I am going to start saving up for a very large PM mill

shooter123456 said:
I was curious about that so I looked a little bit.

The 1440TL as you note is nearly double the weight, so part of the increase in price is coming from the extra iron and the extra cost in transporting it. It also has a 5 HP motor vs the 1440 GT 2 HP motor (or optional 3 horse motor). The larger spindle bore means a larger spindle so larger bearings, whos cost tends to go up exponentially as size increases. An extra half inch could easily be a couple hundred extra.

I also noted some of the standard accessories with the 1440TL are not standard with the 1440 GT. This includes a 9" chuck and LED work light, which is easily another few hundred.

Other differences included the beefier tailstock on the 1440TL with the MT4 taper vs the MT3 on the 1440GT. It also may be thicker, but I can't find the quill diameter on the 1440GT. Though the 1440TL does have 6" of travel vs the 4" of travel on the 1440GT.

The 1440TL appears to have a full quick change gear box vs the 1440GT partial quick change, partial external change gear set up. The 1440TL also has turcite on the carriage and a one shot lube pump and it does not appear the GT has either.

I am sure there is more, but those differences alone can probably explain a solid chunk of the $5000 difference. I say get the TL because it looks awesome and I really want one, but don't have an extra $15000 laying around like I am sure most people do :D
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Thanks for the comprehensive answer. I am willing to spend a few more years saving up to get a TL Series lathe. So far, I have nothing saved up.

Other than household bills, I don’t spend money on anything other than equipment, tuition & materials. I will get a pension, but I have NO 401k. My shop is my life; this works for me.
 
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7milesup said:
Don't count on the pension. Save in an IRA or other investment. I flew with guys that had their pension dissolved when USAir went away. It can happen.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
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I have lost 1/2 of my pension since retiring in 2012!
Teamsters is no guarantee either!!
Good luck!
Personally, that's a lot of scratch for something you can't even drive down the road!!;)
 
finsruskw said:
I have lost 1/2 of my pension since retiring in 2012!
Teamsters is no guarantee either!!
Good luck!
Personally, that's a lot of scratch for something you can't even drive down the road!!;)
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That is another way that I save money is by my wife and I sharing a single car. I haven’t owned my own car in 15 years, and I will never buy one.

Sorry that you lost half your pension.
 
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So that I can afford this, I switched jobs at my work. I am going from “No overtime” to “20 hours/week OT”, all for a huge lathe. It will probably be a PM-1660TL. It will definitely be a PM, due mostly to their stellar customer support.
 
That is an investment for sure.
 
I can't even spell big, BIG enough to say that's a big machine.
 
So today I officially signed off on my 40 hour/week UPS job at the Oakland airport & now I will work at my old 60 hour/week job which is a UPS driver in Calistoga, CA.

I will have to say goodbye to about a dozen really nice coworkers in Oakland that I will probably never see again. All of this for the huge lathe.

Maybe this is too much info, but a coworker had loaned me $4K to buy my PM-1030V. When I paid him back recently, he said that I could borrow up to $10K at 10% simple interest anytime I wanted. I said yes! So I’m going to save up 10K as fast as I can, and my coworker is ready to go.
 
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