3 jaw. Ouch! I also ordered a zero set back plate for my 6” set zero chuck, not so bad. All my independent 4 jaw chucks are fixed  1.5”-8 so I’ll need to get them on order as well. Any suggestions on a good quality 4 and 8” independent 4 jaw with D1-4 mounts? I have china maked 5” that sucks it won’t hold secure for more than a few minutes, the part lossens up. I also have my Touch 2 axis DRO ready to go on. I want to put a tailstock DRO on as well. 
Any suggtions is appreciated.
CH.


----------



## COMachinist (Jun 26, 2018)

Dawn said:


> That's going to be a great lathe.


Thank you Dawn.
CH


----------



## COMachinist (Jun 29, 2018)

Well it got here today, It is in the shop and the stand is unpacked that is all I got done so far. I thought the stand was black but it is kind of a gray. I plan to paint it with a graphite color wheel paint that is tough as an old boot. The lathe looks well packed and there don't appear to be any major damage to the crate. Can't say the same for the stand the card board boxes where not strapped to the palette so they took a good bit of bouncing around. That is another reason to paint them before assembly.
Now for the first job of cleaning the Cosmo off the lathe. I used WD on the mill and that was less than fun. It worked but there was cosmoline and WD 40 al over the place. Is there any thing better? Something that might work better?
Pix tomorrow.
CH


----------



## .LMS. (Jun 30, 2018)

pacifica said:


> The 1236 might be more ridgid even than the 1340gt...



Can you elaborate on this?


----------



## Kiwi Canuck (Jun 30, 2018)

COMachinist said:


> Well it got here today, It is in the shop and the stand is unpacked that is all I got done so far. I thought the stand was black but it is kind of a gray. I plan to paint it with a graphite color wheel paint that is tough as an old boot. The lathe looks well packed and there don't appear to be any major damage to the crate. Can't say the same for the stand the card board boxes where not strapped to the palette so they took a good bit of bouncing around. That is another reason to paint them before assembly.
> Now for the first job of cleaning the Cosmo off the lathe. I used WD on the mill and that was less than fun. It worked but there was cosmoline and WD 40 al over the place. Is there any thing better? Something that might work better?
> Pix tomorrow.
> CH



Great to see the lathe has arrived already, that was quick.
I used WD40 as well, but what worked well for me was to use a cotton rag (and shop paper towels for final cleanup) soaked in WD40 and the dirtier the rag got the better it worked, especially on the thicker stuff, I just kept adding WD40 as needed.
If you have bulk WD40 and a paint brush that works to apply the product or use a separate container and dip the corner of the rag to keep it moist.
I used quite a few pairs of disposable glove,s as it's messy as you already know.



David.


----------



## pacifica (Jun 30, 2018)

.LMS. said:


> Can you elaborate on this?


1236 is a shorter length than the 1340. Swing is an inch less. I believe the headstock and ways are the same as far as heft on both lathes.

I get a little side to side sway on my 1340gt. Vfd helps to get a sweet spot as far as harmonic distortion reduction.

I had a boxford 9x28 that had less sway than the 1340gt, because of the shorter headstock and shorter bed i suspect.


----------



## COMachinist (Jul 1, 2018)

Ok, Did some cosmoline cleaning today, got the top of the crate off and every thing look in good shape. Some rubbing during the trip from Taiwan, but nothing a little touchup won't handle. One thing is strange the lathe did not come with a power cord, and you guessed it there is nothing in the manual about where to connect one, in fact nothing on power schematics at all? I need to call Matt and at least get a set install direction on the power cord. I have some 14awg 3 conductor power cord left from an other project. That is just crazy for a 5000.00 lathe and no power cord. LMAO.
As the French say, "Tant Pis." Some pix today, Painted the stands, the graphite color like it better than the Battle ship Gray. This thing was soaked in that brown Cosmoline. Wife mad me undress out on the back porch . If anyone has a clear pix or a schematic of where to install the power cable just plain-Jane 220 1ph. There is a lot of things jammed in that little box on the back of the lathe.
CH


----------



## Kiwi Canuck (Jul 1, 2018)

Manual is on the PM website, the 1236T uses same manual as the 1340GT

http://www.precisionmatthews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PM-1340GT-PM-1236T-11-10-17-V5.pdf

Page 5 has the connection details.

Let us know if you need any other info.

David.


----------



## COMachinist (Jul 1, 2018)

Oh ok thanks David, I got a manual in the crate with the lathe but it is not the same as the link thanks for you help on this.
This lathe is sure light years better than the old Clausing. The lathe is very clean insiide,  no sand in the gear boxes. How ever the Chuck needs to be deep cleaned it is real gritty in side. Im going to put my Bison on a d1-4 back plate. That will be my main chuck and the Shars zero set will be my main small Chuck. The dials and hand cranks are smooth as glass and I'm using mobile way oil on everything which makes them ever smoother. I think I'm going to really like this new lathe. This is a nice hobby size lathe. Can't wait to get it broke-in and making chips.
CH


----------



## COMachinist (Jul 4, 2018)

Ok making a little progress today just about got her all cleaned up just a few spots here and there. Got the BXA QCTP on today motor wired and the lathe mounted on the stand and getting it leveled. Will break it in tomorrow afternoon then some chips. It was 99 in the shop today so I am taking it slow. This year has been a scorcher. We where 15deg over our average temp today, and man it has been a dry year so far. It will be fun when get all my machines up running again.
Keep cool hydrate.
CH


----------



## navav2002 (Jul 5, 2018)

That's Awesome!!


----------



## COMachinist (Jul 5, 2018)

navav2002 said:


> That's Awesome!!


Thanks it looks to be very well built lathe, and it feels rock soild aswell. Like said this thing is several orders of magnatudebetter than theold clausing 100 mk3a I have been using. Looking forward to finishing my projects that are in the works already, I had to put all my lathe work on hold when the bearings started giving me chatter and realy poor results. I can’t get bearings untill sometime next year Timken want make a prodution run of the precision tapper rollers that i uses.
CH


----------



## pacifica (Jul 5, 2018)

After you get it leveled I would check:
TIR at inner spindle nose.
Difference in height of ways from spindle to end of bed.
TIR with chuck and a pin gage.
Turn a piece of 1.5" steel rod over 5"  of the length and measure the difference in diameter, checking for taper.
Difference in height between tailstock and spindle.
Run motor for over 15 minutes and check the temperature.


----------



## COMachinist (Jul 6, 2018)

Ok, got the PM-1236T power wired did the check list before running it started out at the lowest speed ran it up to top speed runing at each speed both Forward & reverse 10min each then random feed rates left and right for 10 min. So think it got broken in. Ok, seemed like it got quiter as I ran it. I then skimm cut the new back plates that had run out, to true them up before mounting a chuck. I checked the spindle for run out both inside and outside it less than .0001 on my Sterrett large face .0001 indictor. I wish I could say the factory chuck was that good but it had more than .004 TIR on a ground rod, 25mm from the chuck and close to 6 thou 100mm from the chuck. So I need to skim cut and remount it to get closer to useable. I may need grind the jaws to get it down to 2 or less thousands. I think my 0 set chuck can be dialed in to 1 or w tenths.we’ll just have to see. This is going to be fun. I knowthis is not a comprehensive report but I just wanted to get an idea on the lathe. This will be my last report in this thread now that it is up and running I will continue with how this lathe responds to tunning.
Thanks for watching.
CH


----------

