Liang Dei Ld 1216gh, Picked It Up Yesterday

Good day or Evening. I have been looking at the Liang Dei 1236gh for some time which I believe is the same machine. I have two motorcycles up for sale to pay for a lathe a nd a Genuinely interested fellow is coming tomorrow with cash in hand and if so Mon or Tues I will be buying a lathe. For the money and knowing I need way too many things to get going it looks like a real nice machine to get going. I am a licenced Machinist out of the trade for some time and want to get a home little shop together and be able to challenge myself on my own time and money. What money?
You see a fair bit of them in there second decade still purring along doing what it was designed for. So may I ask since there really isn't a whole lot of information about these machines other than the pm 1340gt. May I ask your opinion of it and has it met your expectation for the size of the machine.
 
Is there an equivalent lathe available here in the states?
 
Eisen 1236gh and in a 1340 flavor the Precision Matthews pm 1340gt which is very highly regarded. They all come from a well regarded Taiwan Machine Tool Man. Been in contact with both about machines and both companies that deal with these here in North America seem to be top shelf companies as well. Going insane on the decision. The price justs keeps climbing and if I sell my other bike I may get an Eisen 1440E or pm 1440gt. Jeez that pm 1236 looks good too! Wait a minute that ones not from there but a darn good machine! Shouldn't be this hard to buy a lathe should it? Either which way I Can't wait to make chips again! Woo! HOO!
 
MarkM said:
Good day or Evening. I have been looking at the Liang Dei 1236gh for some time which I believe is the same machine. I have two motorcycles up for sale to pay for a lathe a nd a Genuinely interested fellow is coming tomorrow with cash in hand and if so Mon or Tues I will be buying a lathe. For the money and knowing I need way too many things to get going it looks like a real nice machine to get going. I am a licenced Machinist out of the trade for some time and want to get a home little shop together and be able to challenge myself on my own time and money. What money?
You see a fair bit of them in there second decade still purring along doing what it was designed for. So may I ask since there really isn't a whole lot of information about these machines other than the pm 1340gt. May I ask your opinion of it and has it met your expectation for the size of the machine.
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hi Mark, I was not aware you could even get them in Nth America, certainly not under the Liang Die name, As I have said before I believe that some of the PM machines, The Taiwanese ones only are made in the same factory, and appear to be identical except for a few cosmetic changes , like different colour, name plate, The specs all read the same, and the machine appears to be the same. And they are made in the same factory. So my bet is they are the same.

Yes, so far very happy with my purchase. I must admit I haven't really tested it to the limits yet, but very happy with low noise level at all speeds, parting off is excellent, as is general turning and facing. Tested the backlash on the cross slide the other day about.0015 and that is as it was delivered I haven't adjusted anything, I don't think it needs it.

An old mate of mine, now retired, like me, used to sell machine tools, most of his life, and he tells me they have had an excellent reputation for quite a while.

My only wish is that I had the room for a longer machine 16" between centers is fairly short. In fact the dealers here don't normally carry that model, the dealer had to bring it in especially for me, but that was no problem as they were just ordering a whole bunch of the larger models for the local trade school in Melbourne.

Although I don't have any jobs in mind that won't fit. I'm impressed with the rigidity, the nice firm feel without being tight any where is a very good sign. These machines have a very good reputation her in down under. Many of the trade schools use them, apparently they are almost student proof.
 
MarkM said:
Eisen 1236gh and in a 1340 flavor the Precision Matthews pm 1340gt which is very highly regarded. They all come from a well regarded Taiwan Machine Tool Man. Been in contact with both about machines and both companies that deal with these here in North America seem to be top shelf companies as well. Going insane on the decision. The price justs keeps climbing and if I sell my other bike I may get an Eisen 1440E or pm 1440gt. Jeez that pm 1236 looks good too! Wait a minute that ones not from there but a darn good machine! Shouldn't be this hard to buy a lathe should it? Either which way I Can't wait to make chips again! Woo! HOO!
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Always a difficult choice. However for my money I'd be very cautious about any PM machines that come from China. I understand that PM stand by their products, but I'd be much happier knowing it was made in a more reputable place. The Taiwanese ones are, I believe very good.

I'm not sure about the laws in the US, but here in down under land, our consumer laws are quite strong, and very specific. "The importer of any product is deemed to be the manufacturer, and is therefor liable for full warranty claims and even issues like, is it capable of doing what it is supposed to do, is it of merchantable quality, they must also carry appropriate spare parts for a number of years after the last item was sold." There have been a number of cases here where the importer has had to supply a complete new model machine because some spare part was not available.
 
samthedog said:
I just checked the Specs:

http://www.liang-dei.com/LD1224.html

It's an interesting little machine. A spindle bore of 40mm is quite impressive. I was wondering why the top speed wasn't higher than 1500rpm until I saw the weight of the thing. I thought it would be heavier given the list of features. Very well specc'd.

Paul.
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Actually 1500 rpm is fine except for very small dia. It could always be sped up with a larger pulley on the motor. I have thought of fitting an electric clutch from car A/C drive in fact two or more could be fitted with different dia. pulleys to give higher and lower speeds. I find the lowest speed of 70 RPM a bit fast for threading, it would be nice to have a divide by 2 and a multiply by two in the drive line. I just realised that would require 3 clutches, low Normal and High. but what the heck. I'll need a digital RPM indicator.

Actually I was turning some 1"crs the other day using a carbide insert at only about 900 RPM worked a treat beautiful finish. I also parted off the same steel at about 600 RPM beautiful straight in on auto feed no bad noises no chatter clean cut nice finish.

As far as all the other specs a very nice machine, and yes I was a bit worried about the low weight, so I built a steel sub frame out of 75mm x 4mm square tubing all welded, and the lathe is bolted to that, which sits on the concrete floor with jacking screws for leveling.
 
Thank you for your response and have you thought about a vfd which would give you the ability to extend the rpm range. It could be quite extensive and add some torque with the right motor that would enable you to use the vfd functions to its capacity.
They are light machines but put together well. Take a look at the spindle wall, spindle and tailstock thickness, the consistent look of the castings and has a good reputation for user feel with positive engagements and disengagements which to me is almost like riding a motorcycle. It should stir the soul, It's not just about the specs.
 
Also if your worried about threading for now with the high spindle speed and running into a shoulder you could always turn your tool upside down, start from your undercut and run the spindle reverse with feed direction to your tailstock. Keeps your heart out of your throat!
 
bobshobby said:
Australia also did that and I think possibly some lathes from Japan. This model is available in left hand or right hand also available with metric or imperial leadscrew, as I ordered imperial leadscrew I automatically got RH saddle. Although it is set up for imperial threads it also has the 120 x 127 change wheels for cutting metric threads, and the full chart for both
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I believe then reason for the carriage hand wheel on the right is so you don't get all those hot chips on your hand when hand feed ing, it works too.
 
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