About to order a PM-1022v.. Anyone want to talk me down? LOL

NoobCanuk said:

My 1030v just arrived today. If you want my opinion the 1030v is huge. And the colors are awesome. Personally I think it is worth the wait. I haven't gotten it out of the crate yet but it is a lot bigger than I expected. And that isn't mentioning the stuff it comes with.

I got the QCTP with mine plus a live center and keyless chuck. The pics were taken a few minutes ago out in my garage. So I haven't had time to really look it over but I can tell you it is huge.

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So.. What do you think of it?

I made the mistake of thinking a tiny Asian guys idea of snug is the same as mine. So while tightening up some bolts on it I stripped them. I talked to Matt and he has a replacement for the qctp being shipped to me no problems and no charge. The other bolt I stripped I can't remember the name for it but it was a small T bolt to hold the cross slide down. I told Matt I would replace that myself so I could upgrade it to a higher grade bolt. I just got the bill for it.... ouch. But when I was using it the machine was solid and cut the scrap metal I found at work like butter. It is a nice machine and actually quite a lot quieter than I was expecting. I don't have much tooling for it yet as my budget is very tight. But I'd honestly say I think the machine is a huge step up from a mini lathe like I see in princess auto (they sell a 7 X 14 ). I am brand new to machining so can't honestly compare it to other lathes, but my advice would be to lightly snug the bolts down when you first get it. I didn't have mine long before I stripped the bolts so I ordered a few spares for the T bolts. You really don't want to know how much a simple bolt costs to get machined up where I live... most expensive bolts I hope to ever buy in my life lol. I went to all the bolt stores I have in town and nobody would even give me a suggestion on where to get them other than go to a machine shop and have them built. One shop said I'd need to order a min of 100 for them to build them for me.

So my opinion so far is the overall machine is really nice but some of the bolts need to be upgraded. I will likely try my hand at machining a few spare tool post bolts when I get it back up and running again to be safe. But the finish on the machine and build is really nice. Only part that came dinged up was the chip tray. One of the bolts holding it in place came undone so it bounced around in transit and got a few scratches I can live with. The one big drawback I don't like about the machine though is the no stand with it. Until I can save up the money to get a solid stand welded up mine is on a wooden bench.

Sorry I can't give you a great writeup like some guys can, but my experience in machining is extremely limited so I don't have much to compare this machine to. Personally I am happy with it from the time I did get to spend on it though.

Oh yeah the one thing I found to be a minor pain in the neck though was those above mentioned t bolts and the nuts used to tighten them. When the cross slide is swung straight so it is directly above the nuts, you need a really thin wrench to snug down the cross slide at your desired angle. I got lucky and had a special wrench for my drill press that fit the nuts and is only a couple mm thick so it fit perfectly. But I guess in order to fit a qctp onto a lathe this size it had to lowered and certain spaces had to be reduced. That was probably my only complaint so far.

I am learning to change gears to cut different threads and it took me a while to get the hang of it plus I did make a custom punch jto get the center ring out of the gears because they are super tight. But it is a lot easier to swap gears now and I think I am getting the right gears in the correct places now lol. Took me a while before I realized I had the gears in the wrong orders. But I think I got that oops corrected finally.

NoobCanuk said:

I made the mistake of thinking a tiny Asian guys idea of snug is the same as mine. So while tightening up some bolts on it I stripped them.

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Been there, done that. Only took me a couple of snapped off bolt heads and several hours with easy outs (on more than one occasion) to realize snug was usually just fine.

k1pyp said:

-Half nut is not used for powerfeed. There is a key cut into to the lead screw for driving a worm gear for both longitudinal and cross feed. From what I can tell, G0602 uses the half nut for both powerfeed and threading.

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That is a huge plus.

I finally got to check the new bolts and they fit perfectly. The original ones that hold the cross slide in place we're actually pretty sloppy so I figured I'd get the new ones to fit a bit better. They slide into the slots with enough room I can oil them up but snugly so they don't flop around. The originals I had to use a screwdriver to lift them up in the slots when I loosened the nuts to dismantle the carriage to clean and oil it up. These ones I absolutely love since I don't have to do that now.

But now I am just left waiting for the tool post bolt to arrive. I'm guessing it should arrive any day now and then I'll be back up and running.

The first pic should be the one showing the original bolt beside one of the new ones. The second pic shows just how tight the clearance is for the wrench to tighten down the cross slide when changing angles.

Man, I would have machine you a couple of new nuts for the cost of postage. I have the 1127VF-LB and my cross slide and compound look just like yours, but that doesn't mean they are exactly alike. While I didn't strip out any bolts, I did make new t-bolts that were wider and would have more grab area in the slots. This made me feel better.

I do suggest one mod to your machine, if you are comfortable with it. I took my tool post / compound off of the cross slide table and took everything apart to clean and lube it. When I had it apart, I remove the lock down ring plate that holds the compound in place. I didn't like the simple two bolt lock-down and felt it lacked much needed rigidity. I drilled 4 more holes in the piece, out near each corner. This provided a 4-bolt lock down which seems to be much more rigid. Just so you know, my lock down ring plate (not sure what to call it. it is the light gray piece in your photo with the cut out to see the angle markings on the compound) actually cracked right in the middle over the cut out for the angle markings. The design of that piece causes the part to bend significantly when it is tightened down. You can see the bend in your photos. I have not experienced any issue at all with the crack present and have not felt the need to change it. However, I have been interested in machining another one out of low carbon steel instead of cast iron, like it is made out of. I believe the steel would handle the bending stress better than the cast iron did.

Here are a few pictures of the crack in the lock down ring plate as well as the completed mod and then a pic of one of the hold down t-bolts I made.

Putting my deposit on the 1030 tomorrow hopefully.

Yeah, I never looked at that ring that closely. I will definitely take a look tomorrow and see if mine has the same problem. Thanks for the advice I am really tempted to try the exact same idea as you on making 4 bolt holes to hold it down as well. I'm glad I ordered 5 bolts now (mind you 5 was the minimum order lol).

Sadly the post office here stuck it to me again. I got an email from Matt asking if he had my correct address since my tool post bolt was returned to sender. The post office has done that to me twice now that I know of. For some reason my address doesn't exist at my local post office some days. But at least I know that eventually I'll get the bolt, just have to wait for the right mailman to deliver it I guess.

And my buddy almost had a stroke when he heard what those tiny bolts cost. $30 each plus tax. And that was the cash price. But the guy said they are a grade 8 bolt now so they should be plenty strong.

The one alteration I am seriously wanting to do to my qctp though is to build a new bolt that would stick up through the top of the tool post and have a nice big nut on top of the post to hold it down. The current design is the bolt stops inside the tool post and a hollow threaded tube with a nut on the top screws down onto the bolt inside the tool post. I think it makes the tool post look a lot cleaner this way, but I think it is a lot weaker that way compared to a heavy bolts with a beefy nut on top of the post. Just my opinion and I don't think it could hurt to try something different. I should get a picture to show you what I mean, but I assume most of these qctp's are pretty much the same.

One of the cool things about having machines like this is that you can use the machine to make modifications to suit your personal preferences. Have fun.