My Pm932m-pdf Journey.

[65BAJA]

About a week ago I was finally able to bring home my 932 and get it set up. So far I have cleaned it up most of the shipping grease and grime. I ran it through all the gears in forward and reverse to break it in. Only issue I had in getting it going was trying to figure out the color code for the power wire, also the bolt provided for the DRO arm was too short. No biggie.

After the break in I spot faced the area of the vice base where the T nut bolts hold the swivel base to the mill. I only took about .015" off. Just enough to provide a nice flat even surface for the nut. I'll need to do some more cleaning on the T nut slots as the 9/16 T nuts are really tight in some spots. I've also done a little machining on an AR lower. Trying to salvage the mess that I made with the drill press and cheap cross slide vice.

It has become pretty clear in working on this thing that it is too low. I need to build a stand to go under the base. I was thinking about raising it about 6 or 7 inches total. For those of you that have 932's and have made stands, how tall did you make yours?

I have noticed a few quirks about the mill. The quill DRO is a little sticky and jumps around a little. If I can't get to start working better I might replace it with a Mitutoyo unit. Also the travel stops for the X axis power feed seem like they are in too far. I haven't really taken a look to see if there is a reason for this. Can I just move them out a little? The travel stop switch hits the back of the Y axis hand wheel. I think this is a known issue. I looks like the block the switch is mounted to could be a little thinner. But I'll probably make a spacer for the hand wheel like Ray Caniglia on YouTube did.

 

[Dan_S]

It has become pretty clear in working on this thing that it is too low. I need to build a stand to go under the base. I was thinking about raising it about 6 or 7 inches total. For those of you that have 932's and have made stands, how tall did you make yours?

This will depend a lot on the individual person height, and arm & leg length ratio. Imo, your best bed it to take a hand wheel off the mill and then find the biggest bolt that will fit through it. Then drill some holes in a 2x4 30" to 40" from the one end. Lean the 2x4 up against the wall and adjust the hand-wheel position till it feels right to you. Once you know that height, you can then calculate how much you need to raise your mill.

unit. Also the travel stops for the X axis power feed seem like they are in too far. I haven't really taken a look to see if there is a reason for this. Can I just move them out a little?

Yea, you can move them, they are designed to be moved around as needed.

 

[65BAJA]

Here it is.


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[wrmiller]

Very nice!

 

[Morgan RedHawk]

I raised mine up about 6.5"..I used some 2"x4" rectangular tubing + the leveling feet. I am 6' and the table is just above waist level. It is a comfortable height for me.

How well does the machine handle that face mill? I was thinking about getting one and wondered if it could manage a larger one like that.

 

[65BAJA]

I haven't really put it to the test yet. I took .025" off the face of a 1.25" cube. It didn't even notice the cube was there. I need to get some bigger stock and see what it can do.

 

[wrmiller]

I have a Glacern 2.5" coming and am looking forward to putting it to work. Yours looks like a 3"?

We have very similar machines and I think I can safely say that you haven't even come close to stressing that mill out yet.

 

[65BAJA]

It's the 3". I think one of the inserts is a few tenths lower than the others. All the inserts are tight but one doesn't sit completely flat in it's seat and you can hear it when it's cutting. Oddly the finish is smooth so I'm ok with it.

 

[wrmiller]

Is it 6 inserts or 5?

I got the 2.5 because of the uneven number (balance factor on smaller mills) and the fact that I get two complete setups in one box of 10 inserts.

 

[Dan_S]

I got the 2.5 because of the uneven number (balance factor on smaller mills) and the fact that I get two complete setups in one box of 10 inserts.

I got the Shars 1.5" because it had 3 inserts for the same reason, plus I think the 2.5" Glacern is to big for these mills to run in steel effectively. The 2.5" Glacern is on my list of tools to buy though.