New PM25 2 questions

[RandyR]

1. The up / down arrow buttons on the quill dro don’t seem to do anything. What is their function?

2. When raising or lowering the z axis a long way, the bellowed way cover pops off, bunches up, and belly’s out. This is a real nuisance. Is there a way to prevent this?

 

[RandyR]

I posted because I had not heard from PM after a few days. Just in from PM:

The arrows are for a special-use function that may not be all that useful. It's used with the zero key as below:
"Zero ----- reset / preset function key. The digital display ruler can realize zero clearing at any position. When the preset function is needed, long press the zero key for more than 3 seconds, and when the "s" flashing symbol appears at the top right of the screen, you can set the value you need through the preset number setting key. After setting, short press the zero key, and the "s" flashing symbol disappears, and relative measurement can be carried out."

The arrows are the "preset number setting key" that they talk about. never tried using it!

I don't know what to do about the cover. I would guess it will be less stiff as it "breaks in"... I guess you could train it to fold properly by restraining it with a loop of string in one or more places, but they may not slide up and down the column well. Leaving the head down to fold the pleats when you're not using it could help too.

 

[erikmannie]

I posted because I had not heard from PM after a few days. Just in from PM:

The arrows are for a special-use function that may not be all that useful. It's used with the zero key as below:
"Zero ----- reset / preset function key. The digital display ruler can realize zero clearing at any position. When the preset function is needed, long press the zero key for more than 3 seconds, and when the "s" flashing symbol appears at the top right of the screen, you can set the value you need through the preset number setting key. After setting, short press the zero key, and the "s" flashing symbol disappears, and relative measurement can be carried out."

The arrows are the "preset number setting key" that they talk about. never tried using it!

I don't know what to do about the cover. I would guess it will be less stiff as it "breaks in"... I guess you could train it to fold properly by restraining it with a loop of string in one or more places, but they may not slide up and down the column well. Leaving the head down to fold the pleats when you're not using it could help too.

I have a PM-25MV, and I also noticed that those buttons didn’t do anything. The quill DRO did everything that I needed it to do, so I had actually forgotten about this until I read your post.

As for the bellowed way cover on the z-axis, I just raise and lower the z-axis as much as I want to, and this material is just going to do whatever it’s going to do. I have had the mill for only about five months, but I haven’t had any issue with this yet.

As you own the mill and raise and lower the z-axis, hopefully the material will conform to what you were expecting. I think it does, because I noticed this issue that you mentioned very early on, and I never saw this again after I used the machine for a bit.

 

[RandyR]

Thanks Erik. I hope with use the z cover gets better too.

 

[T Bredehoft]

this material is just going to do whatever it’s going to do.

There's your answer, don't sweat it. It will neither interfere with your work or damage anything. True, your colulmn dovetail will loose a tiny bit of protection, but unless you're really unreasonable there will be no harm to the machine.

 

[RandyR]

T Bredehoft it does get in the way sometimes, and causes problems when I raise the z, but I can work around it. I hope with use it gets better.

 

[erikmannie]

I have a 5” vise (with no swivel) mounted in the center of my table. When my y-axis is all the way in, the back of the vise does push up against this material. This doesn’t bother me, but it does cost me some y-axis travel.

Maybe one day I will move the vise forward toward the operator if I ever want to regain that lost 1/2” of y-axis travel.