My journey putting a new PM833TV mill in service

[tweinke]

Wow awesome writeup! Enjoyed the nice pictures also.

 

[sycle1]

Great pictures of the journey, thanks for taking us on the ride.

 

[StevSmar]

I sure like how you moved your Mill into the basement. I made ramps for my PM-1224T lathe, but it was a lot of (unnecessary) work.

Thanks for documenting your power feed and DRO install too!

 

[IR-JEB]

StevSmar,

I also agree the system I used to move the mill was a great over kill however it was a test run for moving a PM1440GT lathe into the basement. Hope to have the lathe within a month or so. The container ship is moving up the east coast again as it just departed the Savannah port today.

I did have a good time installing the DRO and power feeds for the mill. They have both been working well. Its great to have the abilities of both DRO measurement and the power feed. The positional repeatability is so convenient.

Thanks

 

[StevSmar]

…I also agree the system I used to move the mill was a great over kill however it was a test run for moving a PM1440GT lathe into the basement...

That made me laugh!!! Your scheme was very restrained compared to what I did:







What I did was expensive and took A LOT of of time… If I’d knew then what I knew now, I would have done things differently, either using a scheme like yours or more likely pulling the lathe apart.
(The ramp was designed so it could be split and then the lower portion lowered down to level for lifting the lathe off the ramp. I didn’t do that in practice because I almost had enough room to lift the lathe off without that step).

Having said that though, my system worked very well and I was able to easily winch the lathe back up (for perhaps when we move…)

That’s exciting your lathe is on the move again. I found it was so much fun being able to track my lathe from Taiwan and my Mill from near San Diego.

 

[Janderso]

I have been very deficient in posting regarding my PM833TV mill, however my progress was slow.

I have utilized many posts in this group to improve my understanding and knowledge in many areas. I am extremely grateful for those that shared their experiences for others to benefit from. As a result, I will make multiple posts to this thread outlining the process I went through to build a stand, get the mill into my shop which is in a 9-foot-deep basement, putting the mill on the stand, installing the power feed for the X and Z axis, installing the 3 axis DRO a MagXact MX-200M, and a couple of minor tweaks along the process. I hope someone can find value in my posting.

I ordered this mill on February 25, 2022, and it was ready for pickup on March 17th! At the same time I ordered a PM1440GT which had an expected arrival of August, which has been pushed back to mid-October. A recent check has confirmed the lathe is in a container and is on a ship homeward bound! Precision Mathews is an easy day’s drive from my home being just under 225 miles one way. So, my wife and our dog went on a road trip to Precision Mathews to pick the mill up. This was a good opportunity to see the business and meet some of the staff.

We arrived about 11:00 in the morning. Finishing the transaction and loading the mill went off without any issues and they were very prompt. Also got a nice tour of the facility, did not get any pictures outside of my mill waiting for pickup. As expected, the warehouse had a lot of room waiting for incoming shipments. We only meet a handful of people, but they were all very nice and happy to show the facility. They all appeared to have a lot of pride in working at PM.

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Building a stand for the PM833TV while it sits on the trailer in the garage.

I started to work on the stand next as my main support assistant for moving items is my son and he had work priorities and vacation scheduled.

I was lucky to have the mill at my residence and have the time to configure a workable plan for the stand. I settled on building a stand of the following dimensions, 35” wide by 31” deep by 31” high; the chip pan is 38” wide and 34” deep. I constructed the stand utilizing 2 X 2-inch steel box tube top horizontal members and legs with a wall of 3/16” and 1/8” 2 X 2 tube for the rest of the main support. I wanted the base of the mill to sit inside the chip pan, so I raised the mill up on a 2 X 4-inch ¼ inch wall riser to enable the Y axis crank handle to be used without impacting fingers and places the base of the mill approximately 33 1/4“ above the floor with the wheels installed.

I only have a TIG machine for welding, so make sure I have the metal cleaned well prior to welding. Below is a picture of the tube for the stand ready to weld up.

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Below is a picture of the riser block which will sit in the chip pan

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I wanted to test the hole locations in the riser block for proper spacing before drilling the chip pan. I set the mill on the riser and used guide pins to verify a good fit.

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The welding for the main frame went off without any issues. I wanted to add swarf catch pans to this design, so I purchased a couple food service stainless steel steam table pans (12 3/4” X 20 3/4” X 6”) and configured a rack to enable the pans to be slid under the chip pans.

View attachment 419722

The frame is getting heavy now, so I had to get help getting it down off the table so I could work on the chip pan. At this point, the stand is 260 pounds which includes the riser.

View attachment 419723

I welded in 2 sections of rectangular steel box to the chip pan so the swarf / chips can be pushed or swept into the pans below. I used 3” X 5” X 0.120” rectangle tube just 3 inches long to help direct swarf into the pans below. So far this has been working well.



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All cleaned up and ready to get it powder coated.

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After powder coating and finally in my basement

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Holy cow,
I just found this post.
Beautiful job on the stand!!
The engineered plan to lower the machine tool to the lower region was also very well done sir!!

 

[IR-JEB]

That made me laugh!!! Your scheme was very restrained compared to what I did:
View attachment 424584

View attachment 424585

View attachment 424586

View attachment 424587
What I did was expensive and took A LOT of of time… If I’d knew then what I knew now, I would have done things differently, either using a scheme like yours or more likely pulling the lathe apart.
(The ramp was designed so it could be split and then the lower portion lowered down to level for lifting the lathe off the ramp. I didn’t do that in practice because I almost had enough room to lift the lathe off without that step).

Having said that though, my system worked very well and I was able to easily winch the lathe back up (for perhaps when we move…)

That’s exciting your lathe is on the move again. I found it was so much fun being able to track my lathe from Taiwan and my Mill from near San Diego.

Your original plan looks like it worked out perfectly and will be even more of a benefit when and if you need move equipment back up against gravity. As long as the equipment is moved safely and without any injury or damage its a success! Just another of the opportunities those of us with shops in the basement or lower level must figure out. Thanks for posting your method.

 

[IR-JEB]

Holy cow,
I just found this post.
Beautiful job on the stand!!
The engineered plan to lower the machine tool to the lower region was also very well done sir!!

Thanks, the stand has been working out as planned. I will likely be adding a pull out to the lowest level to permit storage of heavy items. I will have it slide to the side. I have a 8 inch rotary table blocked up in that area now.

 

[DeadGuyAle]

I'll second the beautiful stand comment! very nice bit of work and design.
What did you clean the metal with? Soda blasting?
Moving method was also very interesting and a good educational read.

 

[IR-JEB]

I'll second the beautiful stand comment! very nice bit of work and design.
What did you clean the metal with? Soda blasting?
Moving method was also very interesting and a good educational read.

Thanks for the kind comments.

I used an Eastwood contour surface conditioning tool (SCT) with a 40 grit drum. I have tried various methods of removing mill scale and this seems to be the best so far. It strips the mill scale without a lot of effort and does not remove much base metal. I am still using the 1st 40 grit drum and it was used for the mill stand and two other relatively large carbon steel projects. The drum still has approximately 50% left. FYI -it’s also my go to for prepping stainless, I use a finer drum for that however.