Pm1228 In Born

[Heckle and Jeckle]

Wanting to stay with using line voltage, two lathes were in the running 1127VF and the 1228 .... 1228 won. I selected it cause it is a robust little beast.
Figured I would capture and post a photo history of the prep, launch, landing and new home.

First up, where the hell am I going to put it?

Looking around, ponder, the shuffle begins. Build a cabinet on the other side of the garage... took two weeks. Spent the weekend filling it, had room left over and amazed I got so much stored. The space is basically ready, I can see the floor.

To be continued

 

[HBilly1022]

Great start ....... and now you anxiously await the arrival of your lathe. Is it here yet, is it here yet, is it here yet.

 

[wrmiller]

I'll get the popcorn...

 

[digadv]

I'm looking at the PM1228 also but am concerned it's 1/2 the weight of other 12" lathes. Will you be bolting it to your floor?

 

[Heckle and Jeckle]

Mother trucker delivered this week. Says I remember you, delivered a machine here last year . You're the guy with the HotRods, funny what folks remember.
Uncrated, and sitting on two furniture dollies. This thing is a brute, the photos PM has posted on the site, do not do it justice.

Saturday will lift, load and place. No not bolting it to the floor, going on the work bench left of the mill.

 

[tweinke]

1. I like shiny new machines and pictures! Keep us posted on your progress.

 

[Heckle and Jeckle]

Put some steel down. reinforcing and spreading the load across the table top. All set for Saturday's lift off ...

 

[Heckle and Jeckle]

Nice day for a lathe install ..........., that would be any day for anyone with a lathe.

First step get it up and off the furniture dollies. Used a car tie down for the harness, plenty of holding power for this job.

Next move one of the dollies over and slip it under the bench/stand.

Roll out the stand, slip in two all thread rods for temp guide pins. Doing that because the catch pan just sits on the top.

Some maybe thinking what's with the green tape? That's a boundary keeping the caulk under control.... Why the caulk, prevents oil from getting under the lathe base and dripping into the storage below..

Fast forward got busy solving a problem I did not foresee. Once the lathe was lowered, all thread removed and 4 mounting bolts installed. Unhooked the harness, push everything to the wall.

There the lathe sat .. scratch head... How am I going to get the lathe off the dolly and on the floor?.

No way can I use a floor jack to pick up one side at a time. No room to get a 2x4 and a jack under the side. Light bulb! remembered one of those tools we have that hardly get use. But sure is handy when a need arises ........ for me it was my porta power. So I raised the first side up enough to get a 2x4, flat side down under the legs and lowered the bench. Went to the other end raised that side, slid the dolly out, and lowered that side to the floor .... as you guessed back to the other side and remove the 2x4 .....

So there it is lathe installed cleaned and happy .. got it completed around noon

 

[Heckle and Jeckle]

So what's next, QCTP of course, up first the post, the crown for the lathe.

Next the army of tool blocks and cutting tools, gathered the blocks and cutting tools, assembled and set the heights.

Must test the adjustments, chuck some alum and face it ...... what do ya think?

Then made a reducer for a project ......... used my drill chuck, drilled and reamed the hole. Reduced the OD on one half of the length, then parted it off. Sorry for the fuzzy picture new lens on the camera, should have used the manual focus.

Happy that I bought this lathe, it is more robust then a typical bench model. Absolutely nothing wrong with a bench model lathe, do not get me wrong. This thing for the 300 or so more than the top model bench machine was worth every penny

My 2 cents
"A good time was had by all" ....... the way the Navy ends every POD

Cheers,
greg

 

[Heckle and Jeckle]

Spent the day tuning up the lathe...... a most excellent machine but had a couple of problems that needed to be addressed.

The most pressing problem, the compound slide would jam. There was no way to loosen and rotate it, 0* too 45* without it getting hung. It is in the engineering of the way the slide is assembled and just life.

To be very clear no words will or are to be thought of as a complaint offering solutions. For any owner of the lathe and wishes to resolve problems.

What caused the jamming, when the slide locks are back off to rotate pass 45* or set the cross slide at that location? There just so happens to be an assembly hole that allows access to the T nuts. Unfortunately as the T nut passes from one side to the other of the assembly hole, or is set at 45* . The T nut drops or twist out of alignment with the T slot, and jams.

Fist attempt was the file all the edges, just rounding them so the were smooth to the touch... Failed

Second measures widths, and file them parallel with consistent heights on both ends. No heavy cuts taken with the file, strictly clean up or dressing ........... failed

Third attempt, with some 1" bar milled a U on the end, reassembling the lathe, machined the OD to fit. When installed, the plug provides a guide for the T nut, as it floats across the hole to pick up the T slot.

If you attempt to make the plug, be sure or you may want to drill and tap a 1/4 x 20 hole. Use some all thread with a jam nut, it will give you a nice way to set and alien the U plug once set and tested .

Also the all thread can act as a removal tool if it should at some time become necessary to remove the plug. Simply install to 2 1/4 nuts at the far end of the all thread and bottom it out the plug will come right out.

Couple of other quickies, pulled the handles off. With sand paper and a flat plate, dressed face of the mount point, smoothed the operations of all.

Last but slick, above I took a shot of some bar I faced, can be plainly seen that to tool hight is dead nuts... nub less. How does one make that a repeatable, quick, and a easy no brainier processes?

Very simple grasshoppers, bring in the tail stop. Extend the quill, move the carriage over. Touch off from the quill, extend the quill and scribe a tool hight reference line.

cheers,
greg