Pm 1228-vf-lb Lathe Preparations

[Franko]

Thanks, Dan. That's what I needed to know.

The only other manuals I've seen are for Grizzly and my HF mini-lathe. They are both very good manuals.

 

[barnbwt]

How's this for an idea; use the four milling attachment bolt holes on the back of the bed to mount a small hoist for chucks and workpieces?

 

[Franko]

Not a bad idea, barnbwt. A few more years at the rate I'm deteriorating, and I'll need one to lift cutters.

My chip pan arrived this morning about an hour ago.

 

[Falcon67]

Are you buying the basic lathe or the tooled up version? I'm looking at this same lathe and Grizzlies G4003 and G4003G, what conviced you? I like the varible speed I assume it's a VFD, I don't like the spindle mount and I would like a lower minimum speed. the G4003G with stand is $3550 shipped the PM is $3087 shipped with stand I'm kinda leaning to the G4003G. Did you read the manual about to make your chuck (if not concentric) run concentric that kinda scared me.
I've never owned either and am trying to get the most for my money.

thread hijack in progress LOL - might open this up in another forum in the form of a question, but having both (now) and 9x20 and a 12x36 and can attest to what Franko says above. My 9x20 has been a good machine. Light duty for sure. I'd never owned a lathe and was unsure. The 12x36 was also in the HF store and it was BIG. So I bought small. I also bought a mini-mill. Since I do some things with hot rods, meaning bigger chunks of stuff I was pretty quick to learn that 1) a lathe and a mill are dand-gum handy things to have and 2) I bought kinda small. The mill is already gone, replaced with a square column G0519 mill/drill. I make a lot of small transmission fittings (sold all over the world) and those have more than paid for the small lathe. Light machining on aluminum and the 9x20 almost never has that setup off the machine. I can hit +/- .001 on that operation usually. But if I want to spin a 50 lb crankshaft 24" long for polish - got to have something larger. Or spin a piston to fix/clean a ring groove. And such. Truth - the Enco 12x36 has not found a way to pay for it's self yet. But I'm sure it will soon. You have to really think about what you'll be doing with the tool. I'm pretty sure I could make my small fittings on the big machine, just haven't tried it yet. If you opt for a bigger machine, get the best quality you can afford because I'm sure smaller operations would be impacted more by a low quality machine than some larger operations.

PS - Frank, I just love that little grinder/mag base setup.

 

[Franko]

Thanks, Chris.

I probably would have kept the G4000 if was variable speed and had a large spindle bore, and I needed just a couple more inches in length. Those were the major factors that inspired me to upgrade my lathe. I would have liked to put a 6" chuck on it too, but I thought it would be a little too big and heavy for the smaller lathe. I didn't figure out the slow speed issue until a couple hours before I sold it.

I don't have anything bad to say about Grizzly Tools, based on my experience. They are responsive and seemed to always have spare parts.

I'm busy today working on the bench top for my stand. It is hot out there. I'm only good for less than a half hour at a time, then I have to come in and dry off and cool down.

 

[Franko]

After lots of measuring and measuring again, I drilled the mounting holes on my bench top. My drill press wasn't deep enough, so I had to use the mill, which had a half-inch to spare. Each hole required four bit changes. A half inch to start because my pilot point bits only go to 1/2". Then a 1 1/4" forstner to recess the 1/2" t-nut, then a 9/16 for the bolt hole and finally a little touch with a 5/8 so the t-nut would press in.

I just clamped the top to the mill table with a quick clamp.

This is a cool thing I picked up a few weeks ago to support long pieces in my drill press and horizontal band saw. It is a lab lift table, so I can fine-adjust a support. On the horizontal band saw, it sits on a milk crate. It replaced the old scissor jack that always fell over when I moved the stock.

 

[DoogieB]

Ahh, lab lift, that will come in handy. Perusing Ebay at this moment. Like you, for these set-ups I tried an old scissor jack and had the same problem: it was heavier than needed, hard to adjust and always wanted to fall over.

There's always good nuggets in threads like this.

 

[Franko]

Doogie, I found the best deal on Amazon. It was a little under $30.
It is 8x8 and lifts 10".
There were some smaller ones for around $20.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00657ZTIU?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00

 

[Big Rack]

Kinda off and on topic: why are leveling screw vibration dampers so expensive? Here is what I'm going to try, bought some 3/8-16 carriage bolts and washers large enough to slip over the square part at TSC last night I think I'm going to center the washers on the dome and tack weld in place that takes care of leveling. Also spent 2.99 at Wally world for a pair of flip flops going to cut circles out of them with a holesaw and glue to washers. The flip flop bottoms seem to be pretty high density foam and I'm spreading the load out on several of them hope it works.

 

[Franko]

Big Rack, I've used carriage bolts into t-nuts for leveling feet. They work fine for some purposes.