My PM45M-PDF

[Ray C]

Will,

How are you getting along with the ER40 setup? Been thinking about it for a while. I try like heck to plan my ops and pretty much succeed but still, swapping R8 gets old. Gimme a little lesson... What's the range of a given collet compared to say 5C which runs in 1/64" increments?

EDIT: Thanks for the link on the inserts.


Ray

 

[darkzero]

I can't say a whole lot about them yet as I still only have a handful of sizes as I'm still building my set. And I don't own any 5C stuff myself, only used 5C & 2J the couple of years I took machining courses at the local CC with my lil brother (I was his ride at the time so I figured I might as well take the class with him, I decided to complete the course where he only needed the one class).

I decided not to buy a full set of collets & just buy the sizes I will need as I go along. Not saving much on a 13pc set which will include a few sizes I probably won't use anyway. Lots of people seem to love the ER-40s so I followed. I'm using Techniks collets and again nothing but good comments about them even though they are Taiwan made. The ER collets feel so so much better than R8 collets though that's for sure.

I went with the ER-40 & ball bearing nuts for the 1" capacity. But they say ER-40 can't grip the smaller shanks that well but I have no experience with that. I have an ER-16 chuck that I will probably use up to 5/16 or 3/8 (maybe pushing it's limits) and anything larger in the ER-40. I got that ER-16 chuck from GMT cause I need something to get me into the discount range during the Halloween special. I hear the GMT collet chucks are made by RegoFix, the quality is very nice. GMT really does make nice stuff. So far everything I have from them is pretty nice.

Here's the full specs for the Teckniks ER family collets.
http://www.techniksusa.com/metal/cnaerpci.htm

But I love em so far & I'm with you, I hate swapping out R8 so any little advantage I can get to avoid that I will. Although I do have that full set of R8 collets that Matt hooked me up with, I only use 3 of them which is mainly for edge finders & my indicator holder.

 

[darkzero]

I got a couple of packages.....


Opened the boxes & found mini crates inside them, didn't expect that.

A 6.5" super spacer & tailstock. I was originally going to get a 6" super indexer to save storage room but because of the weight & size I decided to just go with a super spacer & get a rotary table later. Thought about an 8" super spacer but that's more weight than I want to deal with at home & I don't need something that big.

Looks like they were meant to be used with the super spacer on the right & tailstock on the left. But I'm used to using spacers & indexers on the left so that's how I will with these. I was thinking the tailstock could be reversed but it can't without modification. I may try that later or use it as is.

The mounting holes are too wide for my table so I figured I would just make a simple mounting plate for it. Picked up some remnant tooling plate at the local supplier. They have Mic-6 but it's more expensive & I figured this would be good enough for me. Guess I'll find out soon.

I quickly found out the limits of my Y axis & I didn't have enough travel to machine the full length of the plate even with the column chip cover raised to clear the vise. Maybe if I removed the table chip cover also & X axis scale but I didn't want to do all that.

With what I had laying around, this is what I did. Worked better than I was thinking, I was hesitant to do so. Still need to mill the T-nuts for the clamping kit I have so I just went this route.

Two slots & two threaded holes later, here's what I ended up with. Seems like it will work fine.

Now I just need to take the chuck off, disassemble everything I clean up whatever is needed. Didn't think this 6.5" super spacer would be this big & heavy. I'm not sure I will even need this size of a spacer often. Too bad they don't make a 5" (or do they?).

 

[darkzero]

One last entry here for a while since I'm tooled up pretty comfortably now for what I need.


Scored me a couple of very nice condition boring heads. A Criterion 2" for $100 & a Yuasa 3" (exact copy of a Criterion) for $125. I'll be swapping over the R8 arbor from my older square Criterion to the DBL-202 & off to ebay for the square Criterion. The Yuasa came with a CAT-40 arbor & a nice USA made R8 arbor costs 75% of what I paid for the head so an import arbor will do just fine on it.

 

[doorknob]

Interesting discussion here...

My PM-45M has been sitting in my garage over the winter, waiting for a warm day to unpack it.

The warm day finally came yesterday - not quite finished unpacking it - opened the crate and used my sawzall to carve away enough of the shipping pallet to permit me to get the legs of my engine hoist on either side of it.

I'm planning to use a lifting sling under the head (where it attaches to the column), with a Harbor Freight load leveler to hold the ends of the sling (in a manner similar to what is shown in http://www.cnczone.com/forums/bench...on_matthews_pm-45m_3_axis_dro.html#post894190 ). First I have to figure out where I put my swivel shackle and split chain link (I think that's what it's called) that I use with the sling.

No pix yet, but maybe soon.

 

[tripletap3]

Interesting discussion here...

My PM-45M has been sitting in my garage over the winter, waiting for a warm day to unpack it.

There is no way I would have that kind of patience. anic:

 

[woodrowm]

Interesting discussion here...

My PM-45M has been sitting in my garage over the winter, waiting for a warm day to unpack it.

The warm day finally came yesterday - not quite finished unpacking it - opened the crate and used my sawzall to carve away enough of the shipping pallet to permit me to get the legs of my engine hoist on either side of it.

I'm planning to use a lifting sling under the head (where it attaches to the column), with a Harbor Freight load leveler to hold the ends of the sling (in a manner similar to what is shown in http://www.cnczone.com/forums/bench...on_matthews_pm-45m_3_axis_dro.html#post894190 ). First I have to figure out where I put my swivel shackle and split chain link (I think that's what it's called) that I use with the sling.

No pix yet, but maybe soon.

Good morning - Hey I have the same mill and got it mounted on it's stand just last week. I thought about using a load leveler but decided against it. I didn't think that I would get the lift height that I needed to get it on the stand (I had made a frame like "darkzero" has on his so that adds about another 6" in height) anyway I cut 2 pieces of 2X4 about 7" long and nailed them together and put them under the back side of the head (to give me more height) put the strap under the 2X4's and up she went straight as an arrow and with the help of my lovely wife set it right down on the stand right in place. Then the fun part came I had to pull it up a 4" step (using a winch and ramps) make a sharp turn and set it into place. I had only an 1/8" clearance between the top of the lift and the ceiling. I hope this helps.

Thanks,
Woodrow

 

[doorknob]

There is no way I would have that kind of patience. anic:

Yeah... You would probably go bonkers if I told you that I haven't yet uncrated my Grizzly G4003G 12x36 lathe either (so I won't mention it).

- - - Updated - - -

Good morning - Hey I have the same mill and got it mounted on it's stand just last week. I thought about using a load leveler but decided against it. I didn't think that I would get the lift height that I needed to get it on the stand (I had made a frame like "darkzero" has on his so that adds about another 6" in height) anyway I cut 2 pieces of 2X4 about 7" long and nailed them together and put them under the back side of the head (to give me more height) put the strap under the 2X4's and up she went straight as an arrow and with the help of my lovely wife set it right down on the stand right in place. Then the fun part came I had to pull it up a 4" step (using a winch and ramps) make a sharp turn and set it into place. I had only an 1/8" clearance between the top of the lift and the ceiling. I hope this helps.

Thanks,
Woodrow

I have measured (and remeasured) the available height and I think that I have sufficient clearance to get it onto the stand without hitting the ceiling with my shop crane.

That is, I "think" I have enough clearance - guess that I'll find out soon enough.

I had been considering installing some load-leveling casters on the bottom of the stand first, but between my concern over possibly not having sufficient ceiling clearance and my concern over not having good enough welding skills (to weld on some backing plates for the casters to attach to), I decided to skip the casters for now. I can always revisit that decision in the future, based on my experience lifting the mill onto the stand.

 

[doorknob]

darkzero, I do not mean to hijack your thread, if it's inappropriate for me to post these photos here, let me know and I'll move them.

I hoisted my PM-45M onto the stand yesterday - I ended up not using the load leveler, because I didn't have sufficient vertical clearance to use it with my shop crane in my garage. So instead, I used a swivel fitting to permit me to easily orient the base of the mill with the stand (http://www.harborfreight.com/3-8-eighth-inch-jaw-eye-swivel-97136.html), some 3/8" split chain links, a sling (http://www.harborfreight.com/2-inch-x-6-ft-6400-lb-capacity-web-sling-95626.html) and a ratcheting tie-down strap to ensure that the sling could not accidentally slip (http://www.harborfreight.com/4-piece-1-inch-x-15-ft-ratcheting-tie-down-set-90984.html) and a second tie-down to strap the tray to the base of the mill (to make it easier to get the bolts into place on the stand without worrying about the tray moving).

I started out by cutting away most of the wooden shipping pallet with my sawzall in order to fit the legs of my shop crane on either side of the mill:

I used a pallet jack to support the pallet while doing the cutting, then placed some 4x4's underneath what remained of the pallet and lowered it on top of them:

I put the sling underneath the head, and attached the sling to the shop crane with the split links and the swivel:.

I then unscrewed the L-shaped bolts that held the base of the mill to the pallet, and began hoisting the mill:

The mill was balanced nicely when lifted by the sling, but I added a strap around the column and the motor just in case:

Strapping the tray to the base of the mill allowed me to put the bolts through the holes in the base for alignment with the top of the stand:

And, voila, the mill is now bolted to the stand:

BTW, the green monster visible in some of the photos is a Burgmaster 1D turret drill, which is a project for another day.

And, barely visible behind the mill in some of the photos is the shipping crate for my Grizzly G4003G lathe, which is also another project for later.

Next steps: Hook up the wiring, install the handwheels, connect the coolant pump and hoses, and start testing.

 

[darkzero]

No worries, I don't mind at all.

Awesome, looks like you should be making chips real soon!

One suggestion though, before you hook up the coolant pump lines I recommend deburring the holes on the rear door, if needed. The holes on both of my stands had very sharp edges. Although I won't be using the coolant pump I took the time to deburr those holes before painting them.