PM-727m New mill has arrived!

[BFHammer]

Congrats on the new arrival. Thanks for sharing some excellent pictures.

Look forward to seeing some chips once you get settled. I have a PM932 on order and like you have been picking up tooling along the way. Glad to see the number of PM owners here growing!

 

[Sloth2009]

I used WD40 and a Scotch brite pad 9white) and it rubbed off nicely.

Hey what do you know... I have some of that too.

 

[Sloth2009]

I am off of work all week and plan to make good used of the time. The portable stand base in today from Amazon and I made some progress. It is a Portamate pm-3500. A PM stand for a PM mill. Lol. It's rated to 1500lbs. It did end up being a bit big for my mill stand so I cut about 2" off all 4 internal adjusting bars and it turned out pretty well.

I got the mill onto the stand and the locking rubber leveler feet had to much "squish" for my liking so I ground them down to bare metal on the KMG grinder. The back of the base does not have levelers so I went to the hardware store and bought some 1/2" bolts and nuts. I cut the bolt heads down to about 1/2 thickness and after drilling holes through the new base frame I installed the nuts and bolts with the bolt heads downwards to make homemade levelers. In the 2nd to last picture you can see them sticking up in the back. I spring loaded them to them from dragging. I had a buddy drop by and he helped remount the mill column back onto its base. I also cut a pice of plywood to make a shelf inside my stand. All in all, a good day.

 

[Sloth2009]

I couldn't help myself, I had to cut something. I put in a 3/"4 Accusize roughing end mill and promptly cut myself. I am just glad the machine wasn't on lol.

I am surprised at how quiet the machine is. I put a pice of brass in the vice and made a few passes on it with the rougher. Not too bad for my first milling "job" ever...

Tomorrow I need to level and tram the machine. Maybe I will even take the table apart for a good cleaning. I plan on running trough all the gears for a while and changing out the oil soon as well.

Congrats on the new arrival. Thanks for sharing some excellent pictures.

Look forward to seeing some chips once you get settled. I have a PM932 on order and like you have been picking up tooling along the way. Glad to see the number of PM owners here growing!

Awesome! How are you going to move that beast?

 

[BFHammer]

New machine and a week off - that's like hitting the mini lottery! Glad that was just a scratch, I have to say I'm impressed - 24 hours from arrival to chips and pictures - you're setting the bar high!

Awesome! How are you going to move that beast?

I actually am having my PM932 and a PM1236 shipped together to save a little freight. Unfortunately my shop is not accessible for a large truck. I'm going to rent a drop trailer and pallet jack to transport from the freight terminal to the shop. Once in the shop I have an engine hoist and should be able handle without too much trouble. Although these are a little heavier than most of my equipment I have moved quite a bit with various combinations of hoist, jacks, dolleys and my four teenage sons!

 

[TheGov]

View attachment 229944 View attachment 229945 View attachment 229946

I plan on running trough all the gears for a while and changing out the oil soon as well.

Definitely change the oil after going through all the gears...mine looked clear in the sight glass, but once drained out, that's a different story. (Plus it was overfilled). After new oil, it got quieter.

 

[Sloth2009]

I ran into a bit of a roadblock with tramming. I don't have anything reasonably precise and long enough to indicate from in an end mill holder, and I don't have an accurate square. I did do the best I could with the largest end mill holder, but it probably only has about 2 1/2 inches of good surface. I ordered a precision 8" square to assist with later tramming.


I built an enclosure into my stand. I just used some painted plywood for the base, and some spare hardboard for the sides and back. I drilled and tapped 1/4-20 holes to make the panels replaceable if needed. I also drilled mount holes in the base frame and bolted the base and stand together. I bought an oil can and filled it with Vactra oil No. 2 and oiled up all the ways.


I changed out the gear oil today with Lucas 80w-90. Like the TheGov said, it came out pretty nasty. Lots of swarf in the bottom of the can. I ran some extra oil through the gear box hopefully to flush out anything left.


I completed my first project! I used the face mill to true up the top of my drill press vice. I mounted the vise to the mill table and cut through the cast iron body and the chuck jaws no problem.

 

[Sloth2009]

Forgot the pics!

 

[Bob Korves]

I ran into a bit of a roadblock with tramming. I don't have anything reasonably precise and long enough to indicate from in an end mill holder, and I don't have an accurate square. I did do the best I could with the largest end mill holder, but it probably only has about 2 1/2 inches of good surface. I ordered a precision 8" square to assist with later tramming.

The only accurate thing needed for tramming is the dial indicator, and it does not even need to be accurate, only repeatable. Besides that, all you need is a rigid way to mount it in the spindle and hold the indicator where it will circumscribe a circle that measures somewhere near the width of the table. It is only a comparative measure, move the head until the indicator reads close to the same around the left, right, front, and rear points of the circle. On your mill, changing the front and rear requires realigning the column to the bed. Save that chore for later if it is an issue. Just know what it is for now. If it is within a couple thousandths, it is OK.

 

[Sloth2009]

The only accurate thing needed for tramming is the dial indicator, and it does not even need to be accurate, only repeatable. Besides that, all you need is a rigid way to mount it in the spindle and hold the indicator where it will circumscribe a circle that measures somewhere near the width of the table. It is only a comparative measure, move the head until the indicator reads close to the same around the left, right, front, and rear points of the circle. On your mill, changing the front and rear requires realigning the column to the bed. Save that chore for later if it is an issue. Just know what it is for now. If it is within a couple thousandths, it is OK.

Thanks. I got my test indicator mount in today and was able to get the spindle x-axis to within 0.0005 over 6.5" to the table. My y-axis is terrible though with about 0.006 forward nod over the same distance, so am definitely going to have to shim the column in the front.