Tailstock scratching ways

It appears that there is a matching groove on the bottom of the tailstock, indicating that the particle causing the groove was trapped under the tailstock. From the depth of the grooves it was probably a harder material like an abrasive or chunk of cast iron. Did the the scratch occur after your receipt?

It also appears that there wasn't sufficient material to properly finish the bottom surface of the tailstock. Slight imperfections in a casting are acceptable. This appears to be significant. It should have been caught in in-process inspection. By the time the lathe is ready for final inspection, faults like that are seldom caught. My Grizzly lathe was supposedly inspected by Grizzly before shipping to me but it was securely packed in its shipping crate so their inspection most likely just confirmed, "yep, its a lathe".

I have seen many instance of manufacturing defects which would be classified as hidden defects once the article was assembled. There is a huge reliability on the production worker self inspecting. Past that, having adequate Q.C. systems in place is also an excellent practice. Unfortunately, profitability concerns often overide the quality concerns. It is the reason that many of our fellow machinists completely dissemble and clean a machine on receipt.
 
I think you should see some body for that OCD first, then just clean up and debur the bottom of tha tail stock and get on with the Hobby. Remember this is lowest price equipment.
CH
 
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COMachinist said:
I think you should see some body for that OCD first, then just clean up and debur the bottom of tha tail stock and get on with the Hobby. Remember this is lowest price equipment.
CH
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Look at everyone else’s posts here, then look at yours. Are you aware of what irony is? You are talking about having OCD on a website about precision equipment. One could argue that the point of all of this is perfection. You gave me a good laugh thinking about stock being pulled out of a machine with chatter marks, a taper, and saying “this is good enough”

I haven’t seen a budget lathe before I bought this one, but I was told by professionals to look for scratches on the ways if you buy used. That leads me to believe that it is a normal concern if the tailstock is marking it up.
 
RJSakowski said:
It appears that there is a matching groove on the bottom of the tailstock, indicating that the particle causing the groove was trapped under the tailstock. From the depth of the grooves it was probably a harder material like an abrasive or chunk of cast iron. Did the the scratch occur after your receipt?

It also appears that there wasn't sufficient material to properly finish the bottom surface of the tailstock. Slight imperfections in a casting are acceptable. This appears to be significant. It should have been caught in in-process inspection. By the time the lathe is ready for final inspection, faults like that are seldom caught. My Grizzly lathe was supposedly inspected by Grizzly before shipping to me but it was securely packed in its shipping crate so their inspection most likely just confirmed, "yep, its a lathe".

I have seen many instance of manufacturing defects which would be classified as hidden defects once the article was assembled. There is a huge reliability on the production worker self inspecting. Past that, having adequate Q.C. systems in place is also an excellent practice. Unfortunately, profitability concerns often overide the quality concerns. It is the reason that many of our fellow machinists completely dissemble and clean a machine on receipt.
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Thanks for the objective response. One of those pictures is from the day I got the machine one if from after those marks were noticed. Those grooves in the tailstock have been there since day one. They are 10-20 thou deep so I know they were not made by a chip under the tailstock.
I should mention that I would like to refinish the machine, but I was told by PM tech that I shouldn’t do anything about it cause it doesn’t matter. I was told not to try to clean up, or alter the tailstock in any way because it’s cosmetic and oil need to get under there as well. This is why I am here
 
Is this lathe supposed to have hardened ways?

If not they will be more susceptible to scratching and impact damage. Keeping them clean and lubricated well is a must.

For the base of the tailstock I would use a hard stone and lightly go over the mating surface to eliminate any burrs.

The 2-3 thou height differential of the tailstock is within the manufacturing tolerance of an import machine. Remove the adjustable base from the tailstock, clean and stone, then check the height again. My PM-1440GT was 1.5 thou high as delivered. After cleaning and stoning it was 1 thou low. I used stainless steel shim material to dial it in.

The affordability of an import machine comes with some necessary tweaking by the end user.
 
jbolt said:
Is this lathe supposed to have hardened ways?

If not they will be more susceptible to scratching and impact damage. Keeping them clean and lubricated well is a must.

For the base of the tailstock I would use a hard stone and lightly go over the mating surface to eliminate any burrs.

The 2-3 thou height differential of the tailstock is within the manufacturing tolerance of an import machine. Remove the adjustable base from the tailstock, clean and stone, then check the height again. My PM-1440GT was 1.5 thou high as delivered. After cleaning and stoning it was 1 thou low. I used stainless steel shim material to dial it in.

The affordability of an import machine comes with some necessary tweaking by the end user.
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Absolutely, but being a newbie I wasn’t aware of how much tweaking would be necessary. I waited a long time to post on here knowing it could hurt pm’s reputation.

It functions fine, but had a lot of paint chipping, leaking oil, dials missing numbers/painted over, and the gears were almost impossible to engage different rpms. I didn’t like being told all of the issues were not a big deal.

I will say they would fix any issue that was mechanical without question. If I had said I want to send it back, Matt would have taken it back. Knowing what I know now I would buy a mill from them, but probably save for the Taiwanese model.
 
I think that there is just a difference in quality due to the lower price. I have a lot of cheap imported tools that just don't work but kind of live with it, since the price was so low. In this case, I would just try to find the high spot and find out why it is scratching. It may just be a hard spot in the casting, and can be gently persuaded to not be so sharp and proud. I wouldn't return the product. It's a really good lesson, and one that you can well afford to repeat. Just try to make things sort of work. I have posted a few examples, and I'll report some of them here. I bought some Harbor Freight diamond cutoff wheels. I discovered that they would only cut a tiny bit on their perimeter before the thin layer of diamond grit wore away. The disks had plenty of diamonds on their faces for the customer to see, but those did no good for cutting. They were there for cosmetic purposes only. At least the cutters can be used to do some tool grinding, but there aren't really enough diamonds to do much good. I thought the mandrels could be repurposed, but the cheap screw stripped out immediately. I'll never buy these again, but I won't return them. This will cause me to repeat unwanted behavior. I bought a carbide tipped dead center for my lathe from Ebay. I ended up getting sent a mild steel tipped dead center. I know it is mild steel since I gingerly did a file test. I complained to the seller, and they insisted that I send lots of photographic evidence including the file marks. When I sent the photos, they asked me if I would be happy if they returned $1. I said OK. These lathes can do a lot of good work, but as a lot of people on the Internet say, they have shortcomings that need some refinement by the consumer.
 
I wouldnt worry about tarnishing anyones rep. Your concerns are legitimate, especially for someone with little experience.

Mechanical issues like gear engagement should be addressed by pm but with the realization that if they provide replacement parts you will be providing the labor.

I am suprised at their attitude toward the tailstock scratching the ways. At the very least they should suggest checking for burrs or debris to eliminate the cause. Careful use of a hard stone can cure a lot of manufacturing sins.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk
 
I liked my PM-950V that I have at our house in Ohio, I bought one just like it for our Maine house. My wife and I set up the 2 ton gantry to get it off the trailer onto some car wheel skates I have and we pushed it into our garage. We had to take down the gantry and move it into the garage and reassemble it where we lifted it off the pallet and the wheel skates. We pushed the gantry with the mill hung from it into position and lowered it perfectly into place! The 950 head is made in Taiwan while the rest of the machine is made in the mainland.
42CBFB2F-000A-4D21-AE31-E8B511E29EB2.jpeg
 
jbolt said:
I wouldnt worry about tarnishing anyones rep. Your concerns are legitimate, especially for someone with little experience.

Mechanical issues like gear engagement should be addressed by pm but with the realization that if they provide replacement parts you will be providing the labor.

I am suprised at their attitude toward the tailstock scratching the ways. At the very least they should suggest checking for burrs or debris to eliminate the cause. Careful use of a hard stone can cure a lot of manufacturing sins.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk
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Tech said it is made to be domed (domed is my word, not theirs), so that oil can get under the tailstock.
 
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