# My Pm932m-pdf Journey.



## 65BAJA (Aug 26, 2015)

About a week ago I was finally able to bring home my 932 and get it set up. So far I have cleaned it up most of the shipping grease and grime. I ran it through all the gears in forward and reverse to break it in. Only issue I had in getting it going was trying to figure out the color code for the power wire, also the bolt provided for the DRO arm was too short. No biggie.

After the break in I spot faced the area of the vice base where the T nut bolts hold the swivel base to the mill. I only took about .015" off. Just enough to provide a nice flat even surface for the nut. I'll need to do some more cleaning on the T nut slots as the 9/16 T nuts are really tight in some spots. I've also done a little machining on an AR lower. Trying to salvage the mess that I made with the drill press and cheap cross slide vice.

It has become pretty clear in working on this thing that it is too low. I need to build a stand to go under the base. I was thinking about raising it about 6 or 7 inches total. For those of you that have 932's and have made stands, how tall did you make yours?

I have noticed a few quirks about the mill. The quill DRO is a little sticky and jumps around a little. If I can't get to start working better I might replace it with a Mitutoyo unit. Also the travel stops for the X axis power feed seem like they are in too far. I haven't really taken a look to see if there is a reason for this. Can I just move them out a little? The travel stop switch hits the back of the Y axis hand wheel. I think this is a known issue. I looks like the block the switch is mounted to could be a little thinner. But I'll probably make a spacer for the hand wheel like Ray Caniglia on YouTube did.


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## Dan_S (Aug 26, 2015)

65BAJA said:


> It has become pretty clear in working on this thing that it is too low. I need to build a stand to go under the base. I was thinking about raising it about 6 or 7 inches total. For those of you that have 932's and have made stands, how tall did you make yours?



This will depend a lot on the individual person height, and arm & leg length ratio. Imo, your best bed it to take a hand wheel off the mill and then find the biggest bolt that will fit through it. Then drill some holes in a 2x4 30" to 40" from the one end. Lean the 2x4 up against the wall and adjust the hand-wheel position till it feels right to you. Once you know that height, you can then calculate how much you need to raise your mill.



65BAJA said:


> unit. Also the travel stops for the X axis power feed seem like they are in too far. I haven't really taken a look to see if there is a reason for this. Can I just move them out a little?


Yea, you can move them, they are designed to be moved around as needed.


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## 65BAJA (Aug 27, 2015)

Here it is. 


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## wrmiller (Aug 27, 2015)

Very nice!


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## Morgan RedHawk (Aug 29, 2015)

I raised mine up about 6.5"..I used some 2"x4" rectangular tubing + the leveling feet.  I am 6' and the table is just above waist level.  It is a comfortable height for me.

How well does the machine handle that face mill?  I was thinking about getting one and wondered if it could manage a larger one like that.


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## 65BAJA (Aug 31, 2015)

I haven't really put it to the test yet. I took .025" off the face of a 1.25" cube. It didn't even notice the cube was there. I need to get some bigger stock and see what it can do.


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## wrmiller (Aug 31, 2015)

I have a Glacern 2.5" coming and am looking forward to putting it to work. Yours looks like a 3"?

We have very similar machines and I think I can safely say that you haven't even come close to stressing that mill out yet.


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## 65BAJA (Aug 31, 2015)

It's the 3". I think one of the inserts is a few tenths lower than the others. All the inserts are tight but one doesn't sit completely flat in it's seat and you can hear it when it's cutting. Oddly the finish is smooth so I'm ok with it.


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## wrmiller (Aug 31, 2015)

Is it 6 inserts or 5?

I got the 2.5 because of the uneven number (balance factor on smaller mills) and the fact that I get two complete setups in one box of 10 inserts.


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## Dan_S (Aug 31, 2015)

wrmiller19 said:


> I got the 2.5 because of the uneven number (balance factor on smaller mills) and the fact that I get two complete setups in one box of 10 inserts.



I got the Shars 1.5" because it had 3 inserts for the same reason, plus I think the 2.5" Glacern is to big for these mills to run in steel effectively. The 2.5" Glacern is on my list of tools to buy though.


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## 65BAJA (Aug 31, 2015)

It's 6 inserts. I bought some inserts for steel too but I haven't used them yet. 

I picked up some 1" X 3" drops of aluminum bar from work today to make some vice soft jaws out of. I want to try to make a video of the process. I need to do a little research first though.


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## 65BAJA (Aug 31, 2015)

.055 depth of cut, full width, full speed on the spindle, full speed on the auto feed. No problem at all.

At a .260 depth of cut I had to slow it down to #3 of the auto feed. Man, was it throwing some big chips at that point!


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## wrmiller (Aug 31, 2015)

Nice!  

My 2.5" should be showing up tomorrow. I have some 7075 T6 drops that I need to square up and get rid of the corner/edge dings. It looks like you cut dry? I will try dry and with the FogBuster to see what results I get.

If you did that with a 3" I should be fine with my 2.5" at 2k spindle rpm. Not sure I want to try 3k...


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## 65BAJA (Aug 31, 2015)

Dry, yes. I have a Noga mini cool system but I haven't set it up yet. I need to make a tank and hook it up to the compressor.


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## mksj (Sep 1, 2015)

Nice finish, I am in the same boat as Bill, 2.5" cutter with 5 Octangular inserts. One head for aluminum, another set up for steel.  Can get 2 insert sets out of a box of inserts, I think Shar's has a new cutter head that the inserts can be flipped for more cutting edges. I run my 2.5" at around 2200-2400RPM at 10-15 IPM with 0.050 - 0.100" cut for fast removal in aluminum, and finish cut of under 0.010".  When possible I prefer to spin faster and take more passes at higher feeds, not CNC level, but I can run up to 40 IPM on the X-axis. Just not comfortable with deeper cuts when facing material with my mill set-up. Also have the Noga mini cool system that I have modified, but haven't run the compressor lines and the tank system. I do fine with aluminum with a little local coolant application, but really could use the Noga/air when slotting.


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