Bill M's Pm1340gt Setup

[darkzero]

Woah, if you didn't make a typo & it's out .0040" that's a lot! Although possible it shouldn't be that much out of alignment, especially for a Taiwanese lathe. My PM1236 is only outr a few tenths over 7-8" or so, I haven't bothered to adjust my headstock yet. Not sure if your adjustment screws for the headstock is the same as mine but all the asian import lathes in this size are similar. I would do some more investigating before messing with the headstock adjustment.

It's not the chuck, if you suspect it is you can try it with the stock chuck. But it doesn't matter even if the chuck is holding the test piece crooked, it wouldn't matter cause you are taking a cut along the spindle axis. Try it again with only 5-6" hanging out for that 2" piece of alumn & see if you get similar results. You need a sharp cutter & take very light cuts, what you want is to avoid tool pressure & pushing the stock. Although it's only a light cut, take the backlash out of the compound slide & lock it before making the cut.

You leveled the lathe pretty well with a machinist's level right? Side to side & front to back doesn't have to be level with the world. What you want is the headstock side of the ways to be level with the tailstock end of the lathe front to back. Use 2 123 block on the flat part of the ways for the machinist's level to sit on so it clears the V, you don't want to measure off the crest off the V. Where ever the bubble settles, you want it to be the same on the end of the lathe, this takes the twist out of the bed.

 

[markknx]

Bill sorry I did not post earlier. Concrats!! Sorry about the motor did yoy get set up for a replacement? You know I'm so jelious. Waiting to here how it runs. Pros and Con review??? Any way thanks for sharing. Oh was the base built when it arived or did you have to put together?
Mark

 

[coolidge]

The Dorian is grey now not red?

 

[wrmiller]

No typo. four thou taper in nine inches. That's approx. .44 thou per inch.

I was fairly certain that once I cut the piece it didn't matter if the chuck was holding it crooked or not, but I don't want to discount anything. Besides, I could be wrong in my assumptions.

But just for grins I put a 1.25"x20" piece of TGP that measures about a thou total deviation in diameter across the length into the chuck. Set zero deflection at the chuck jaws. Two inches out I still have zero deflection. At six inches the needle is moving, but barely. At twelve inches I have just under a thou, and at fourteen inches I have about a thou and a half. But at that distance you can use a finger to push the piece of steel around and watch the DI deflect.

If I was getting deflection in the cut, the unsupported end would be larger diameter-wise. It's smaller.

 

[darkzero]

The Dorian is grey now not red?

Nope not anymore, not for the SQCTP BXA size anyway. Not sure if the Victorys changed from yellow also. The first time I saw some one get the silver one was late 2011. No idea how long before that when they made the change. Some vendors may still have red ones on the shelf though. I think they're due for another color change next year.

 

[wrmiller]

Will, I'd kiss you right now if you were here! Well, maybe not as your probably as ugly as I am...

You got me thinking with your 'level' questions. My level is pretty old, and somewhat suspect, so I dragged out the high-tech digital and thought I'd give it a try. Headstock was off .2 degrees, tailstock off .1 degrees, so there was .1 degree of twist in it. Got her set to 0.0 and did another test cut. Now I'm just over .001 in 9". Now we're getting somewhere. Haven't had to do this in a while so had to visualize in my head where the twist was. Went to the front leveling pad at the tailstock end and gave it a half a turn. New test cut has me at .0006 in 9".

So I didn't get it set up as well as I thought I did, but with Will's help I figured it out. I'm just glad it wasn't the headstock...

EDIT: The Boss says it's time for a new Starrett level.

 

[coolidge]

DZ so the Dorian is grey now?

Bill with that much stock hanging out there un-supported it could be swinging .002 hence your .004 short on the tailstock end.

 

[wrmiller]

Bill sorry I did not post earlier. Concrats!! Sorry about the motor did yoy get set up for a replacement? You know I'm so jelious. Waiting to here how it runs. Pros and Con review??? Any way thanks for sharing. Oh was the base built when it arived or did you have to put together?
Mark

Matt is sending me a new motor as soon as he digs one out of the shipment of lathes he just received. Oh, and she runs like a dream, especially now that I have her properly set up. The base shows up in two boxes with the connecting panel in the crate with the lathe. It was easy to put together.

 

[darkzero]

Will, I'd kiss you right now if you were here! Well, maybe not as your probably as ugly as I am...

Yeah maybe! Kiss hell no, unless it's from a pretty x-girlfriend or something. But I will drink a beer with ya if I'm ever in the AZ area when you get there.

Very good to hear Bill! Yeah, lathes from 12x-14x are very sensitive to bed twist, some less than others. The beds can twist just by sitting on the pallet for sometime & take time to settle back. The leveling feet also affects it, some that are lined with a rubber/neoprene pad need time to settle also, so after leveling a lathe with these type of feet, you have to check & possibly relevel after a few days to a week or so depending on the feet. I made some solid steel feet for 4 of the 8 on my lathe. I'm in earthshake country so whenever there is a small quake I have to relevel.

 

[darkzero]

DZ so the Dorian is grey now?

I guess so. I only know based on what I see on the forums. Looks like all you guys getting the Dorians on here in the past couple years have been silver. As I mentioned, the first time I saw someone get the silver one was in late 2011 (on another forum) so it appears they've been silver for quite some time now.