Bill M's Pm1340gt Setup

Your BPA chuck makes your lathe look small dang. Love the control panel, looks like you upgraded some of the hand wheel knobs and levers, nice looking lathe its DZ clean. I look forward to your report on threading at low speeds.

Not sure what you mean by "low speeds", but I did do my first single point threading on her today. It was a fine pitch, 20 tpi, and I ended up threading at 200 rpm as I got tired of waiting for the cut to end (3/4" thread run). I could use this rpm down to maybe 16 tpi, but then I'd have to switch the pulleys to low range just to save on the nerves. Didn't even bother with a relief cut. Just watched the numbers roll off on the DRO.

I can get her down to 40-50 rpm or lower for the real coarse stuff.
 
Ok, so after shifting the lathe around to get to the motor and wire up it and the VFD I put it back to it's normal spot, leveled it with a machinist level, and let it sit for a week. Today I checked the level and the tailstock end required just a bit of a tweak to get everything back to perfect. Then I did a test cut...

I had to make some fairly significant tweaks to the adjustable feet to get under a thou in 10", and I know from the amount of tweaking I did that the lathe no longer sits 'level' per a spirit level so there is some amount of twist in the bed.

So my question is will the bed untwist/relax after some period of time? I am assuming that I should probably make another test cut in a couple of weeks, but how often do I need to make a test cut? Every month? Six months?
 
Hey Bill, you are taking a test cut without the tailstock center in right? If it is off, the headstock is fully adjustable to the bedways. Take the change gear end cover off and look above the motor, you will see the adjustment allen head screws. You loosen the main bolts that bolt the headstock to the ways, and set it from there. Once it is set, you should be good for a while, unless it takes a good hit or the machine is moved. You can get it set to be dead on, as good as you want it to be.
 
Hey Bill, you are taking a test cut without the tailstock center in right? If it is off, the headstock is fully adjustable to the bedways. Take the change gear end cover off and look above the motor, you will see the adjustment allen head screws. You loosen the main bolts that bolt the headstock to the ways, and set it from there. Once it is set, you should be good for a while, unless it takes a good hit or the machine is moved. You can get it set to be dead on, as good as you want it to be.

Hey Matt! Yes...test cut with no tailstock, i.e. checking spindle alignment to ways.

That's what I was going to do, but someone here told me to adjust it with the leveling feet.

Should I go back and get the bed dead level then adjust the headstock instead? This does seem to make more sense. Well, to me anyway. :D
 
For any recent purchasers of MachTachs:

Henry kitted about 15 units (his number, not mine) that has three 220 pF caps for C1, C3, and C9. But C9 requires a 4700 pF for the VFD noise circuit. Check for three loose yellow caps in the kit and check the numbers. Two of them should say 220 on them and one should say 472.

If you have the wrong cap, contact MachTach and Henry will send you the correct one. I'll get mine next week.
 
You going to integrate machtach into your headstock control panel?

That was the original plan, but with the angles and such there isn't as much room behind that panel as you'd think. From the front it looks like there's plenty of room, but it was pretty tight just getting the switches and cables in there. They are a bit large though, these modular switches.

So, I bought the little plastic box offered on his website and am thinking I will mount it on the DRO's display arm. That way all of my readouts are in the same area.
 
Hey Bill,

THX for the posts... reading and absorbing your efforts and successes.

We are gonna get a week of rain here... probably gonna be finished with AC work early most days this week.
I have completed all my wiring... have not tried to start it up yet and have not even thought about programming the VFD yet. May PM you and ask for an overview of how to get going on that part (programming the VFD).

Looked at my two MachTach kits... as far as I can tell... I have the correct caps... will dig deeper into it one day this week.

THX for posting your progress... it is much appreciated!

John/GA
 
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