I have done business with Matt and it can get frutrating sometimes to get a response from him. He is a small operation and he does many of the jobs himself. That being said he is a top notch guy and a man of his word. I ordered an x axis power feed for my PM-25. It took waaaay longer to get than expected. It showed up at my house one day without me paying for it. I contacted Matt and he said he was not going to charge me because it took soooo long. I have also had some minor warranty items on my mill that Matt resolved quickly with new parts over nighted to me.
Hey, sorry to get back to you so late, I'm sure you aren't worried about it. I ultimately didn't buy a mill- I still have it on my list but once everyone convinced me to go for the larger, belt driven mill, I decided to back off and save a few more pennies.
Also, I realized that there were many cleanup projects that needed my attention before I tried to situate a mchine of this size in my work area. I will buy a mill soon, and it will probably be the PM30V. Thanks to everyone for their advice, it certainly informed my thought process.
I agree that Matt's reputation is good, but I will say, if I pay this much for merch of any kind I expect prompt attetntion to my concerns and questions. One thing that cooled me off on this sale was the way that it was hard to get any information out of QMT, and there are some more things I'd like to know before I buy.
A comment on your upgrade path: Very first thing should be a high quality milling vise. High quality is important here because that is what will hold all your material and it needs to be accurate and square. This is one place to spend significant money because if you get a cheap vise nothing is going to be straight or repeatable. And a good set of parallels.
Then a system to tram the mill and set the vise absolutely square as you bolt it to the table.
Then the other things you mentioned after that.
Size of the milling vise is really important to size of your mill and I'll let others comment on size because I am not familiar with your mill.
Great advice, certainly correct. I've looked at 4" and 5" Kurts and I cannot believe that you can't make something 95% as good, for less. You pay a lot for the "K-U-R-T" decoration. I'll be in the market for a good knock-off, probably. Recommendations?
I agree with Cadillac, a good vise is the most important "accessory" you need. Kurt has "scratch and dent" vises available, they are fully functional warrantee and all but with minor cosmetic flaws, at a nice discount.
Also, I would consider getting the DRO before the power feed. IMHO the DRO is much more useful.
Yes, DRO would be really nice. $700 for the QMT one is too much for a Chinese DRO, so I'd have to install my own. I'd pretty much thought o f the vice as an integral component rather than an accessory, but I appreciate you guys making sure I know I need one.
I have something similar to this mill you talking about , i very quickly said this is not going to work , they rattle like a freight train on old track and the speeds are way to slow .
I got rid of the head and purchased a new belt drive head from Tormach from there 1100 model, speeds with VFD 150 t0 6,000 RPM ,yes you can buy the whole head .
And i soon discovered this was slow going and converted to cnc this added another whole dimension to my shop and what the hay we might as well CNC the lathe too ,i have to say it was the best thing i ever did .
But i had to do it piece meal because of funding but it has been fun doing it .
Yes, the folks here quickly convinced me that gear-heads were a waste of time. I'm interested in your swap- How did you determine the Tormach head would fit your mill? I'm really interested in that if you have any details.
I may get into CNC later but for now I figure I'll be better served by learning manual machining first. I will get into CNC someday, it's just too cool!
I agree with the comment on low speed. The lowest I could do was 50 RPM and the highest 2000 RPM. I added a speed controller to get as low as 15 RPM and I regularly use it for large bores.It also gets me as high as 3000 RPM. Later on I added a separate milling head that gives me up to 6000 RPM. But overall I find more use for the low speeds.
Very interesting- is this "separate head" a whole other milling head like Woffler above, or is it some tyoe of added attachment? In any case I appreciate your advice. It's clear I need variable speed and a wide envelope.
Thanks for all the replies everyone, I try to respond quickly but for some reson I wasn't getting notifications for a while.
