Awesome New Mill- Is it worth it?

wrmiller said:
Lots of good information here. The short answer is as stated above. Small cutters in aluminum = higher spindle rpm the better. If you occasionally work in steel, simply slow your rpm/feedrate and depth of cut. I had a early PM25 that I converted to belt drive (it was already variable speed), and it could cut anything within it's size envelope, including titanium and SS. BUT...as said above, you need to adjust your settings for any given cutter/material/setup. These machines will talk to you if you listen. They will tell you if they are not happy with your current selections. Sometimes quite loudly! :D

IMO geared head machines are for slow(er), heavier cuts in steel. And for guys who want to use it as a overpriced drill press. But that's just an opinion, YMMV.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input, reinforces everything that I'm coming to understand about the subject. It really sounds like I can't go wrong, and the differences are really just minor convenience issues.

Of course, that hasn't stopped me from letting you guys fuel my feature creep, and now I'm looking at way more mill than I really anticipated.

Great!
 
mksj said:
The nice thing about variable speed is you can dial the speed to suit the material and cutting parameters. With aluminum, you also need some way to evacuate the chips and provide some form of coolant, or just some air and a can of WD40. There is a learning curve with different materials, so when using aluminum you want to do climb cutting to get the best finish and not regrind the chips.

The top speed of 2200-2400 RPM is plenty, you only need higher speeds for smaller cutters at high feed rates, more CNC territory or very small cutters. More Hp = bigger end mills, faster feeds and quicker material removal. My gearhead mill went to 3000 RPM, never used it past around 2400 RPM. If I needed a lot of material removal I put in a 1/2" or 3/4" roughing end mill and the chips would fly, which will not be a problem with a 2Hp motor. At the end of the day having double the Hp will go a long way and make the mill much more usable over a wider speed range. As far as I am aware all these gear head mills, but the two speed VFD should have less gears whirling around. As other have mentioned, weight is usually a concern with your first mill, and then you realize that weight is your friend (rigidity) when it comes to mills and lathes. A 500lB machine should be very manageable, a good starting point and even if you just drill some holes with it and occasionally mill a part, a whole lot of fun.

Well looked at the PM-30MV, the picture of the mill shows it as a belt drive and the RPM range of Low 50-1500 and High 1400-3000. So it does not match up with what is in the description. Definitely worth some questions when you connect with them. Otherwise the way to go over the vs. the PM927.
http://www.precisionmatthews.com/shop/pm-30mv/
Click to expand...

Man, you are the "man." Unless you're a woman. And these days, I think there are a few more choices. . .

J/K but I really do appreciate your input. I just put my wife nearly to sleep with a comparison of the two and the pros and cons. Not kidding.

And it's true, I wasn't really looking at the PM30MV, but now that I am it leaves me wondering, what in the world is the purpose of introducing the PM 727V? It's a lot less mill at nearly the same price. . .
 
Come to the BarZ Summer Bash and perhaps WIN a PM-30MV for the price of a single raffle ticket:
 
FWIW, I really wanted the PM30 that Matt was carrying back in the Ziess(sp) days, but he sold the last one literally just before I called. And he didn't have the 940 back then either. I did have a all-black Charter Oak mill that I called El Hefe, and it was a beast. It could take any cut my 935 can, but I had to put some serious work into it to get it to that point, including re-machining and scraping pretty much everything. About a year's worth IIRC. Not something I'd recommend to the casual home/hobby machinist.

Oh, and this forum and the guys who hang out here are more than happy to help you spend WAY more than you ever intended to. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. :D
 
JetMech, if I win the PM-30MV I will give you first chance at it...
 
wrmiller said:
FWIW, I really wanted the PM30 that Matt was carrying back in the Ziess(sp) days, but he sold the last one literally just before I called. And he didn't have the 940 back then either. I did have a all-black Charter Oak mill that I called El Hefe, and it was a beast. It could take any cut my 935 can, but I had to put some serious work into it to get it to that point, including re-machining and scraping pretty much everything. About a year's worth IIRC. Not something I'd recommend to the casual home/hobby machinist.

Oh, and this forum and the guys who hang out here are more than happy to help you spend WAY more than you ever intended to. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. :D
Click to expand...

Oh sure, I"m sure you guys will recommend all sorts of goodies, I know that I will spend the mills price again at least on tooling. I already have a few basics, but man there are some neat toys out there.

I do think that buying an essentially ready-to-go machine will be agood start for me at my experience level. But then there is z-axis power, x axis power, DRO, all kinds of good stuff to get int he future, along with the never-ending catalog of tooling temptations. . .

And then I want to jettison my HF lathe for the PM1030V, that is until you guys convince me I really need a 14x40. . .
 
JetMech said:
And then I want to jettison my HF lathe for the PM1030V, that is until you guys convince me I really need a 14x40. . .
Click to expand...

Naw...I may 'suggest' a 1340GT. But I will admit to being a bit biased as I do have one. And love it. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top