Thank you Pontiac. Can you tell me where you found this data? I am starting to get a little perturbed with PM. Their telling me to beat the panels out with a mallet and they do not have a manual for this lathe. They say the panel will take 6-8 months to order which scares me. If I have an issues with anything else will I be down for that long? The manual is just poor service and would have been nice to be alerted to this. How can you tell this has a clutched feed stop and does this work only with the half nut threading lever and not the actual feed? Don't want to hurt anything now I am gun shy.
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Buying my first new lathe. Chinese or Chinese?
- Thread starter Rufustoad
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- Apr 23, 2018
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After opening my mouth about a generality and realizing I didn't know your particular machine, I looked at the product page for the PM 14" series of lathes and it said the feed was slipper clutched. It isn't really visible in the product pictures. Usually if there is a seperate drive spindle and a lead screw, the drive spindle is clutched and the lead screw is shear-pinned, so you do need to manually stop/disengage threading ops. Clutches are usually adjustable for force, so it's a tradeoff between feed power and machine protection. My lathe has both a drive spindle clutch and a precision feed disengagement, so the the clutch functions as an overload safety only. I think they intend for your lathe to be run against a hard stop, so no reason not to. Hopefully the manual has some sort of spec for setting the clutch as a periodic maintenance item. There is probably another shear pin in the final drive on the drive spindle output in case anything goes wrong.
I would have waited… anyhow its all up to personal perspective.
Refused , charge back on credit card . This was not a $500 lathe from Amazon with free shipping. $9000 and they charge you $500 to ship it and that’s how it shows up **** that. I am tired of the that’s how it is.
P.m. needs to sort out a better carrier.
There is very poor parts support across the board in all manufacturing . I have cars on our lot 2020 and newer sitting waiting for parts. Some parts are on back order.
Sadly you need to buy 2 of everything to assure some parts, lol.
I have a PM1440GT. If you download the online manual from PM, the clutched feed stop is shown on page 13. Figure 3-15. The paragraphs above this figure describes its operation. I the figure the clutch mechanism is the cylinder like piece that is on the feed bar just at the gear box. When the feed is engaged and and the saddle is moving due to the feed bar rotation, when the saddle hits a non-moveable object, like the mechanical saddle stop the excess force (torque load) on the feed bar causes the feed bar to not turn due to the clutch.
Yes, a nice feature that does work. However, I use my proximity sensor and VFD conversion controls to stop the feed and motor. It not only stops the feed, but does so by stopping the motor. The mechanical clutch system does not stop the spindle from turning. It just sets there and goes click, click, click... as the feed bar is disengaged each revolution. If you were feeding (threading) with the lead screw then I do not see a clutch for this.
Pontiac you are 100% correct. It is a spring clutch on the drive spindle. I downloaded a manual for another machine and see what you are talking about. Thank you!! This IMO is a good option for any lathe and one I was determined to have when purchasing this machine. I just wasn't sure how it worked. Do you know of any good tutorials on checking the head stock and tail stock alignment that you would be willing to point me to?
mac, I am definitely with you. I just happen to be in the customer support line, and I take care of my customer no matter if it's our fault or not. As long as they are happy then I am doing my job, and my product is a lot less expensive just 100 times more than PM. I am going to hold out and see what PM says and does before I make too many waves, but you are correct, I spent a lot of money to be told just beat it with a hammer. I honestly do not think this was the carrier's fault as the lathe fell through the skid. I think the skid was too weak for the weight. I am not sure who skids these (can wood be shipped overseas?) but it should be PM's responsibility to make sure the correct stuff is used for shipping.
mac, I am definitely with you. I just happen to be in the customer support line, and I take care of my customer no matter if it's our fault or not. As long as they are happy then I am doing my job, and my product is a lot less expensive just 100 times more than PM. I am going to hold out and see what PM says and does before I make too many waves, but you are correct, I spent a lot of money to be told just beat it with a hammer. I honestly do not think this was the carrier's fault as the lathe fell through the skid. I think the skid was too weak for the weight. I am not sure who skids these (can wood be shipped overseas?) but it should be PM's responsibility to make sure the correct stuff is used for shipping.
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2018
- Messages
- 6,877
For routine use, I use the steel rule trick with two centers. For proving a newly installed lathe, I suggest looking up "Rollie's dad's method" which is a variation on the "two collar test." Those are the search terms that will get you there. They involve turning a test part to confirm alignment both vertical and horizontal, and are simple to do in the grand scheme of things.
AH that makes perfect sense. I used to use a pretty expensive lathe 10ish years ago that would stop the feed but I now get what you mean.
This sounds very interesting although doesn't that become an issue to have to start again to take another pass or do you just use this as a final pass set up?
Got it thanks. I just finished printing out that 70-page manual so maybe I can get somewhere now. I should charge them $10 a page
