# Picking Up My New Pm-1340gt Tomorrow!!!!



## JimFouch (Aug 26, 2016)

I'm pretty stoked. This will be my first REAL lathe. I've had a little TOY Harbor Freight 7x10 for 12 or so years. Haven't really used it a lot. But, I'm planning on using this 1340 quite a bit. I have several products I want to develop that this lathe and my PM-940M-CNC mills will be great partners.   

Have spent some time on my buddy's 1960's Atlas/Sears and have been having a ton of fun learning what a real lathe can do.

It will be a while before I have the 1340 all setup and ready to run. I'm doing the 3Phase/VFD conversion so I will have variable speed. I also ordered the DRO package and QCTP.

Been ordering tooling and other goodies for it for several weeks.


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## tweinke (Aug 26, 2016)

Congratulations  on your new lathe! We want pictures


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## wrmiller (Aug 26, 2016)

Yup, pics are an absolute necessity around here....


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## JimFouch (Aug 28, 2016)

Made the trip to Pittsburgh yesterday. Took the trailer as it's easier to get the lathe out of there than the Silverado.

Still have a ton of work to do to get it up and running. I'm changing the motor out and doing the VFD conversion also. It will probably be a month or more before I'm ready to haul it down into my basement.


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## Alan H. (Oct 11, 2016)

Studying this lathe for possible purchase, so thread caught my attention.

How is the conversion coming.   What motor and VFD did you use.  

Any photos of it in its new home?


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## JimFouch (Oct 11, 2016)

I have it set up in my Garage for now. I've completed the motor upgrade to the Marathon E467 motor and also did the 3Phase VFD conversion. Took a while as I have been busy with work and other things in life. Was only able to work a few hours a night on it. Took about 1-1/2 weeks. I took my time and didn't want to rush it and mess something up.

I fired it up last week and was able to keep all the factory smoke in. With all the wiring and modifications, I was expecting to have at least a few issues to resolve in the wiring. But, to my surprise, everything just worked as designed.  

I'll post some pictures and maybe some videos. I'm still working on a few modifications like adding a tensioning bracket to the motor. Right now the motor has some bounce in it at certain RPMs. 

I'm also still in the process of building my Tach. I've decided to build my own so I can add more features. One for example is to tie it into the DRO and have the tach calculate my SFM based on position of the cross slide and spindle speed. I may also put pickups on the power bar and lead screw and be able to calculate the feed rate and TPI settings. I know the last two chosen by the gearbox, but I think it would be nice to have a verification that you can simply look at and know what you're working with.  I'm also going to build my own DRO to the tailstock. That one will simply  use a rotary encoder that will pick up off the turning of the handle and allow you to zero it out.

But as far as the machine itself, I can't say enough good things about it. I have cut some parts and it runs very nice. I don't have a lot of experience with running a lathe other than my small 7x10 Harbor Freight toy lathe I've had for 15 years. The PM-1340GT is obviously much larger, but everything about it looks and feels very good. The travel is very smooth. The feel on the handles is very smooth. I've put some serious money into this machine, but don't regret it at all. I'll probably have it the rest of my life, so I wasn't afraid of spending some money up front.

Right now, I still have a ton to learn. I also have to get some decent tools ground to start working on getting good surface finishes. 

I only have a few more days to play with it before I break it all down and cart it into the basement so it can take up a place next to my MP-940M-CNC mill.   



H&A said:


> Studying this lathe for possible purchase, so thread caught my attention.
> 
> How is the conversion coming.   What motor and VFD did you use.
> 
> Any photos of it in its new home?


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## jbolt (Oct 11, 2016)

Looking forward to seeing your DRO mods.


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## JimFouch (Oct 12, 2016)

I made a little more progress on setting up my new PM-1340GT. I decided to make a bracket to allow me to set the tension on the belt. Since I upgraded to the E467 motor the stock tension bar does not really work. I decided to use the same bolt on the back of the lathe to mount a small turn buckle to the bracket I cut on the PM-940M-CNC. I think it came out pretty nice. The lathe runs much much smoother than when I just crammed a 2x4 between the motor and the lathe to create some tension.  lol


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## JimFouch (Oct 12, 2016)

jbolt said:


> Looking forward to seeing your DRO mods.



Looking at the specs of the DRO, I think I can intercept the readings before they get to the DRO. Seeing movement is pretty simple, but knowing where you are in relation to the center of the part is another story.  I'm either going to add a number pad to my tach and set the diameter so the tach can then adjust as the crossfeed advances.

Another, much more complicated way is to hack the DRO itself and have it read from the display. This way would only require me keying in the diameter into the DRO. To do this, I would have to take apart the DRO and see how it sends the values to the actual display. There should be a driver chip that gets the reading and then multiplexes it out to the 7 segment displays. That would be the best place. I would not want to even think of trying to scan all the 7 segment displays. That would be a nightmare.

The hack should be easy enough using a logic analyzer and spending a few hours poking around.

Wouldn't be the first time I've hacked some hardware....




lol


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## jbolt (Oct 12, 2016)

Looks like fun. Certainly out of my depth. When it comes to hacking things bladed tools are usually involved.


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