New Pm 1030v Lathe

[shooter123456]

Yeah... most stuff from the other side of the ocean... has manuals written by folks to whom English is a second language...
Chinglish is what it has been called.

Show a pic of the plate with the threading guides on it... usually on the headstock... and someone will walk you through it.

I am able to get the jist of it. I learned how change gears and such with my old HF lathe. Its just some of the actual application I am struggling with. I have contacted Matt about it and ill see what he says. Im hoping to get it sorted out because most everything else on the machine is awesome.

 

[GA Gyro]

I am able to get the jist of it. I learned how change gears and such with my old HF lathe. Its just some of the actual application I am struggling with. I have contacted Matt about it and ill see what he says. Im hoping to get it sorted out because most everything else on the machine is awesome.

I purchased a mill and lathe from Matt... both were Taiwanese (cost more, higher quality).
Even the Taiwanese machines come with dismal manuals (there are ways to get around this with some googling).
And yeah... there were some mechanical things to fix...
It is one of those things... if one wants the quality of industrial grade machines...
They can choose between a new Lexus or a machine... because they are gonna cost about the same...
Otherwise... figure on doing some detail work to get things the way you want them.

Locally, I have some friends who have vintage American iron in their shops... and yeah, they have to do 'creative' stuff to keep them running also... and some vintage American iron does NOT have ANY paperwork available... none at all.

It is the nature of the beast... however when one embraces the fiddling, one ends up with a better suited (to them) machine than anything on the market...

Call it customizing... [grin]... just part of having a hobby metal working shop...

 

[shooter123456]

I purchased a mill and lathe from Matt... both were Taiwanese (cost more, higher quality).
Even the Taiwanese machines come with dismal manuals (there are ways to get around this with some googling).
It is one of those things... if one wants the quality of industrial grade machines...
They can choose between a new Lexus and a machine... because they are gonna cost about the same...
Otherwise... figure on doing some detail work to get things the way you want them.

Locally, I have some friends who have vintage American iron in their shops... and yeah, they have to do 'creative' stuff to keep them running also.

It is the nature of the beast... however when one embraces the fiddling, one ends up with a better suited (to them) machine than anything on the market...

Call it customizing... [grin]... just part of having a hobby metal working shop...

I think I went into the new machine with the wrong attitude. When I bought the HF lathe, I figured I wouldn't be able to get it working for a few weeks, that HF would provide me with next to nothing on how to use it, and that I would break a bunch of stuff before I did anything decent on it. When I got this one, I figured I would be up and running right away since I already knew how to use a lathe and coming from PM I figured it would be a cut above the rest. I think the machine is nicer than all the ones I have used or seen, but the manual is the same. I think the difference is that Matt will help you figure out what is going wrong on a Sunday afternoon where other companies will take a week to get back.

 

[GA Gyro]

I think I went into the new machine with the wrong attitude. When I bought the HF lathe, I figured I wouldn't be able to get it working for a few weeks, that HF would provide me with next to nothing on how to use it, and that I would break a bunch of stuff before I did anything decent on it. When I got this one, I figured I would be up and running right away since I already knew how to use a lathe and coming from PM I figured it would be a cut above the rest. I think the machine is nicer than all the ones I have used or seen, but the manual is the same. I think the difference is that Matt will help you figure out what is going wrong on a Sunday afternoon where other companies will take a week to get back.

IMO this is a good evaluation of purchasing hobby grade machine tools for ones home shop.
Few of us are like Jay Leno and can afford (and justify) top grade industrial machines...
(And as I understand... there are customer service issues with $six figure machines also... [oooops]

IMO if we see hobby grade machines as a bargain with a few glitches... and just deal with the glitches...
We will come out WAAAY ahead.

There is a guy at the Gyro hanger that travels all over the country setting up large industrial machine tools.... mostly control and software issues.
You would pull your hair out if you knew the stuff he has to straighten out. Many times, he has to find a local electronics 'junk store' (used stuff)... and custom make a few things... to get the machines up and running after delivery.

Just one of those things...

Having Matt available via phone... is a HUGE asset... not to mention Matt's attitude towards solving your issue(s).
And generally, Matt's machines are a 'cut above' the competition of similar price... (pun intended).

Best to you on your new lathe, I suspect after the bugs are worked out... you will have lots of satisfying productive hours in your shop!

GA

 

[Bamban]

Yeah... most stuff from the other side of the ocean... has manuals written by folks to whom English is a second language...
Chinglish is what it has been called.

If you think these manuals are bad, if you can read Chinese characters, you should read some of the translations done by English speakers into Chinese... lol

 

[GA Gyro]

If you think these manuals are bad, if you can read Chinese characters, you should read some of the translations done by English speakers into Chinese... lol

Would not surprise me...
They hire the cheapest folks they can find... to do the translations.
And folks get what they pay for.

Funny, over all of the human race...
Folks have ALWAYS gotten what they pay for.

Hopefully folks will learn that reality and buy accordingly.

 

[JimDawson]

They hire the cheapest folks they can find... to do the translations.
And folks get what they pay for.

The real problem is that the people hired to do the translation know nothing about the subject that they are translating. I have had this problem when working out technical issues on customer machines in other countries, especially Asia. In Europe, South America, and Mexico there is normally someone around that both speaks English and understands the equipment.

It might be worthwhile for the larger importers to write their own service manuals and operation instructions. But that might be a huge undertaking. A manual written for machinists by a machinist would be a really good thing

 

[MSD0]

I am in Cary, ill post my procedure to make sure I am not doing something wrong. I might need to take you up one that. Ill send Matt an email this morning as well.

The problem is caused by 2 things as far as I can tell: every time I swap the gear couplers, the shafts on the square bolts don't fit anymore. When I tighten the gears onto the quadrant and put the e-clips on, the e-clips bind to the gear causing the nut and clip to rotate with the gear, and tightening it until they lock in place completely.

Here is what I did:

1. Open gear cover

2. Loosen and swing out the quadrant

3. Loosen and remove the square bolts and remove top two gear sets

4. Using a piece of aluminum tap out the gear couplers

5. Using the same piece of aluminum tap the coupler into the new gear then tap the next gear onto the coupler

6. Try to insert square bolts, they don't fit

7. Tap bolts into place, use wrench to rotate them until they can spin freely. This took about 20 minutes each time (3 gear changes total)

8. Put washer between quadrant and gear assembly, install gear on quadrant and tighten down

9. 85% of the time, it would bind. Anytime I tightened it, the bolt would tighten as the gears turned until they were completely locked into place.

10. Read manual again to see if I missed anything, nope nothing there to miss.

Anything there look wrong? Are the gears and couplers supposed to be so tight they have to be tapped out?

There might be a burr on the bolt. Also make sure oil is getting to the bearing surface. I usually tighten the bolt first and then insert the clip on top. You can use paper to set the mesh or just do it by eye. The gears should rotated easily by hand, but should be fairly quiet when running. Open gear lube helps as well.

 

[shooter123456]

There might be a burr on the bolt. Also make sure oil is getting to the bearing surface. I usually tighten the bolt first and then insert the clip on top.

Thats what I thought, but after getting them to rotate freely again, doing my thing with the machine, and changing gears again, the problem returned. I thought something was tapered and I was going the wrong way but that didn't seem to be it.

Basically, everything stops fitting together when I change gears. I figured after the first time that would stop but it did so 3 times, even changing the same coupler with the same gears and the same bolt.

I also try to tighten the bolt first, then insert the clip, but when I do that, the clip does not fit. I have to loosen the bolt, then insert the clip, then of course it binds because the clip doesn't fit.

 

[MSD0]

Thats what I thought, but after getting them to rotate freely again, doing my thing with the machine, and changing gears again, the problem returned. I thought something was tapered and I was going the wrong way but that didn't seem to be it.

Basically, everything stops fitting together when I change gears. I figured after the first time that would stop but it did so 3 times, even changing the same coupler with the same gears and the same bolt.

I also try to tighten the bolt first, then insert the clip, but when I do that, the clip does not fit. I have to loosen the bolt, then insert the clip, then of course it binds because the clip doesn't fit.

Might want to check the clip for burrs. I had to break the edges on one of mine to get it to slip into place.