New Member From Langley Bc Ready To Start Lathe & Mill Shopping

[tmarks11]

The good news is I got to learn a lot about DRO's which I knew very little except they were a worthwhile addition, the videos on DRO Pros were very good.

DRO on a mill is a must have, in my book.

DRO on a lathe is a nice to have, but easy enough to do almost everything you need with a $30 magnet backed travel indicator. That being said, I am buying a DRO for my lathe for Christmas because she has been good to me.

 

[Muskt]

Fabbed an add-on out of 2x2 square tubing. The first pic is of the base--Disregard the 4 extra holes on the left side (senior moment)--Should only have the 2 in the center like the right side.

The other pic is the lathe in its new home (before all the "stuff" is piled around). The 31.5 inch measurement is to the bottom of the drip pan which is close
enough to the bottom of the lathe.

I don't know about the spindle height, shop is locked up for the night.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

Fabbed an add-on out of 2x2 square tubing. The first pic is of the base--Disregard the 4 extra holes on the left side (senior moment)--Should only have the 2 in the center like the right side.

The other pic is the lathe in its new home (before all the "stuff" is piled around). The 31.5 inch measurement is to the bottom of the drip pan which is close
enough to the bottom of the lathe.

I don't know about the spindle height, shop is locked up for the night.

View attachment 139410 View attachment 139411

OK thanks for the info, why did you build the base, was it too short or what??

BTW what size chuck is on your lathe, it looks bigger than standard 6"?

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

DRO on a mill is a must have, in my book.

DRO on a lathe is a nice to have, but easy enough to do almost everything you need with a $30 magnet backed travel indicator. That being said, I am buying a DRO for my lathe for Christmas because she has been good to me.

I need all the help I can get so I'll definitely will get the DRO on the mill and hopefully the lathe as well.

 

[Muskt]

I wanted to be able to "level" it, & saw a similar base by another member. It is OK, I just wish it wasn't quite so tall.
The chuck is the factory 4-jaw.

Jerry in Delaware

 

[Chipper5783]

An obvious solution is that you need to get 3 lathes, one for each location.

Will you continue to use the machines? Yes. Machining will take over your life, all other hobbies will cease to have any relevance. Within 6 months, you will find that some machining will be required for any project you undertake - no matter how distant it is from actual metal working and you will wonder how you survived as long as you have without easy access to machine tools.

I bought my 15" lathe from Modern Tool in Burnaby in 1983. I was green as grass but had $$ burning a hole in my pocket (and they helped big time with that). Sure I cried once on the price, but many times as I look back - no regrets, that 15" lathe has been a good machine for me. I have since purchased 5 more primary machines and all put together those 5 come to what I paid for that first machine (sort of like dollar cost averaging). I think your assessment of MT really catering to commercial clients is probably correct. I generally have a low expectation of getting customer service, so the onus is on me to get what I want. At one time I thought it would become a business, but no - machining has been a great hobby for me for many years.

After many years of various compromise arrangements, I finally built the shop. With our yard & house, it was pretty easy to add onto the existing garage. I really like that the shop is attached and I can be working on some project in less than a minute and miserable weather is no issue (in fact it is almost an invitation to light the wood stove, get that radiant heat soaking into my bones).

Be sure to let us know what you finally settle on.

Regards, David

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

An obvious solution is that you need to get 3 lathes, one for each location.

Will you continue to use the machines? Yes. Machining will take over your life, all other hobbies will cease to have any relevance. Within 6 months, you will find that some machining will be required for any project you undertake - no matter how distant it is from actual metal working and you will wonder how you survived as long as you have without easy access to machine tools.

I bought my 15" lathe from Modern Tool in Burnaby in 1983. I was green as grass but had $$ burning a hole in my pocket (and they helped big time with that). Sure I cried once on the price, but many times as I look back - no regrets, that 15" lathe has been a good machine for me. I have since purchased 5 more primary machines and all put together those 5 come to what I paid for that first machine (sort of like dollar cost averaging). I think your assessment of MT really catering to commercial clients is probably correct. I generally have a low expectation of getting customer service, so the onus is on me to get what I want. At one time I thought it would become a business, but no - machining has been a great hobby for me for many years.

After many years of various compromise arrangements, I finally built the shop. With our yard & house, it was pretty easy to add onto the existing garage. I really like that the shop is attached and I can be working on some project in less than a minute and miserable weather is no issue (in fact it is almost an invitation to light the wood stove, get that radiant heat soaking into my bones).

Be sure to let us know what you finally settle on.

Regards, David

Hey David, great reply, I wouldn't be surprised if I end up buying a set for the business and another for home, it has crossed my mind. But first I need to make my first purchase and get that under my belt.

I'm really torn on location, my wife has said as long as it doesn't take away from her parking in the middle bay (which probably means being able to open her car door to get out) I can put them in the house garage.

I may get the PM 1236/PM932 package first and then once up to speed move them to the business and get the larger Taiwanese made machines for here.

Got to choose soon as I've given myself until Nov 24th as my deadline.

David.

 

[Muskt]

I measured my 12x36 today, & it is 47.5 at the spindle center. It sits on a 2 inch square tubing base with adjustable leveling feet under the base.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

I measured my 12x36 today, & it is 47.5 at the spindle center. It sits on a 2 inch square tubing base with adjustable leveling feet under the base.

Thanks for the info. pretty sure I'll also need to increase the height if I go with the stock cabinets.

I felt like I had made my mind up on buying the PM1236/PM932 and then I met with my oldest son for lunch today.

I mentioned I was looking at buying these machines and was tossing up between China or Taiwan made machines, I also asked him if he could help with some conduit work, he said no problem.

He reminded me that I always buy quality (and preach quality) and why would I be considering less. Dang!! nothing like someone who knows you to remind you of your values.

So I will review my thought process and see if I come back to those same machines or up the anti, the exchange rate is brutal at the moment (approx $1.38 CND to buy $1 US) so I'm definitely having a hard time justifying the PM1340GT/PM935 price tag.

I finished my excel spreadsheet, it was actually a pretty good exercise, but took about 3-4 hrs to come up with a layout that made sense.

I was able to add or delete options to evaluate pricing with different machines and different optional extras including DRO's and tooling.

Quick question for the Canadians who have purchased machines from QMT and had them shipped to Canada, did you get hit with extra freight and what about brokerage and duty?

How did you handle that, use a broker or clear it yourself.?

Matt suggested drop shipping to Lynden, WA. and I go and pick them up and clear them myself, I would have to rent truck/trailer and lift equipment and would probably negate any savings.

I'm thinking direct delivery to my door and I have a neighbor with a fork lift that maybe able to assist with unloading, hopefully eliminating the need to rent lifting equipment and also would feel more comfortable with the safety of having a proper machine to move the big mill especially. I will need to check with him and see if that's an option and if his forklift has the capacity I need.

Any feedback on that would be appreciated.

David

 

[tmarks11]

Matt suggested drop shipping to Lynden, WA. and I go and pick them up and clear them myself, I would have to rent truck/trailer and lift equipment and would probably negate any savings.

If you do, I recommend you rent a drop deck trailer. Makes it much easier to get the machines off, because you can lower the trailer bed completely to the ground with the built in hydraulic lift. $85-110 per day from sunbelt rental.

That makes it so you just run your pallet jack underneath the pallet and roll it off the trailer.... unless the $#%^& pallet is built out of 2x4 which your pallet jack won't fit into, so then you have to pick it up with a gantry crane so you can block up the pallet enough to get the pallet jack under, and it take 90 minutes to unload instead of the glorious 30 sec your brain said it would take...because you have to push everything in the garage up against the far wall to get room to put the trailer underneath the gantry crane...

... true story....